"There is nothing -- absolutely nothing -- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."

These words were spoken by Ratty to Mole in Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame. Ratty's words do a fine job of describing this past weekend in the slip. Our common term, 'boat chores', generally seems to embody more of a sense of need and directed purpose. This weekend we simply found ourselves randomly jumping around from task to task with no specific purpose, but learning and accomplishing none the less.

Notable items addressed include: checking the freon level and changing the zinc in the refrigeration system, reading about batteries and starting to learn the electrical system, and taking a closer look at the wind vane steering. Of course, once I folded the wind vane steer system down, it took Sheryl and I and careful study of the manual to figure out how to lift it back up.

Sheryl's wonderful accomplishment for the weekend was to make new pull straps for all of our halyard clasps. Photographic evidence of her skill is displayed above. Can you believe that she wove that from a ball of string we found on the boat? I think that we may have found the basis for a new business. If you would like to place an order for your own halyard clasp pulls, they run $1 each, and orders can be placed by clicking on the Add/View Comments link below.

Well, it is time to face three days of work. Then it is back to the boat for a long Thanskgiving weekend. Always good when the week's plans include more time on the boat than on land.