C'est la Vie made her return to the water today! As is apt to happen on boats, our project list expanded once the repairs and maintenance began. What started as an arduous project to replace the dripless shaft seal, a critical barrier to flooding that is buried deep in our bilge, turned into replacing the drive shaft and cutlass bearing in addition to the shaft seal. This project offered us added time to knock out some other long standing items on the to do someday list... We finally repaired the yawl bearing and repainted the wind generator. We re-painted the boot stripe and recoated the anti fouling paint. We refinished the tiller, some of the topsides teak, and the oars for the dinghy. The list goes on... Image above shows off fresh bottom paint and a bit of bling from the freshly balanced and polished prop.

We are eagerly awaiting completion of a new dodger. For those unfamiliar with boat speak, the dodger serves a similar function to the windshield of a car. I'll surely post a picture of the new one when it is installed...hopefully tomorrow. The new dodger and refurbished foresails will surely sharpen our look underway. Think of it as an Oprah fashion makeover for our forty one year old girl.

Anne and I will spend the remainder of this week knocking out logistics for our trip south and saying goodbye to all our Down East friends. Weather permitting we will begin traveling south by next Monday.

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