Saturday, April 13, 2013

Busy, Busy the past few days with all the necessary boat chores that we can do BEFORE we haul out. Friday Morning the riggers showed up with two Big packages containing our new Roller Furling for our Jib. The old unit was beyond repair, and replacement pieces actually cost more than a brand new unit, the decision was an easy one. It took two riggers 5 hours to finish the job. First, they removed the existing Jib, and forestay (the wire that hooks it to the mast), and layed it on the dock. Then they discovered that they could not simply replace the unit, rather they had to reconfigure the forestay to accept the new unit. Once that was finally done, (with two trip back to the shop) they could build the new unit over the forestay, then haul the whole thing back up and reattach it to the mast, re-tension it, secure all the pieces, and put the sail on it, and roll the sucker up. The final job…take the old one apart, and haul off all the pieces. They did a GREAT job. And Jim and I were up this morning at 6 while the wind was down unfurling and furling the sail a few times, just to test it out.

Today’s Job…Wash.The.Boat.

We actually haven’t done this for about 3 weeks, because we have had workers on and off, so finally todays the day. We had all these, what looked like Rust spots, scattered all over the deck that did not seem to come off…but the majic cleaner FSR did the trick. All we had to do was wipe it on every surface of the boat….wait 30 minutes, then scrub it off…Course, this mean a lot of hands and knees work…but hey – it got clean. Then we waxed the decks, cleaned off the bimini and windows and once dry, rolled up the side panels. We look and feel very exposed now, but everything is clean and dry and stowed.

Tonight, we are headed over to Heidi’s Honeymoon beach on Water Island for a special Crab and Steak dinner with Carrie & Carl. This is our last hurrah, before we leave tomorrow to head for the BVI’s and they leave next week for the US…
To all at home…we’ll be seeing you soon!