Bud, Fuzzy and I drove back to Florida Sunday and Monday. It was hard to leave friends and family behind, but we were glad to be getting back to see how the work was coming on Earendil. We stopped on the way down to visit with our friend Ed from Passages.

Fortunately for us, our friends Gary and Karen have invited us to stay at their house until the boat is back in the water. We originally intended to impose on them for just one night, but when we got here and felt the 95+-degree heat we decided maybe we’d better take them up on their offer for a longer stay. The first day aboard, while we were working on reinstalling the batteries so we could power up and turn on the fans and our little window air conditioner that we sit in the companionway, Bud was dripping so much sweat that we had to mop the floor around him.

We are making steady progress. The yard has the engine installed and we were able to get the batteries back in and power up. We’ve had a LOT of cleaning to do. The yard had to do a bit more alteration than planned. They modified the stringers for the engine and transmission, then found out that Yanmar would not warrant the engine with a step down fitting to our existing exhaust system, so they had to replace the muffler and the exhaust hose all the way back to the stern. Every time the hose went through a partition or bulkhead the hole had to be enlarged. They also had to move our stuff out of the way, as they were into spaces no one anticipated them needing to use. The job looks great and I put a picture of the new engine with its spiffy new exhaust hose running across in front of it in the photo gallery.

Yesterday afternoon Gary stopped by and helped us put the bimini and dodger back up. Today I took the new window covers I’d finished and put the snaps on them. You can see the front window cover and the dodger and bimini in the photo on this page. You can also see the bright orange bucket that covers the hole where the mast goes. Later today I put the new cockpit cushion covers I made on the cushions. They fit! I’m so glad as I did not have the cushions with me and just used the old covers as a pattern. I was so happy with them I took a picture of them and put that in the gallery, too. When I was working out on the deck putting the covers on, it was too hot to stand on our light grey deck in my bare feet; I had to sit down. I was dripping sweat, and that takes a lot.

As soon as we get the hull cleaned and waxed and the bottom paint on we will have the boat launched. The rigging and everything else can wait. Once it’s in the water we can run both the heat pump air conditioners and cool it off enough to move aboard. I’ll keep you posted.