10/21/2006, Pt. Richmond, CA
wish there was a really good reason for not posting an update in such a long time, but there really isn't a great one. We spent the month of July getting rid of everything in the Apartment in San Jose that was not coming with us and moving out.
We have spent August and September thru today working on the boat, and while very interesting to us, make very boring reading I'm afraid. To give you a highlight, we have replaced the stove and have it running. We have removed the old refrigeration and installed the new Tropicool and it is operational! We removed the old head and replaced it with a new Skipper II. We removed the second holding tank under the Vbirth to make room for the water maker which is almost finished.
Course these were mostly Rick jobs, while I continued to work on the canvas projects, as you can see from the picture above I replaced the old dodger along with the sail covers, cockpit awning, lee cloths, wheel/instrument cover and am currently working on a cover (chaps) for our dingy.
All in all we are doing good, if not as fast as we would have liked all the projects to go. As for when we think we will be ready to leave? Hoping to have an answer to that in the next couple of weeks, but think it will be toward the end of November maybe early December if we run into any more unexpected delays.
We had a very brief visit from John and Michelle the end of July, it wasn't near long enough and now as of 3 weeks ago they are in Kuwait waiting to begin their year tour in Iraq. Last time John was in Iraq I only had to worry about him, now I will be worrying about both my son and daughter-in-law. Another reason not to miss TV.
Looks like we will be moving onto the boat by the end of next week. Next BIG step toward leaving. It will help us to find out what is working and what is not ??" keeping our fingers crossed that we do not have to add too many new projects to fix!
Well that's it for now. Hope to update again soon with more real news.
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06/11/2006, Pt. Richmond, CA
Me working on the main sail up in Elizabeth's shop!
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06/11/2006, Pt. Richmond, CA
At the end of our first week at KKMI I met Elizabeth who lives on her boat in Marina Bay, in fact on "D" dock where we are. She approached me cause she recognized Whisper's Echo. She is the best thing that has happened to me in a while!! Turns out I had admired her stern to bow boat shade cover before I knew it was her boat. And then find out that she owns the Canvas Design shop right there at KKMI.
I told her that I had purchased a heavy duty sewing machine and was doing all new canvas for my boat, and then she did the most amazing thing ... she says "bring your machine up to my shop you can set up there and sew". Wow! That was an offer I couldn't refuse.
Elizabeth took me under her wing and has been showing me the ropes of working with canvas. I don't think I could have done near as well as fast without her help and guidance. Your the best Elizabeth!
So far I have completed both the staysail cover and the mainsail cover and if I may say so, they both really came out great! I've done the forward hatch cover and the butterfly hatch cover and am working on the cockpit awning and should start the dodger Tuesday or Wednesday.
Working with canvas has proved to be a lot more challenging than lighter fabric and then add the volume of fabric you are working with, well I can tell you I had more than a little trouble with the mainsail cover and am very glad that our main is not one inch bigger than it is!! (Elizabeth is getting ready to start sail covers for a 65' sailboat! Ouch that main is going to be twice as big as ours!)
And in between all the sewing I have been doing, I have been on the boat helping out when I can. In fact I went up the mast on Thursday to run the lazy jack lines thru the pulley's at the spreaders.
I did really good, and maybe next time I go up I may even be able to work with both hands instead of having one hand with a death grip on the mast! I couldn't even look around until just before Rick started to bring me down as I was afraid that I would get more nervous. Actually I did really great, and I get to repeat the experience some time really soon as the rigger left the protective cap on the HF antenna and it will have to come off. That trip will take me all the way to the top and I will get to test out the 3 mast steps we had installed up at the top. I told Rick this time he will have to take pictures, cause no one will believe I did it!
Well it's late and we have another long day tomorrow.
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