Monday, Oct 11th - Columbus Day

Yesterday was Sunday and we started our day with church... InTouch with Dr. Stanley - just like we do at home. We are very fortunate to have great cable service in our little apartment - and that is the main thing Jim will miss when we move aboard on Thursday. We did some more cleaning but took it a little easier than Saturday. I finished cleaning the aft berths, nearly..one more wipe down to go - although we can't use them just yet til the mechanic and plumber are done.

A guy showed up this morning and started scraping our hull, with a scraper about 4 inches wide. HARD WORK, by 3pm he had completed 1/2 of the outside of one hull. We ran a few errands, stopped at the office to check on the crate pickup arrangements. We talked to our plumber, who advises us that he is building us an aluminum water tank, to replace the leaky stainless one that he cannot repair...hope he is using some of the parts. Our mechanic dropped by and he will have all the parts to replace the mufflers and exhausts, as well as the filters, injectors and spares on Wednesday and will complete the engines then. He really wants to get them done, before the plumber puts the water tank back in as that space is currently his chair for the starboard engine work. Then we put on the main sheet (control line for the boom), and fitted the lazy bag on the boom (thing the sail falls into to protect it).

AND then we celebrated one of history's most famous sailors by...bending on the Jib (putting on the front sail). I reran the furling line and turned it on the drum, Jim hauled the sail up from the forward cabin, I affixed all the hardware, Jim hauled on the halyard...wait where are the jib sheets? (the control lines for the sail) we can't find them...well - let's just use this hank of line for now and look for them later. Hmm - sky is getting darker to the east - another squall coming...ok, haul her up..Jim hauls, I guide, the wind picks up ahead of the little storm and I wrestle with the sail. Finally it's up..ok haul in the furling line (control line that rolls the sail up on the frame). Um...Jim, it's turning the wrong way. The sail has a strip of UV protective material to protect the life of the sail. The point is for it to be OUTSIDE when the sail is furled...but it's turning INSIDE. Huh...guess the furling drum was wrapped wrong. WHO DID THAT?! OK, down comes the sail...Jim frees the halyard, I pull it down, remove the hardware (that I just put on with seizing wire! - RB & SM I thought of you and laughed!) by the way - it is now sprinkling rain on me and the sail...Jim is standing under the bimini, dry, waiting for my signal to haul again. I rewrap the drum, correctly this time, reaffix the hardware and up she goes! OK, haul in the furler and hey...whaddaya know...it works right this time. Wrap it up, tie it off and that is enough celebration for the day.

While this doesn't seem like a lot, everything takes much more time than you'd expect, mainly due to the heat, and sometimes due to the ensuing discussions that surround the task. We took photos of all the lines and fittings before we stripped the boat so we have them spread out on the table in the saloon..so we can fix the process in our minds, then go out to the deck and try to apply it. We can't take the photos out, because it is breezy, and sometimes wet...and the air conditioner is in the saloon, so maybe it takes us an extra few minutes to think about the job in the cool, before we go out to do it in the heat!

Tomorrow it's off to the mall and meat shoppe in the morning, and in the afternoon more of the same.