We've been 'busy beavers' aboard DavidEllis; getting after boat projects that have been in limbo for awhile, and also preparing the boat for haul-out and sandblasting.

I removed and disassembled the Walbro fuel transfer pump. It's been pumping less and less effectively for some time, and there's an internal filter to be cleaned as well as small leaks in the fuel transfer plumbing (lots of fittings and valves) all of which came to a head the other morning when I attempted to transfer fuel up into the gravity feed day tank that supplies the diesel heater. The temperature had dropped to the point where the increased viscosity of the diesel fuel was just too much for the transfer pump to push uphill to the daytank. Not a good thing, as the diesel heater runs continuously to keep the boat at a comfortable temperature. We cleaned the dirty filter; cleaned and re-sealed the joins on the fittings and the little pump took off like it had been re-born! There was one piece of copper tubing that had a major kink, and in attempting to fix, then replace that, I wasted a lot of expensive copper tubing. Now I've got a flexible hose to fill that job. Still a little leakage at one or more of the joins, so I'll be back at it again.

We had three gloriously sunny days (which were forecast as snow); stunning views of the mountains all around.

We're working at getting the boat ready for haulout: outboards, scuba tanks and o/b fuel tanks have been moved from the swim step up to the cockpit; both sails pulled off the furlers and stored. I'll have to climb the mast (later today probably) to remove the VHF antenna and the lightning spike, so the mast will (fingers crossed!) clear the roof in the boat shed. Lots of mounted electronics and other equipment to be wrapped in plastic and taped to keep out the dust from sand-blasting.

Got the watermaker element flushed and pickled after use on the trip north - I've got to re-design the plumbing to make that job easier.

Son Patrick, back in Sebastopol, had abdominal surgery yesterday; not a good time for him I'm sure, but will hopefully resolve issues he's had for months.

We've made acquaintance with some very nice folks in Wrangell; including a fellow who is the son of an old friend of my mother's - this goes back to Camp Meeker days (near the Russian River) where my family lived when I was in high school. Clay works for the city of Wrangell at the power plant, and like many people living in places like this, wears several other hats as well - volunteer fire department, diesel mechanic etc. My last memories of Clay (prior to meeting the all-grown-up version the other day) was a blond-headed toddler, with a dirty face and droopy diapers, called "Tiger", running down Mission St, Camp Meeker, making an 'escape' from his home. We had a great visit, and hope to see more of him, and his family, while we're here.

We've got our reservations for flying back to Seattle 22 February - Rusty too (but he needs an air-worthiness certificate?!) before the airline will accept him. We're planning on getting together in Seattle with John & Jerri who have DD462-03 Peking, currently in Cartagena, Columbia (which they rave about), before driving south to Sonoma County, where I'm scheduled for shoulder surgery - oh fun!

For the past couple weeks, we've been corresponding with John in Hong Kong, who's just taken delivery of a Seahorse DD462 Sedan - sister-ship to Alpenglow, who we buddy-boated with last summer. They are now crossing the South China Sea to Subic Bay, a trip I made 6 times in 5 different boats. Wishing them fair winds and smooth seas, although the reality looks more like tolerable winds and beam seas.

Dorothy has a birthday coming up 6 February; think I'll take her out to some fancy place in downtown Wrangell... oh! Well there's always the pizza pub.

DavidEllis will remain in Wrangell until we return in the spring.