Spent most of the summer in Navy Senior Enlisted Acad in Newport, RI. We havent been sailing much. We just spent a few weeks cleaning up the boat and doing the bright work, painted the deck, etc. I had a go at putting on the scuba stuff and changing the zincs, but when I finally got under water, I couldnt see my hands in front of my face. Its a freaky feeling to say the least. I ended up paying a diver on the dock (who cleans boat bottoms in the marina) Ten bucks to do the work for me. Money well spent!

I have to say, the boat looks fantastic right now.

We are planning on getting out for the first two weeks in November. Right now, the plan is to leave St Petersburg and head south towards the keys. We'd like to end up in the dry tortugas and do some diving and then sail back to Tampa. We're planning on 40 hours of sailing, just to get down there. Hopefully, we can beat that time.

In preperation for moving from maryland to Tampa, we decided that we should have some work done to the boat. Besides the normal zincs and bottom paint we had a ton of projects to do.

1. our friend Jay built us some new dorade boxes out of teak with dovetail corners. We got some brand new cast bronze vents for them.

2. we needed a new hatch for over the foc'sle. Jay built us a dovetailed hatch to match our dorades. We had Buster Phipps cut a piece of 1/2 inch plexiglass for the top. The plexi was smoked and I didnt know I liked it at first. I think its starting to grow on me.

3. Since we're moving and had to pull the mast, we decided to have the mast painted and the standing rigging replaced with larger wire. We decided to paint the mast to look like a wooden spar.

4. When we pulled the mast, we needed to fix the mast step. It had been crushed by over-tightening of the rigging and leaked water into the cabin when it rained. We put a few tubes of calk around the base of the mast over the years, but it doesnt last forever. We faired the deck under the step and covered it with bi-axial fiberglass cloth. I dont think it'll leak on us again.

5. We entrusted Buster Phipps at Phipps Boat Works to handle some of the carpentry projects on our boat. We trust Buster and we worried about getting work done on Shakabrah by someone who would do less than perfect work. Buster and Wayne redid our port side bunk into a settee and also redid our cabin sole.

6. The Cabin sole on our boat was originally teak and holly plywood, but it was worn and had been painted before we purchased the boat. Kirsty repainted the sole, but we wanted something a little more permanent so the cabin sole is now solid teak with exposed fastners so we can pull the floor up and get to any part of the hull.

7. We looked at some other "proper" cruising boats that had some portholes in the bow. We decided that that might be a good idea. Portholes would allow light and air into the foc'sle while we were anchored. Kirsty was a little apprehensive when she saw a drill bit come through the hull from the inside and then really nervous when the saber saw blade started cutting the required six inch hole. After the port holes were installed, we were both really happy with the final results.

We'll post some photos when we get her up here to Tampa next week.