TIME TO GO SIT DOWN
November 1, 2012
Yesterday was Scurv's first birthday. The party consisted of a few snacks and several naps. The crew retired about 2000 last night. Some wing ding, huh? Phase VIII is coming to an end. We were thinking about a recess but we think we will call the game on Phase VIII and head back to Texas for the holidays. Of phase VIII, we can say we would rather have skipped it altogether. While we did have some super days aboard enjoying the change of seasons, events kept us from having a single day sail, the goal of this fall in this place. We did manage to attend our first real boat show and drop a few boat units on some upgrades for Why Knot and we have met some great crews here. It has been enjoyable to observe the southbounders and we actually looked forward to wintering here. The health issues both aboard and back home have kept us in port and Sandy simply ran the crew batteries down. Thus, it is time to go sit down at home and plan for Phase IX that we hope to start in April.
In preparation to leave WK in her slip, we have our work to do. Winterization, for those that never did it, requires two basic operations: preparing all water systems to resist freezing and removing anything that would be damaged by freezing from the boat. Of course there are other things involved but the most critical is to prevent freeze damage. We are told that the non-toxic antifreeze referred to as "pink stuff" should be kept out of water tanks and the water heater. That means some modification of the piping. So, I will start securing the dink on the foredeck, and doing the necessary things to seal WK against water getting into the cabin and Bear will start looking for all the canned stuff aboard. We do not need soft drink and tuna can grenades going off aboard in our absence. Once we have the preparations done, we will step off WK and ignore her whining as we drive off. Hopefully, she will forgive us for not leaving her in warmer climates. Then again, perhaps she will enjoy not having mold explode below as it would have in the beautiful, warm old Caribbean.

The picture is the Solomons harbor the day after Hurricane Sandy came ashore