Rain, rain, rain. Cold, cold, cold. Jeez, one sure pays for good weather around here. I would like some sun and warmth for a while.

Today, I buttoned the damn fuel line replacement. Hurray! The return, apparently, is all copper so not much to do. I had to learn to do double flares on copper tubing: the only USCG-approved method, it turns out. Luckily, I bought a few extra feet of tube to practice and I needed all of it. It's not as easy as I had thought, even with a good Rigid flaring tool.

Interestingly, I was admiring another sailboat here on the hard: High Endeavors. She's lovely so I was inspecting her up close when the owner reminded me that I had taught him Physics long ago. Yikes! He's a father, out of college, and I taught him in high school? Oh, my. He turned out to hold no grudges about my class and treated me royally: fed me an outstanding dinner, loaned me his truck ("Handle her gently", he said and I shall.), and created a friendship between peers. How cool is that? I was not able to meet his physician wife, but perhaps we can do so in Anchorage some time.

I've got the zincs on, including a newly machined zinc for the bonding system. I mount the bilge pump tomorrow, and aside from a few tasks, we could leave. Certainly, I have some routine maintenance items to complete, and we've got to move all the gear from dry storage and re-provision, but those are things that we've done before. Another week with Conni's help and we'll be in pretty good shape. She arrives on Tuesday, lugging more stuff and the cats.

Still a lot of electronics to add, but I can do that while underway if need be.

There's city water here in the yard, but the only toilet is outside and has to be filled with rainwater. It's very much a camping situation. Chris, my old student, helped more than he knew when he fed me something other than canned food. Jeez!