Sunday

After yesterdays blogging session, we headed up to the marina showers. Feeling clean and refreshed we got to work. Aaron went up the mast where he spent most of the day. He installed a new forward running light, a new anchor light, troubleshot the spreader lights, taped the cotter pins, and lubed the main sail and spinnaker tracks. He also fixed the main halyard guide and installed a spinnaker shive and halyard line.

Meanwhile I tuned the mast rigging and tightened all the turnbuckle locks. I also handed Aaron the necessary parts and tools as well as controlled the winches and windlass to move him up and down the mast.
During this entire process the remnants of the previous days storm were still blowing themselves out. Consequently we did all of this work in 20 knots of winds with gusts up to 30 knots. Aaron was a real trooper and by the time he got off the mast he looked like he had been in a bar fight with a platoon of marines.

Somewhere in the midst of this long day of work we had lunch.

In the evening Aaron and Lisa took a break and watched some Sealab 2021, after which Lisa left us to return to her warm dry home. Meantime I finished the machining and installed the deadlight in the aft hatch. Aaron and I then wired the head units for the GPS and radar. We cleaned up some cabin electrical lines and started tests on the nav systems. As of this morning they both appear to be working perfectly.

We went to bed at about 12:30 and decided to get a good nights sleep. I apparently miscalcuated the date and discovered that we could push the launch out one more day. We decided this was necessary to finish our preparations.

Today we will finish our port light storm cover project and finish installing the fuel system. If we complete those tasks in a timely manner we are hoping to do some provisioning this evening so that we can set off early in the day tomorrow. On top of all of this we are going to try to do some laundry, take some showers, and tidy the boat.

Despite some long days and near exhaustion we are feeling good about getting off the dock tomorrow. Thanks again for all of your comments and support...

-JD