Back In the Water

We made it into the water OK. The engine started right up. The bilge pump came on and burped out a slug of transmission oil that I had spilled and forgotten to clean up. We motored to the slip we got. We have it until Feb 13th. We plan to start toward Honolulu by then, so it should work out fine. I will need to work fairly fast to finish the remaining task list before the trip. It is 170 miles but we'll probably stop at Maui and Molokai on the way. Rumor has it that there is no anchoring available near Honolulu now.

The rigger came and finished all but the final tuning of the rig. He wants to go for a test sail when he finishes the final tuning. (That's adjusting the tension in all the new wires that hold up the mast for you non sailors.) He finished the lifelines and the exit plate for the new extra halyard in the mizzen mast. I got back to the deck again. I drilled holes at each place the deck seemed soft around the "walk around" and poured thinned epoxy in to re-attach the deck fiberglass to the plywood beneath. Now to finish filling the holes, fair it and re-sand it all. Then we'll be ready to paint. I talked to a professional here about re-caulking the remaining teak on the dog house and he may have enough caulking to sell me to finish it. I finally got the repair parts for the fresh water pressure pump, assembled it, tested it then the drive belt broke! Now to find a replacement belt. Always something.

Trinda made a new dinghy cover, re-did the awning, made new gas can covers, made a new bag to hang in the closet to hold her stuff, oiled and stored the sewing machine. Now to pack away all the provisions that she vacuum sealed the other day. Things seem to be coming together finally. The only major work left is finish the hand stitching of the sails where the machine couldn't sew, paint the deck, re-caulk the teak and re-insulate the fridge. I plan to do the fridge and maybe the teak somewhere else. We'll see.

Tonight we took a taxi into town, $10.80 each way. Many more trips and we could have bought a car! We bought more groceries. We had wine, cheese, salami, pepperoni, avacado, tomatoes and cucumbers for supper with crackers. A nice change. We invited Bold Spirit over for Lochs and Bagels tomorrow afternoon.

I tried the computer on the internet here in the slip. I couldn't connect to anything, so I got out the hi power antenna. It doesn't fit the new computer! No pcmcia slot! So I got out the old one. I had forgotten just how slow it was. It took all day to get all the software loaded and updated, but it does work now. I also got all the navigation software loaded and tested on the new one too. I found a USB GPS for the new computer in Seattle at Frys. Only $39 and it actually works. I got it set up too.

We found another passport owner, Wayne used to own Kanani. He sold it to someone who stored it in La Paz, MX during the 2002 hurricane. It was blown over and is still lying there. Too bad. He posted pictures for me. It is sad to see a sistership in ill repair. He had replaced the teak with fiberglass on the deck and replaced the chain plates (where the wires holding the mast are hooked to the boat). Otherwise it looks very familiar, but with a white hull.

I hope everyone had a wonderful super bowl Sunday.