Sail away Progress by Scott (Capt)

Well, Scott here and I have not posted in a while however, thankfully first mate Tamera has made some good postings of our progress.  Again it is not for lack if things to do.  Much of what has happened are small nagley bits that will not look good in a blog but they do mark some significant advances towards our disappearance over the horizon.  Our emanate departure is closer at hand than it has ever been.  Projects are nearing completion on the boat, we have an offer on the house, one of the cars is sold, we have a pile of charts and the boat looks more like a cruising boat every day.  Lets talk about it.

This is the dinning room with much missing.

The house is emptying out.  A lot of things are being sold or given away.

We took a trip out to Maryland to see my folks and store some of the things we cannot bring ourselves to part with.  We also presented mother a number of nice keep sakes she seemed to really appreciate.  Mother shares the house with a women named Pat and they look after each other pretty well.  To pat we gave our 42" TV.  It was a really good visit.   I also got to visit Father and had two really good visit.  He was coherent and treasured the little photo album Tamera and I made of our sailing trip in the BVI.  I am glad I got to visit with both of them.

We remember this old 19" TV from the guest room
Sure do miss the big guy TV though.

While we were there we did a little reconnaissance and looked at the cost of slips in the Rock Hall MD area.  Kinda pricey.  I think we will be mostly on the hook for the few months we are there. The drive out was pretty good the leave were changing and the views on the hills were spectacular.



I would expect that we will get to the Chesapeake Bay by boat next summer around the beginning of July and spend about 4 months before joining the Salty Dawg Rally to the British Virgin Islands.  It leave about Nov 4- 8 depending on weather.  More on our sailing plans in another post.

The Boat:

The electronic communication equipment installation is coming together.  we fired up the SSB radio and receiver weather faxes as clear as a bell.  We even picked Hawaii and Australia but weakly.  We installed a few more LED lights to replace the old halogen ones and installed a light over the sink that became dark when we installed the cabinets over the sink thus blocking the existing light.  First mate was very appreciative. 

First mate also wanted a sink cover.  There is not a lot of counter space on the Caliber 40 and a good bit of it is the lid for the freezer.  Often in order to get something out of the freezer you have to move a lot of the stuff you are working on to get to it.  I had made a sink cover that covered only on of the two sink but it kept falling into the sink when it shifter around.  Tamera said she wanted a cover for both sinks with finger holes for removing it.  We took some measurement and made a template out of a shopping bag.  I finished in a day and we went down to test fit it.  I had to shape the corners to fit and take it back to the house for final coating. 

I had been kicking around the idea of another book shelf on the back of the recently installed galley cabinets.  I did not pursue it due to all the other things that still needed attention.   Tamera explained the error of my ways and the next thing I knew I was out in the garage at the house cutting, sanding and coating a new book shelf for Kooky Dance.

Both of these projects were made from scraps of wood left over from other projects.  The sink cover is actually wood from the crate the dinghy kit was shipped in.



There are also all the sewing jobs.  Mostly done by the expert hand of First Mate Tamera.  There is the dinghy cover.  This has been a particularly difficult job because there are no strait lines to work with other than the center line.  Add to that the cover also includes the straps for securing the dinghy to the deck.  There is also the skeglet to deal with. 
We have made two trips to check the fit and I think there will be one more for sure.  I still need to install the D-rings to the dinghy chocks for securing the straps to.  I will wait to do this once the cover is complete.

Tamera has also made a "cockpit pocket" that I started calling the "cock pocket".   I tease her but it is another one of her really good and useful ideas, that are becoming too numerous to remember them all.  Pardon the picture, I was being sneaky and Tamera did not catch it until it was too late.
This pocket slips over the compass binnacle and secures at the bottom.  It holds sunscreen, charts, binoculars, and cans of beer.  It is pretty sturdy and did I mention it can hold cans of beer.










With the addition of the monitor wind vane steering the aft boarding ladder is not as assessable as it once was.  In addition the easiest place to get on an off the dinghy will be from the side of the boat and not the stern.  So I needed a ladder.  I took some measurement and made some drawing and went down to the local welder to get it fabricated.  I really think the fabricator should offer his customers oxygen when he tells his customers how much he is going to charge them for said ladder.  Anyway it turns out I did not need the oxygen but just thought I did.  Besides he probably would have charged me for that as well. 
The ladder may actually look kind of heavy for the application but my intention here was to also be able to use the ladder as a gang plank if we have to med-moore.  It is 8' long and plenty stout for such use.
This ladder will be stowed athwart ship and will actually serve to secure the inflatable Zodiac dinghy when it is deflated for passages. This gives me something stout to secure the dinghy to and keeps it off the deck and sail trim lines. 

Effects of getting this close:

I am surprised at my reaction to all this progress.  The more that gets done the more things seem to pop up that still need doing.  Add to this is a feeling of intense apprehension.  I don't know everything we are going to encounter out there, I don't know if we are ready, I don't know how I am going to adjust to this new lifestyle, I don't know how long the money will last, I don't know if I am going to make some stupid mistake that damages us somehow.

What I do find is inspiration from my first mate.  I am reminded that we are a team and that we have worked well together for 28 yrs.  Her drive and momentum is pulling me alone regardless of any apprehensions I have.  I go through periods of intense anticipation and then apprehension.  I get a little sad about the friends we probably will not see for a while and the house we are saying good by to after 15 years of fixing it up the way we liked it.

I still want to do this but it is taxing my courage to do so.  Our boat card has the saying from one of my favorite movies "Cloud Atlas"; "Our survival demands our courage" and by golly they are right.