Happy Halloween!

We had a Halloween party here at the boatyard.

Bridgette and Ray and Bob and Molly decorated the pavilion like a haunted house. It was great!

We had music and dinner and drinks!

We have been hard at work... Lots of things going on, right now we have our mast temporarily supported by our toerail and a halyard to two cleats on the rear. We pulled our chainplates for inspection and found some fairly significant crevice corrosion so we are having new ones made. Our three priorities are: keep the mast pointing up, Keep the steering, and keep the beer cold!

Lots of projects. Kristen is finishing the teak and it looks great! We are using light teak Cetol with Clear gloss over the top. Lots of wood on this boat. No teak decks or anything though...

I tore out the turbo a few days ago. Replaced the

bilge hoses today, a few wood repairs and

rebunging. We should have the chainplates back

soon and we will reinstall those and have the rig

solid again. By the way, the chainplates are the

stainless steel straps that hold the cables that

holds the mast up. We still have to replace the

turbo and reupholster. We also have some

rigging to do. I have been talking to Mark, the

rigger here at Sailcraft about some things... We

need to get a new gooseneck with reefing claws

We are also going to make up a new vang as the

boat doesn't have one. I think we are going to

lead this to the cockpit. We also found a whole

coil of stay-set we are going to use as a main

halyard. We are also going to get a stainless shackle for an anchor snubber off the Bob-stay

plate. This will lower the anchor rode to the

waterline and act as a shock absorber. Pretty

cool sounding, but basically I have been crawling

around in really confined spaces replacing dirty

and greasy hoses and stinky toilets... We are

both learning a lot. We have gotten most of our

list of "to do" things from the survey done which

feels good!

Skippy is popular at the marina, though he just

walked up and attacked a big German Shepherd

the other day. All in a days work...

The thing about living on a boat and being in the boat yard

is that even with our fresh new Raritan PHII Compact toilet

installed and waiting, when we wake up in the night to pee, the toilet is down a 12 foot ladder, across the parking lot and

up a flight of stairs. Many hours rolling around wondering if it is worth it...

Oh, and to our friends back in Washington-dont take good

coffee for granted! The coffee has been rough. We have resorted to sugar and flavored stuff if we don't make it at the boat.

Well, we had some excellent neighbors from down under.

Hamish and Sarah with their 3 year old Jacky were next

door for about 10 days or so. It was great to meet and

get to know these guys! They bought a boat in Florida

and cruised the East coast and on up to Montreal and then

back south this summer. We went to the Southbound

Cruisers Rendevouz with them and got to play with their

son Jack who is a bundle of energy. I would typically get

him all wound up and send him back to his parents. Sorry

guys! It was sad to see them go, but our goal is to work

hard and get our boat in the water and see them in the

Bahamas! Pilates at 9:00!

I think we have got the list down to two weeks or less!

We intend to set out then and start making our way south.

slowly at first getting to know the boat and everything,

but in and out of the ICW down to Florida and then out to the Bahamas. Lots of folks are cruising through here doing just that... It seems like the majority of people we talk to have at least done the Bahamas at least once... I can't wait to get the boat in the water!!!

Let us know what you all are up to and leave Comments so we know who is actually reading this!