Hey everybody! Sorry if you noticed that the website has been down for the last few days. The problem has been resolved and we are online again. We still have not been able to locate a copy of our Publisher files with our website draft so no update yet there although we hope one is coming. We may have to build again from scratch.
Speaking of “from scratch”, re-entry has been overwhelming. We had to put a new battery into the car after two years of sitting around and then take it to the muffler shop to repair the exhast fitting that that rusted away while we were gone. Gas is almost $3.00/gallon and everything seems to be a long drive away (ouch). No motoconcho or other convenient public transport to get us where we want to be.
We did go to a spectacular pot-luck last weekend with Chris and Susan aboard LaLeLu their Caliber 38. They promised us (shanghei) that we would have no crew responsibilities for the weekend and for the most part they kept their word and the the grog flowing. The pot-luck was sponsored by the ECSA (East Coast Sailing Association) and, if you are currently cruising in the islands, I’ll spare you from the sumptuous details. Let’s just say that the variety is more accessible in these parts where everyone has a car and a supermarket on every corner.
We have been moving some things off the boat into temporary storage so we have room to take care of some maintenance items. Yesterday we pulled off the mast boot and removed the creaky mast wedges from the through-deck collar and replaced them with a product called “Spar-tite”. It is a two part goop that you pour into the space between the mast and collar. It hardens into a solid rubber donut or permanent o-ring. We hope it eliminates that annoying creak and pop we would get from the teak wedges. We covered the whole thing up with a fresh new mast boot to the keep the sun from oxidizing the new seal.
Gotta go for now…
