This has been a very busy week for us as we prepare the boat and ourselves for our upcoming departure. As usual, our To Do list is much longer than we had initially thought it would be and it seems to be growing by the day. But for everything we add, we are able to cross off two or three items, so we are making progress, albeit slowly.
Although most of the big jobs are “blue” jobs for Brad to accomplish, I am staying busy with my fair share of pink jobs. Not to mention cleaning up after Brad and lending a hand when he needs my expertise. The most important thing I wanted to get done was to reinstall our lifeline netting. We had opted to get new netting this year since ours was starting to wear out. To keep both of our fur babies securely on the boat and out of the water, I put this as one of my top priorities. After many curse words and lots of starting over, I finally figured out the best way to get this done and make it look beautiful at the same time! It was extremely tedious and took me one whole day for each side. But I am thrilled with the final product!
We have been slowly stowing and organizing below deck as well. It has been slow going because of course the area you want to put items in will be covered in piles of stuff that has yet to be put away. And by the time you move everything to another area of the boat, you realize you either need to get underneath your new pile or you have barricaded yourself in, as I found myself on several occasions.
For increased storage I wanted to have Brad install shelves in our Vberth starboard side hanging locker. I was hoping to use that as my linen closet since we always seem to have way more towels than storage. We had measured out our dimensions and picked out our wood and were ready to start building. At the same time, we decided to purchase a new mainsail, as you will remember ours ripped on multiple occasions on our last voyage. My packrat husband decided that we needed to keep the old mainsail…..just in case. I usually acquiesce, stow the item in question and slyly throw it away shortly after, with him none the wiser. I doubt I could sneak a sail out to the trash without him knowing and to be honest, I actually agreed with him on this issue. So, I watched my precious storage disappear as Brad crammed our mainsail into the hanging locker. But, as with so many things in our lives, we came up with a great compromise. We were able to fit one shelf on top of the sail which I have decided will be our seasonal storage – bathing suits and such now, once we reach the Bahamas those will be swapped out for fleece jackets and sweatpants (which we have needed far too often here lately!).
Another exciting addition to our lives was our much needed new grill - an anniversary gift from my parents! We were so excited to get that installed and cook our first meal! We grill out most nights while we are on the hook so this will get lots of use!
I finally got around to tearing off our ratty old wheel cover and am tying paracord around the wheel to give it some grip. Of course I couldn’t do it the easy way – I have decided to tie half hitches every loop to make this cool looking design and also to give us a better grip if the wheel gets wet. It looks great but it is tedious!
A few more big items to check off the list and we will be ready to set sail!
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