Count Down to Blast Off

Ship’s Log – Aug 30, 2009

My, my – where has the summer gone? Oh – right – we didn’t have summer. It rained May, June and straight into July. No shortage of it in August either. They have already declared this the rainiest summer on record and that was before “Bill” and “Danny” came through.

The rain meant not being able to work on the boat until Mark threw in his hat on that one and worked on the boat in the rain anyway. He just replaced a cracked raw water strainer, got the dingy davits up and running, a new, 2nd(!) battery charger to run in parallel with the first. Yipiee we’ll actually be able to sleep a whole night without having to get up and check the charging system.

Piles are being made, lists checked and then added to. I haven’t seen the top of my desk or the dining room table for some time. Every time a trip is made to the boat, several “Bean” bags are toted along. Lawn, garden and house folks are all lined up. Students have all been set up with other teachers, Benchmark projects are being handed off, new computers are set up and running - all in preparation for BLAST OFF and that is on ONE WEEK! Yikes!

Progress through the summer

Ship's Log – August 11, 2009

What a “summer”. First two months of rain – hence no shakedown time, then the company or needing to be away just about every weekend. Not that that is a bad thing – just takes time. Inbetween we keep muddling along. Mark is working on a dingy-to-boat attachment system – still has bugs to work out. More hoses and wiring have been added or redone; an additional battery charging system is in the works; new faucets and filters for the galley; the engine has been balanced; the nav computer died (of course) so it had to be replaced and of course there is some challenge in reloading all the charts, not to mention getting the routes that I had worked on; still haven’t figured out a table arrangement for the salon, but there are new deck chairs; etc., etc.

We still are planning for an early September departure!