SHIP'S LOG:
The last few days have been rather busy as I am more putting the boat back together than anything else. In fact, a good part of today was a "Clean up" day. Not soap-and-water type clean up but a get-rid-of-all-the-stuff- you-no-longer-need-for-the-boat. Back to the car went drills, saws, grinders, dremmel tools and the like. Into the trash went all the cardboard boxes holding stuff to be installed and suddenly there was actually room to move around without tripping over stuff. Places for the tools that will be traveling with me have been found and things are falling into place.
I installed a new manual bilge pump and re-built the old one as a back-up, though if I ever need two bilge pumps, in addition to the automatic one, I am not sure that one the boat is the place I want to be. It would mean one heck of a lot of water trying to get on board which probably means that I would be leaving.
Today in the mail saw the arrival of the vinyl lettering for the name as well as the official documentation papers. We are all official now but it also means that I have to get out of state 30 days after the boat is ion the water or I will owe the state of Connecticut $3,400 in sales taxes and a couple hundred more to register the boat in the state. It is something I will have to work out over the winter south of here. I will have to register the boat when I come back in the summer as I'll be at the Thames Yacht Club but if I register it in a state that doesn't charge for registering documented boats, I can get away with not having to pay the sales taxes in Connecticut.
The weather has been moderately crappy for the projects I want to do, namely finishing off the bottom painting, attaching the last zinc, compounding and waxing the hull. I thin k summer is definitely gone and fall is here big time. The cold rain has made it easier to track down the leaks whose sources have so far eluded me. Water tends to travel in a boat, coming in over here and showing up inside over there. Tracking down leaks is even more fun that tracing pipping and wires. Leaks are almost magical, or intelligent. It is as though they are playing a game of hide and seek with you ..... and they cheat. It is as though they love to send you on a wild goose chase and after having you pull out this piece of hard ware and re-bed it, it wait an appropriately decent time before leaking again or from some new spot. Ah, the joys of boating.
The last of the thru-hulls are in and the hull is sound and so the boat is going in the water on Monday or Tuesday. Not my decision but rather the yard manager as he is running out of room and at 39 feet long and 12 feet wide, ABISHAG takes up a pretty nice chunk of boatyard. She will go into a slip until the electrical work is done and I get to check out the systems that need a working electrical system to function. Once everything checks out, it is pay the bill (UGH!) and hit the road, metaphorically speaking.
MASTER'S PERSONAL LOG:
The departure day is almost here and I still have a million things to do. The trip south will be dictated by the weather. If it is crappy, I'll day trip down either the Connecticut or Long Island Coast, down the New Jersey Coast, up the Delaware Bay and down the Chesapeake. If the weather is good, it will be a straight shot from Montauk to Cape May and then up the Delaware and down the Chesapeake. I don't have to full stock up before I go as there are grocery stores(I still have my WINN DIXIE Card) and West Marines up and down the eastern seaboard. The boat has no heat so I would not want to hang around too, too long but will see what happens. The hammy is better and so is the car, though the mechanic fixing it did a less than admirable job re-connecting to cooling hose to the radiator. Had to get another tow. Thank God for AAA.
Actually, I am a bit amazed how calm and relaxed and non-stressed I am right now. I guess God's plan has worked. While I plan ahead, I tend more now to practice mindfullness and live in the moment. Everything necessary will be done and when all is ready, the actual sailing part of the journey starts. It is exciting to think about it.
