ON WE GO! ! ! ! ! !

SHIP'S LOG:

I have started looking for other forms of financing. It is amazing how crazy that world is. And do they lie! When you call for a loan, you get handed to somebody whose job is evidently to say "YES" to all of your questions. Once you commit, you get handed on to an underwriter who will actually do the real work on the loan and then the questions get answered truthfully and accurately. Thankfully, I have "some people" who check these things out for me so I do not get shafted. Hopefully, the money will be there and the loan not too expensive. I am still planning to go South on the 15th.

Good friend "Tony-the-Plumber" stopped by to install the watermaker. It took him most of the day and he was not able to finish. Setting up the various components was actually the easy part. The tough part is routing the seawater to the unit. One cannot just drill a hole anywhere. that could sink the boat! This exercise will consume the day on Thursday and hopefully by the end of the day it will simply be a case of turning it on to get fresh water!

While Tony was having fun, I was having fun of my own. I painted the propane locker . . . love those fumes! I discovered that I had to move the solenoid of I would be unable to extract one of the tanks. It was a total pain the the but. Even with all the measuring and planning, the solenoid was off by one stinking inch. I could just scream! And it was one of those project that required my being in two places at the same time, one place to hold the nut still and the other to tighten down the bolt. I was able to use vice grips but with Tony there, having him help was even simpler.

I also had to put a cleat in place in the anchor locker. This cleat is used to attach the very end of the anchor line to the boat so that it will not disappear into the depths. Again this was a case of having to be in two places at the same time and this time, Tony was too enmeshed in his own project to help out. It was a simple project but the trip from the bow outside to the forepeak inside, back and forth a dozen times just took a little time to accomplish. I got it done and that was one more project done.

I removed the C.A.R.D. system from the boat. It is a system that detects radar signals and indicate which direction they are coming from. Unfortunately, the system didn't work. It looks as though when it stopped working, the previous owner just left it in place and let it rust to further death.It left me with a nice selection of wire for later us at come time in the future should the need arise. It went into the trash along with the old water pump( rust into inactivity) and some type of solenoid which went to something but the is no indication of what. There is something very freeing about chucking stuff . . . .even though I fear that at some time in the future I might have a need of it.

MASTER'S PERSONAL LOG:

Having gotten over (sort of) the impact of the loan problem, I have refocused on still leaving on the 15th! Talk with "Chuck-the-Launch-Driver." He will be heading south next week, taking the route I have planned out. He has offered a whole bunch on suggestions and advice on making the trip. I gave him a ICW book I have and he is going to annotate it for me. We'll trade cell phone numbers and keep in touch on the journey. One thing, he doesn't wait for the end of the Hurricane Season, but simply pushes on south down the ICW. That little piece of info is interesting and will require a little/a lot of rumination.