We were just sitting around thinking about how the boatyard takes their time and there is such little communication about when they will come and change out our electronics… when I said to Ben, ‘Hey, what if we start taking apart the old electronics (the chart plotter) and only go as far as we feel comfortable and maybe by the time they get to us we will have taken most of it apart and put the new stuff in. whadda ya think?” He thought that was an excellent idea. So today away we went slowly and methodically at disconnecting the chart plotter. That was easy. Then we started to pull the electrical cords, of course, being careful to make sure that when we pulled a cord we replaced it with a leader line so we can string the new lines later back through the same small holes. The radar cord was a thick cord that was tied by a cable wrap (Ya know those plastic wraps that you pull one side through a hole on the other side and zip it tight.) that wraps were every foot or so… things were going smoothly until way down in the belly of the stern (back of boat under the wheel where the quadrant – steering mechanical mechanism – lies) under a support beam was two tie wraps. Ben tried for a while to get the one but no luck. I was small enough to get my body inside a locker and my arm and one hand under a board where I could snip the wrap! WE thought that was it but then when we pulled nothing happened. Sure enough there was one more tie wrap. Ben went in under the cockpit upside down, slid his head upside down and could barely get his hands under to snip the last tie. He was amazing and did it! Then he said, “There is no need to panic.” I calmly responded with, “Yup no need to panic, I’m right here and I can give you a hand.” I looked down the tiny helm seat and thought, “man he is squished in.” He got there by gravity and now how will he get out. Luckily he could pull the quadrant around enough so he could slither back out. It took some time but he made it. Phew, I was just thinking whom would I yell to help pull him out? But no need! It was exciting and I did not take any pictures with my iphone cuz it was too hairy of a moment for me to think about a picture!

Today there was a cute moment in my mind where I thought, “it feels like were playing house.” Now for you girls you might get my gist. Remember when you were little and you took all the blankets from the house and made a fort and then everything was about making a cute little house. Life was good, no worries at that moment, the spring air was crisp, the chores were done, nothing else to do but play in your kid-made fort/house. Today I had a moment where I was putting things away and felt just like that. It must be a dream. Life is good, no worries at this moment, I felt accomplished in our work and the air was cool and I smiled.

I'm sure Ben has been talking about Lila or at least I think so. Since my camera is all washed up, I thought I would put in a cute picture of Lila after a night of crusin' the boatyard. Funny! in the morning about 7am the employees start arriving and she hears them so she tries to run across the boat yard lickity-split. I hear her collar dingaling-ing then I hear the employees laughing at her run across the yard and fly up the ladder and in crash in the boat full steam ahead! then most of the day she lays around as tired as any cat could be. She is such a joy! We met another person with a cat on her boat, her cat walks on a leash too!

Welp almost time for bed. We are listening to the Twins game and watching it on the iphone. technology! Ohhhh...

... some of you have asked why did we demast? a few reasons: we are moving our current radar from behind the stern pulpit (It was mounted on a tall pole, see old pictures for placement, it seemed to get in the way when we would tack) now it will be on the mast (most people have it on the mast, up high and out of the way). also our anchor light which is lit when we are at anchor, it sits on the very top, it is super important to have it on at night - one time last year a speed boat at night (i'm thinkin they might have been drinking "college" drinks) came speeding through and at the last minute saw us but yelled as they drove by, "we can't see your light". there was also a time in annapolis where we could not find our boat right away cuz we could not see the light either. it is good to inspect the rigging every so many years and have it re tightened by a professional. we could have asked the yard to climb up and mount the radar but we thought we had enough things to do to take it down.

i'm beat! going to bed! have a blessed memorial day weekend. My sister and brother in-law are coming this week to williamsburg so we will happily meet up with them sometime while we do all this waiting.