Last night it hit 34 degrees. I would not trade my down sleeping bag for anything! I was warm allll night long. the only problem is getting out of the sleeping bag. brrrr luckily I had a hot flash and I quick jumped up to get dressed during the hot flash. ha ha
this past week we have diligently been working on our list that keeps getting longer not shorter. The electrician is baffled to our "drain" on the batteries. But he is getting closer... we can feel it. Actually we were thinking of laying hands on the hull to dispel all the electrical gremlins! It can't hurt. ha ha Our chart plotter stopped working and the radar would not connect. so we sent both back to the manufacture. it is under warranty! phew
Ben has been working hard on the grounding of our Single Side Band. our communication that we will use while off shore. SSB will also allow us for email and for weather faxes. It is essential that it work!
Not that I am pessimistic but maybe a realist. Sometimes I think, " we will never get our essential list done in time" and then Ben will say "We will get it done and the worst that can happen is we just sail to the Caribbean and hang out there for most of the year and leave next year." So it will be what it will be. we are on "sailing" time.
Ben's father passed away and we will be home for a week, then back for thanksgiving when his brother and wife will visit us. So that is 2 weeks of not working on the boat. we will be in MN for christmas for 2 weeks. So we have about 15 days to get our list done. Although we could leave as late as January 20th and we think we could still hit Panama in March but that is cutting it close. we also could hang out in Panama for a while too. We have heard it is a great and cheap place to hang out. And fresh fruit and veggies a plenty.
This past week has been days of to-do list after to-do list. I have finished the painting of the bow sprit! finally I get to check it off my list. the sea cocks need to be worked but I'm too weak. Ben got them all checked except 2. so what do we do with that? we will continue to oil them and see if they come loose. One of our surprise was Mabelle, noticed water weeping from the rudder. She said that means water is getting in the rudder. Hummm people would walk by and say... just drill a few holes in the rudder. Easy for them to say. Sounds like a lot of work to patch the holes if you ask me. Well Ben got enough gumption to drill.... and it was a good thing cuz he hit one place and out gushed a lot of water! so now that needs to dry and then we need to fill the holes but why was there water in their in the first place? we don't want to put a bandaid on a problem and that is the moment I thought, "ummm maybe we won't make the deadline this year?"
that is the update. Lila update... she came into our bunk soaking wet again! AND MUDDY! silly girl!
Oh this weekend we will be helping a fellow sailor sail off shore to West Palm. he is a single handler and wanted someone to help him sail 3 days on the outside. We thought it be good to sail with an experienced captain. The seas are 6-8 NW winds... that is fine with me but the temperature is going to be 40 at night BRRRRR! with wind!! Not looking forward to my 4 hour shift.
so will be off shore till Tuesday. no blog... then to MN
miss you all!
Pam
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