Last day of August

Just a quick note to bring you all up-to-date.  Lulu's back at the boat cleaning up after our day of work and I need to get back down there soon.

Today was pretty productive as boat work goes.  We got both of the

 headsails all finished.  Here's a picture of our snazzy new Spin-Tec furlers:

We also got the life raft and the stern pulpit bolted down.  Now this may not sound like a big deal to you but you probably aren't aware of what goes into such a job.  Take the liferaft for instance:  First, since it's being bolted down to the deck, all of the overhead covering material (pine bead board) has to be removed where the bolts will come through.  This is not just to hide the bolts but it's also for a secure attachment.  Imagine if you tried to bolt something to the outside of your house by running a bolt through the outer wall and the sheetrock and then tried tightening the nut on the sheetrock.  Wouldn't work too well.  Same thing on our boat.  The overhead is backed up by 1/2" styrofoam insulation.  Tightening a bolt against the overhead would simply crush the beadboard and the insulation before it even began to be secure.  So all those boards had to come down.  And since Lulu was taking boards down anyway, might as well take the ones that have to be removed to install the staysail tracks port and starboard.  And, since at least the first quarter of the beadboard is tongue and grooved together (before I wized up and removed the tongues), almost all of the boards have to be removed before we can get to the ones we need.  So, a big job.

Lulu got the quarter berth cleaned out and straightened up.  This is the area we commonly refer to as "the garage" because it's where everything that doesn't have another home gets stashed.  Another big job since you have to crawl into and out of it.  Imagine cleaning your garage on your belly.

Our friend Steve, from here at the marina, gave us a ride into town to get some groceries, lumber and propane.  [sidebar:  What was with the post-war parents naming all their baby boys "Steve"?  I don't remember a lot of other Steves in school (Steve Schmidt and Steve Shaw are the only ones that come immediately to mind), but now it seems like whenever I'm with other men of around my age, at least a third of them are named Steve.  Weird.].

Okay, that's about it for today.  Best get back to the boat.  Things are shaping up nicely for a Saturday or Sunday departure.