More to do's

Well I think we are beginning part of our final count down to leaving on our fist BIG journey in June.  Today was the last day of work (from our part time jobs) for both Mike and I.  It seems strange to think that I no longer have a job (well at least a paying one).  Mike is off until November when he will return to school to teach for a while.  So now it begins.  We start with some of the final preparations for our trip in June.  Last week we accomplished a lot.  I did the provisioning for the medical/first aid, etc. supplies.  I figured I would do this in stages.  First with the drugstore kind of things, then my next trip will be this weekend for the non perishable foods.  This first trip was a complete cart full of stuff and you can't eat any of it.  Then when we got it all on the boat I worked to find places to store it.  With that completed we moved on to other projects.

Mike then started working on the port that was leaking, BIG TIME.  This port is located right above our main clothing locker and was leaking into the clothes.  Needless to say I brought all the clothes back home and washed the thoroughly before rehanging them.  Mike was able to replace the major seal around the port and seal it properly.  We are hoping this does the trick.

While Mike was working on this I did some cleaning and adjusting some new cushions I had made for the dinette.  While doing this I located some new storage that I didn't realize we had.  Under one of the dinette seats was a pretty large storage space that now will be used to store canned food.  One of the things I am trying to accomplish is purchase as much of the non perishable foods ahead of time so we don't have to buy them while we are gone.  So this storage unit was like finding GOLD.

I was also able to complete the installation of some velcro added to the new forepeak cushions I had made for the insert Mike added a couple months back.  This addition will give our guests more sleeping space and when we don't have guests Mike will have a bench that can be used to do any repair work on.  The velcro was for the triangular pieces.  I found that every time you would climb into the forepeak the cushions would scoot out from underneath you.  A quick addition of some velcro added to the cushions and on the board keeps them from sliding around.  We did some other smaller projects outside on deck.  I placed all the covers back on the fenders, Mike hung up some new halyards.  The marina is a different atmosphere this time of year.  First it is still a bit cold, but a busy place.  Everyone is busy getting their boats ready for putting them back in the water.  So there are sanders running, buffers going, paint brushes moving, tools clanking.  And an occasional 4 letter word dropped here and there.  The dock seem bare, but in a mere few weeks they will be filled with boats and lots of jovial folks aboard them.