Boat Projects and Life in a Boatyard

Today's project was disassembling, cleaning and greasing one of the winches on Sandpiper. It turned out well. Other projects in the last week have been installing the enclosure on the cockpit, putting the sails up, storing in food, installing the third alternator of the week (this one works), recharging the refrigerant in the heating/cooling system, carrying five gallon cans of fresh water for the tanks and generally reorganizing the storage on Sandpiper. Along the way Loy saw a dermatologist about a skin rash that turned out to be sun sensitivity and Linda saw a physician about a pulled chest muscle. In both cases the doctors saw us the day we called for an appointment. Such are the advantages of small town life. We are both on the mend now. Sandpiper is ready to go, but the weather is not. Cold front are passing over at the rate of two a week with high winds, rough seas, and cold temperatures. It look like our first option for safe sailing will be Thursday of this week. In the meantime our neighbors in the boatyard are very interesting people, a family from Switzerland, a couple from Turkey, a couple from Canada, one from England, one from France. Each has stories about their life at sea and how they got to Deltaville. We exchange music and movies and dinners and tips about the waters we will be sailing into. It is not an easy life, but it is very interesting and very satisfying. We enjoy hearing from you by e mail about home. We're getting excited about going to St. Thomas for Christmas with Carl.