The ToDo list is down to a handful of items. Chris is on the communications and technology full time, Donna and Kathy are committed to the provisioning, the tanks are full, there is a blue sky and a stiff wind. Kim Ickler is giving a Bon Voyage party tonight for everyone associated with the preparations. Life is good.
Ulli's routing calculations continue to amaze. (If you haven't already done so, go to the bottom of the right hand column on this page and click on the link.) He is predicting 12 day delivery times. I hope he is wrong. I have been looking forward to this trip and would hate to have it over so quickly.
One of the photos here shows a piece of the wood trim on the galley sink. The small hole with a plug in it used to be where an absolutely ancient bronze pump was located. For the first couple crossings the crew used to have to pump out the sink with this little pump. It was a real pain. There was a plunger with a leather seal that leaked, and sometimes it would not want to prime or get stuffed up with debris, etc. I can't recall that anyone ever complained. Still, it was nice when the hand pump was replaced by the electric automatic sump pump system shown in the next photo. This unit has to be replaced fairly often because it gets jammed up with crud even if people are fairly careful to screen out the big pieces from the waste water.
The bottom of the steering pedestal was showing some corrosion and by the time I got it wire brushed and cleaned up it also needed to be re-caulked. Been done.
The jib sheet fairleads were next on the list. They are another example of the historic nature of the rigging. They are made of a solid block of glass cloth and resin (with a very characteristic smell when being machined.). My dad called this stuff "macarta". Big panels of it were used for mounting electrical equipment because it is a good insulator. Today, knowledgeable people call this stuff "phenolic". The sheaves were starting to show their age so I gave them a coat of epoxy. Hope that was a good idea.
Another sign that we are getting closer to cast off time is that Kate moved all her stuff aboard. She is used to making trips like this in a kayak, so even though she brought two or three times the normal amount of stuff (for her) it still didn't fill the space that was available.
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