(Credit here to Kurt Vonnegut)
It has been a few days since my last post. Because the weather has finally gotten nice, I have been able to finally realize some of the dreams I had about why I am doing this. A really good example is sitting in the cockpit with a beer listening to The Grateful Dead and Little Feat (with Lowell George) while the sun is going down. And taking the dogs out every morning when the marine layer is still misty, and there are hardly any other people around.
We took Magda Jean out for a sail earlier this week. I discovered the wonders of the staysail. Not to bore everyone, but on a cutter rigged boat like ours, there are three sails: the main sail, the jib (on the outermost end of the bow [front]) and the stay sail (which hangs from a wire stay directly behind the jib.) The staysail is smaller than our jib, and therefore much easier to handle. I discovered it makes tacking real easy. The upshot of all this is from now on, when we have tedious sailing to do, I can drop the jib and use only the main and the staysail. Of course Mike will want all three up all the time, so we can go faster. I will stand firm, however, because sail handling is my job. That is in great part because I am a horrible helmsman. Anyway, we had a great sail and I have no doubt that if Mike can decide the boat is ready, WE will definitly be ready for the Baja Ha Ha (yes, that is what the rally is called) in late October.
Living in the marina is interesting. We have two resident bums that keep us entertained when they are not getting arrested. Of course, I have already made friends with them. They are both in their 40s (although with bums it is hard to tell - they could be in their streetworn 30s) and one wears a blue fishing hat and the other one wears a brown baseball cap. They are almost always either drunk or sobering up and looking to get drunk again. One day they had a big palm frond - about four feet long - and one of them was whipping it back and forth over the seawall like it was a fly fishing rod. The other one kept whining "Let ME try it!" over and over again. Last night we saw them with a grocery cart. One of them was pushing the other one in it, and even the one pushing was so drunk he could barely stand up. They were going back and forth along these big picture windows at the Pizza Nova staring at the people eating. We heard sirens later, so I suppose that didn't last too long. I wondered what was going to happen when the one in the cart decided to get out. It would not be pretty. I told them awhile ago when they were fairly lucid that they would not get arrested so much if they kept a lower profile and didn't get loud, and they both agreed, but one told me the other one just couldn't help it.
It seems like Mike may finally be getting to the end of the upgrades and repairs, although I have been told over and over again the repair part will never be done. Nonetheless, I am optimistic. And Mike says the new radar and navigation equipment is better than what he worked with in the Navy. He is currently wiring everything together and discussing the need to rewire the entire boat. Funny - I thought that was what he was doing!
Amazon debited my account and my new Kindle is on its way!!!!! I can hardly wait as I have totally run out of new reading material. Now I can have as many books as I want to, even though there is no space. Giving up my books was the hardest thing I had to do to prepare for this new life.
Now on a sad topic - we can't keep our big dog, Tempest. It is not working out at all. She simply cannot get from the cockpit to the cabin, even with the ramp I designed. We are really afraid she will hurt herself and even break a limb. And since she is 11 years old and allergic to wheat, she is not high on the adoptability list. We went and visited the Helen Woodward Animal Shelter - it is a "no kill" shelter and they will take her and try to find her a new home. It seems very nice, but it is still a shelter and not a home. We are really torn, because we have to think about her and not about us. This life is really hard on her. I have asked everyone I can think of and no one has any good ideas. I can't hand her over to a random stranger who might not take proper care of her, and none of my friends and family are in a position to take her on. We'll have to see what happens here, but it is breaking my heart to have to do this to her. I really thought I could make it work.
Well, that is enough for now. No plans for today except more wiring for Mike and swabbing the decks for me. Which is actually a pretty fun chore.
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