Hello world, happy Tuesday. Last time we spoke, it was September, and now we are in October and closing in on the cooler weather. It’s been good weather here, mid 70s all week with a couple of hotter days, but overall lovely fall temps. We’ve had quite a bit happen in the last week, and we’re excited about our news about the stay! But, I won’t get ahead of myself.
This past week we have been doing little things around the boat like tearing out a porthole and hatch so that they could be replaced. At the beginning of the week, we made a plan of doing the hatch on Monday, the porthole on Tuesday, and then Wednesday would be a catch up day. Well, that didn’t exactly go as planned. The hatch didn’t get finished until Thursday (I think?) and the porthole is out but it’s not replaced yet because the one that was originally ordered was not what we received in the mail, so we had to have that sent back and then reordered. As always, things did not go according to plan. I think that’s okay, because I was able to do a lot of small things on the boat that we needed to work on while Steve worked during the day, and after all of that we will get it all done, eventually. We are pretty stoked about our hatch, considering it had been broken since before I met Steve, and the portholes will be extremely nice because 4 out of 6 of them leak. I’m also working on taking off our boat stripes, which are just cosmetic details that have probably been on the boat since it was fresh out of the warehouse. They are, to put it lightly, a pain in the butt to get off because of the amount of time they’ve been on there and the goopy adhesive that keeps them stuck for so long. But alas, it will get done sooner or later.
BIG NEWS! We did get our forestay looked at yesterday, and the rigger said that our time frame of leaving here by late October/early November is DOABLE! That was a huge relief. Whether or not it will reign true is yet to be determined, because you never know what weather will do to push work back, and if work is pushed back then our job will be pushed back as well. But, we are keeping our fingers crossed that it all works out just fine so that we can make it to the Oyster Festival in Urbanna with no problems. We will be going up the mast today in order to retrieve the piece of the rigging that the stay snapped off of so that the rigger can get a proper measurement and get the ball rolling on ordering our correct parts. So, that means Steve is going up the mast this time and I am cranking him all the way up there (ah!), with help from our neighbors of course. The thing is, the rigger told us that some of our equipment that needs to be replaced is 35 years old, aka: as old as our boat. I’m not so sure if I could even get the equipment off if Steve cranked me up instead, so we both agreed it’d be better if he made the climb.
THIS WEEK:
Some fun things happened this week also! We went to our favorite brewery/coffee shop, COVA, and enjoyed live music. We went to Warbirds over the Beach at the aviation museum in Virginia Beach which was a blast. They had some great live music, that we danced to of course, great food, and an air show! My dad also came to stay a night since he was in town visiting a friend, so we got to spend some great quality time with him. Oh! And I can’t forget the delicious zucchini bread I’ve made (twice) this week! YUM. One of the biggest things that we did this weekend was go to the Women’s March in downtown Norfolk. It was so powerful; the message, the people. We got to march for something we believed in. It brought tears to my eyes being with so many that believed the same thing while doing our best to make a difference. Believe it or not, we have a lot of things that need changing in this country of ours, and standing up for what we believe in is so important.
Welp, that’s our week. It’s been quite busy, as I think I say every week, but it’s been good. I’m just thankful things are unfolding in good ways like the stay getting fixed and our little jobs being worth it. After all, the little things are what makes the big things in life.
Thanks for reading. See you next week!
Skye
Mentally Sailing 