Plans starting to form

Favorite Steering Position

Could any of the sailing crowd reading this ever guess that the tri-color/steaming/strobe light on the mast head is a $500 idea?  Or that the freight for a 48 feet mast is $1,500 from Gainsville, Florida to New Orleans.  Sure glad the insurance was paid up. 

Looks as though we may see parts in about two weeks.  Give the yard another week or so to get stuff done (which would suprise us if it happens that way) and we might be underway by official spring.  We definitely will not mind warmer weather.  The idea in starting late January was to see the swampy things before the mosquitos did their post hybernation search for that first meal.  One thing that we did not think of was the fact that 'gators sleep when it is cold, hence we did not see any of them in Louisiana. 

Thanks to all of you who offered and continue to offer help.  Unless you like to wax boats, there is little to do at this point.  Some of you may have received some strange calls from us since the "incident" as we now call it.  It was the combination of large long showers, stable sleeping quarters, regular meals and a fireplace  here at home that contributed to the calls.  We were losing our sea legs and things were definitely wierd.  Now we are working on the logistics and have a plan. 

The crew of Rima, a beautiful Valiant that has a gillion sea miles,  offered a comment that puts things in perspective.  If I may paraphrase, they said that one is not really a cruiser until one dismasts.  Further, they also said that no one wants to read about beautiful sunsets; that it is stuff like our "incident" that makes for good reading.  Underway, if nothing goes wrong, life is sitting behind the wheel for many hours at walking speed.  Looking back on the month past,  daily ship's log entries consist of time and place of weighing anchor or slipping dock lines and the reverse at the chosen time of for the end of the day. Of course, offshore, one does not usually have an end to the day and just keeps going 24/7.  About the only other log entries are the gotchas, those little reminders that one is moving and Mother can erase all evidence of ever having been "out there". 

I had a friend do the Trans Pac race from San Francisco to Hawaii as a crew member.  He kept a log on the voyage.  It was interesting reading as one could tell they were in the doldrums (no wind) and he was getting tired.  He ran out of ice and had to drink his gin neat at room temperature.  That must have been a killer.   They raced their own trash (or something like trash) for several days during which they logged which was ahead.   Point to this is that we take our excitement as it is presented, good or bad. 

Methinks that since we have our laundry done, some provisioning and a plan, time will once again start to creep.  Already, my A.D.D. is kicking in.  We are told that WK is only about 50 miles or so from clear water.  It will be good to sail out of the muddy water of the Delta.

Oh yeah, before I forget:  Steve, tell yer lady that it has almost all been good.  The Bear is as anxious to get going again as I.