First week on board

Good Morning Family and Friends! 
We've had a very busy week and continue working hard toward our first sail of the season.  It's hard to believe that the first month of summer is already gone. Time is moving so quickly we are losing track of the days.  The mast and rigging are up and the sails are attached.  Jim will be tuning the rig this week as we continue to find the right homes for each of the sheets and halyards.  9 months is a long time ago and that's how long it's been since we took the rig apart.
As fate would have it, we have already had several opportunities to "shake" a few things out without ever leaving our slip.  What better place to have something not work than right here at home, right?  We filled the water tanks, turned on the switch for pressurized water and learned we had a leak somewhere.  We filled the sink in the galley to wash dishes and when it drained we found a leak there too.  Last night we lost shore power, again, and remembered that we had the wrong extension cord here and the right one at our storage building.  These things sound simple and they are, but trust us when we tell you they are not so simple when your are out of town, without a car to run to the store, or in a town that has no store. Been there done that.
Oh, did I already mention the beautiful weather we saw this week? That's a no, unless you think thunder, lightening, overcast skies and rain are beautiful.  The blessing here is that we didn't miss anything good out on the lake while we stayed inside and worked on the boat.  Another blessing this week included our celebrations on Friday which included local family, several yacht clubs friends, and our very own Monsignor Snyderwine who delivered Birthday Blessings for Jim, Traveler Blessings for our trip, and a special blessing on our vessel.  Thank you Monsignor!

Land vs.Lake

Hello everyone!  Well, we have one day left on shore. We are moving onto the boat tomorrow, ready or not.  We've been very busy since the last blog posting with Graduation, grad parties, family gatherings, cleaning the house out, final closing on the house, and pushing the boat work to a point where we could launch. We've been floating since Thursday. What a great feeling.  We still have a least a few weeks of work to complete the remaining upgrades and electronics installations.
Life on the water is very different than what we're all use to. If you didn't like camping as a kid you wouldn't like this life style either. You have very little personal space and no room for clutter.  If it's not tied down or put away expect to find it on the floor in a heap when you get back from a sail.  We're still struggling with the reduction of shoes,clothes, small tools, and various other bags of "stuff".  In the coming weeks these will all surely reach more managable volumes.  We're planning to take as many "shake down" trips as necessary to ensure all systems are working properly and our confidence levels are peaked.  The actual sail away date is now listed as TBD.