Lords of all we survey

The insurance and value survey of “Submit” was done yesterday.  We’ll have the formal results in a few days.  Over all, we think/hope she’ll get a passing grade, thanks to repairs and upgrades done in the past.  We appreciated comments and suggestions from our surveyor, Dylan Bailey of St. Augustine, FL.

 We have a few additional items on the To-Do list now.  For one, it has been recommended that we “pull the chainplates” for inspection.  For our non-sailing friends, our chainplates are steel plates which are about 18” long, 1.5” wide and 3/16” thick.  They are made of stainless steel.  They pass down through the deck and are bolted in place inside the boat.  The shrouds and stays which hold the mast up are attached to the chainplates.  If one of the chainplates breaks while sailing, particularly in bad weather, we would probably lose our mast at the very least.  Even stainless steel can crack and corrode over time, and ours are 45 years old and show signs of possible failure, a Major Danger Warning.  If the existing chainplates don’t pass inspection, new ones will have to be manufactured.  So much for being done with projects in two or three days!

Barbara is now looking forward (not) to going up the mast, to the very top, to install a halyard (line for hoisting and lowering a sail).  She gets to sit in her special bosun’s chair, tied to the end of a long rope and hoisted to the top.  We will do this while we are out of the water, so she will be almost 60 feet off the ground.  She has decided to wait until after the chainplates are reinstalled and all the shrouds are re-connected!  I would take pictures and videos but I’ll be at the other end of the line raising and lowering her and probably should use both hands.  I would go up myself, but it seems my weight control efforts failed miserably while away from the boat, and pictures of her petite person being vaulted into the sky as my 300+ pounds come hurtling down came to mind.

The new batteries did not arrive yesterday.  They are now supposed to arrive on Monday.  The new propeller did not arrive last week.  It is supposed to arrive on Monday.  The seals for the transmission will arrive soon.

Today will include a visit to a local marine flea market.  Why?  We really don’t need any more stuff, but it is always entertaining.  We will also start buying food for the next twelve weeks. And wine.  And a beer or two.

Weather for the next few days is predicted to have high

 temperatures somewhere between 54 and 81 degrees, lows

between 35 and 61 and probabilities of between 20% and 90% for

sunshine, intermittent showers and/or thunder storms.  We

predict they will be correct.  Where are you when we need you,

Matt!