The Work Never Stops

Even when I am not there, the work marches on. I am having the boat pulled this week for a good scraping and cleaning. It's been about 7 months since her last "outting" but she has been sitting the entire time and the growth I have seen on some of these boat bottoms is unreal. In just 2 months, one of my neighbors had his prop completely covered with all sorts of crusties, so I am guessing I have a bowling ball where the prop used to be. Where I am docked on the Pamlico River, the water is considered brackish, so maybe that has something to do with it but I am not really sure. Anyway, the prop was my biggest concern before leaving, so I figured why not get it all done now.

On top of that, the rigger will be down next week to go over all of the standing rigging, chainplates, turnbuckles, etc. I know the rigging hasn't been touched for over 20 years so it was agreed that all of it would need to be replaced except the headstay and furler, both newer. They measured today and will have all the new shrouds cut and ready to go on Monday or Tuesday. Once that is done, he will tune it up and that will be the last of it. I guess there really isn't anything more important than making sure the stick stays in place, so it will be nice to know its all in good shape 30 miles off Cape Lookout.

So other than provisioning, we are ready to go. Oh, I did order a couple of paper charts from OceanGrafix, http://www.oceangrafix.com/o.g/index.html. If you need any, check out the print as you go charts that they offer. Excellent price and they get it to you in just a few days. And when you get where you are going, trade them with someone going where you just came for theirs of the area you just got to. :)

I feel pretty good about Skylark and everything that has been done. Now it's just a matter of time, weather and good ol' fashion sailing. I can't wait.