It’s hard to believe we have only been here for a little over 1 week! A lot has been accomplished in a short time but we still have a ways to go. Our launch date has been moved to Wednesday, Nov. 21 – we just couldn’t get all of the rigging pieces together for our first launch date.
Mark did a great job removing the chain plates from the boat but we are waiting for the new ones to be created. It only took us 2 days to make the new stays for the boat – some are completed but some are waiting for connector pieces. We’ll finish these ones once we have all the parts.
Our bee situation seems to be under control – I decided that we needed to be more aggressive with these guys so we bought some bee/wasp spray and taped up the entire mast. All holes were plugged and taped and it seems to have done the trick. We’re now working at scraping as much of the hive out of our mast as possible – not easy! The mast doesn’t go back up until Nov. 20, so we have some time to continue our battle!
This bee invasion has created quite a mess inside our boat. I have cleaned parts of this boat that I’ve never cleaned before. I’ve washed the little drapes and the cushion covers (thought they would follow apart or shrink, but they didn’t and they look great), plus washed virtually every surface (some much pee poop!). The floors still need to be done but I’m waiting for the installation of the new chain plates to complete this job.
We’ve met some really nice people at the boat storage. It’s a much nicer atmosphere here than on the east coast (we were working in a marina that was mostly power boat for rich people – no one was around). We met a couple from Boston area who are selling their boat and just getting it ready to move up the coast to Sarasota. We met another couple who have an older Whitby 42 (that’s pretty cool) and we’ve compared notes! The yard has been really good to help us with the bees and other things.
The Airbnb we are currently living in is very nice. Lots of room and fairly close to the boat. With the delay of our launch, I had to find another Airbnb to stay in for a week (our current place was booked) and this one is even closer to the boat!
Well, I’ll leave you with some photos of our work over the last week and a photo of Caroline’s art installation at the Warehouse. They had a (maybe) final show last weekend (Nov. 10 ish) that was very successful.
Crimson Kathryn and her crew 