The boat floats! 11.29.07

Will wonders ever cease! With some miracle of the boatyard, the propeller shaft was cut and installed Monday mid day and the final fit test revealed....it was STILL too long! So back to the lathe it went. The shaft was cut an additional 3/4" and brought back by the end of the day. Finally, everything fit perfectly! Woohoo! :-) On top of that, the 1oz of paint was found, the final coat was painted on the bottom, & the masts were cleaned & waxed. Here's a picture of Steve painting the bottom of the boat, Chris painting the masts, the Norseman fittings that were cracked open, and the masts where they were being worked on.

The boat was put back into the water with no problems on Wednesday morning, the 21st. The masts were placed on the boat in the afternoon. Here's a picture of the group as they moved the main mast and Michael & Chad as they were working on placing the main mast onto the boat.

What perfect timing! We stayed with Sue & Denny one last night and then headed out to Palm Springs for Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner courtesy of Michael's Mom & Sister and enjoyed visiting with everyone.

We came home on Saturday and started putting everything together, away, & cleaned up from being in the boatyard. Saturday evening we had a treat, another boater pulled up alongside us and offered us his catch - fresh caught crabs! Yum...

Since then, Michael & Chad have been working on the rigging & crossing all other items off of the list. Can you believe it's only 3 weeks from today!?! We're going to take the boat out on Wednesday next week and stretch the rigging and re-tune afterwards. We'll be putting together our plan for the next couple months! I'll be sure to share.

Until then, have a wonderful week! I'll be sure and update often as I can! Oh, and if you're interested, I found a couple of new websites that I've enjoyed.....check them out when you have a chance. http://www.1000days.net/ which is about a couple that is cruising for 1,000 days without stopping! And some good friends of ours, Tony & Shannon Morelli aboard Sweetie, who left on New Year's day this year http://www.sailblogs.com/member/sweetie/.

Rene