It's my day off. And it was tolerable weather. Sound unlikely for me......yeah. OK although the afore mentioned statements are true, it wasn't exactly perfect. Despite being my day off I had to go in to work (twice) in order to keep appointments with clients. (If in the future after I am an amazingly successful cruising sailor and I have to get a job on land I hope that they will read this and see my awesome work ethic). I only stayed at work a total of 3 1/2 hours, but I sold 2 cars, so it's ok. As for the weather, it's been kinda depressing. A couple Sundays ago it was up in the 70's, and then this last weekend we got 3 inches of snow! It just came out of nowhere, and covered everything in slush. I had hoped that I would be able to start varnishing, but with all the changing weather and moisture in the air I've decided to hold off for a bit.
I completed a few tasks on the boat though. I taped off and repainted the waterline, I put on the boat registration stickers, and finished sanding the woodwork. I took pictures of all this today, but forgot to bring it over here so I could upload them. I'll do that tomorrow.
I checked out the slot that had been cut to drain any excess water in the keel, it was pretty much dry. I decided it'd be a good idea to make sure there was no water next to the ballast on the other side of the keel. So although when you think of boat maintenance you usually think of patching holes, not drilling new ones, that's exactly what I had to do.
I drilled into the side of the keel and a bit of gritty black goop came out followed by some water. I drilled 8 other holes along the keel to drain any moisture I could. I'm still a bit worried about all this water that has been in there for who knows how long, but I'm pretty confident in the structural integrity of the Bristol.
I found out that the rig I have (from a Columbia 26) has a roller reefing boom, so I don't need to add reefing point to the sail if I need to make the sail smaller in a storm. It's gonna be nice to just wrap it around the boom and not have to worry about folding it. I've heard that the roller reefing systems weren't that good, and that's why no one does it anymore.....I guess we'll see.
After sunset I went to Home Depot to get some Frog Tape (way better than the blue painter's tape most people get), some more sanding blocks, some gloves so I don't ruin my skin with the anti-fouling paint, and some tack cloth so I can varnish properly. Then I bought some rubbing compound and wax to make the boat's hull all slippery and shiny.
It's gratifying to see things coming together over the last couple of weeks. I've had a list of things to buy, and things to do which wasn't changing at all over the winter months. I had to get insurance, pay for the slip, get anti-fouling paint ($126/gallon). Now all I have to do is buy some sails.
An old guy came up to me today and told me about some sailing stuff he was selling. He had a new sail that didn't fit his boat he was gonna sell for $400, and a roller furling unit for the Jib. It might not fit, but I'll see how cheap I can buy it off him.
I've recently joined a www.cruisersforum.com which has been great! The combined knowledge of hundreds of sailors from all over the world helping me trouble shoot my way has been invaluable. It's also nice to see that I'm not the only one who's starting small and trying to make due with as little as possible. I know I seem naive to many, but I feel like I could get to Europe just on will power at this point.
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