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| The three of us just before we go with Dana in the background... ...not my dream photo but sometimes you have to take what you can get! |
The past two weeks have flown by readying
Dana to go to sea. I’d sort of hoped to have a day or two to head into town by
myself, poke around, get my haircut and buy a new outfit or two, but we have
been more or less continuously busy and there has been no time. It has been
interesting though, as each day has been different. I spent one whole day
helping Sven troubleshoot a software upgrade glitch in the satellite GPS
navigation system and another one helping him empty, clean, and re-pack the
various lockers on board the boat. I was sent off shopping one day with a list,
which I followed, and bought $1000 worth of groceries, enough basics to do for
several months, and then watched, amazed, as Lisa managed to pack all of them
into the tiny cupboards aboard. One day I swabbed the decks and then cleaned
and polished the stainless steel stanchions and lifelines eradicating any rust
spots along the way, Lisa cleaned the galley, and Sven put a new set of gaskets
in the water maker. The list of chores, which initially seemed endless, has
been almost gotten through, and tomorrow, at noon, because there is a good
weather window and the tides are favourable, we are leaving dock and heading
west out into the Pacific. Eeek. I’d hoped to have a pic of the three of us
waving goodbye, but, if you were to hear the list of chores still left to do you’d
know that it is not going to happen! We have to get cooking gas, deflate and
tie up the dingy, buy 50 pounds each of potatoes and onions, do a last load of
laundry and hang it up to dry, go to the Armada to sign out of mainland Chile, clean
some filters, fill up on water, both the main tanks and some extra jugs, and
then coil the water hose and put it away, get gasoline for the dingy motor and diesel
for the main engine, clean the fenders, do a last vacuum inside, put everything
away, run the gib lines back and through pulleys, and, Sven, of course, has
more stuff to do that I can’t remember! I see my hope of getting a good bye
photo - in my mind we were all going to pose on the stern of the boat in our
foul weather gear - let alone posting it, is doomed… Overall however, despite being busy, not much of note has
really happened lately. Hopefully our first leg will be fantastic and I will have a
photo or two to show off at the other end.
