PLANS CHANGE

5 Jan 2014
Somewhere over the Persian Gulf

On the way back from home, over Afghanistan....it looks MUCH better covered in snow.

Well, I am sitting at 38,000 feet over the Persian Gulf on my way back to Kandahar, Afghanistan.  I haven’t slept in 40+ hours and my back is killing me……yes, “I would like a little WHINE to go with my cheese.” LOL.

It has been a while since I made a blog entry….a lot has happened since then.  I had to take emergency leave and go home from Afghanistan to be with my Dad.  I won’t go into all the details, but he is 88 years old and he has had two major stomach surgeries within a week.  I was blessed to be able to spend some time with him, and he did leave the hospital a couple of days ago (the day after I left to go back to AFG).  He needs to gain a bunch of weight and regain his strength in a big way.  Pray with me for his recovery. 

Since this is a sailing blog (even though we aren’t, technically, sailing yet), I will get back to sailing stuff.  Our original plan was for me to come back to the States in February (on a full 30-day break) and take a trip up to Cleveland, see the boat, and sign the acceptance papers.  That ain’t gonna happen now.  The trip to Cleveland part, that is.  I used up half of my earned leave on this trip, so another trip in Feb is out.  I called the broker and told him the situation, and, that based on the survey and Dahleen’s visit to see the boat, we would go ahead and sign the papers now.  SO, having done that, all we lack is paying the balance of the money and closing in mid-May. 

Well, that is not all we lack….I should say that is all we lack until the boat is ours.  We have much to do in June after taking possession.  In the last blog post, I mentioned some of the things that we needed/wanted to do to the boat to make a ‘cruiser’ out of it.  I am currently trying to prioritize those things.....the things we must do before we sail away from Cleveland in June for the Chesapeake, and the things we will be able to do on the yard in Deltaville, VA in November when I get back, and finally the things we will do in Georgetown, SC next December/January timeframe. 

What follows is NOT an all inclusive list and is subject to change, but it is the current plan:

CLEVELAND, OH:

Bimini frame and canvas…..made and installed

Fresh water tanks……thoroughly cleaned and filled

Fuel filter polishing/system installed and fuel polished

Engine raw water pump impellor replaced

Anchor chain (300’) installed

Anchors switched out….our 66# Rocna put on board

Rebuild the outboard carburetor (doing that now in Kandahar)

Put dinghy and outboard on the boat

DELTAVILLE, VA:

Address gelcoat crack in rudder

Sand and redo bottom paint

Install thru-hulls and seacocks for genset and h2o-maker

Tune the standing rigging

GEORGETOWN, SC:

Install genset

Install watermaker

Install radar

Install solar panels

Install wind generator

Install SSB radio

POINTS SOUTH:

Everything else

Anyone who has ever owned a cruising yacht knows that “everything” NEVER gets completed.  But, that’s OK….we know that one of the definitions of cruising is “sailboat maintenance in exotic places”.  Are Cleveland, Deltaville, and Georgetown exotic places?????  I am confused.