Another day in the life...

It's been another "little while" since the last post... This is sort of turning into more of a diary and a sounding post than anything else. The original intent of blogging for us (me) really was to allow family and friends to follow our lives since leaving Tucson, not sure if this radical departure from a well-known and familiar lifestyle was going to turn out well. We're still not sure, and it has both Dana and I a little bit nervous, and me not sleeping well some nights. I'd love to return to all that familiarity. I really miss my family, friends, the mountains, and being able to just get on my bike and ride in any direction for as long as I want, not having to worry about being pegged by a car or truck. What I also miss is working for a hospital and health care system that I think cared enough about it's patients (to say nothing of it's educational mission) to fix it's internal problems. It was so rewarding working at the Tucson VA, at least thinking that I made a difference in the lives of patients and that the jobs of those nurses and physicians was hopefully made just a little bit easier if I was there. If there is one saving grace that we have here, it is definitely sailing. It's about the only thing we look forward to and enjoy while living here. It is all that it was touted to be-- just extraordinary. I'm glad we have it, or I'd definitely be going nuts. I'm sure many of the local sailors must think I'm a bit nuts with all the work I've been doing on our Olson 30. We finally sold the Buccaneer to a nice older gentleman from Richmond, Va. I hope he enjoys it as much as we did. For us, boat purchases have only been getting progressively larger and larger, but still "trailerable". We don't have a suitable tow vehicle, but at > 5000 lbs, I'd rather just leave her "Jojo" comfortably resting on her trailer in the yacht club parking lot when she's not in the water. I could not imagine the hassle dropping and re-stepping the mast every time we decided to trailer her elsewhere for races. It would probably be fun, but man, what a hassle!

Back from the first CORA ocean race

Buckin' along the waves

On her trailer

New Raymarine e7D chartplotter

I've been faced with a bit of a dilemma; leave the VA to find work in a community hospital down in Tampa (by the way, we've been entertaining the idea of moving to Tampa, Fl for about 2 years now), or wait for another 2 years for something to come available at the huge VA hospital there. I've had several conversations with the pharmacy chief there, and that's at least as long as it may take for something to come up. I just have to wait for someone or multiple someone's to retire. This makes timing a bit tricky- gotta sell this house, pack up everything and move. The idea was to do that in stages. Get everything moved either into a storage facility down there or into a house, then sail the boat around the southern tip of Florida, come up through the keys and on up the gulf coast to Tampa, possibly to the Davis Island Yacht Club. This is perhaps the only club in the area that has a hoist available that is large enough for an Olson 30. Hopefully, it'll work out. The boat is mostly ready for the trip now, actually... I've still got a ways to go. I'm taking the advanced piloting course now through the local sail and power squadron, then if we're still here, on to the navigation classes (x 2) and I'll better know my way around the planet, whether by gps chartplotter, radar, paper charts or the stars.

Nessled up snug to the ChYC dock beyind Jim's boat, "Cheers".

Jo' Daddy at bat, Jojo on deck

We just bought another boat.  Yep- pretty soon it'll be time to "thin the herd" as Dana would put it, so we'll be selling Jo' Daddy (the J24 we're racing in a little less than two weeks in Charleston Race Week) as well as our old Buccaneer, Dorado.  The new boat is an Olson 30, which we hope to outfit for some ocean races over the next several years.  First off, we need to do a couple of upgrades- rearranging the backstay (which is already done), replacing lifelines, adding a port-a-potty (big thing for the girls) and possibly replace the standing rigging, because I have a feeling it's all original, or at the very least, may have been replaced around 1994 when the boat was upgraded to a double-spreader rig.

I'm not sure if you can tell from the photo, but the standing rigging portion of the backstay attached to the two plates on the transom is slack.  The line to tension the block system is only partially trimmed, but only has about a foot of purchase left before it is bottomed out, leaving insufficient backstay tension as a result and doesn't allow you to fully depower the main by bending the mast in heavier air.  That was the first modification I made to look like this-

Now there's plenty of trimming line left to apply backstay tension to more fully depower the main in heavy breeze.  You can't see from the photos, but the lifelines are a bit jagged where they run through the stanchions, and have already sliced one of the crews hands.  I found that the class allows a brand of synthetic line for use in replacing lifelines, which have traditionally been stainless cable covered with a plastic sleeve.  The new stuff, called Amsteel Blue, in the 1/4" diameter has a breaking strength of 8,600 lbs.  All you need to do is figure out some sort of sleeve where it runs through the stanchions to limit the effects of chafe, put in some eye-splices in the ends, and presto- happier/safer crew!

Anyway- lots to do.  Jared (one of my most dedicated crew) has already informed me that he won't go offshore in that boat until I fig reefing lines in the boom.  Right now, there are just some parachute cord messenger lines, so I don't know if the blocks and cams in there are functional, but that is the next project..  it's always fun messing around in boats, right!

The sail inventory (this ain't all of them), is quite extensive, especially in the spinnaker category.  Four spinnakers, three genoas (1 x 150%, 2 x 130%), one blade jib and one main.  I think only one main-- there were three owners of Wrinkles (which we've renamed Jojo, just need to go through the proper ceremonies to dename, then rename her), so there are parts and pieces scattered about.  At least one other spinnaker pole (there's one carbon pole in the v-berth) and hopefully another mainsail somewhere.  I'd really like a back up, preferably with two sets of reef points... if for no other reason, to make Jared happy.

I guess that's it- stay tuned for more posts and photos taken of various projects as they come along, and of course, sailing!