back at the house, provisioning and packing

The title says what we have been doing. The kids and I drove back to Georgetown to get things ready to go, while Tom stayed in Palacios to work on the wiring and other stuff. Last Friday Jim drove down to help out and they finished the first aid cabinet, made some other pieces for the boat. I think that Tom has finished the wiring now. I ordered some LED lights for the cabin so we will have low energy illumination. I believe that the head, stove, and sink are back where they should be, and all the missing/damaged trim is replaced. They glued the new floor and trimmed it so it is solid to walk on. Tom has to go up the mast to wire some lights; this may have already been done now.

Due to Murphy's law, our compass has picked now as the time to spring a leak. We decided to turn the leak to the top of the compass and just refill it with oil. It will only drain out if we have a knockdown -- not bloody likely where we are going. Murphy also broke the depth sounder -- it was reading 500 ft in the slip, so it looks like another piece of equipment to replace. We're going to get a combo depth/knotmeter as the people who did the refit in 1999 inexplicably removed the sumlog. --sigh--
It was cheaper to sail in the days before electronics, and you had to use a lead line and a floating leaf.

We've been grocery shopping and have cans stacked all over the place. The laundry has finally finished so I'll be sorting everyone's clothes into piles of what goes along and what stays. I still have to print out the boat letters and make a stencil, register the boat (a new requirement, more on this later), do our income taxes, order schoolbooks for spring, and hang a couple of screen doors on my Mom's apartment. There are a hundred little things and It will be a busy weekend but I'm beginning to see the ligth at the end of the tunnel.

Tom has the camera so no pictures until he comes back.

Dana