Bolts, Riggers and Pancakes!

Well, it has turned into an amazing sunny warm sunny day here in Dania Beach...did I say sunny and warm?  Near 80 degrees at 3pm. Woohoo!

Today the riggers finally arrived in the afternoon, Dustin and Travis.  Their job is to tell us about all the lines that we should replace (Mark knows those already) as well as the rigging that is good, bad, ugly (the stuff we really want to know).  Let's hope for very little of the latter!  Now Dustin did step on one of our new windows but luckily Jon was out there to make sure he didn't go through it!  Travis was also quite easy on the eyes...if you know what I mean, wink wink nudge nudge.  Seriously though, they seemed like really straight forward, no BS and no funny business guys.  So we'll get the verdict from the captain since I know inquiring minds want to know:  Other than one item that Mark found in his own inspection--there was nothing else new they found except a broken wire on the seagull striker.  They recommend replacing the two lower shrouds (side wires that help hold the mast in place--they are basically guy wires with a fancy boat name) and the seagull striker cable (that cable across the front that has my holiday lights on it now).  He also found the head sail furler is missing a pin and that should be replaced or changed out for one that does not fall out...that seems logical.  They will also replace the main halyard (that is a fatty that we had talked about replacing before ourselves).  So all in all, great report and we are super pleased at how our girl came through!  Now we have to cross fingers and hold thumbs that we can get the cables made in a reasonable amount of time...I have a feeling we'll be here for a bit longer.  Tomorrow Mark and Jon are biking to the rigger's facility to sit there and make sure we are on the cable schedule and everything gets ordered properly.

This is where we learn some of our lines are worn and our main halyard it too big, aka, what we already know

You can probably see how terribly impressed his is with the polish job I did where those cables connect to the boat.

Up goes Dustin...they used some kind of drill tool to crank the winch...must be nice

Looking at something terribly important

Dee, aka our favorite Just Catamarans employee, saved the day and found us the bolts needed for the new port lights.  We love Dee, Dee gets extra cookies or at least an entire candy bar as a show of our gratitude!  That means all is in order for Kenny's return tomorrow and the final touches on all the windows.  Yay!  That means we won't be playing the fun game of "which bolt fits".  Awww darn.

Plenty of bolts to choose from but Dee hooked us up with the right ones!

I also understand that Mark and Jon stopped at Grandpa's Bakery (featured on Diners, Drive Ins and Dives) and regailed me with the tale of the blueberry short stack with eggs and sausage.  Good eatin' for sure and I may have to negotiate for a trip there myself.

And under the heading of "nice stuff that happens", the lady who owns the 56' catamaran a couple slips down from us, Pan Dai, was sweet enough to compliment my holdiay lights.  That was before she herself was hoisted up to help string line for a new sail they were having installed.  She only had to go about half way up but that was as high as our entire mast...eeek!  We have been very impressed with her and all the work she is doing while they wrap up here--she had that boat looking clean as a whistle.  They hope to be leaving tomrrow because their 8-10 week stay here has taken 6 months. Whoa! She said she's in better shape now than six months ago (and she is in aaamazing shape) and working on the boat keeps her frustration level down but she is very much looking forward to leaving...I should say so.

Other exciting and exotic projects completed today included cleaning the dinghy and installing a replacement oar lock from an unfortunately oaring mishap this summer in the middle of Back Creek when our outboard pooped out on us.  That's long fixed and now the oar lock is too.  Actually there are only about four or five items left on the infamous Task List but if I know our captain, he'll start a new list for us soon enough LOL! 

My exciting plans for tomorrow include not coughing, going for a jog or at least a good walk, visiting the beach (if possible) and generally having a positive and grateful attitude because I get to be in the Florida sun on a sailboat with my sweetie and Jon, the awesome first mate.  XO Suzanne