Moving Week

We've been running in circles trying to move everything aboard and finish the necessary shelving to accommodate that process. About half of the shelves in the original built in cabinets needed to be remade. But the weather has not been kind to wanna-be outdoor cabinet builders for the last 3 weeks. When it's not raining, 30-40 mph winds rip through and knock freshly painted or varnished boards into the gravel. When it's not windy, it's so humid that the boards start warping and have to dry soaked in dew. And when the weather is perfect, a bird shits on them.  And leaves claw marks indicating it wasn't a fly by accident. It's been a bit of a drag.  But the bare necessity shelving is complete, and all of our home goods are on the boat.  We're still packing tools, cleaning out the shed, and knocking out the last boards in need of surface treatment, a bulkhead to support the new starboard galley counter and a table.

The day before we sold the truck we retrieved our household wares from our storage unit.  At the unit I unpacked and repacked everything to inspect for bugs (and to trash half of it). We found a cockroach in almost every box. My books were stained with roach poo. This freaks me out a little. A lot really. I keep envisioning millions of tiny roaches pouring out of my bookshelf from an egg sack hidden between pages. We unpacked and shook everything again before bringing anything on. 3 more roaches. Big ones. Ew. Bleh. 

The propane is plumbed and we are finally cooking on the boat! And now welcoming houseflies. It's so nice to have a kitchen again! And to see cabinets filled with spices and cooking oils, rather than hardware.

We replaced the wood tiller when an aluminum pipe as shown above. The wooden one is in shabby shape and needs refinishing. And it's not as strong as aluminum. And we had an aluminum pipe laying around. We'll save the wood for backup.  The pipe does not have a nice swooping bend like the wooden one, a fact we actually ended up liking. With a straight tiller, the end is higher, so you steer more from the hip than the knees when it's dropped to it's lowest point. And that's nice. We'll paint and/or wrap it with something to keep it cool. 

AJ went up the mast to drill the hole for the the inner forestay mount. We'll finish attaching it and the additional stays in Lauderdale when Clint arrives. 

Every day the cabin gets trashed and cleared as we play Tetris with our stuff.  We're just a couple days away from finishing and heading towards Lauderdale. We have to be because we're picking up Clint soon!