It’s official. Dan and I are retiring effective May 1st and cruising to Alaska for a few months. We are so excited!
Our To-Do list keeps growing but we are also crossing off some major projects. Our most recent was the installation of our two new solar panels. Lots of power in these things so we’ll be able to sit in an anchorage without having to run our engine or generator to top up the batteries (both of which are obnoxious).
Fortunately, we have several local and very capable marine experts to do our major installations for us so we can focus on how to use the darn things. This is all so foreign to me because none of it translates into what I know from a land life. Dan seems to absorb it naturally and does a great job of helping me understand it. I remember the concepts but I tend to forget the specific terms. There are a lot of thingamajigs and deelybobs on my boat.
A couple of weeks ago we broke out our new Sailrite sewing machine that we bought two years ago (yes, that’s correct. Maybe unused is a better term). I made a few bags for storage of our anchor bridle and our wash down hose for anchoring (my birthday present-so romantic). I ended up repairing a hole in the sail cover which renewed my confidence that I really do remember how to do this stuff.
In March we are taking a Safety at Sea training class. I’m pretty excited to do this mainly because your get to jump in a pool with all your foulies on and climb into a life raft. You don’t do this on a whim since it costs a bit to repack them. We have our new life raft and need to install it on our deck before we leave when the weather is dry. So we’ll have it and know how to use if we need to.
Karin
Sailing in Endless Song 