One Step Closer...

While many people headed to their favorite stores to fight for Black Friday sale items...I chose a different path.  With rain forecast throughout the day I decided it would be a great time to head to the boat for a lazy day relaxing and watching movies and videos.  But life rarely goes as planned.  I was pleasantly surprised that while it was definitely overcast and cloudy, the rain held off.

While I had not planned to do any projects...and really wasn't prepared to do anything...I was able to take care of one that has been on the to-do-list since we purchased the boat.  As I have mentioned, while the boat is solid and in pretty good shape, it was not set up for sailing.  The three big things needed to get her ready for sailing were: getting new sheets for the foresail; rig the mainsheet (which has turned into a bigger jib than first expected); and rig the backstay adjuster.  Getting the foresail sheets easy.  The mainsheet will be a project and story for another day.  But today, we were finally able to get the backstay adjuster fixed.

Honestly, this shouldn't have been necessary...this shouldn't have been an issue.  But somewhere along the line, with some previous owner, the backstay adjuster disappeared.  Oh, the guy I bought it from had something rigged up that he said was correct...but it wasn't.  It was some all plastic locking pully...a plastic locking pully that I didn't trust as a backstay adjuster!  (Though it works great to keep the tiller locked to one side when the boat is in the slip.) 

After buying the boat I ordered a backstay adjuster replacement kit from Catalina Direct in California and paired it with a shackle and some rope from West Marine.  But it has been sitting in the boat waiting for my next "boat work day".  Well, to make a long story short, since the rain held off I took a few minutes and...we now have a properly working backstay adjuster!  Pretty sweet, if I do say so myself!  This is one step closer to having her ready to sail.  

Of course we still have the big project...rigging the mainsheet, boom bails, and installing some halyard cleats.

Unrelated to boat projects...this was my second overnight trip to the boat.  I do find time spent on the boat to be quiet and relaxing.  The fist time I dinner ate out and then had yogurt for breakfast.  But this time I wanted to kick it up a notch...I cooked!  We have a little single burner butane stove on board...and it works great.  For lunch I had spaghetti squash in pasta sauce along with a salad I picked up on the way here.  Dinner was cut up beef hotdogs in sour kraut.  Breakfast was a "classic" scrambled eggs and sausage.  Yea, none of these were fancy, but they did hit the spot and they eased me into cooking on board.  And just like home...you know it's done when the smoke alarm goes off!

Oh, and surprise, surprise, surprise!  I found another boat project...the water tank and lines need cleaning (or replacing).  Oh boy...