We can see the finish line

Dear friends and family,

Hello hello. How is everyone? We are doing great. Busy little beavers, we are.

Sewing the V berth cushions went very well; they are finished. We've fitted them on Sanibel and they look great. Here are some long awaited pictures of all the cushions. I've made some pillows for the saloon also, but did not take any pictures of them.

We sewed the sacrificial on the genoa sail. It was a challenge to say the least and was most definitely a two person job. We're not finished with it yet, as we have to figure out how to do the corners and make the pockets. It took both of us working between three and six hours a day for five days to get this much done. The genoa sail lives on the bow of the boat. In a triangular shape the two sides we worked on measured 41 feet to the top and 20 feet across the foot. This thing is huge being the largest sail on the boat. The sacrificial  protects the sail from the UV rays when it is not in use and rolled up on the forestay.  Once we complete all the sewing, we have to figure out a place we can stretch it out and wash it.

I have stripped all the old varnish off the interior doors (there are 4). The next step is to sand them and then apply six coats of new varnish.

I began sewing the cover for the mizzen sail. Since we don't have a pattern, Jimi will take it to the boat for fitting and bring it home, so I can sew the next bit. This process will take place until it is complete.

Jimi has sanded the lower portion of the hull, aka bottom paint. This is a nasty job because it involves sanding overhead and the paint is very toxic. Without it, we would have lots of animals growing on the hull, even oysters. For about four days he came home completely blue. I told him he looked like a smurf. He said he'd rather be refereed to as a blue man. Ha ha.  He has braced t
he interior floor, which previously had some bounce to it in areas. He build the battery box. He has installed both toilets with sanitation hose and the holding tank. And he closed three thru hulls. For some reason there were too many holes in the hull and Jimi says "holes in boat....bad".

Molly brought a baby bunny to us one evening last week. Jimi set it free in the front yard. The next morning Molly brought it back in the house. We felt it may be hurt, so in an effort to save it's life we researched and made a natural rabbit habitat for it until we could be sure it was ok. Later that same day, after searching our yard, another baby bunny was found. We brought it in to be with it's sibling and then we went about our business. About 11:30 pm that evening we checked on the bunnies to find the second one had died. And the next morning the first one was dead. I felt horrible thinking we had done something wrong. But Jimi assured me we had not. That same day Molly brought us a third bunny. Jimi immediately took it to a nice grassy field and set it free, where hopefully it survived.

So, there we are. That's all for now. 56 days until we put in and about 87 till we are full time live-a-boards.

Love everybody,

Lorie & Jimi