Well, we have been at Brunswick Landing Marina (BLM) for over a month and unfortunately we have not been out sailing since we got here. Instead we began preparing for our next big adventure which will be sailing to the Bahamas. Our current projection is to wait out hurricane season at BLM and start heading south around December 1st. Our son Anthony and his family (Amel, Lalia and Maelie) will be coming from France to join us in the Bahamas for New Years. We are all very excited and cannot wait!

So what have we been up to? During the past month we took our Jib to WaveDancer Sails in Jacksonville, FLA to have it gone over and restitched where needed, we did a little gel coating, tightened our hatch hinges, began preparing to wax the entire boat and the usual cleaning schedule. Oh I almost forgot, I had to replace the manual pump assembly on the forward head. This has got to be the worst job on a boat. It took me from 8:30 – 14:30 and included a trip to West Marine. But all is good now and hopefully I will not have to mess with this one again. We are considering converting our manual heads to electric sometime in the future. This would make the trips to the head more enjoyable but will also mean there would be another piece of equipment that can (and will) fail at some point.

We also made what we call the Great Loop. This is a trip from BLM to Tennessee and then Maryland to visit friends and family. We finally got to see our new Grand Baby Wesley in person. Wesley is already eight weeks old and we can’t wait to see him again when we make the next Great Loop. Jesse, Daniel and Canaan came for a visit and we spent time at the beach and visited St. Simons and Jekyll Islands. We all had a great time and was wonderful seeing them. Jesse and Daniel will be having another addition to their family in June. Another Boy, Knox Everett Williamson.

When we removed the Jib, we found the halyard was just about worn through about 1 foot from the top. It looks like it is where it enters the top of the mast. We have a rigger scheduled to come and check it out before we reinstall the sail. As soon as we get this worked out and install the repaired sail, we will begin taking trips. Our first will be to Cumberland Island Island State Part which is about 54 miles away. We are looking forward to getting back out sailing again.