Day 187, Year 10: Boat Work Day
Date: Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Weather: Overcast, mid-60’s F, Winds NE to ENE 12
Location: Lightkeepers Marina, Little River, SC

Today was a boat work day. It was a mix of blue (male) and pink (female) jobs. You can probably figure out which ones were which.
–Removed the dodger and took it in for repairs
–Cleaned white tarp and hung it to temporarily replace the dodger
–Cleaned the cockpit cushions
–Went to West Marine for bilge pump switch and oil
–Changed the engine oil, oil filter, and fuel filter
–Checked the transmission fluid and topped it up
–Cleaned the speed log impellor
–Took the pedestal apart to check out gear-shift cable (more on this in a minute)
–Did 3 loads of laundry
–Spent 3 hours naming and editing photos from the Bahamas

This list doesn’t really give the full picture of how the day went for the blue jobs. Mark would have to write that story, but let’s just say that one thing led to another to another and to another. He really didn’t plan to do anything but work on the gear-shift cable, but that led to checking the transmission fluid which required him to get into a compartment in the v-berth where he keeps all of his oil. While there he realized he needed to change the oil and as long as he was in that compartment, he figured he should clean the speed log impellor. This necessitated the use of the bilge pump which reminded us that we need a new pump switch. This led to a trip to West Marine to buy engine oil and a bilge pump switch. After he changed the oil, he started the engine to get the oil running through and discovered that the prop was turning because the transmission was in gear and shouldn’t have been. While investigating this, Mark discovered that the gear-shift cable had broken—better in port than at sea. The saga went on from there.

Sea Turtle arrived today around noon and Lynda’s comment was that it was cold when we left here the end of December and it was cold today when they arrived. It is not really cold, but the north wind definitely cools things down a bit. When I checked Weather Underground for the temperature, I saw that it was 60 degrees in Woods Hole and 65 degrees here. The good news in that is that spring must finally be coming to the Northeast.

We had a wonderful dinner with Patsy and Joe last night and tonight we went out to dinner together with Bob Stout. Bob is our nephew Tommy’s father-in-law. He lives here in Little River and his wife Ginny is currently visiting one of their daughters in California. So Patsy and Joe invited Bob to go out with us. It was fun catching up on family happenings and talking a bit about our sea adventures.

Mark’s comment at the end of the day was that Windbird is starting to show signs of aging—just like the crew! Today would have been my parent’s 92nd wedding anniversary if they were still living. No wonder I’m starting to show signs of aging!

150415 Day 187 Little River, USA–Sea Turtle Returns Home; Removal of Dodger