Day 178 It's just weird.

It's been weird these past 24 hours having a car here in Port Townsend.  Up till now, we've used the bus system to get where we needed to go.  It's been great.  We've met far more people than we ever would have if we had had a car this entire time.   We knew the schedule like the back of your hand.  When to be at the top of the hill to catch the bus and where it would drop us off.  Now, we have a car.  I didn't even know what the speed limit was!!  I've only gone one way down these streets.  Suddenly, I can go the opposite direction if I choose.  It's like always having vanilla ice cream and suddenly you can have chocolate.  You  get the same cold taste in your mouth but it has a different taste.  I had to go to West Marine this afternoon and just jumped in the car instead of waiting for the bus.  No more chauffeurs taking us around town.

We went to Washington State Parks this morning and picked up our state pass so we can use any of the moorings as we sail in the San Juan Islands this winter.  We got to pay for the entire year, not just the final two months of it.  Yeah--that seems fair doesn't it??  Pay for 12 and use it for 2.

The rest of the day was spent working on assorted projects on Zephyr.  The riggers came by and installed a few more things.  Tracy and I lowered the big genoa and installed a new piece of hardware since the previous piece had broken.  It didn't go back up as easily as it should have.  We'll have to check it out before we set sail.  I installed the new roller furling leads on the stanchions.  These will lead the line that closes the big roller furling sail.  Tracy tried to hoist the genoa sail but it just got too hard.  The roller furling just keeps on hanging up or just goes too slowly.  We have to work on getting it to roll and unroll smoothly, but it likes to bind up.  More work to do on it.

Tracy tried to raise the main sail but it just would not go all the way to the top of the mast.  Again, we will be working on that tomorrow.

This evening, I installed a new light over my workbench.  Just slightly bigger than what was there.  The riggers had broken the electrical connections getting it off so they could stay install and new piece of hardware on deck.  I also tried to clean up my workbench area and installed two new cleats on the bracket that holds the winch on the mast.  We'll need them to hold all the new reefing lines we will need to control the main sail while sailing.

With luck, we will be out sailing by this Saturday.  It is supposed to have great weather.