And if you look at in JUST the right light, it kinda looks like a sailboat

We are getting super excited around these parts. It's not due to the holidays, although Kitty was very happy to find that Santa could indeed visit a house, or a boat even if it has no chimney...

... and it definitely isn't due to the fact that our departure has been delayed by a good 6 months.  Nobody is excited about that particular development but clean cup, move down.
Nope. The reason for the excitement around Ceol Mor is that she is starting to look like a sailboat again.

The beautifully varnished hand rails have been installed and bedded on their oh so nice raised bases. The time and effort Mark put into getting the fiberglass bases perfect and the effort in getting the deck painted has been time well spent.  The mountings look as if they came from the factory this way.There are now installed clutches and deck organizers installed after much effort in getting the layout just so to maximize efficiency. Splendid.

The navpod Mark built with an assist from an Idaho potato has been installed. ( If you are going to use a potato to mold conduit, it must be from Idaho. Brand's matter you know). Even more exciting, electronics are being installed. We had long ago decided we would wait until we were just about ready to start sailing again to install any electronics. I can now operate the windlass from the cockpit, This must mean we are going to soon have a need to drop our anchor. That would only happen when we are sailing. Happy development indeed!



The old Lewmar 44's which used to handle the genoa sheets have been moved up to replace the sadly undersized and inadequate 30 somethings that handled the main. I can only assume what ever previous owner replaced the Bob Perry specified winches with these cute little ones was a masochist. No other reason I can think of for making raising the main harder than it has to be.

The moving of the 44s up to handle the main means the spot they previously occupied is now free and clear to accept the lovely little bit of hardware Santa left beneath the tree.



Seriously, no Christmas gift for me other than a set of Lewmar 55s. I am both thrilled by this and appalled, Thrilled because it means I will be able to handle the genny myself without the comedic efforts I previously had to employ. Appalled because I can't let Mark get off that easy. I feel that I have to register a bit of indignation. The upside is I can use this Christmas for leverage when needed for years and years to come. It's the gift that keeps on giving. (Truthfully, I don't want or need anything as we are downsizing but I can't tell him that. So let's keep this fact just between us.)



 Ceol Mor is undergoing a huge transformation, Boat plans are being pulled out as we try to work out the best place and way to rig a preventer. Also exciting because a boat does not need a preventer at the dock. This means she should be leaving the dock soon, if only for a bit of local sailing to see how the installs are working.

In other news, Ceol Mor won the marina boat of the month award for "most improved" boat in the marina. And it only took 4 years to win it.

We are moving forward, moving forward. Soon it will be time to put the interior back together and to do a bit of interior cosmetic refreshing. And then.., and then....we sail.
Merry Christmas everyone and here's to a healthy, happy new year to you and yours.

I'll Mark Your Chain Mister!

As the temperature continues to hover in the 'stupid hot' range, we keep inching our way down the short list of items we need to complete before our mini shake down cruise in the next few weeks. The heavy lifting on the plumbing and deck hardware will have to wait until the temperatures drop into the 'slightly dumb' range which should be late September or early October.

One of the tasks on our to do list is to mark the anchor rode. The last time we went out for an overnight, we had to guesstimate how much rode we had out which was not only an inexact science but was a source of much unnecessary worry and angst. We are all about lessening the angst when possible so marking the rode is high on the priority list for our little jaunt. I happily told Mark when he was reading off the list of current To Do items that I was in fact capable and willing to handle the marking of the chain all by my own self. He agreed to let me handle it and I was pleased to be able to help alleviate the work load for him a bit.

The next day, Mark asked me how I planned to mark the rode. I told him since nothing would last forever and since this was intended to be bit of  his much loved redundancy for a chain counter at the helm, I planned on marking the rode every 25 feet with paint using four alternating colors. Very simple, very easy. If you are seeing yellow for the second time, you have 125 feet out. If you are seeing green for the second time, 150 feet and so on. It was quick to do, easy to keep track of as the rode went over the gypsy and would be easy to redo when necessary. This is when Mark's left brain kicked in on him again and he went all Captain Perfecto on me.

Mark informed me that my method was in fact, not simple as I had assumed but was in fact overly difficult due to its lack of complexity. He had a better idea. What I would be doing would be to use a base five number system with an error checking bit and here was a handy diagram he had made for me to follow.

I blinked. I blinked again. Hard. "Dude. You are so over thinking this". "Not at all" he replied. "This system is thousands of years old! It is simplicity itself". I blinked again. I asked him how he expected me to be so precise with the spray paint markings as to carefully delineate individual links. He had a quizzical look on his face "Why, you will just have to use a small brush and thoroughly paint each link.". As I looked upon his satisfied smile, I knew there was no other method that would make him happy. I was now an active participant in a Rube Goldberg project due to that left brain of his.

 After a bit of research, we did opt to mark the rode with cable ties- much cheaper than the rubber inserts chandleries sell and much quicker than putting on multiple coats of paint waiting for each coat to dry. I did get to enjoy a wee bit of subversion though. Mark sent me to get the cable wraps at the store with instructions to purchase black, yellow and red. I was feeling feisty so of course I bought black, yellow and HOT PINK. Ha!

Taking a break

And so it was that we sat out on the scorching dock and marked that chain in a few sweaty hours( you didn't think he'd really be ableto let me go it alone did you?) and I do mean very sweaty. I just hope those little cable wraps stay in place for a bit. I know they will eventually fail but if they could just hang on for a wee bit please. So far they seem to have no difficulty passing over the windlass and going in and out of the chain locker so here's hoping. Thy will probably pop off and it was probably an utter waste of time but Mark is my favorite person to waste time with so how can it be a bad thing?

Another item checked off of our list was to get some 12 strand and splice an anchor bridle. Mark spliced the rope, while Maura burned and whipped the ends. Kitty lent a hand checking our rolling hitch knots. That is 2 items off the list....

Anchors aweigh...

masts and clouds, originally uploaded by CidnieC.

We've made do with the standard issue Bruce and Danforth. We haven't been going much out of the muddy bay so there was no real reason to hurry up and spend money until we were a bit closer to actually being able to leave the dock. The same has been true for us remaining dinghy-less. I am very happy to report that Capt. Perfecto has deemed it time to visit these topics and to make some purchases- right in time for Christmas.

After I inadvertantly started an International Incident a while back by asking a simple question about the 2 anchors we were debating on a sailing forum, I got more information than I could have ever wanted on anchors. After my brain exploded, the bits of grey matter left over came to the conclusion that we need a Manson Supreme on our bow. I do believe that there will be one wrapped beneath the tree once we figure out what we have to do to the bow roller to make it happen.

We've decided to add a Fortress to our anchoring arsenal as a secondary/stern anchor. Seems simple enough but Mark has made a friend who we will call "Salty Gene."

Mark views the average Top Sider/Ralph Lauren Polo wearing sailor with suspicion. Sailors whose answer to a given problem is "whip out the Am Ex and get someone else to fix it" are not the kind of folks Capt. Perfecto is likely to listen to. Mark, who is a big fan of doing it yourself, making it work and not wasting anything will take advice with a grain of salt and if the person giving the advice is wearing a West Marine name tag they are viewed with double suspicion. Salty Gene probably does not own a Polo shirt. He does though wear a Greek fisherman's cap and it works because Salty Gene has the requisite grey whiskers as well as more miles under his keel and more years spent cruising than most sailors will get in a lifetime. Salty Gene can make anything (which is tops in Mark's book) Salty Gene said that we need an additional anchor to kedge off and since Mark thinks Salty Gene is the business it will be so.

So that brings our soon to be acquired anchor collection to 3. I made the mistake of asking Mark "Why do we have to have 3 new anchors? Why can't we just use the oversized kedge anchor as our stern anchor?" Because I do not understand physics. Because you don't want an oversized anchor as your secondary. Because Salty Gene said so.

I still don't quite understand why we need a smaller stern anchor AND a larger one as well. I figure if you are deploying an anchor you want it to hold the boat so an oversized secondary anchor could be pressed into service to kedge off when needed and when you haven't screwed up, it can work as a secondary for the stern or the bow and it means one less anchor to take up space. Then again, I do not have grey whiskers or a Fisherman's cap nor do I smell like Old Spice. No matter. I'm just glad that Mark has found a suitably salty pal whose opinion he values, whose stories he enjoys hearing and who is making this stage of the refit a whole lot more fun for Mark.

So 3 anchors it is.