Winding Down

We have started unloading a few things from the boat in preparation for winter; including food and anything liquid. We will soon take the mattresses off. In the meantime we have been day sailing two or three times a week as the weather allows. The nighttime temperatures have been too low for anchoring overnight so we are most likely done with that until next spring. Breeze On will come out of the water and be winterized within the next few weeks. We are more practiced at furling our new mainsail and have been increasingly enjoying it. So far, George has been doing the furling while I stand at the mast and make sure it doesn’t end up hitting any fittings. George spoke with Steve, who installed the boom and mast and explained the trouble we were having with furling. The only way we could keep the sail from hitting against the fittings on the mast was to put a tremendous amount of pressure on the halyard. Steve suggested removing a ratchet that stuck out toward the sail. It was there to allow the sail to be locked in position while reefed and it was something he had never used. We took his advice and it did give us a lot more wiggle room. 

Since I last wrote George solved the problem of brown mold in the aft head. While changing the medium in the composting head he noticed that the hose for the fan was disconnected. The fan helps the solids in the composting head dry out. Instead of blowing air to the outside the fan was blowing into the head. Hence the mold. We haven’t had a problem since he reconnected the hose. 

As I was looking at my last post I was surprised to see that I hadn’t mentioned George’s recent illness and surgery. A month ago he had a night of severe abdominal pain. We both thought it was a recurrence of the small bowel obstruction he had 2 1/2 years ago. George waited until five am to wake me and tell me he needed to go to the emergency room. Because of COVID restrictions I was not able to go into the ER with him. He eventually texted me to tell me the pain was due to his gall bladder and not a small bowel obstruction. Fortunately, the surgeon had time to remove the gall bladder laparoscopically late that same afternoon and George came home the next morning. The recovery has been much easier than it was after his last surgery. We were both so grateful that we weren’t already on our way to the Bahamas when this happened. If we had planned to go this year, we would most likely have been on our way. Even if we had been home and planning to leave soon, we wouldn’t have been able to go due to his restrictions on lifting anything heavy. It was another sign that we had made the right decision. 

Removing food, liquids and some bedding in preparation for winter. 

Fitting that was removed to make more room for the sail. 


Brown mold