One Step Closer

We sold our car today.  So we have one more thing out of the way.  We hope to be leaving within two weeks.  Actually we have two things outta the way this blog was posted remotely by my sister Chris.  She is hopefully going to do occasional posts for us while we are in transit.  That way more than just the position report you can follow our progress with our daily reports to her.  Should make viewing the blog a little more interesting and give you an insight to life while passage making.

Headliners

No this is not something from the newspapers.  Headliners are those soft cloth pieces glued to the deck head.  They hide ceiling blemishes and you can run your wires under them etc.  but the biggest thing they do is add some insulation.  And we are going to need that during the winter in Japan.  We are making our own, er Pauline is making I am helping!  Anyway we are using Thermozite covered with Naugasoft.  We have then stitched a seam around the perimeter with Velcro and have used a piece of Velcro in the middle to keep the sags out.  Normally we would save this job for Japan, but we felt we needed to make a bit of a dent in it before we left to know about how much stuff we would need to carry to Japan.  The pictures show the last piece going up in the main salon.

Pauline Stitching the Seams

The Fitting It In Place

Test Sail

Sari Timur has been sitting a while so we wanted her to get some exercise before our great leap next month.  So Thursday we snuck out of the Harbor of Refuge with high tide and picked up a mooring at the yacht club.  Friday morning we picked up a friend and headed out for a sail south to Sella Bay.  The winds were pretty strong gusting up to almost 30 knots but the seas were down so definitely a good time to test the sails even if they were reefed a bit.  We made a quick trip down and the only failure was a staysail halyard coming unspliced.  We had been warned the mooring at Sella was suspect so check it before heading ashore.  I donned a snorkel and mask and did indeed see the rope was suspect but the hardware looked good.  So we ran a long safety line down and back up.  Not a great idea but a good way to recover the line when we left after an overnight.  I even brought up a starfish to show the crew.  He was hanging out right near the mooring.  Then after a late lunch we were off to see the bridge which was built by the Spanish over 300 years ago.  While taking pictures Sari Timur felt she wanted to sail some more and we sat on the beach a little shocked to see she had parted both lines and was heading off without us.  Remember I said it was gusting up to 30!  Anyway we managed to catch back up with her before any harm.  And hoisted sails deciding maybe a mooring back in the HoR was more conducive for a good night's sleep.  And we had a fast sail back.  So we covered all the ground we had planned we just did it in half the time!

One of our ancestors?

Old Spanish Stone Oven

Old Spanish Bridge

Our Storyboard

When boats leave Guam.  They carve a storyboard and mount it in the yacht club.  Here is ours.  Note the correction., we actually made this last year just before Mark found his job!

Putting Up Our Storyboard

Notice The Correction

Getting Closer

After sitting in Guam for more than two years there is a lot to do before we depart for Japan.  The "To Do" list was quite long and we are doing a good job at ticking items off.  But as always this list keeps growing.  We have started making headliners for Sari Timur.  Something she never had.  This doesn't need to be finished but we want to see how it is going in order to purchase the items required here rather than Japan.  The new solar panels are in and we question why we didn't do this two years ago.  They work great and are already cutting down on generator time.  The new nav lights are going on today as is hopefully the headsail if the wind stays down.  We will do an overnight trip and test out the sails sometime next week.  No we won't sail overnight, Guam isn't that big!  We will sail down to one of the bays in the south and anchor out for the night.  When we come back we will probably head for the yacht club instead of the Harbour of Refuge.

New Solar Panel Starboard Side