Been a really interesting last 2 days on Checked Out.

On Tuesday we raised the main sail(big sail over the middle of the boat) to see what condition it was in.  We were thinking it would be nice to go for a sail.

This is what we normally see

This is what we discovered when we started opening the sail bag.

Uh oh!   We have neighbors who are having issues with squirrels chewing on their main sail.  Looks like the squirrels spent last winter on our boat.  It does not get better.

This is the extent of the damage.

Fortunately there are several sail shops in Oriental so this is really just an inconvenience.

We did find this fellow in the sail bag.

We pulled the genoa(front sail) and it looked ok.  The shadow looks like a scare crow.  The head is the TV antenna and the arms are the spreaders on the mast.

We’ve had a sun shade over the hatch in the v berth (master bedroom) to keep the front of the boat cooler so we can sleep at night.  We took the shade down when working with the main sail and did not put it back up.  It has rained consistently since 4 pm yesterday afternoon.  Last night I was hit with a rain drop when I was reading in bed.  The acrylic opening in the hatch is held with 17 bolts and 1 of them leaks. We had a 5 minute rain window this am and while Scout was doing her thing I tightened up the bolts.  Jan helped put the sun shade back up.  This weekend I’ll repair the acrylic opening.

We’ve got Erika heading this way so I’ll be on leak duty this weekend.  We’ve had Checked Out for 7 years at this marina so we know what needs to be done.

The biggest issue facing us is time, winter is coming.  We’ve been on the boat since just after the 4th of July and we thought we had more time to get ready than we do.

Jan will be rebuilding the bimini in September and I’ll be rebedding parts that leak on the deck of the boat.  In October we’ll be going to the Sailboat Show in Annapolis where we’ll be looking to buy a reverse cycle ac/heat unit.    We have to have heat to get through the winter.  We’ve got plug in ceramic heaters and they do fine in the mild cold.  Once it gets in the 20’s we need a serious heater.

The feature picture for this post is Scout being cute.  We’re stuck inside while it rains.  Normally she tears paper towels to shreds but this time she just wanted to wear a hat.

More to come,

Jan, Matt & Scout