Had a pretty good Sat-Wed stretch this past week. I went up Saturday afternoon, and spent the day just doing a couple little things - like painting the hatch and the chain locker covers the same blue as the hull. Sure they still stand out from the white deck, but now they at least look like appropriate accent pieces instead of that faded light blue whatever it was. I was able to go out Sunday for a bit, not sure of the wind speed, but the swell was pretty good. Went on a quick downwind run, even brushed 8 knots along the trip, and then spent quite a few more hours coming back upwind into the waves. Gave me a chance to peek at the shroud tension, and things like that. I won't mention how I totally made a mess of things getting out on the water, like trying to make the topping lift work right, and losing it so it was flying everywhere, or running the sheets on the inside of the starboard side and outboard on the port, and lord knows what else..
My dad came up Monday morning, to spend a few days, so we went West again, same situation with a nice NE wind so it was a pleasant rolly trip down to where I used to anchor - if anyone wants to know, just google Dufloo Rd, Sodus, NY. The wind was supposed to shift South overnight, so even though the waves were tossing a little when we went to bed, it was perfect when we got up on Tues morning. The Danforth held fine, which gives me more confidence going ahead to buy a Fortress in the next few weeks. We left Tues to an Easterly wind, ducked a little West while it built and then spun around and had a nice long Starboard tack the entire way back to Fair Haven. All told, a 43 mile round trip. They were calling for more wind on Wed and Thurs, so we just stayed in the slip Tues night.
I did learn this: I don't know if it's because of the liner, or what, but holy smokes this boat likes to creak and groan under stress. Under way, I could catch it once in a while but at anchor, my goodness, it was insane, hearing the groans from the cabinets and such. My last boat had no liner, and had almost no noises like that under any amount of pressure, so that's what I'm guessing? Granted most nights won't be spent in such conditions (4 foot rollers that were just enough off the wind that the wind would catch, straighten us out and smooth down, then the waves would push sideways JUST enough that we'd bounce around again for a few before the wind would get it back, and on and on).
But, ordered the new PortaPotty, that'll be here Monday. Decided on the Dometic SaniPottie 975MSD version. I went back and forth a lot on whether or not I wanted to plumb a pump out or not. I've never used a pump out before, but I can't imagine it would be that traumatic. But even worse case, I can still dump it manually, just without the fancy pour spout. If it even gets used once or twice all season, it'd be a stretch. But I also realized that it was $115 bucks for the Gray colored one, whereas the tan was a lot more, and even the non-MSD was another 40 bucks. So that's ordered, and will be next weekends crappy project.
I also tonight, ordered new foam for the V and for the seats. Once I get those in and covered, I'll go ahead and order new for the seat backs and the quarter (which is sail storage atm). It's almost like progress.