Pictures from outfitting October 20

Heretic as she is about to return to the water, even though all the boats around us were coming out of the water. The centerboard is down to replace the rope for it. Seth stood in a dinghy underneath to replace the rope.

The crew at Morris Yachts boatyard: Left to right: Nate, John, Seth, Ellen.

The view from part-way up the mast: John, who took the picture, is 32 feet above the top of the cabin, and the mast goes another 13 feet above him.

Moonrise on our first night sail to Freeport. A beautiful, but cold night.

Update From Freeport October 14
Gigi (Seth’s mom) has been so generous, feeding us, helping us unpack and repack our food, and letting us stay at her warm and cozy house. We have two more very generous friends in Greg Carroll and Jane Garfield. Greg has donated many items which he has stripped off the boat he is outfitting for his circumnavigation which he will start next year. This includes everything from winches to our new-to-us radar. Jane has not only donated many medical supplies and her enormous anchor, but has also taught us skills necessary when out of sight of land and far out of sight of a doctor. We have learned to take blood pressure and even to suture.
The work on the boat continues, as always. We will surely be fixing and improving for months more, but for now we are doing everything that involves power tools, and stowing all the food our parents have generously bought for us. Seth has been doing lots of wiring recently, getting the radar hooked up, the SSB radio, VHF, LED lights, alarms for propane leaks, and other exciting work. We have all been sharing the work in the bilge. Ellen is repainting the starboard cockpit bench, and she will apply the final coat of non-skid soon. She has already run the propane for heating and cooking, and it is all almost completely hooked up; we merely need to fill the tanks and plug it in. The fresh water hoses have been run, and the faucets are almost all ready to go, though one of them is broken and will have to be replaced. The new mast is fantastic! Everything works beautifully, we have extra halyards, some of them run inside the mast, which keeps things neater and prevents them from whistling in the wind or banging against the mast. The storm trysail (a small, strong sail to be used in place of a main in strong winds, bright orange), is set up on its own separate track. The EPIRB is now mounted, which is our emergency GPS transponder in case the boat sinks, all the Coast Guards around will know where we are and what the boat is and how many people are aboard and all sorts of other useful information. Seth has been making sure we have the best safety gear possible, and everything we may need. We hope to have everything done soon and move on south.
