The 65-line list

So, on the first weekend of my leave, Scott kindly developed a project spreadsheet tailored just for me.

It is, in fact, 65 lines long.

So, insurance is under way - travel medical insurance (slightly more than expected), boat insurance (also slightly more than expected) and car insurance costs while we were away (yes, also slightly more than expected).

I spent last weekend running around assisting our friend Heather Rand, who kindly agreed to help cut and sew clever storage panels to substantially increase our storage capacity. Photos to follow of the installation of this great innovation (not quite complete). Heather and her husband Murray stay on their C&C 40 Windswept in the Bahamas six months a year. Scott and Murray met while Scott started his first job at Timberjack in Woodstock 20 ears ago. Murray and Heather were in the final stages (which took them years instead of months) to head south. They are both wizards at creating space where none exists, of fixing and installing just about anything, all with a cheerfulness despite a humidex of 40 or more. Stowage, including designing and building shelves is one of the items on the list and Heather is making that much more enjoyable.

The home schooling portion is coming along nicely.

This week, I also hope to start tackling several safety items on the list - buying and installing jack lines for safety harnesses, locating a place to refurb our diesel fuel fire extinguisher, checking for the expiry on flares,sourcing new automatic inflatable life jackets with safety harness carbines and starting to shop for the first aid and other safety equipment. Also on our list: installing some hammocking on our life lines supplied to us for free by a Ken and Linda Foote of Better Than New who are making us a canvas bimini (awning) for the back of the boat.

The intent of the hammocking is to catch kids or gear or maybe even us in a heavy sea.

Every night we read various articles or books about offshore sailing. Some of the more alarming tales I've relegated to the bottom of the pile.

After all, I'm all for safety first, but really, do I need to know about how to troubleshoot collisions with whales?

Still, I know that at 4 a.m. about a week before we leave I'll have a nightmare about Moby Dick and the lack of a collision mat.

If I can conquer this part of the list, I might make it to line 42.