August 10, 2017
Our 26th wedding anniversary!!! Day 37 living aboard our still land-stranded girl Exit. The cutlass bearing we have been waiting on for so long finally arrived and was installed yesterday along with our shiny new MaxProp propellor by Jeff, the mechanic we have been working with! I’m sure Danny, of Digital Prop, will be thrilled to finally be able to close the books on our account and get us out the door! We won’t be able to launch until next week which will put us over the “40 days and 40 nights” marker here on the hard…not quite as biblical as the Noah’s Ark saga but, hey…at least Noah was on the water!
It’s amazing to think that we have been celebrating our wedding anniversaries for more than half of my life! A stunning realization that makes me smile…I wouldn’t change a thing! The journey Kris and I have been on is something so unique and special that it simply boggles the mind when I think about it. Kris is my grounding force, my security net, my inspiration, and truly the reason each morning is worth waking up to. Sure, there have been hard times, but those have been easily outweighed by the incredible highs we had had the opportunity to experience. It’s all part of the adventure that life allows us to savor. As I’ve said before, I find myself more often regretting the things I didn’t do than the things I did. And, to be honest, outside of tragedy and true loss, the shittiest things that happen tend to make the best stories down the road!
Though the actual day of our anniversary has been pretty damn uneventful as far as celebration goes, tomorrow we will finally leave the marina for the first time since arriving (outside of supply runs) to get away for the day and simply enjoy our first day off at a nearby town for a well deserved Friday escape.
We have had the chance to go through the entire boat repeatedly, making an extensive 15+ page inventory of gear and spare parts that came with the purchase of Exit; had the chance to familiarize ourselves with systems on the boat as best as possible without being on the water; we’ve had the chance to learn and do far more maintenance than we ever previously considered including, but not limited to, cleaning just about every square foot of Exit, rebuilding toilet pumps for both heads, servicing and verifying all the bilge pumps are working properly; we’ve had time to study manuals, charts and boating reference books for the East Coast; we’ve sanded minor corrosion points on the hull and put on a brand new coat of anti-fouling paint below the water line; and now we finally have the cutlass bearing sorted and prop replaced!!!!! Numerous people have told us repeatedly that the jobs aboard a sailboat never end (“a boat is a hole into which you endlessly poor money” or “cruising is doing continual repairs in exotic locations” are two of the memorable quotes). But we have also been cautioned that it is easy to just keep doing work on the boat and never actually sail it (Paula and Tim, who loaned us their fridge, have been working on their boat on the hard for six years!!!).
So, as soon as we can make arrangements with Dave, it is time to get Exit back in the water and finally get sailing…the whole point of all this lunacy we have endured! The most visual aspect advertising our possession of Exit to all who see her – the words ‘Pullman, WA’ on the transom as our hailing port – should go on sometime tomorrow before we head for our day’s excursion. I’m sure this will be a particularly poignant moment for us.
Once again, the excitement (temporarily somewhat beaten down into submission following the trials and tribulations of the last six weeks) is starting to build… The moment Exit hits the water, the prologue of our new adventure ends and the new chapter of what is certain to be another epic story begins. Time to turn the page and dig in!
sv-exit.com 