5 day sail to Charleston, SC

[marv brinn]

pls let us know what you have been doing since you have landed on Charleston.

[TheSandPebbles]

Hey Marv, happy to give an update.
Things were a bit slow around the holidays, but I've been doing some projects on the boat as well as collecting books, charts, and knowledge about sailing south along the Caribbean and on down South America. Speaking of charts; if any one has any to sell or let me copy please let me know, especially other countries... anywhere

- I've completed installing the mounts for my Aries Steering gear. I chose to install it using horizontal mounts off the most aft part of the deck using aluminum tubes I had to have fabricated. For backing plates I used the synthetic material used to make backyard decks, I could cut and drill them as I wanted, cheaper than teak or stainless and pretty strong.
- I repaired another section of deck due to wet balsa core.
- I installed a solar exhaust fan in a hatch yesterday.
- Re-installed the bow cleats through the section of deck I re-cored.
- Too many other mini-projects to list, but there is a long list remaining of to-do's and less than a month until Go date. Two big projects remaining are to install a wind generator and paint the deck where it was repaired. A lot of what I've been doing is buying things I need, which takes time. A recent purchase is a real chamber pot . I've been reading about the benefits of not having to operate your head at sea and depend on that plumbing. The more I work on ALEXANDRA the more I love her, what a great boat!

Two things I could use advice on: one is a solution to the mini bilge that receives water from the head. I have a pump mounted by the engine which has a line going to the bottom of the mini-bilge. It won't pump it out, I discovered b/c it needs a check-valve below the mini-bilge, but after installing one it quickly jammed in the open position and was useless. Has anyone installed some kind of removable mini-bilge? I think that would be most convenient, I could just dump it out myself after a shower and not depend on plumbing and pumps.
Second thing: Anyone have recommendations on how to route the lines coming from the Aries to the drum mounted on the helm? Looking for a solution that gets those lines out of the way.

-Perry

[marv brinn]

I have a friend who has had `considerable exp[eerience sailing in the carib and may be of help to you in planning a trip would you be interested in talking to him ...keepme in mind fo r any trips you may have....