We return to Herrington Harbour (aka home) and the our first adventure comes to an end

We spent almost a month in Deltaville.  The main reason was to have our favorite marine technician, Ken, replace the exhaust elbow on the generator.  The generator was almost useless the entire trip due to a leaky exhaust elbow.  It was not so bad in the beginning, but by the time we reached Florida, the generator was spewing black soot all over the locker that the generator sets in.  In addition, all that soot was probably a safety hazard.  So in Florida, we bought a little Honda generator which worked great for the rest of the cruise, although it could not run the air conditioner.  The bolts that held the old elbow in were frozen and it took a couple of days to break them loose.  But at the end of the job, the generator was running fine.

We also added a “stack pack” for the mainsail.  Elena does not like me going out of the cockpit for sail handling and the stack pack is an enclosure for the main sail that allows for easy storage and handling.  Specifically, when lowering the mainsail with the stack pack, the sail will fall into the cloth enclosure and I will not have to leave the cockpit (theatrically) to tie the sail to the boom.

I left Deltaville for the two-day sail to Herrington Harbour on July 13^th.  This is the last leg of our cruise for this year and it would be a solo sail.  Elena drove the truck and met me at the dock at Herrington.

Elena left for Russia on Monday, July 17^th for a month long visit family and friends.  I installed a recreational vehicle air conditioner and then hauled the boat out of the water on Thursday.

In addition to painting the bottom and waxing the hull, we will have a roller furler installed on the smaller stay sail (again to avoid leaving the cockpit for sail changes), some plumbing changes, and a some small electronic maintenance. 

So ends our first cruise.

Its been an adventurous and interesting year.  We are looking forward to next year and another cruise south.