First time Scuba Diving in AGES - but not so fun.

Begonia at the dock

[Maryanne]This last 10 days, Kyle has had only one day off work, so I've focused on maintenance (we have a thorough maintenance schedule)- but we start sailing again TOMORROW :-), so we are both really excited.

Before we set out this year, Kyle had done most (all) of the boat maintenance and now that I have started joining in, I'm learning lots more about the boat and feeling pretty proud of myself. I'm also learning what NOT to do.

Among many other jobs, which I will not bore you with, I gave the winches their annual service and grease this week, and managed to drop a very critical part overboard! (oops).

And for those readers who know anything about winch maintenance, believe me I knew ahead I had to be careful: I had put sheets around the deck to stop anything falling overboard, and was working very slowly and methodically - this little sucker came off with the housing, and I didn't know it was in there - when I carried the main winch housing over to my cleaning area, it fell out of the housing and bounced down the back steps - plop! overboard! All I could do was watch.

So I got to test out all my SCUBA gear. Although it had all been recently serviced, this is the first time I had used it in at least 5 years, so I was quadruple checking everything and working through every what-if disaster scenario I could, just to be sure. Eventually I took the plunge AND found my bearing assembly. Luckily, by the time I told Kyle, it was all recovered, put back together and working fine. Hopefully, my next dive will be a little more enjoyable.

Apart from the obvious stupidity on my part, our stay in Apponaug has been really great. We have met some wonderful people and I, in particular, have appreciated all their kindness. To top it off, the weather is in the 70's (F) this week, so nothing to complain about:-)