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 focussed 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 I have started 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 - but 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 :-)