…Well, we’re a month and a half from leaving, but the projects are winding down and I was sitting in the cockpit this evening looking south and seeing the Southern Cross.  It was definitely calling out to us.

Lots of smallish projects are now getting done.

-Engine fuel injectors were overhauled and installed today

-Dinghy motor picked up and is being “tuned”

-Ann is sewing some hatch covers.  Hopefully they will work so when it rains we can leave the hatches open for ventilation.

-Ann is refining the bimini to give us shade while in the cockpit.  Several other cruisers have noticed the refinements and are getting jealous.  We’ll have to add some pictures in the future, but suffice to say, it’s made from “shade-cloth” so it’s somewhat see through and we can leave it on while sailing, but it blocks the sun while we’re in the cockpit.

-We had two symetrical leaks-one in the galley and one in the quarterberth that have been driving us crazy.  Every time it rains, water pours through magic leaks in the ceiling.  I’ve been thinking they were from the traveller and have been avoiding what would be a big job to pull that off and fix it.  But today I finally just started taking apart the overhead and tracked them down (I hope) to the aft end of the handrail.  Both sides were loose.  I’m hoping that by lossening the bolts, pulling the handrail up 1/4 inch and injecting 3M 4600 underneath and tightening the bolts back down, I’ve fixed the leak.  I don’t want to pull the whole rail as that is a HUGE project.  We’ll see with the next rainfall whether it worked.

-Lots of other smallish stuff that we’re checking off the list.  We’re so close to finished now that we’ll likely head out on a “Land Tour” later this week.  We’ll probably take 10 days to do a loop of the North Island-heading south from here and looping around and back up the west coast.  Stay tuned on that.