Yup, I beat Ann again in cards! That’s six to two.

Oh, wait that’s not it. We’re lucky in that we’ve been married for one glorious year so far. Yup, that’s it! Tonight we officially celebrated that with a lovely dinner out at Amici’s (late celebration but lots of fun…had to wait for a break in the weather and the boat work). Really nice Italian food and spectacular desserts! Ann had a monster Mocha something or other and I had a chocolate, pistacio sundae with whipped cream, sliced almonds and Frangelico poured over.

Also a good day in that it didn’t rain. I got the next to last coat of varnish on. Tomorrow, with a bit luck, I’ll put the very last coat on.

Ann is doing the final polishing of the cabin top now that the varnishing is done and the tape is coming off. She has also starting the provisioning and today also cooked up some peppers to make three large jars of pepperocini. You can’t find it anywhere in NZ or Fiji and it adds so much to canned tuna which is a convenient lunch staple when we’re cruising.

Lately, I had a bit of a triumph today when I was able to take apart the hydro gen. I bought a bearing puller a couple years ago and haven’t had a chance to use it until today when it was called upon twice (!) for duty in pulling the casing apart and then a recalcitrant bearing. Yay! I have a bearing replacement kit so that’s good. The bad news is the Ferris Hamilton unit has the crappiest paint you can imagine for something that’s made for sea-going use, so I’m going to have to strip it and start from primer with a proper paint job. That will add a few days to the project.

Lots of other stuff getting done. Looks like we’re a week or so from being ready to leave for the tropics. Well, at least ready for a weather window for leaving. The reality is it may be a few weeks before there is favorable weather for the ten day voyage back up to Fiji.

OK, that’s enough for now. See you later.