Airplanes and Nail Polish

Homer, AK, 16-JUL-2021 — I’m here. I’m in Homer getting Caro Babbo ready to ”Splash” at the end of the month.

Splash is a very visual word and a bit joyous, making a big splash is what many of us want when we make it big. When launching Caro Babbo that is the last thing we want to envision. Splash is a sail boat falling from the TravelLift into the water, a crane tipping over and other very visual mishaps that must be pushed from my imagination.

The fight up was uneventful. Jennifer and I took Wednesday to run errands and do some shopping: New shoes for each of us and new very red foul-weather jackets. Jennifer needed an MRI.

There is a lesson to be learned about scheduling: Don’t scheduled a long procedure for the end of the day. Jennifer’s 5:30 procedure didn’t start until after 7 pm as each preceding procedure ran later and later through the day. The relaxing dinner somewhere turned into a Safeway rotisserie chicken eaten bedside in a terrible motel at the airport.

The Seattle-Anchorage flight was easy and relaxed. I was bumped up to first class. My seat mate was on his way to Anchorage for a surprise 30th birthday party for his cousin. He is one of many cousins turning thirty this year, so they all decided to fly to Anchorage to surprise one cousin.

He wore black nail polish. My friend James on Zingaro wears nail polish and made a video about it.

On Caro Babbo almost everything made it through the winter fine. The cover on a strainer for a bilge pump burst. We still have water leaking down the mast into the bilge. I can’t quite figure that out and thought we had it solved. I imagine that water froze in the strainer and cracked the plastic cover. There isn’t a replacement available in town, so I’ll make a temporary repair and ask Jennifer to bring a replacement when she comes up.

Morgan and Douglas on Tumbleweed met me at Caro Babbo to say hi and loan me their ladder.

Our bluewater friends are scattered, Thomas and Anja have just gotten their passport stamped by the Canadians who are letting them transit through the inside passage as long as they do not go ashore. Steve and Liz are somewhere in the San Juans and Michel and Ola are somewhere in Mexico.

And on Caro Babbo, John is in Homer, Jennifer and Flora are in Port Townsend. Yes, there will be three of us this season. Flora will join is for our very truncated five-week season.

Here, I’ve discovered the entire cutlass bearing is missing. I’ll hopefully get the prop (called a wheel in commercial circles) removed this morning after I get a wire wheel and gear puller. Then, I will go in search of a machine shop.

I’d like to pull the propeller shaft as well so that I can see that it is straight (true) and inspect and repair the shaft seal.

There is the standard, unending list of things to be done, but none of the others will keep us off the water.

It’s good to be back and to have you with us.