Today I climbed the mast again, in an attempt to replace the bulbs in the steaming and mooring lights…
I discovered that I had the wrong bulbs, and as I was trying to re-assemble the steaming light the wind came up and bumped into the mast, causing all the pieces of the steaming light to fall… One clip fell onto the deck, all the other parts fell overboard. I came back down the mast and then snorkeled to try and find the missing parts, but was unable to find the clear plastic lens. So I got out my scuba gear (all of which was un-tested parts and pieces I’d collected at swap meets and garage sales) and went diving to retrieve the lens. Ended up finding all but one small clip, and used the opportunity to test all the different octopus and regulator combinations to figure out the best combination to use in the future.
While under the boat looking for parts and making sure everything was ship-shape with the keel, rudder, prop, etc…. I discovered a couple of fish that were cleaning the bottom side of our boat. Not sure what type of fish they were, but they were about 3 feet long and somewhat miffed that I was snooping around where they were working.
Cathy made wonderful peanut butter fudge, we said goodbye to Reid and Rheta and gave them some fudge and discussed our future passage plans.
Sunset was beautiful on this 18th anniversary of when I asked Cathy to be my wife… Still, the best thing I’ve ever done.