New Crew??

The last couple of weeks Pirate Peppermint Patty and I have been learning to live with a new crew-mate...
San Carlos.
He is a cutie, and loves organic baby mashed peas as much as Peppermint Patty does...
but, he is a kitten. and, I'm not sure the sailboat is big enough for me, Peppermint Patty, and San Carlos!
It's harder than ever to keep the sailboat clean, as he loves to dart around, knock things off of everywhere, attack the hanging storage nets, and tear trash bags to shreds spilling trash everywhere, which then gets batted about... there also appears to be an issue with the two cats sharing the litter box. And, my friends, you can imagine that a 30 foot sailboat is no place for two sets of food bowls and two cat litter boxes! Lots of sharing and small space living is required.
I had thought that Peppermint Patty might want a friend, some company... but, now I'm not so sure... she hasn't taken too kindly to the new arrival. She bats at him any chance she can get.
:(

Seasons of Change

It appears the season is changing in Southwest Florida.
Drier cooler windy weather on the way...
I even turned off the AC and opened up the hatches a few nights this week!
I had a dream last night that I was watching a sailboat out and about sailing around; and, I was on my sailboat stuck at the dock. Stuck at the dock perhaps because of my ongoing uncertainty of continuing this solo sailing life. Perhaps mostly because of my fear of successfully orchestrating a solo departure and arrival from/to the dock. It is funny, although not that funny, that the fear of something that takes about 5 to 10 minutes, can prevent one from hours and days of enjoyment on the water. Honestly I haven't had to solo dock the sailboat in over a year. I've been fortunate to have guests aboard during trips, and perhaps unfortunate to have limited my trips to when I have guests...
For now I face another solo sailing season, and gosh darn it, I WANT to go sailing!
There is also, of course, a long to-do list that needs to be done pre-season.
And, some things that perhaps should be dealt with this season that I'm not necessarily looking forward to, like... like potentially hauling her out and redoing the bottom, redoing the stuffing box, checking the engine alignment, rechecking all the thru-hulls, which I know are leaking probably more than they should...
I've also been debating whether or not to move forward with solar panel arch and new canvas for the cockpit. Both would be wonderful additions to the sailboat.
I also have decided it's time to retire the jib at a minimum, if not also the mainsail.
I've started my search at the following:
http://www.baconsails.com/
It turns out they currently have 31 possible options for the Bristol 29.9 Keel version... they're all a little different though, and so, I should really go get the sails out of storage and measure them up and decide if I want same, or slightly different. My goal over the next seven calendar days is to accomplish this measuring task!
Onward and forward...