I’m amazed by the frequency that we manage to see the same cruisers all over the place. For example, we just saw a couple Canadian cruisers in La Playa anchorage on the weekend–we met them in Brisbane California (SFB area) and yesterday a couple of Swiss cruisers that we’d met in Napa Valley (during our haulout) pulled into San Diego. We’re excited to see them and look forward to linking up in the next week or so to catch up on where they’ve been and what they’ve been doing. We’d hoped to meet them again in the Bay area and figured we’d not see them again once we left the Bay.

People always remember Mahdee and us. I think it has something to do with her being a little, um…unusual…on the cruising circuit. But, many times we don’t recall the people or their boats! This can be embarrassing at times for David and I. People dingy by our boat and start talking and we’re anxiously looking around trying to find a familiar looking boat! Or, they walk up to us on the public docks and we really have NO idea where they came from! After smiling and chatting a bit, we can usually figure it out. If not, I just have to come clean and say “uh, how is it that we know each other?”
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Last night we loaded Mahdee up with stacks of lumber and supplies so this morning we motored back over to the A-9 anchorage and after enjoying the lovely view of downtown San Diego on this first sunny day in a week or so, we went inside and started on projects. My projects today are easier than David’s: mine involve online shopping for compact fluorescent and LED bulbs whereas David’s is fitting sole pieces in place. My tasks are much cleaner. His involve way too much sanding, cutting and making messes. I’m trying to ignore all the messes. Its sort of the whole sausage making thing–I just stay away from him and his projects when they’re too dusty since I’ll be very unhappy if I actually see what is taking place in terms of drop cloths/vacuuming or lack of those things!

Somehow I need to start making dinner soon–but David is working on the galley sole so…maybe it will be crackers and Tofutti for us tonight.

When we had Mahdee in the boatyard and were working on her Alaska Yellow Cedar overhead, the yard owner would come by and tease us that we were “making toothpicks” as part of our boatbuilding. And, it seemed that way. We’ll we ‘re back at it–that is taking big, big boards and turning them into tiny narrow boards. This time the AYC is turning into boards for the ceiling that will cover the hull in the main saloon. Yesterday, David and I together spent all day making toothpicks and the result is that we now have the wood needed to begin the process of installing the ceiling! Day before yesterday, David and I culled through our storage unit and pulled out a great big teak board (2-1/4″ x 9″ x 19-1/2 ft) and made it into lovely 1/2″ x 5″ and 1/2″ x 4″ x 19 ft sole boards that will cover our exposed subfloor and match the existing teak sole. We didn’t buy that board so we kept forgetting that we have it–it was given to us along with some other leftover wood from someone else’s boat project.

Today, David will be cutting notches in the edges of some of the new sole boards to fit it around bulkheads and such and then tonight we’ll be bringing our “load” back to the boat for installation. I’m not quite sure where it will all be stored since it has been very rainy and we cannot store it on deck. There’s little room in the boat proper for these long boards to reside before installation…so this will be interesting. We also need to get our chop saw out of the storage and find a place to use it and store it while it is on the boat. We’re certainly going to look like a “lumber schooner” for the next week or so.

This week, we also need to get my military ID card (expired since June) renewed so I can drive on-and-off the bases in San Diego. The wood working shop David uses for some of our projects is on a military base and without proper ID I’m stuck there with him and can’t run errands while he’s making toothpicks because I wouldn’t be able to get back to the base! I think he’s secretly pleased with this situation since I help him with his work if I have nowhere else to go.