I finally got the courage to modify our mainsail. Changes to the foot require both machine and hand sewing. David helped me pull the heavy 12 oz sail cloth through the machine for all the sewing that could take place there. Now, I have several things which must be performed by hand because there are too many layers of cloth for the machine to go through OR because I will be reattaching the external bolt roping. Initially, I though rebuilding the clew would be the scary part, but now I realize that won’t be as difficult as sewing all that bolt roping back on.

Here are a couple pics of my workplace–I put the machine under the foreboom between the foremast and the mainmast. David sat forward of me and pulled fabric as it came through. It was sort of “one handed sewing” for me and I was glad for the walking foot on the machine as I had to use my right hand to run the footpedal and only had my left hand for feeding the sail into the machine.

There’s a song going through my head, Turn!Turn!Turn! as performed by the Byrds.

A wonderful song with much meaning for David and I. As we’ve gone through different times and done different things in life; I’m always reminded of the entry lines of this song.

To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under Heaven.

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The music was written by Pete Seeger and the lyrics are taken almost verbatim from the book of Ecclesiastes, as found in the King James Version (1611) of the Bible (Ecclesiastes 3:1), though the sequence of the words was rearranged for the song.

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

9 What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?

10 I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.

11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.

12 I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.

13 And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.

Last week we completed a couple of projects which required both my Shuttle computer and David’s computer. One was responding to an important USPTO office action on a patent that we’ve had pending for going on 5 years now. The USPTO is certainly slow…

My computer has been getting very flaky of late and I knew it was only a matter of time before I’d have to re-install the OS. Well, I promised myself that I’d re-install Windows after the paperwork was complete. Finally, I started that process this morning. I’ve been working on it all day. I should say, I’ve been cleaning the boat all day and the computer has been trying to re-install the OS all day. This is certainly frustrating.

The little Honda generator has been chugging away today since we only have small house battery capacity which can run my little notebook (as I am typing on it now!) for hours it certainly cannot run the shuttle and its monitor all day long. David and I have been watching back to back movies on his computer this evening while my computer does its thing. Argh.

Onwards. Tomorrow is another day.