Newport Harbor, California
The end of the beginning is in sight. All of my stitches are out and the scars are
healing nicely. A few days ago we went
for our first sail, and it was uneventful (a good thing). We need to make a few modifications to the
main sail reefing setup and jib leads but we expected this. The boat is just about completely reassembled
with just some odds and ends remaining.
We are now looking at possibly a Tuesday, 25 April, departure if there
are no more surprises. There is still a
lot to do with provisioning and safety gear and medical supplies and … We are sprinting to get there.
We’ve had some crew changes for the first leg. The hurdles to bringing Put-put, Renee and Rob’s
dog, to Australia by boat were too high to clear so Renee and Put-put will fly
to Australia. Put-put will go through
quarantine and go into residence there with family. Renee will join the boat in Papeete. Simon Willis flew in from New Zealand to join us and
worked for two weeks on the boat, but he was still having health issues from
his stroke a couple of years ago. He
wisely decided to pass on the cruise and he flew home a few days ago. I'm sorry he's gone. We sailed a lot of miles together. His humor, sea stories, and sailing skills will be missed. Longy Schuster, who is managing Van Diemen’s
refit, will join us for the first leg to Tahiti. That makes five of us for the passage which
should be about right.
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