Weekend number two working on our boat was a beautiful day. It actually was a perfect sailing day but you can’t go anywhere when all the deck hardware is stripped and the holes are half filled with epoxy. So we forge on. I crawled under the cockpit all the way to the stern in our J/22. The drain pipe fitting had come loose from the the clamp and water was leaking into the boat. Not to worry! I undid the clamp, pulled the pipe over the opening and reclamped it down. It’s good to go now. The water in the cockpit above will drain out the stern, not into the boat! I was proud of myself. We’ve only sailed our new boat two times. I will really enjoy our next sail after helping to get her in shape. My husband did a great job with the epoxy and the filled holes look great. We have new winches and I can’t wait to get them on. I’m going to be middle crew this season so I will enjoy the sound of the new clicking. We will be new to the J/22 southwest circuit racing scene. I’m a little intimidated since I’ve never done anything like this. I’m excited though to try something new and take a risk. My husband is a good skipper so I know we will have a good time and we’ll improve as we increase our experience. I love sailing. I can’t wait to actually do more of it!

January 7 was our first big day to work on the boat! Yeah! It was about 55 degrees and winds around 15 to 20 mph. Not the best of conditions but it was still a fun, productive day. The boat is on the trailer so we used our 10′ ladder to climb on and off the boat. My husband decided to strip all the hardware off the deck, redrill all the holes and fill them epoxy. I had the privilege of working on the underside with an adjustable wrench holding the nuts so he could unbolt them from the top. He’s a lucky man that he married a small woman. Crawling around under the cockpit and bow of a J/22 can be an acrobatic event. He only had to Dremel off two rusted screws that I was unable to hold. Ladies, Dremel is an exceptional little hand tool that has precipitated the development of a new verb. Anyway, I’m really enjoying being part of the boat repairs. The best part of all was in the evening he told me he couldn’t have done it without me. That’s what a wife loves to hear!