The boys and I were working on the boat last month. I had arranged with the boatyard to lift Omarsea up so we could pull the rudder out.  So after getting everything ready the yard asked us to loosen the forestay. It's the cable on the front leading from the mast to the deck.
To do this we first loosen the backstays and then disconnect the forestay. As luck would have it as we loosened the backstays a pin broke with a sound like a gunshot. A second later both cables crashed to the deck. The boys and I were fine as we had positioned ourselves on the very stern of the boat. The only loss was a spilled glass of water on the deck.
But this adds to the interesting nature of owning a boat. On closer inspection the pin that had broken was nearly rusted through. Note that from the outside you could not have seen this!
 So of course this takes us to the conclusion that we had better replace all the standing wire and fittings to ensure we don't get offshore and have the mast fall down on us. I am going down to the boat sometime in the next two weeks to work with the boatyard and pull the mast out to do this work. It's really a neat project to pull the mast. The yard uses a crane to hoist it up and out of the boat. Then they lay it down on a series of supports. This winter I will work with local riggers to replace various parts, rewire the mast lights and add a couple of wizbang features.
I have shelved the solar arch for now. It's required too much time to complete before winter and I found myself rushing the welding. We will take some time next summer to get that done. As much as I hate to put these big items off I have too many important plates spinning right now and with school getting geared up it is best.
Last weekend the Tref's were down in Tilghman Isle. We went down to see some friends and celebrate what they call Spudge Fest. Spudge is the name of their Maine Lobster boat. Dale and Susan put on quite a party and we all had a great time. We met a family there with 11 kids. Stevie made a new best friend Walter, Ben spent some fun times hanging around with some older boys and Julianna had seven girls to play with. WOW! The Watkins family are of course a Catholic family. They live near the Maryland / Deleware boarder and we look forward to seeing them again soon.
Then Jean took the kids to Blackwater Wildlife preserve. They walked the boardwalks out over the salt grass and watched birds. I get quite a lot done when they are occupied. It is a real plus to have Jean down on the boat with us. It's a better chemistry with the kids when she is there.
We came home Sunday morning. Then Jean took Juli to the 4H group gathering at the county fair here in Gaithersburg. They were out till late having a ball. But wait there is more. The kids went back the next day and they spent 12 hours riding rides and looking at the animals. They were burned to a crisp by the sun but all smiles. Stevie and Juli were at hand when a pony kicked its way out of the rides area and stampeded past them. Stevie wisely stepped back out of the way as the crazed animal swept past.
Ben was fascinated by the blacksmith. He spent a couple hours talking with her about metal working. He is really interested in making swords and shields. 14 year old's are all about combat. We are looking into creating a forge here in the back yard for him to experiment with some wrought iron.
Speaking of heat. The craziest thing happened today. I got in the car to go pickup jean from the bus station and the rear view mirror was dangling from its wires. Now it only got to 86 degrees today. After a month off 100+ degrees it must have weakened the adhesive enough to let it fall off. I am constantly reminded why I was put on this earth!  Fix this , Fix that.
Anyway so long as these things happen when they are home sitting still and not 500 miles offshore I feel very blessed.
Stay tuned. We have a busy end of the Month coming up!