ChainChainChain ...

Yes, it's a line from the song "Chain of Fools".  But we're not.  We really needed to find out how much chain was on Abake and mark it.  Using the anchor last year during the SSCA GAM, we found that the chain in the locker was WAY too short.  After researching options for marking it we found that zip ties and parachute cord seemed to be the best options.  So we opted for the parachute cord (different colors for each 100' of chain, marked every 25'.)  We found that 50' (of 3/8" chain) was in the anchor locker, a 100' section was in the bilge, and another 300' section was in the bilge.  Guess which one went forward into the anchor locker.  Yup!  And here's the pile of it, along with our "oh sh**" mark (at the end).

Pile of 300' of chain

"Oh Sh**" mark

The heads have been rebuilt, the hose replaced, and the "Y" valve that was installed in the aft head after the vacuum break (remember it was just a rising stem valve?) turned out to be a little aged, and it leaked.  So we ordered another one and replaced it.  The head now works just as it should.

New "Y" valve for aft head

We also started on getting the dinghy ready for the davits.  We replaced the 2:1 pulley set with a 6:1 set.  This is a huge savings on muscle (and can be operated by one person), and the new set includes a cam to easily lock the line in position.  We spliced the line onto the blocks and it is ready for the dinghy.  We pulled our dinghy off of the rack at the marina and found that it has been used by the neighborhood strays as a litterbox.  Pee-yew!  With permission, we moved it to a top rack (not the one we rented) and hopefully it will not provide a private bathroom for the cats any more.  (We came home and had to leave shoes in the garage and then had "cat scans" done by Zander.  He felt we had been cheating on him.)  We measured for stainless steel bridle cables (for the aft) and will test them before ordering the forward bridle.

New dinghy block

Floor of dinghy

Aft bridle

And, we had another 3-day break in the weather (rain), so the port side/aft portion of the decking was taken up, refurbished, and replaced.  With heat indices between 105 and 109, it made for a miserable job, but with a tarp cover, it made it more bearable.  This time Mike tried caulking the outside boards first, so he had a place to stand when caulking the inside boards.  It worked much better and his back was thankful.

Caulking the inside boards

Before caulk