Setting Her Up

 One of my favorite rituals is the after sail ritual with my boat. When she has done her duty and deserves some TLC for a job well done. I think these times with a boat, or any hobby, are important. When I'm on the water, I depend on my boat for my safe return home. Call it what you will but I have and will continue to view her as a living thing and as such deserving of kind words and attention. I've found things powered by steam and old cars are no different.
 First thing to do is to step the mast and raise the sails. This shakes out the rigging and makes inspecting it all the easier. Then it's on to sweeping the interior and inspecting the fore and aft bulkheads. Tonight this included tightening the eye bolts at the rear of the cockpit. One of them holds a Race-lite swivel block that has a habit of catching at the most inopportune times, leading to poor sail handling verging on dangerous. The Typesetter noticed them moving on the last sail so I decided to limit the movement of the eye. This involved removing the seat and getting into various contorted positions with a screw driver and crescent wrench. This lead to a general inspection and tightening of all screws, nuts and bolts on the entire vessel.
 The next step is prepping the vessel to sail at the next available moment. Part of the joy of a small boat is the impulsive sail. The more ready your boat, the more impulsive you can be. Having got the sailing out of my system I set the boat for full readiness. Anchor and anchor bag stowed forward. Two PFD's for captain and possible crew. A few good reading books in aft compartment as well as a small store of water, foul weather gear and ball bungees. Everything I need for a day on the pond.
 The final step is tarping the boat for storage. I use an old tent fly and secure it with railroad spikes. This keeps the water and tree needles out of the bilge.
 Today I found several interesting things I think are worthy of note. I finally got around to measuring my sails and found more then ten square feet I didn't know existed. Andy provided me a sail plan of 45sqft when I questioned him about my sails. Originally the Annas Discors sported eighty square feet of sail so a reduction seemed prudent. But according to my calculations and not to imprecise measurements I have 57.8sqft, very close to the 59sqft Leg O' Mutton specified in the original plans.
 One thing that has been annoying me of late is my seat. So today I decided to fix it. The seat itself is warped and the original Chinese pot metal screws appeared to have been attached by a palsied blind man. It's a amazing what wood screws can do. Seat now is firmly attached and ready for more use.
 One of the briefs in the making of this crafts was for a lot of strings to play with it. I'm thinking of adding one more. I've found that the inability to drop my jib has caused issues. So I'm going to rig a downhaul with appropriate line and tackle. This will make docking and a much happier experience. No longer will I clamber forward and flail at the jib hoping I don't go into the drink. Hopefully I'll have pictures of that project.
 Also my boat needs a flag. I've looked at plenty of pictures and if I have my way Old Glory will be hanging from the gaff the next time I set to see.
 Don't think I'll be heading out on the brimy deep until after Independence day. I could be wrong though.  Actually, I kind of hope I am.