The Home Stretch

Four more days of prep! Hard to believe. Everything is coming together. There are still some systems that haven't been tested and the new sails arrive today. I'm feeling nervous about the amount of work left to do. The days are flying by so fast! Dad is staying on the boat, working into the night and up early making lists and coordinating all the amazing volunteers that have come out to be a part of all this. The LA Times article by Pete Thomas came out yesterday.
http://www.latimes.com/sports/printedition/la-sp-outdoors26-2008may26,0,7974897.story
Thanks Pete (and Al)!

I did an interview with Fox 11 yesterday.
http://www.myfoxla.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail;jsessionid=892A55CB3DD7BDC18AB0D6CD4DC2B6D5?contentId=6630402&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1&sflg=1

I've done several radio interviews. I have a few interviews today. We've decided to stop the interviews after today so the dock can be clear and people's minds focused. I will do my interview with Good Morning America on Thursday now instead of Friday which is good. I'll need at least a day to organize the chunk of Costco that is sitting in the foyer at home!

There are so many thank yous to go out...
JR from Freedom Fabricators spent the entire day yesterday installing and customizing the stainless steel solar panel arch. His endurance to complete it in a day was an inspiration.

Mary Ellen Rose, rigger, spent a day on the rigging, putting together one of the new Shaefer roller furling systems and installing a lazy jack system. A lazy jack system is a series of small lines that when set, catch the main sail when you let it down. For a single hander this piece of equipment is imperative. Otherwise the sail falls all over the deck getting blown by the wind and tangled in everything.

Bryon Pheifer and Raphael came and put together the other new Schaefer furling system. Stan Harris, Dave Roberts and Carl Sernoff, who have been doing rigging for many many years have come down to inspect all the rigging. It is a relief to know such great minds are working on that criticalarea of the boat.

Darrell Steffey, who we we have known since we lived aboard the Tradewind 55 when I was little, has come down to organize electrical details. David Benson and friend Rwanda have spent many days pouring over dad's lists and making a few of their own! Charlie Dewell, who did a singlehanded journey across the Pacific to Tahiti via Hawaii has been down to offer words of encouragement, and technical advice on the Monitor windvane among other things. Jean Paul from Australia has come down in the evenings to volunteer with what ever needs tobe done. He spent the whole of one evening cleaning every crevice of the alcohol stove which we though we were going to have to replace. Mike Smith has been on the job though he is back in North Carolina. He is tirelessly troubleshooting and organizing information to make our jobs quicker and more efficient.

All said, there are so many people coming together to make this happen it is amazing. As far as sailing around the world alone goes, I'll be sailing alone, but I could never do this without the help of many people here in the marina.

I wish I had more time to write but there is still much to do. Thank you for all the emails of emcouragement. Mom is printing them up for me to read while undeway when hopefully I'll have more time.

I received a few messages about my old blogs not coming up and we have someone on it (thanks mom!)

Cheers,
Zac