Slowly, but surely, the pieces are falling together.  Mark and I started the process to get a green
card for me, meaning a lot of paperwork, money, time and rescheduling, since we
are not living at a real address.  His
petition for keeping me in the States legally is approved and I got my picture
and fingerprints taken near DC.  As if they
didn’t have all that stuff yet…

Mark bought the Fountaine Pajot Tobago in June.  The catamaran is 35 feet long and has a beam
of 19 feet.  The interior is very light
and roomy, and so far, the dogs seem to like it a lot.  Her name was Big Trouble, and of course that
doesn’t equal a lot of luck…  For the
whole month of July, the boat was out of the water at a yard in Pasadena.  We battled some huge projects in the hot and
steamy Maryland
weather, while living in a messy new house, without working fridge or
bathroom.  Still much better then a tent,
though.  We climbed aboard via a steep
and shaky ladder, while the dogs used a makeshift ramp.  The blocks and plank of wood were a
challenge, each time they climbed it. Advantage number one for owning a catamaran: it provides a
lot of shade and a wind funnel underneath while on the dry! 

August arrived, and after two tries, our cat went back in
the water.  I removed the “Big” of her
stern, but we still found more problems on top of the expected flaws.  The previous owner neglected a lot of systems
and “fixed” stuff in a very crappy way. 
Mark, the dogs, and I took “Trouble” to Pier 7 Marina in Edgewater, Maryland.  It was great, to finally move elsewhere and
we even got to sail for a bit.  At our
new location, we continued the work in the midst of summer.  At least we were back on the river, with
electricity and water when needed.  Pier
7 turned out to be a very laid-back place, with a beach for the dogs to swim
off, and an interesting mix of people.

So far, we’ve fixed the sail drives, rudders, steering unit,
electrical systems, and lots of other odds and ends.  We also managed to find all the leaks and fix
them.  We serviced the two engines,
replacing belts, parts and fluids.  We
put life netting up for the dogs and installed new anchor gear, a horizontal
propane tank, reef lines and a few electronics. 
As one of the bigger projects, we replaced all the batteries with a full
new and bigger battery bank, and a new, slightly bigger holding tank.  It was a real puzzle to fit all this in the
engine room.  Each time we start a
project, new problems show up, and since we’re doing most of the stuff
ourselves, it usually takes three tries. 
It didn’t help that Mark broke his right hand.  We went from four useful hands to three for
five weeks.  But, the list is getting
shorter and we still hope to leave early October.

During the next two weeks, we will raise the windlass, which
is making the anchor chain jump, get somebody to do metal work for installing
the radar and solar panel(s), and deal with some rigging problems.  In the meantime, we are trying to let the
dogs pie on the boat.  No easy endeavor.  So far, they are very apprehensive of this
task and just hang out on the astro turf (fake grass) with a funny look on
their faces, or completely avoid it.

One of these days, we will do a little ceremony, to rename
the boat.  Whenever that’s done and
Poseidon is happy, I can reveal her new name…