Tonight I stopped by Odyssey, just to say "hello."

It's been raining for days here in Pugetopolis -- we're closing in on a record for consecutive days of rain. Somehow a maple leaf managed to fall over the cockpit drain and seal it. Meanwhile, the rain kept falling.

By the time I looked the water was only an inch from overflowing the seat hatches and starting to fill the cabin. I calculated that there was about 850 pounds of water in the cockpit.

I poked a stick through the drain to get the flow going. It was quite the fountain flowing out the drain for about three minutes.

All better now.

Today is the first day of the Seattle boat show. For some reason I'm not interested in attending this year.

It may be because sailboats are under-represented again this year. It may be because I've seen many of the new boats before they've gone in (my new job is right across the railroad tracks from Qwest Field).

Mostly I think it's because I'm getting disillusioned about sailing. Opportunities to sail have been few and far between. Places I want to go, at least in my mind, are closed to me going without my family, and my family doesn't want to go.

I also think I'm feeling sorry for myself and need to snap out of it.

Time to start keeping a log for s/v Odyssey again. I've been remiss for the last year, something about the frustration of not being able to sail often and getting injured.

In any case, here we are. Odyssey is tucked up snug on her trailer. I'm planning some simple projects for the spring.

Here's the summary of the 2005 sailing season. The whole sailing season.

In June I went out with my family on a blustery, cold, rough day. They didn't want to go out again.

In September I went out with Rich and his son Geoff. We had a grand time on a great day for sailing.

And that's it for 2005.

The weather here in Pugetopolis has been remarkable warm this spring. So warm, in fact, that Dana suggested we go sailing on Sunday. Unfotunately, she made the suggestion Friday night, and we had plans for most of the day on Saturday.

So Saturday morning I pulled the tarp off to take a look at the damage the winter had done. No trees in the rubrail this time, and no bird's nests in the mast, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. The cockpit was full of leaves and the anti-skid on the deck was full of dirt, but nothing that time and a scrub brush wouldn't put right.

Unfortunately, when I pulled the mast earlier in the year, I'd pulled the clevis pins from two of the turnbuckles, and now I couldn't find them. I'd put them somewhere safe, but so safe I didn't know where they were anymore. Well, I needed to make a trip to the boat store for spark plugs and a new water pump impeller anyway...

Saturday afternoon I got to start scrubbing. As usual, I started at the bow and worked my way aft, even though the last time I scrubbed the boat I told myself I'd work the other way. But it just takes time, and elbow grease, and soap and water to get the dirt off, and by late afternoon I had the outside of the boat relatively clean.

It wasn't until Saturday evening that I could get inside Odyssey and clean up the cabin. Joe came along to help, I put him in charge of bailing out the bilge with the wet/dry vac. By the time it got dark Saturday night we'd cleaned up the interior and were ready to start loading Sunday morning.

I've been putting this off, 'cause I've never done anything quite this drastic to my mast before. But like most things I've done on the boat (fixing the transom, building a new rudder) it was much harder in the anticipation than in the doing.

It helped that for once I had all the tools and supplies that I needed to finish without having to run off to West Marine or Coast-to-Coast for something or other.

Putting on the new cheek blocks was remarkably straight-forward. After finding and marking the location for the new blocks I drilled the holes with my cheap yet long-lasting 1/4-inch Black and Decker drill I bought 'lo these many years ago down in California. Then I used my brand new pop rivet gun to fasten the cheek blocks to the mast with stainless steel rivets. Took about an hour, most of the time getting set up and getting tools out, etc.

After dinner I went back out and installed the J-mount for my new 10-inch windex. I bought this in the middle of last summer, but never got a chance to attach it, what with the limited amount of sailing I did (so I didn't miss it) and with my pre-occupation with building a new rudder.

I also attached my new jib block to the forestay hounds. That takes care of the top of the mast for this year. It'll be fun to try them out.

Like most of my projects, this one with the mast is lingering on and on. I finally used the excuse of listening to Prairie Home Companion to go out and get some work done.

I started by buffing the rest of the rubbing compound off. I just had the lower 1/3 of the mast to do, so it didn't take very long, even though the rubbing compound had hardened up, well, hard. It took a lot of elbow grease, but eventually it was all gone. When I finished I had a quandry. The rubbing compound was gone, but the mast looked awful. White streaks, swirly marks, and even fingerprints.

Only one thing to do. I got the rubbing compound back out and did the whole mast. Again. This time I started at the bottom and worked my way to the top, so I would do my best work where it's more likely people will see it. I paid attention to keeping the pad loaded up with rubbing compound, kept my fingers out of the wet compound, and made sure I got everywhere.

This time, I went ahead and buffed off the rubbing compound right away. Sure was easier when it hadn't had weeks to set up. When it was off I surprised to see that the mast looked pretty darn good.

To keep it looking good, I broke out the California Wax that I used to use on the black Daytona. I put a thick coat over the whole mast, then buffed it out. Once again I was surprised, the mast, while not looking brand new, looked at least like it was cared for.

Overall, I'm pleased with the results of rubbing and waxing the mast. Now if only I could get the new blocks on, which is why the mast is sitting in the barn in the first place...

More later...

It's been hard to get out to the barn to work on Odysesy's mast. By the time I get home from work, get through dinner and cleaning up, help the kids with their homework, and encourage them to get out their notebooks and do some writing it's 8:30 or 9:00 before I have time to get out and do.

And by then it's friggin' cold outside. Not to mention the alley of the barn can be a wind tunnel, so if there's any breeze blowing from the west it whistles right through the barn and any coat you happen to have on.

But tonight I stole a few minutes between feeding the horses and chopping the wood for the fire to talk to Dana and to buff the polishing compound off about 2/3rds of the mast. It looks a lot better where I've buffed it. While it's still not the deep shiny black I imagine it was when it was new, at least now it's a shiny grayish black instead of a flat greyish black. I'm looking forward to seeing what it looks like once I get the wax on.

Tried to get some work done on the mast today, but it just wasn't in the cards. Dana wanted to run some errands, so I went along with her, and then in the afternoon the weather turned nasty and it wasn't very much fun to be outside. Or even in the alley of the barn.

But there were a couple of jobs I had to take care of today. The horses needed water and the mast needed to be moved out of the middle of the alley. See, tomorrow the farrier is coming to trim the donkey's feet, and she likes to work under cover a lot more than she likes to work outside in the rain.

The mast takes up an amazing amount of space for something 4"x6"x26'. The alley in the barn is 32 feet long and 12 feet wide, and the mast seems to take up most of the space, between the stick, the spreaders, and the stays.

I got out some more sawhorses and set the mast up on them, the spreaders vertical against the wall. With it scootched as far toward the back as it will go and still stay in the barn and pressed against the wall, Dana will be able to bring the donkey in tomorrow and use the cross ties.

Of course, the farrier is going to tease us, again, because the barn has yet another non-farm project going on in the alley.

I did get a little work done on the mast today. I got out the rubbing compound and rubbed out the whole mast. It takes a long time to dry when the air is only 40 degrees, so I won't be able to buff and wax the mast until tomorrow night.