Besides yesterday’s good news on the repair progress, I can also report good news on my back injury recovery. For the first month after the surgery there was no noticeable improvement. 

My daughter, Jeannine, is coming to spend Thursday and Friday with me here and lend a helping hand and then take me back to their home in Chesapeake. I take the train from Newport News to Baltimore airport on Monday the 30th and arrive that evening at Sea-Tac for a 40 day visit. My return flight on December 12th comes in late and I may rent a car to make a short trip to New York/ Rhode Island to check out potentials for my engine replacement. I had planned to be back in the water by now and move the boat back to Portsmouth, Va. where I am closer to supplies for the repairs to the interior. Now I will probably not be ready to sail away until well into the Spring. If it becomes too close to the start of the Hurricane season I will probably make the loop into the Great Lakes I had intended for this year. Rose Marie, my second oldest daughter, turns fifty on February 3rd. and just like with Lisa’s 50th birthday it will most likely be another family celebration and I count on flying again on a pass from Laura to the Northwest.

In my August 2nd blog I detailed the financial challenge in resurrecting “Fleetwood”. The insurance paid the $19,400 for the wreck removal, and I paid the towing company $19,000. The surgery bills took a good bite out of my savings, even after the Medicare payments. Since the shipwreck I have drawn down my savings from $ 10,000 to $ 4,000. It would have made more financial sense to walk away from “Fleetwood” and purchase a $ 10,000 or less fixer-upper. But I have no regrets, yet. “Fleetwood” launched in 1980 has been part of me for nearly half of my life. If I pace my self with the help of each month’s almost $ 2,000 social security check and find a reasonably priced engine replacement I might not need any more financial help. In 2010 I had to replace my old Renault Couach engine in Romania on the Danube. That cost me $ 8,000 but I managed to pull it off without donations. But if the well runs dry I will take you up the offers I have already received. I will do my very best to keep entertaining you with my adventures. Treating yourself or as gifts with my books “SoloMan” and/or “The Mastmakers’ Daughters” helps the cause directly. Also I am available for slide show presentations of my adventure for the privilege of selling and signing my books.

In my August 2nd blog I wrote: “I am looking to replace the one cylinder 10 1/2 HP engine with a two cylinder 12 to 18 hp, Kubota (Nani N-14) or Mitsubishi (Sole Mini 17) block, Westerbeke 12-D or a Yanmar YM2GM or similar in a good used or rebuilt engine. Preferably near the Chesapeake Bay.” If anyone has any leads for me, please, contact me. So far I have not had much luck finding this. My Schadenfreude side hopes that some salvaged engines from the hurricanes will show up in the market.  Maybe someone knows of a marine industry company who would like to be on my sponsor section for a discount on a new engine. The blog and my Youtube videos get around. Since I started my first Go-Pro videos a year ago I have attracted an active following. One video has had over 5,576 views. Richard Spindler, founder of Latitude-38, has given me lots of exposure and I run into sailors all over the globe familiar with the boat name.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are a couple pictures taken with my $29.95 Wallmart smart phone or my Akaso EK7000 action camera. Both are only good for short distances. I have postponed spending money on a direct reflex camera like the old Nikon D-50 I ruined in the wreck. If you happen to have one extra to give away or trade for my books , in the Northwest, you’ll be getting real photography again.