A lot has happened in the last 9 days!  At the beginning of last week the mast was re-stepped by the boat yard - when I first saw her I realized how much difference the mast makes in the overall lines of the boat.  She was starting to look like our boat again.

 My first job was to re-connect the mast wiring.  This was my job as I had done the disconnection.  I was pleased to find that my careful notes made the job pretty easy and I was finished in about half an hour.  My goal was to be sitting in the cockpit relaxing when Peter arrived, which I was.  The only issue was that despite my careful work, the instruments wouldn't function.  Peter couldn't find the issue either, so we motored back to our marina ready to tackle this the next day.  Here is a quick shot of the wiring.

After taking time to follow the wires from the initial wiring panel, though connection to the instruments, to the wiring panel at the base of the mast, we still could not find the problem.  We looked at one of the wires that appeared to be   compromised, and cut back to "fresh" wire, but that didn't correct the problem.  I wasn't sure what we could do at the point short of getting help from an expert.  Another night passed and Peter woke up with the solution.  He remembered that there is a switch on the log tracking instrument - and found that this switch controlled the current to the instruments as well.  So all is good!  (Lesson learned - often sleeping on a problem helps you find the solution).

On Wednesday my shipment arrived from Sailrite - a new heavy-duty sewing machine, and materials to start work on replacing all of the teal colored canvas with new forest green canvas.  The old canvas was literally falling apart in places, so this is much more than a cosmetic need.  I was able to knock off one winch cover and the tiller cover over the weekend.  Next up is the mainsail cover - and I need to order more material for the remaining 6 winch covers.  We have plans for a number of other small canvas projects (line bags, jib sail bag, instrument cover, etc.) but the biggest job will be making a new dodger.  I'll get myself comfortable on the machine and materials with these small jobs before I take that on, but my initial feeling is that I'll be able to do this!

After the wiring, Peter took on the task of running the lines - he had marked all channels and was able to get things re-assembled fairly easily.  He took time during the process to wash the lines, many of which were a bit green with moss, so they look much better now.  Then on Sunday morning we put the mainsail on the boom and she was a fully functional sailboat again!  We took her out for our first sail since March - it was a nice day with sun mixed with clouds; not much wind but lots of boats out for spring sailing!