Danny, Bruce, Chris & Mo

Lately, it seems life has taken on the same pace as sailing. For those of you who’ve never sailed, that means long stretches of relaxation, followed by short bursts of intense action, followed by more relaxation, and so on and so forth. This last week fell into the "intense action" phase. Ben finished installing our new bow roller and anchor last weekend, and I helped him replace all the nuts and bolts forward of the mast. Here’s what our old setup looked like:

Mo-C came equipped with a 22-ish lb. Danforth anchor attached to the bow pulpit (and a couple extra ones stowed in the lazarette).

Danny Boy's been working like a charm for us, but we decided to upgrade and add a little variety with a 33 lb. Bruce anchor. Danforths work well in mud and sand, but not so well in grassy bottoms. Bruces are good for mud, sand and rocks. So far, I'm pretty sure we've only anchored in mud and sand, but I try not to go in the water too often, so I'm not positive about that.

Unfortunately, Bruce can't hang from the pulpit like Danny did, so Ben installed a bow roller to house him.

Now Bruce lays nice and snug at the bow, ready to dive in whenever we nudge him.

Amidst the upgrading and maintaining, Ben's cousin, Chris, stopped by on Tuesday to hang out and check out Mo-C for the first time. We had a running deal that we'd come check out his new house after he came and checked out ours.  Looks like it's our turn to hold up our end of the bargain!

While Chris was visiting, Anna stopped by, followed soon after by Justin. We all enjoyed some cocktails and conversation in the cockpit under the beautiful sunny sky.

I think it was later on that evening when Mo appeared. (Not Mo-C... this is Mo-N... one of Ben's oldest friends from Virginia.) He surprised us with a visit and stayed for a couple days with us on the boat.

This has been a good year for visitors. And we're still waiting for the rest of you to come on down and play pirate for a day... ;)