Th Fall-The Itch

On Assignment Williamstown Ma



Fall in the northeast of the United States is upon us. The trees are changing colors with each passing moment, the nights are chilly and the days are being brisk. The sequence of pictures is of Williamstown Mass, the beautiful small town I've been lounging in for the past couple of months. I took these photo's on my daily trip into the center of town. I drive through the center of a valley, along a stream that winds its way to god knows where.



I also have the joy of running throughout the country roads of the Berkshires. But the itch has arrived and I'm ramping up to scratch said itch. What am I talking about?



Well, when I left Grenada in early July I was good and ready to take a break from boat life. I had sickened of the routine and longed to go home. But the other day I surfed on over to Adamo's blog to do some research on routing back to America as Mike, Sue and Phillip had done the jaunt last year. Well I started to get all kinds of excited about the prospect of returning to Christa and making her sing.



So my flight back to Grenada remains at October 26th. I've started ordering some parts and focusing on my plan for returning. I have a some projects to complete in Grenada before I can splash Christa. A number one is the replacement of at least the two upper shroud chainplates that I fear may be weak. All six chainplates need replacing and I've ordered custom fabricated chainplates. But the difficulty of accessing the 4 lower shroud chainplate backing bolts make replacement of those much more difficult. I will defer the lowers until I get to Naples. If the upper chainplates were to giveway the whole mast would tumble. If I lose one of the lowers, I don't think the mast would tumble, especially since I have running backstays. So that is my rational and I'm sticking to it!



I still am marveling at the lack of hurricane activity in the Atlantic. I guess I picked the wrong year to hunker down in Puerto Rico. Should have swapped years! But that would require peering into the future, which to my knowledge no one has been able to do.

Capt Chris