Cape Dory 28 FellowShip II

Been pet-sitting for my friends, Bill and Linda, in Fort Myers while she has surgery. (Good news—surgery was a success, and they should be headed back home in a day or two!) FellowShip II is only a half hour north up Interstate 75 in Punta Gorda, so I’ve been doing boat maintenance in the mornings when it isn’t too hot. I gave it a good cleaning above and below deck and sorted through lots of stuff in the lockers. I found a bag full of spare parts for the Yanmar diesel and also a nice tiller autopilot. I took the cushion covers to a laundromat and put them in two big front loading washing machines. Following Sunbrella’s cleaning instructions, I added bleach to the laundry detergent, and they came out looking brand new. I stretched them out on the dock in the sun to dry. I have learned the hard way to never dry them in a dryer to avoid shrinkage. There was some nice wood-slatted decking in the cockpit, but it was in one-foot interlocking squares that just wouldn’t interlo...

New name for an old sailboat! Has it only been a month since Skibbereen was loaded on a trailer in Hilton Head, South Carolina, and headed south on Interstate 95 to Punta Gorda, Florida? I must say I badly underestimated the cost and time required to un-step the mast, load the boat onto and then off the trailer, re-step the mast and finally launch again. While on the hard at Punta Gorda Marina with the mast down, I asked Anthony (On Board Rigging, LLC) to rewire the VHF antenna, anchor light and steaming light and replace the standing rigging. I had a brief scare when he mentioned the "awkward" news that the roller furling was poorly prepped for shipping and was damaged. He was able to find a replacement for the broken part and save the cost of a new furler. My long-time friend, Bill, helped move "Skibbereen", now renamed "FellowShip II", from Punta Gorda Marina to the new slip at Fishermen's Village Marina just down the Peace River a few mile...