Greetings,

This update is a bit later than I had planned for it to be. The Captain who normally has my alternate hitch on the JAMES ROBERT became sick, so I had to work an extra five days. This precipitated our canceling a scheduled surgery, and a couple of other appointments. I also had to cancel flights, and, as you know in this day and age that is not cheap. The other Captain called me last Saturday to say he was coming to work on Sunday, so I could leave for home on Monday. This was good news, and the Admiral was very pleased that I would be home for Valentine's Day. And, I was able to re-schedule my surgery and most of my other appointments.

The bad news from all of these changes is I missed five days of work on DREAM AWAY in preparing the boat for the upcoming passage. Since the surgery, I have been on light duty, so progress has been slow.

A real problem came up just this past Friday. Our famous boat cat, Puss-N-Boots, AKA Rat Catcher got very sick. We took him into the vet here in Georgetown, and he has been diagnosed with diabetes, and a serious renal infection. There was a thought of leaving him over the weekend at the vet hospital, but we decided against this because this particular facility did not have full time help, and we did not want to leave Puss-N-Boots alone with an IV in his leg. We brought him home to DREAM AWAY, and are administering subcutaneous fluids ... twice yesterday, and twice today. We will find out tomorrow if this has helped. He is also on an antibiotic and an antacid, each twice a day for 14 days. The complication is that he is not eating, and has not really eaten since Thursday. He will not take any food, and we have a difficult time getting water and the medication into him, even with an oral syringe. It is wait and see, and hope he makes it through the weekend.

I have updated the Hummer Grille & Davit section of the Construction & Projects page. It reflects the removal of the old davits, and the fabrication and installation of the new custom davits. I know there are a lot of pictures in the addition, but there is a lot of work involved, and I got crazy with pictures. In fact, there are a few more I must add. When I was writing the additional section, I noticed a couple of things I had not photographed. I plan to take those additional pictures and put them in the next update.

The remainder of the changes made to the web page are all items added to existing sections, being things that I had forgotten or had not written up.

Pictures of fire extinguishers were added to Mechanical Equipment and Engine Details on the About DREAM AWAY page. I also added information concerning the emergency tiller to the Hydraulic Steering area. I cleaned up all of the sections in the About DREAM AWAY page so they all look the same. I added a link to a friend's charter service that is being offered in the Gulf of California. This link is in the Adventure, Charter, and Other Boat Sites section of the Links page.

I updated the Electronics And Navigation section on the About DREAM AWAY page to reflect removing the Iridium satellite phone system and reinstalling the Globalstar satellite phone system. I also added information about the installation of the VHF antenna for the DSC portion of the ICOM SSB radio, and the antenna for the WiFi amplifier system.

I added information in the Safety section concerning the fire extinguishers, and the emergency steering.

I put some information in the Tools section of the Construction & Projects page about the Oxy-Propane torch on DREAM AWAY.

I am already working on a section that will deal with all of the changes and upgrades made to the binnacle in the cockpit. Hopefully it will be completed by the next update.

regards,

jimk

Member Seven Seas Cruising Association

WEB page http://www.dreamaway.net