The leaves are changing and I'm supposed to be in awe of how pretty it is. All it means to me is the end of the sailing season . Of course, one thing it means is that I will have time to tend to the website. Seems to happen this way every year: Work on website for 4-5 months, work on sailboat for 4-5 months.

If anyone has been following, you've probably noted that not much has gone on with the site since spring. The Boat Lettering stuff is sort of in a state of limbo and I have not updated the Baba site in some time. That will all change once the boat is out of the water and I'm back to using the weekends for this stuff.

We still have a few weekends of sailing (up to 5 if the weather holds). Soñadora comes out on the 19th. One of those weekends will be mast-down weekend. We have been taking the mast down and puting it up ourselves since bringing the boat to Minnesota. It is a bit of a pain, but the rewards far outweigh the pain. It saves us a little money, though that's not the point. Mostly, it gives me a chance to feel like I'm taking care of our Fourth Child and gives me a chance to get a close look at what's going on with the stick. I usually have a couple of buddies helping and the round of beers afterwards is a nice way to wrap it up. Mostly though, it's a chance to experience a side of boat maintenance that a lot of sail boaters don't have. I've read stories of people who are overly intimidated by this activity. I've been doing it enough now that I'm perfectly comfortable with it.

 This year I'm going to bring along a camera and take some pictures/video of the process so stay tuned!