A month away, countdown to launch

It's now one month or 31 days until launch of Thanks Sweetie.  There's not much to report on other than the boat being out of the shop (covered last time) other than some minor items.

I spent my first dollars on boat related accessories this week -- fenders, screw-in snaps and some more water saddles, which aren't boat specific but proved to be a popular floating accessory last spring.

The fenders I told myself were a necessity and they sort of are.  I bought 6.5" fenders the first year we had our boat from Costco.  Fenders are strangely expensive and the no-name ones I bought from Costco were fine for our old boat which was much smaller.  But the new boat has both fender holders on the bow rails and it seemed natural that we would put fenders in them, and I bought a set of 6 8.5" from Overton's which had a 15% sale going on.  They were priced reasonably as fenders go, cheaper than the very expensive Taylor Made models that seem to dominate most retailers.  I also bought them in a cobalt blue which sort of matches the hull color.  The white ones tend to scuff and look dingy, so I figured a slight color mismatch was better than dingy in the long run.

I don't entirely know if I will really need them longer term -- we don't really dock many places, and transient docking or rafting doesn't seem all that likely for us, but they will probably be useful for the first few dozen docking attempts with this big boat.  I think tied up properly in the slip they won't really be needed -- the right rope lengths will hold the boat away from the slip and pilings.

I only need to replace one snap for the cockpit cover, but of course you have to buy a bag of 8 minimum.  I opted not to buy the needed epoxy for filling the spot where the old one pulled out, I need to see what the stripped hole looks like and whether I need to ream it out and then fill it and whether I should use a putty or a two-part liquid epoxy.

The water saddles (also from Overton's, 15% off) were kind of an impulse sort of thing but we have one I bought last year and it proved *ideal* for floating in the water.  It keeps me floating with just my shoulders at water level.  Now we'll have two others for guests.

I also picked up a spool of 1/4" bungee cord to make lanyards and retainer lines for them.  It dawned on me that instead of drilling a hole and using a short stub of ABS for a grommet that I could just make a loop of bungee which would fit over the notch of the saddle.