Housesitting – Jekyll Island, Georgia, US, May 21, 2022

Our housesitting has been fun.  Weird but fun.  It’s hard to come to my parent’s house when they are not here.  However, we have had the time we needed to get a few big projects completed and the downtime we needed before heading out west. 

The first big project we knocked off the list was the sail bag or Stack Pak as sailors call it.  This bag is basically a bag that wraps around the main sail and protects it from the weather. It is huge some 18 feet long and heavy. Ours was not only in sad shape but since our boat was once a charter boat, it was the ugly “charter boat blue.”  This didn’t match any of the new canvas items we had made which were a nice grey.  We got a quote to have one made and it was $2,800!  Well since we are retired and had the time, we decided to get a secondhand walking foot sewing machine, the materials, and do it ourselves for about $900.  It was quite a job and took the two of us 4 days, but we did it!  I think Sailing Hubby had the machine apart about 4 times, but he made it work and we wrestled the huge garment to get it done.  I think it looks great!

Next on the list was replacing our exterior window shades.  We bought the shade fabric and used the machine to do these are well.  Lastly, was the cockpit surround but we have decided to wait and do this on the boat since there isn’t really a pattern and we will need to fit it several times during the process to get it right.

In addition to our own projects, we have kept all the plants alive (green thumb Hubby’s job).  Ron has mowed the lawn and having a big kitchen if helping us to cook the remainder of our pantry staples from the boat.  We still have a few projects and go through our stuff, get rid of some more, and decide what if anything we are taking back to the boat.  Good thing we still have 2 weeks to go.  It would be nice to fit in a beach day or two and some more downtime!