Which way are we going?

Sailors know that it is possible, indeed usual, to have the bow pointing in one direction with the boat going in a slightly different direction.  Given the state of the wind, point of sail, tides, and characteristics of a particular hull, it is even possible to be pointed the way one wants to go while blissfully unaware that the track over the ground is almost the exact opposite direction. 

The V-Drive man says he can build us up a brandy new unit and ship it our way.  After hours of painstaking research he found a part number for the Westerbeke custom fabricated coupling that will allow a Hurth transmission to be joined to his Walter V-drive.  He seems pretty pleased with his discovery and I am thankful for any hint that there is a way out of this drive train nightmare.  There is only one tiny little problem...

Westerbeke never heard of it.

In the mean time the powder coat people have figured out a way to finish up the hatch frames.  And it will only cost me $200 more to have them fix their mistake than they were going to charge me to do the job in the first place.  Even better, they can have the painted (not powder coated) hatches in my hands in a couple of weeks...which is the exact same amount of time I was originally quoted.  (Though it actually took them almost a month to screw them up.)  I gave the "go ahead".  A couple of grand for a tranny, another couple of grand for a v-drive, the cost of engine mounts and a mystery coupling yet to go; what's another couple of hundred bucks between friends?  At least I'll have something that I can actually put back on the boat.

This is what passes for progress in Kintala's world.

And yet...

I had to leave the marina early last weekend to spend a few days flogging the jet.  It was a good few days, some rain, a few low visibility approaches (one during a night landing - always a good time), even a little ice to knock off the boots.  The day after I got home family arrived for the holiday, kids and grand kids fill the house and a good time is being had by all.  But I woke up this morning and thought to myself, "Man it has been a while since I've been home."

For all of the problems when I think of home I am thinking of the boat.  That seems like a good thing.  Still, its going to be a long, cold interval until spring arrives and we find out if we are making any real headway in the direction of living aboard; or if Kintala is going in the wrong direction.