Fixing the new parts

I've been fixing up the bowsprit, and its almost perfect now. I've got a piece of Phillipine Mohagony for the spar, and I replaced the lower cable, and added a dolphin striker (or I call them dolphin kickers) The final length of my boat is now about 32 ft long, and I have a really nice rig. Before, the outer jib tangled in the inner forestay sometimes, but I moved it out a little bit and tightened it so now it doesnt, and the anchor roller doesn't tangle in the down-stay either. I've put in a spot for the spinnaker to attach to, so everything is ready for action.
I made this picture, to show what I look like exactly one year after the "before" picture was taken. (see early blog posting)
So things are coming together. I've got the vane assembly on the boat ready to install, and the whole setup only needs a rudder and cables and its ready to go. I'm excited, I think it will be in two days I have a wind vane.
I don't like the anchoring in Bellingham, and I've been leaving the boat for a few days at a time, and going down to Seattle, but its not easy to do. The bottom here is not very good holding ground, and I've dragged anchor just last week and got a call from the coast guard, or rather a visit, and I wasn't home, so it was a big ordeal... Lesson: leave your phone on, and your number visible on the boat, when you leave the boat for a few days.
Anyways, everything is all right, I've learned a good anchoring solution. You drop two anchors, but have them connect to the front of the boat, so that the boat can pivot about the attach point, and not present a bigger surface to the wind or current. Then, get a bigger scope (which is the ratio of how much the line goes down (depth) to how much it goes out (sideways distance to the anchor). To get the bigger scope, you take a weight and string it around both anchor lines and make them connect on the bottom, so they run together, then the lines come vertically up to the boat. It makes the anchors hold much stronger than one alone, and much better than two, front and back. If I put a third anchor in a triangle, it would be the best, because then I would be protected from all angles, but I just have to anticipate the wind or current direction for this one.
(and Bellingham bay is mistreating me right now, the wind is not from the south or north, so it is hard to match it)