Long time, no blog. Since returning from California in July, I have spent much of the remaining summer back in Oklahoma. Mom is experiencing a serious health problem, but she's taking the necessary steps to beat it and those of us who know her well have no doubt that she will. Mom lives on by brother and sister-in-law's horse ranch, so their being close-by is great for all of us.
The pelicans have stopped by on their way south. So they're thinking it's fall.
Here in Brunswick (yes, we're still here) the air has suddenly cooled today and it is actually feeling fallish. Some boat projects have taken longer than planned, plus, not surprisingly, we have had some unexpected projects. The generator required lots of attention. A stuck valve required investigation and then replacement of both valve push rods. Larry also replaced the exhaust gasket and the impeller. He then made an internal RPM adjustment. To have better access to the generator, he cut a whole in the fiberglass in the engine room! Another unexpected project was a new Balmar regulator, now installed and working. A new admiral panel (cockpit gauges) and lines have been installed. All tests are A-OK for these new projects. Our solar panels and controller, our wind generator, and our Link 2000 battery monitor are doing what they are supposed to, and with the generator adjustment, we should be pretty darn self-sufficient once the Spectra water maker is installed (Big job, Larry has removed the old one ). Larry plans to install it in late October. We’re also adding a storage shelf in the aft cabin. We had to relocate the fan and we've added stainless steel bars which will be the base for a shelf. Placed sbove the mattress cushions, the shelf creates much needed space without compromising the sleeping area for guests.
So, a fairly productive summer, considering... We are retired, you know, so no eight-hour project days for us! This area has experienced rain and thunderstorms above normal all spring and summer. Not only does this weather pattern become tiresome, it also slows down boat projects and presents very few favorable weather windows, which is one of the several reasons we didn’t get away from here to sail north to Annapolis. During one major lightning storm, seven boats sustained damage from lightning strikes, though we were thankfully not one of them. None of the owners were on board, so the marina had to notify them. Not the kind of news you want to hear from your marina. Thus far, we’ve had no hurricane, or even tropical storm threats.
Like other places, boaters here consider social times important. Some evenings we meet other boaters on the docks for a sundowner. We have boater friends here that we knew from the Bahamas, plus we’ve met many other nice boaters with whom to share tales and talk about future plans. We’re on Dock 1, so we meet a few of the transient boaters. We were outside earlier today talking to a couple with a two-year-old daughter. They’ve sailed here from Europe and are on their way to Deltaville, Virginia to spend the winter at a do-it-yourself yard. In less than an hour, we found out both negative and positive information about places in the Caribbean, specifically, negative about Trinidad and positive about the St. Lucia, the French Islands, and the ABC’s. We were able to give them a little info too, so we all benefitted. By the way, you might recall Deltaville is where we took our boat last summer and we finally left to head south on December 5 – with frost on our glass enclosure.
We're watching the weather now and getting everything put back in place on our boat. We are planning to be underway to Charleston by the end of the week, where we'll have the boat hauled for a bottom job plus more. It's about 150 miles, so we'll do an over-nighter. While the boat is out of the water, we'll spend a few days in Annapolis at the Boat Show. Hope we see you there.
