Pittsboro, Mills River, Hendersonville, Pittsboro.

 Sorry, getting behind on my posts!

We stayed at the house in Pittsboro just one evening then headed towards the mountains.

It was my mom’s 84th birthday- we had a nice little party at Keith and Denise’s house.  Love the cool “fall” cheeseball.

Nice cake and presents of course.

Beautiful weather.

Yummy potluck  

And lots of conversation.

We also visited with Duane’s family, including a family reunion…I didn’t manage to take even one photo.   But as always nice to see folks and enjoy the good food!

As you see, my mom is looking great!

And then back to Pittsboro…time for book club!!   I hosted since we won’t be around much soon…

Just a food photo…I made a yummy blueberry cheesecake that was enjoyed by all.

Pittsboro, NC

 We wrapped things up at the boat (not finished, just ran out of time!)

Stopped by Bridgeton Boatworks to see if Tracy was there. She bought the 42 Manta from us in January and we had never met her.  (The broker handled the entire transaction)

We had a nice long visit, she’s doing lots of the retrofits that we would have done had we kept the boat.

Then we headed back to Pittsboro for a short stay before heading to the mountains!  Never stationary!

Oriental, NC

 Still hanging out, many chores. 

Duane disassembled the windlass…will have to take the shaft home to press it apart (sledge hammer didn’t work)…. 

We’re replacing the chain as our existing one is rusty and of unknown origin/installation date. 

Dinghy motor oil changed.  

Spare parts inventory taken.

The fresh water pump decided to misbehave with air coming in on the vacuum side so Duane is investigating.

Not glamorous by any means.

We do have some pretty sunsets though!

 

Oriental, NC

 It’s never a good sign when the toilet bowl gets taken off !!

There was a small leak…but NO leak is acceptable of course!

It was just an old gasket, easily replaced from our spare parts. Glad that job is over!

Oriental, NC

The main hatch over our spare berth had developed a small leak....the only solution is really to remove the hatch and redo the caulking.  Tedious process as the caulking is likely 10 years old or more.

 

We disassembled the hatch and cleaned all surfaces.

Just brute force, no other way to do it.

A messy but satisfying project.

All done, just waiting 24 hours to remove the excess caulk and masking tape.  Ah, the joys of boat ownership!

 

Oriental, NC

 Have I told you lately that I love my window louvers?  The view out of the salon is just wonderful after being closed in with the dark window coverings for so many years.....but in the mornings/evenings when the sun angle is low, the harsh sun is annoying and hot.  (Yes, the windows are tinted but it's not sufficiently dark to help with this issue).

I set about making inserts to have on hand to block the sun when the occasion occurs.....luckily, there was some perfect foam leftover from the solar panel packaging that I pieced together to make a pattern. 

 

Pattern cut and fitted snugly inside the window frame.  Not perfect but doesn't have to be....sorry for the mess, you know how it gets when you're in the middle of several projects.....

 

I had the old sunshades stored in the trailer - so I got those out and reused the solar blanket bubble wrap material.

All done with the fitting.  There is some sagging because the windows are at a pretty steep angle.  I've ordered some heavy duty suction cups from Amazon that will be inserted to keep the material snug to the window.....

I won't use them often but will be nice to have in certain situations.

Oriental, NC

 Duane has been working on adding 600 watts more in solar panels. We had 960 watts which was great, but more is better!!  Just getting started deciding on positions. 

Making sure he leaves room for a walking path when needed  

All done, working great.

Oriental, NC

 It’s that time of year again. Time for us to be crew on Bluejacket for the yearly haulout.  Beautiful almost fall morning. 

I piloted the boat for a while. 

Always fun to spot the Minnesott ferry.

The narrow channel entering the Wayfarers Cove Marina. 

The narrow well - Bluejacket just barely squeezes in with a few inches to spare.

All hands keep the boat from damage while the yard crew positions the straps. 

Lifting out, all is well.

Jerry and Donna treated us to a nice lunch at the nearby golf course. Good fun for the day!

Oriental, NC

 More little boat chores. Not many of them very photogenic, like cleaning the rusty spots off of all the stainless bright work. 

This one is kind of fun though. I had ordered these Manta stickers a couple of years ago. Several of the Manta boats have them on the sides of the hull to mark where the slings should go when we haul out. Just now got around to putting them on.

Two step application. Put the sticker on, then wet the outside paper to release. 

Otherwise, Duane is steadily working on the install of 600 more watts of solar.  We'll have a total of, I think, 1560 watts when he's done.  This will mean we really don't need a generator anymore.  If our existing generator has issues, we'll just remove it and gain several hundred pounds of useful load!

Oriental, NC

 Different beautiful view from the boat. It’s still gorgeous weather, a tad bit on the warm side, though. 

Oriental, NC

Just checking in…..We’re at the boat, weather is wonderful. We’re  just doing lots of boat chores. 

View from the boat!

Oriental, NC

 We are back at the boat and it is just lovely here!  The sail cover fits fine, it’s a little looser than I was expecting. May have to do a bit of adjustment.

Pittsboro, NC

Paving day has finally arrived!!!

The work crew arrived on schedule at 8AM.

 And got right to work.

 

 Fun to watch.  Here are some before and after shots.

 

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After:

 

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 We're really pleased with it!  We've got it roped off so that no one can drive on it for 24 hours just to be sure it doesn't get damaged.

Looking forward to driving on the nice smooth surface!