Cleanup and a little sailing friend's music

We spent a couple of days cleaning up our other lot- chainsawed a couple more trees and hauled the wood and brush out to the main road for FEMA pickup. 

Funny story...we got a "little bit" stuck with our van on the lot.  We had parked the van with the trailer attached in an area that didn't have any gravel.  It was still wet/soggy from the remnants of Hurricane Michael....and one of the front wheels bogged down.

While trying to extricate ourselves, I unfortunately decided I might assist by pushing.....and got rewarded by a bunch of black mud splattered all over the van and myself!

Strangely, the mud was about body temperature and I didn't really realize it was all over me until Duane told me!

We ended up jacking up the van and put some boards under the tire since we didn't have another vehicle for a tug/tow.  


Got cleaned up and went back into Oriental to hear our new friends Bentley and Jim from the Manta "Salty Paws" play at the New Village Brewery.  Enjoyed hearing their Irish folk songs.

After their performance, the "4 Manta couples" had a nice visit and a fun meal together.  Great to meet like-minded folks!

Cover for the dinghy motor

Our sunbrella dinghy motor cover had blown off when we went thru the heavy wind/seas on our way to Ocracoke several months ago.  

Just getting around to replacing it.  It's important because we often get backed into a boat or dock with swells or just random moving around.  Without a cover, the motor will get scuffed and/or scuff whatever it's up against. 

I started before hurricane Florence  when we had the dinghy on the trailer.  It was much easier to make a pattern on the ground than with it hanging mid-air off the back of the boat!

I just took kraft paper and wrapped/taped the motor to make a pattern.  

Then I cut the pattern out.

I ordered the "Sapphire" color of sunbrella to match all the other items on the boat.  I cut out the pieces, adding extra allowance for the darts to make it more fitted.

Just assembled it with basting stitches and fitted it wrong side out.   After I had it fitted, I re-stitched it to make it stronger.

Fitted pretty nice - doesn't have to be perfect, just needs to stay on this time!!

Added a drawstring at the bottom and pieces of the reflective fabric.

I turned the flash on so you can see the reflection - we should be visible in the dark if someone shines a light on us!  Also, our friends lost their dinghy in the Bahamas at night - and couldn't find it after hours of searching.  We figure that the reflective tape might help in that case also.

Pretty pleased with it!

Cleanup

All along the roads in Oriental are piles and piles of trash/insulation/vegetation/debris.  FEMA, NC DOT and Pamlico County are sending trucks out to pick it all up over the next few weeks.

Here is one of our piles.  We've hauled many trailer loads of wood/brush. And loads of treated lumber/dock boards that washed up on our lot.  They want you to keep it separated since the different varieties of trash go to different dumps.  I look forward to this all being over and back to pretty green roadsides!

We took a break last night and had a little "Manta" get together.  Attending were Jim and Bentley from Salty Paws, Rhonda and Bruce from Lila Jane and Jerry and Donna from Blue Jacket (not a Manta but we enjoy their company!!)  Had a nice long visit and we got to use the new sling seat!!

Oriental

We're just hanging at the boat, doing chores.

Still lots of trees to haul out to the main road.  FEMA and NCDOT are picking up storm debris, so we need to get it finished before they stop!

In our grass this neat flower popped up!  I understand it's called a "Bare Naked Lady" since it only has a stalk, no greenery.

We went to New Bern to spend the night with friends - forgot to snap any photos.....

But we all went back to Oriental to enjoy the Old Front Porch Music Festival.

And we wandered around Oriental - the shrimp boats all appear to be parked in town.   They must not be able to fish right now - maybe due to the hurricane??

And that's about it for today - just chores trying to get ready for a fall southbound departure!

Sling seat finally finished!

The long awaited sling seat is finally installed! 

Pretty pleased with it - very comfy.

This will be the perfect "perch" while visiting with friends or underway with great visibility forward.

We had bought stainless hardware to attach/hold up the lower bar, but Duane decided a neater method would be to braid some extremely strong Dyneema line.  He did a nice job as usual!

Busy, busy

We've been busy at home doing a list of chores.

One big chore was to sew the long-awaited "sling seat".

Remember this is what it will look like in general - but not dark green!

So time to get started!

Rolled out the Phifertex material and started measuring, marking and cutting.

This is a closeup of the material - its a vinyl coated weave that allows water to soak thru and doesn't retain any moisture.  An important factor since this will be exposed to the elements.   Very strong and heavy.

I won't bore you with the step-by-step.  But it was lots and lots of straight long stitches!  The new machine handled it well - just a few times were difficult when I had 8 layers to sew thru at the corners. 

I was pleased with the long zipper installation.  It's been a long time since I've sewn a zipper!

The finished zipper placard ready to be sewn into the big box cushion edge.

I ordered a special "dry fast" open cell foam that allows water to just pour right thru it without soaking in.  Cut it to size with an electric knife.

Here's the finished box cushion cover ready for "stuffing".

And here's the cushion all ready.  I'm pretty pleased with this first time attempt!  (Gotta give Duane lots of credit because he helped the entire time with holding and moving this heavy material.  Couldn't have done it without his help!)   We'll be at the boat soon and you'll get to see the finished installation!

 And this has nothing to do with sailing,  but we did take a break and flew home to visit the folks.

Approaching Asheville Airport....pretty fall day.  And I completely forgot to snap any other photos!  Later....

Our friend's blog

Take a look at our friend's blog about their week with us during Hurricane Florence! 

What If 

Entrance mat for the boat

When we're at a dock, the first step you make onto the boat usually leaves a scuff or dirt from your shoes.  Sometimes I just throw an old towel there out to try to minimize the dirt tracked onto the boat.  I decided to make a custom fit towel/mat.

First, I used kraft paper to make a pattern.  I know it looks weird, but stay with me. 

I didn't take many photos during the process, but basically I found several old towels that were similar color and cut out the pieces using the pattern.  This photo is during the sewing - inside/out.  I sewed a total of 4 layers of towel to make it heavy.  (The grey and multicolor towels will be hidden when turned right-side-out).

And here is the finished product!  Very pleased with it and virtually no cost!

More Hurricane Florence Cleanup

We spent most of the day over at the "other lot" cleaning up a bunch of fallen trees.  We had to clean it up to retrieve our trailer and riding mower!  Lots of trees fell - luckily they all missed the trailer.

Note the huge "rootball" on the left.  There were two huge trees attached to the rootball lying on the ground.  Duane cut the trees off -

And the rootball slammed back in place on the ground!

We're nowhere near finished....but we were tired and we'd ran out of water so we headed back to the boat for some rest!

Hurricane Florence Cleanup

Lots of "stuff" washed up on our lot.....here's just a sampling.  Nice Wheelbarrow.  Nice Adirnondack chair, bumper, playmate cooler....still finding stuff.

A few trees down that we'll have to saw up and haul brush.

More "stuff" and natural debris.

Different view of the broken trees.

We had our neighbor Jerry's big propane tank.  He came to retrieve it.....still full of fuel since he cut it off before the hurricane.  Still attached were the screw-in earth anchors that obviously didn't hold!

 

 We took a break and drove into Oriental to see if we could retrieve our riding lawn mower that we had parked on our other lot since it's on higher ground.  You can see it in the distance....but lots of trees fell on that lot.  We'll have to go back later with a chain saw to be able to get our mower!

Next is a series of photos showing us pulling our extremely heavy concrete bench out of  the water.  I'm still amazed that the water moved these two heavy benches!

All on dry ground!  We'll tie it to a tree for the next hurricane!

As we're clearing trees, we're starting to make a new firewood pile!

Looking better!!