Oriental, NC

 Got the last 4 solar panels installed.  Nice to have that done.  Up and generating lots of power now!

 

 

Oriental, NC

 We got the first 4  new solar panels in place!   Hot, hot, hot here!

Oriental, NC

 Yes, I did finally get the roof top painted!!

I added some "non-skid particles" AKA sand to the paint.  This will make it super-safe to be on the rooftop managing the main sail.  There was already some roughness to the paint, this just makes it more pronounced.

And towards evening I spied these little sailboats practicing across the creek.  Warm and muggy here!

Oriental, NC

 It was breezy and warm so I decided to postpone the rooftop paint.  (The label says that coverage is substantially limited by warm and/or windy conditions).  

But I did get some painting done on shore - these are backing boards that Duane will be using to mount various electrical components for the new battery system. 

Meanwhile, Duane continues to plug along with new wiring and component installation.  Slow going and not very photogenic! 

Oriental, NC

The weather was good enough for me to finally get some paint started on the rooftop.  This is a special bare metal primer.  The areas painted are all the seams, rivets and bolts.   Tomorrow I'll use a roller and paint the entire top white.

 

 

 I made a quick and easy curry for dinner.  I usually make a complicated sauce with all kinds of spices and coconut milk.  But we'd been busy and I just wasn't really in the mood for a long drawn-out cooking episode.  

I had this bottle of sauce in the pantry so tried it for the first time.   Inexpensive too - I think the sauce was less than 2 bucks.

 

I did the cornstarch trick to crispy fry a container of extra firm tofu, cubed.  I just love how crunchy it gets.

 

 

 

 Just tossed in a bag of mixed frozen veggies and served over jasmine rice.

Turned out pretty good - not quite as good as my "homemade", but for ease I'd give it 4.5 stars.

And this morning was another spectacular sunrise - I woke to a pretty soft glow all around the boat.

Oriental, NC

 Not a lot going on that is very photogenic.  I did pick up the epoxy paint yesterday, but can't do the painting yet because of the rainy weather. (The paint requires 8 hours to dry).

But the sunrise this morning was pretty spectacular!

Oriental, NC

 We spent most of the day on the rooftop.  There were dozens of holes where we removed the solar panels - so we sanded these areas (both on top and under) and installed rivets to seal the holes.    

Lucky that we have all the equipment necessary to install hard rivets leftover from aircraft repairs!

In addition, we sealed seams and other existing rivets, hoping to keep a few of the "drips" we've had during heavy rains.  

I know it doesn't sound like much, but it took most of the day!  We should be ready to prime/paint tomorrow after we get the paint from the boat yard.  Then the new solar panels will be ready for installation!

Oriental, NC

 Did some sanding on the rooftop.  The epoxy paint will be at the boatyard for pickup on Monday, so we'll have to wait a few days before we're able to mount the new solar panels.

Speaking of solar panels - they finally arrived via FedEx.  We're going from 8 X 75Watts to 8 X 120Watts....so we'll have a lot more power available!  Duane's got a good bit of prep work to do, of course.  Wiring and brackets. 

And we're happy that we'll be able to get our old panels to Keith and Denise to re-use!

Oriental, NC

Starting the solar panel replacement.  We ordered new ones but they're not here yet.....but the old ones need to be removed.

Not difficult, just tedious. 

All removed!  They look so small all piled up there!

But the cockpit roof is pretty messy.  We'll have to do some repair work - lots of corrosion to deal with where the old panels were mounted.

Looks much better after a good bath of bleach and soap. 

And some yard work finished out the day.  Ready to kick back now!

Oriental, NC

 Made it back to the boat today!  

First we had to take care of a little hurricane Isaias damage....a pretty little maple tree fell over our driveway.....

Duane made short work of it with his chainsaw.  I aided by dragging the brush away....

Drive-able now!

We'll see if anyone in Oriental wants free firewood!

The boats are fine - no hurricane damage.    Got the A/C running and we're going to relax tonight before any further activities!

Pittsboro, NC

 Diane sent me some photos from her phone from the get-together.  Some of them include Duane and I and I thought you might enjoy.  Charlie and Duane getting ready to face off on the corn-hole tournament. 

 

Me throwing against Trish.

 

Duane getting ready to throw a bean bag against Brian.....good fun!  

 

 

Pat and Diane, the host and hostess won the game (as it should be!)

 

 

Photo of the grill with all the fish and lobster.  A good time and no one went hungry!

 

Pittsboro, NC

 We advertised our "free firewood" in the local online chatlist.  I got about 10 calls - "irst come, first serve".

I chatted from a distance with the first couple that showed up.  Small world, both he and his son are pilots and they didn't know Eagles Landing was here!  

 

 

They seemed very nice.  But they didn't want to take all of the wood, so I called the 2nd guy back.  I didn't get a photo of him, but he left a bit also because it wouldn't fit in his trailer.  He's going to come back tomorrow and get the rest.  Fun easy way to get rid of stuff!

Pittsboro, NC

 We had a lovely time at Pat and Diane's last night.  We got together with several of the runway couples - outside and no hugging allowed!  

Played corn-hole and it was a fun evening.

This morning we went flying - the clouds ended up being thicker than we expected so we just did a few practice approaches and came back home.

 

On final approach at Eagles Landing

And this afternoon I needed to go to the Post Office, so I decided I'd do my part and buy a couple of extra sheets of stamps and "loan" the PO a few dollars so they can properly deliver all mail-in ballots this November!

Pittsboro, NC

 We went to the eye doctor for the first time in several years.  I finally need bifocals.  When we got to the area to purchase glasses, the assistant told me that it would be over $400 for a basic pair of glasses.  That is ridiculous!!  So I had her print out my prescription, paid $98 for the exam and left.

I went to Zenni.com and used their "Try On" feature to pick out a couple of pairs of glasses.

It's sortof fun - here's what the screen looks like when you "try on" any number of glasses.  (You upload a photo of yourself and then pick from 400 or so frames - a click of the mouse put the glasses on your face.  You can even make it twist your head so you can see the glasses from the side.  Kinda cool!)

Bottom line, I ordered 2 pairs of progressive lens glasses, one with polaraized sunglass tint.  My total bill was $112!

They will be here in about 10 days - I'll post photos when they arrive.

Pittsboro, NC

 Sorry to keep boring you with lawn work.....but it's all we've been doing lately!

The overgrown area wasn't terrible, it just had several years worth of dead limbs, briars and soft undergrowth.  Now it looks pretty manicured and you can see thru the trees to the runway.

Now we have 2 huge piles of brush - hopefully we'll be able to push those into the clear soon and burn them.  The wood pile is on the local chatlist today, so hopefully someone will come pick it up and get it out of our way!

Pittsboro, NC

 We have just been doing chores around the house lately....spent a good part of yesterday cleaning up the underbrush and small trees in the woods between the house and the runway.  Large brush pile accumulating.

And a big pile of firewood is accumulating as well.  I've offered it up for free on the local chatlist.  Hopefully, someone who can use it will show up and haul it away!

Did I mention it was hot working out there?  Yeah.  It was hot.....

Pittsboro, NC

Sorry, still not sailing related!   Just hanging out at home.

We did a good bit of trim-mowing just to tidy things up around the yard.   The area under the trees has not been mowed in a while - lots of dead-fall branches. 

Makes it look much nicer just to have it all the trimmed back.

Pittsboro, NC

 Took a short flight this morning....nothing much happening.  Just warm and muggy.

Pretty and green out there though with all the recent rains.

Pittsboro, NC

 I was out in the woods and noticed some pretty mushrooms - so I decided to take photos of  some of the interesting/colorful plants around today. 

And these hostas should be pretty....but the deer have overrun them!