Got them all tied up....nice to have Ed and Cathy back at the dock!
Then Monica and Jason tied up at the end of the dock - Monica practicing her cowgirl skills!
Fun to see all the Mantas....wish Charm was here and somehow at the dock as well! (They're a day or two from here).
Jason and Monica treated us to pizza night at the Silo. Good fun and conversation.
View from our cockpit! That's a whole lota Manta!
I measured and fabricated two panels that will hang from the existing shades using carabiners.
This is a first take at it just pinned in place. Not a perfect solution but will give us some relief in certain sun angles. Will tweak it in a couple of days after I get the caribiners that I ordered.
And we were treated to a pretty sunrise this morning.
All was well after the storm. Just a lot of debris floated up into the parking area. Mostly just pine needles and leaves, a few boards. Our stone/rip-rap seawall did sustain a little wave action damage but that will be fairly easy to put back in place.
Still a little overcast but so nice that the winds have calmed!
One of my boat projects this summer is to repair the roll-up sunshades. They get a lot of abuse from the wind when deployed. I made several patches out of Sunbrella. The repairs are not going to be pretty, just functional.
Here is an example of a wear spot. The shades are pulled across our stainless life lines and there are several areas that get a lot of abrasion.
Simple patches will prolong the life of the shade.
Reinstalled the shade should be good for another few years. One side done, another to do on another day.
On the Duane side of the house, he's installed the new smaller water heater and an accumulator tank the salt water in the extra space. This will aid the watermaker.
We had a nice visit for sundowners with them. Now we're getting everything ready for Tropical Storm Ophelia....should just be a lot of rain and flooding....
Cruising friends we met in the Ragged Islands a couple of years ago had offered up their old sail battens (stiffening rods) because they have replaced their sails. They are hauled out north of Norfolk, VA and will be departing in a few weeks southbound for their circumnavigation!!
Here's Judy - taking a short break from their boat chores. According to Judy, they have a long list and it all needs to be done before they head out, of course! Todd greeted us for a few minutes but was back inside the boat quickly as a project beckoned....
Duane made short work of tying the 20' long battens to the pickup for the 4 hour drive back to Oriental.
Interesting to drive thru the heavy industrial area crossing the James River. Piles and piles of coal.
And lots of ship work going on.
And always a bit thrilling to go thru the tunnel "under the water". Otherwise an uneventful drive thru the Virginia/NC country.
Thought I'd explain the the end a little bit about the battens. We drove all that way to get the "free" battens because it would be horribly expensive to pay for shipping since it would basically require a tractor/trailer for delivery due to the 20' length.
I'll use them when I re-design and recreate our main sail bag. The red line will be where I will sew the battens in a pocket on either side of the sailbag. This will give the bag a stiff shape and will hold the bag open - when we drop the sail it will just fall neatly into the bag. (This is not an earth-shattering new invention by me - lots of folks have this design).
I’m doing some organizing and decluttering. Actually taking some unused items off the boat!
Duane is busy replacing the water heater.
Back at the Happy Place! Lots to do! And looking forward to seeing some of our crusing buddies from the northeast soon!
We have a large canvas bag of tools on the boat that is always in disarray. I had left over Phifertex from the salon window shades last year so I decided to make some pouches to organize the wrenches. First, the metric ones.
Planning how to lay it all out.
Using a white erasable marker to plan the pockets.
I had leftover navy colored vinyl binding as well, so I used that to finish all the edges.
Continued the stitching and added a tie on one end.
All done and at no added cost! And I made an identical one for the SAE wrenches too....
And then I decided that the screwdrivers, pliers and ratchets needed a more organized home as well. These just got basic bags made out of some outdoor fabric.
.HEIC)
.HEIC)
I'm doing fine post-Covid! Just a little sniffles and a very occasional cough. Glad I was vaccinated making it not much worse than an cold.
Lindy invited me over to do a little end-of-garden scavenging. Nice!
Duane has gotten Covid also....just a few days behind me. He's fine also, just a little worse than a cold and he's on the tail-end of it as well.
Sunday we gathered at Pat and Diane’s pool for a bit of a neighborhood party.
Unfortunately, I was feeling a bit under the weather by the late afternoon.....I tested for Covid with a home test. Yuck! Fortunately, I had a very light case, I believe thanks to the many vaccines I've gotten. Feeling pretty goo already on Tuesday.
