Springtime on Kent Island: 5/24 - 5/27

—Blogpost written by Bob 

Monday, May 24

Lola, our 3-year old Maine Coon cat, got real needy last night, staying very close to me and even coming into the v-berth and sleeping right next to me.  I think she was missing Maggie.  (I picked up Maggie at the BWI airport much later in the day.)

The wind kicked up about 4 AM (wind was gusting to 18 knots) but it reduced quite a bit by daybreak.  The sky was overcast when I woke.  What little rain that was in the forecast would have already been experienced before daybreak (or so I thought).  Our new flowers on the dock were already looking weather beaten after the wind last night.

Our second dock flowers after last night's high
wind. (The wind was still moving the
flowers which is why this image
was so out of focus.)

I resolved the lost mail shipment this morning—I never requested that it be shipped and it was still in the HOLD folder.  Fortunately, no mail was lost.  Everything worked the way it was intended except my brain (and I still erroneously rely on it heavily). (Scary, huh?)

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Today was my sixth day on the KETO diet and I think I am finally adjusting to it (a little).  I still really miss a good breakfast sandwich from Starbuck's and a slice or two of pizza from Italian Market for lunch.

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It started to rain in the middle of the afternoon and stopped my little project of making a screw jack dead in its tracks.

Tuesday, May 25

Fifty-nine degrees in the morning feels chilly—at least that was our experience this morning.  The sky was still overcast in the morning hours but no rain was in the day’s forecast.  I weighed myself this morning and found out that I lost 4 pounds after my first full week on KETO!  (For all the sacrifice I expected more.)

It was nice (as well as challenging) adapting to Maggie being back home.  The nice part is rather obvious.  The challenging part is dealing with her “talking to herself” and not finishing sentences when she talks.  Fortunately, the “nice” far outweighs the “challenging.”

Our plan for the day was to drive to Annapolis to visit (not just “visit” but to do some organizing and drop things off at) our storage unit, go out for lunch at Carrols Creek Cafe (while remaining on our strict diet), and do some major grocery shopping before heading back to Kent Island.  (We ended up doing much more than simple grocery shopping.)  Once back on Kent Island early in the afternoon, I planned to make the screw jack to enable me to break the auxiliary fuel tank free of the caulk holding it in place. 

Before leaving for Annapolis, I started a beef roast in the crockpot, adding a diced shallot, a quartered clove of garlic, a little soy sauce, black pepper, and about a half cup of water.  I also removed the door between our main salon and the v-berth to “open things up” a bit in our main salon.  (We never close the door anyway and we planned to take it to our storage unit.)

Visiting our storage unit was frustrating for me because way too many things were stuffed into bags and thrown into the middle of storage unit and you can’t stack things on top of bags.  We got rid of most of the bagged items, storing them in more appropriate plastic containers.  I got out my summer sandals and a lot of shorts that I expected to need very soon.

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After lunch I was very tempted to have a slice of cheese cake for dessert.  We looked up the number of carbs (35g, I think) and, reluctantly, passed on dessert.  (This was my first weakness in terms of the KETO diet.)

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By the time we got back to the boat on Kent Island and got our groceries stowed it was 4:30 PM, much later than I anticipated.  I didn’t start my project on making the screw jack so late in the afternoon, postponing it until tomorrow morning.  (This project postponement the was good practice for the “mañana” attitude that I’m sure we will find in Mexico in the fall.)

When we got back to Kent Island the sun was shining and it was beginning to warm up (71 degrees F).  Lola had done a good job of guarding our boat—no one boarded it without permission (as far as we know anyway).

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Every night for the past few days I got bug bites (I think while I was sleeping).  Usually it involves only one or two bites that itch into the next day.

While I have no evidence except the
itchy aftermath, I'm sure this was
the offending critter though.

At 5 PM, the beef roast was smelling great!  For preparation, I first sliced the beef and then pulled it apart with two forks.  Wrapped in a low-carb tortilla with a slice of provolone cheese, it made a tasty meal. (I should have added some hot sauce but I didn't think of it at the time.)

This evening's happy hour drink consisted
of Crystal Light's fruit punch singles
packet, 1-1/2 ounces of vodka, 
water, and blended ice. 

Wednesday. May 26

Why did the rain start at 8 AM when I wanted to start making the screw jack?  As of yesterday, rain wasn’t even in the forecast for this morning.

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Maggie and I had a long discussion this morning about whether we wanted to continue our KETO diet because it has been so restrictive.  I was the one pushing for its discontinuance while Maggie wanted to stay the course for one more week.  (Of course, she hasn't been on this diet as long as I have.)  We considered the Mediterranean diet but the number of carbs to meet my weight loss goal were very similar (25g). This was my second sign of weakness in terms of the KETO diet but we will stick with it for a few more days or a week. (I'm sure we will have more discussion about quitting.)  During lunch, we discovered a way to adapt the CarbManager app (under settings) to accept more carbs as normal--I set mine for 47 carbs (up from a measly 23) to see if it makes a difference in my attitude.

Usually my projects begin with a
cryptic design sketch that
only I can decipher.

The rain clouds passed by around 10 AM but returned again at 10:30 AM and even more rain was in the forecast for the afternoon (after 2 PM but it never came).  The sun came out full blast and it became very warm (putting it mildly) since the outside temperature shot up to 88 degrees F.  We put up our forepeak tent and a sunscreen over the forward portion of our dodger (with the front window removed for improved ventilation).

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In the early afternoon, I sprayed our v-berth area with two different types of insecticide--one for flying insects (like mosquitos) and one for crawling insects (like "no-see-ums")--I hope one of them kills whatever was biting me. (I also rubber Benadryl cream on my six or so bug bites to prevent them from itching so badly.)

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Maggie made a lot of progress on our modified backrest for the navigation station seat--it had to be made thinner (coming down in thickness from about 3-1/2" to 2").

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Before I knew it, Happy Hour was upon us and I had not made any progress on the screw jack project. There's always tomorrow...

Thursday, May 27

After finally getting some beautiful weather, this morning I dove into the project of making the screw jack to be used to lift the auxiliary fuel tank up from the caulk holding it in place.

The mostly completed screw jack was
positioned upside down
 in this image.

The only thing left to do was to epoxy the nuts fast to the piece of 2x4 on the lower edge (top of above image).  Making this screw jack took all morning, right up until lunchtime. We had to drive to our storage unit in Annapolis to pick up some of my epoxy things. By the time we returned from Annapolis our day was pretty much over. Epoxying the nuts fast had to wait until Friday morning (to be covered in our next blogpost).

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In the afternoon I sprayed all around our v-berth with an ant-killing spray, the third type of insecticide to kill the biting insect that has been attacking me lately during my sleep.

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Meanwhile Maggie was working on modifying the back cushion for our navigation station seat. Tomorrow will show a lot of progress on that front as well...

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