Springtime on Kent Island: 6/14 - 6/17

—Blogpost written by Bob 

Monday, June 14

Outside it was sunny and cool--a beautiful Spring day!  On our agenda for the day was buying a dock box at the nearby West Marine store (we needed to get some things off the boat but they needed to be handy!), driving to Annapolis, buying three storage containers, visiting our storage unit for drop off and pick ups, going out for lunch in town, and (who knows what after that). 

We ordered our new $900 dock box at
this West Marine store in Chester.  It
should arrive in about 2 weeks.

We had lunch at Carroll's Creek Cafe--I had my favorite Greek seafood salad which allowed me to stay within my carb guideline for the day.  It's a huge salad but I was hungry again a couple hours later.

While we were shopping for the storage containers at Target we found a neat door mat for on our dock. 

 Hopefully this new dock mat will help keep dirt
off the boat and keep the cockpit cleaner.

We got back to the boat at about 2:30 PM.  Maggie got busy cleaning the cockpit cushions so that we could make some repairs soon--the hold-down snaps have pulled out of the backrest cushion material. 

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The day ended with thunderstorms rolling through the area--they started after dark.  I was concerned about our forepeak tent still being up but it withstood the storm well.

Tuesday, June 15

Living on a boat (as a retiree) is like living a life of constant maintenance, some of it is fun but some (sometimes I think most) of it is not.  Today Maggie will be working on replacing snaps on our cockpit backrest cushions while I will be cleaning and waterproofing our sail cover.

Fortunately, the day started out sunny and in the upper 60's--70 degrees F when we started working shortly after 9:30 AM.  Last night's storms had cleared out any humidity that was in the air.  A mild but steady 9-knot breeze blew out of the northwest.

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Our first big task was getting our big sewing machine out of the trunk of our car and onto the boat.  The big (SAILRITE) sewing machine weighs 55 pounds!  Maggie easily made the reinforcement patches in the area where the snaps are located, making two thicknesses of Sunbrella beneath the green fake leather of the seat backrests.

While Maggie was sewing on the reinforcement patches, I was applying waterproofing liquid to the sail cover.  I got 1/2 of it done before we had to stop. 

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We then had to interrupt our efforts to make a quick trip to the dentist for Maggie.  One visit led to another dentist who will eventually (the end of this month) do a root canal.

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From the dentists visits on the mainland, we then went out for dinner at Panera Bread (We both had salads) and then proceeded to Deale to pick up our repaired auxiliary diesel tank.  The welder actually found 3 holes in the welds--one was much larger than the other two.  All the questionable welds were ground out and re-welded.  The tank (which is 6 years old) held 3 PSI overnight to prove its new state of integrity.  (The weld repair cost $200 and took 3 days.)

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We got back to the boat around 6:30 PM and applied waterproofing material to the other half of the sail cover and let it sit on the dock overnight to completely dry.

Our sail cover laying on the dock
to dry overnight.  (The coiled 
ropes were to prevent
the sail cover from
blowing away.)

Wednesday, June 16

Another beautiful Spring day, even better than yesterday!  It was so pleasant being outside!

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I began the auxiliary fuel tank reinstallation early--I was done by 10:30 AM!  I was careful not to "over clamp" the tank in place and, of course, I didn't use ANY caulk this time around!

Lola was helping me with the
tank reinstallation.

While I was finishing up the tank reinstallation, Maggie was sewing two hatch covers (for our smallest hatches) in the cockpit.  She was done with both of them by 1:15 PM--they look great!

Maggie sewing covers for our smallest hatches.  
It was so nice outside that she was
sewing in our cockpit.

New small hatch cover (looking forward)

New little hatch cover (looking aft)

Thursday, June 17

Today we drove to Kunkletown PA (3 hours away) to see our new Maine Coon kitten at the cattery.  She was only 6 weeks old.  The litter consisted of two brown tabbies and three all-black kittens, two of which were females.  (The two brown tabbies were also females.)

This is Kali at six weeks old.  Kittens are all
born with blue eyes but Kali's are
expected to change to
gold as she ages.

Kali next to her mom's food
bowl--Kali is still being
nursed.

Kali with one of her litter mates--she
was fascinated by her own
image on my iPad.

We didn't get back to the boat until about 5:30 PM but the trip was very worthwhile--we ended up picking a different kitten than we originally planned--the most energetic and the largest of the litter (and a brown tabby instead of an all-black one)!  We will be picking her up on August 9 and she will be 13 weeks old at that point. We can't wait!  (We must be a little bit crazy to be bringing another cat into our small living space!)

Until next blogpost, thanks for following our blog!