A new and final day on the mooring and one new job added to the list. Yesterday I switched the y-valve to send the head output to the holding tank vice over the side and promptly discovered that either the holding tank is full or the line to the tank is blocked. We will be calling for a pump out this AM to eliminate that possibility and failing success in that I will be snaking out the hose. Fortunately we do carry a plumber's snake that is long enough and with the removal of a floor panel or two the whole length is accessible.

Ok. Now at the end of a most wonderful day. First, it turns out that the head to holding tank line is not blocked. In fact the holding tank wasn't full either. Turns out the problem was with me - I hadn't completely turned the valve from one output to the other. I had done it once before and it took Barb mentioning it for me to think of it and sure enough with a little beasting on the handle it now is doing what it is supposed to.

Then we made contact with our friends Barry and Marcia Talley, Barry the retired director of music at USNA, and Marcia a prolific mystery novel writer, and they came down to pick us up to take us to their place so Barb and Marcia could do our laundry and have a chat, and Barry took Suki the outboard and I on a whirlwind trip to try to get someone to fix her. We eventually ended up at the Port Annapolis Marina where Kevin the service manager and his staff initially agreed to fix her and give us a "loaner" for the time that it would take them to get to it. As it turned out, the mechanic put her on a stand to check out the obvious stuff so he could get an idea of the problem for the work order and with our description of what happen d and what we had already done, he got her started in a couple of pulls. He brought it back to us and basically just said there you go, take it away, no charge. I doubt all their work is that reasonable but clearly they have a sense of ethics about their work. He said that it would have started for us if we had only pulled the cord another half dozen times. Anyone need work done while in Annapolis please consider these folks.

Back to Nelleke with clean laundry and renewed friendship with the Talleys. In fact we will probably and hopefully be seeing much more of them while here in Annapolis - tomorrow at dinner for instance.

We are hoping to find someplace in Spa Creek to anchor tomorrow for the rest of our visit. We'll let you know.