Our home for a while
27 July 2008 | Deltaville, VA
Mike and Kathy
July 23... Deltaville, VA
We wasted time in the morning and I made Spanish rice for lunch...and lunch tomorrow and probably a third day. Then, we took the dinghy to the Deltaville Marina / Boatyard to check out the area and hopefully rent a slip for tomorrow. I checked in at the boatyard just to say that we were here and are ready for a haul out on Saturday . Then we stopped in at the marina office to arrange for a slip for tomorrow. We wandered around the boat yard and found a few boats that were familiar. We checked out Tilt, who we knew was going to be here but we also found Star Shadow and Fawkes, families that we knew from the Bahamas and Annapolis.
After returning to Sapphire I read for a while but felt guilty doing nothing all day so I made a paper pattern for our rear cockpit seats and then transferred the pattern to a piece of plywood that I picked from the trash in the Solomons. Since I knew that we were going to have lots of water tomorrow, I cut out and sanded the bottoms of our new seats making a sawdust mess over everything.
I threw some chicken breasts in the oven with chicken broth, onions, and artichoke hearts, covered pan with tin foil an let them cook slowly for a couple of hours. It was easy and tasted better than expected.
July 24th... Deltaville, VA
After coffee I began to prepare the boat for tying up at a dock. Getting out dock lines, that have seen very little use in the last year, and fenders and getting the things put away that are fine when at anchor but tend to look a little cluttered when folks are wandering down the dock
We moved from our anchorage to the Marina in about 8 minutes. Actually, we were there before I was done cleaning up the anchor and rode and Kathy was a little nervous at the helm on Jackson Creek where there are shoals at every corner. I radioed in and we had some help tying up at the end of one of the docks.
After getting situated, we jumped into the project of cleaning our dodger and bimini. We took the bimini off and scrubbed it on the dock but the dodger had to stay in place to be cleaned. The material was saturated, left to sit for 20 minutes and then scrubbed with a soft bristled brush on both sides. Then we rinsed for about 10 minutes before rehanging the Sunbrella in place to dry.
It was a bigger job than it sounds here but one that really needed to be done. We had some Spanish rice for lunch and then went to work again. Kathy worked on stainless while I scrubbed the decks. Finally at around 3pm Sapphire was cleaner that she's been in months. We showered and headed to the office to see if their courtesy car was available for a run to West Marine for a $30 bottle of 303 to waterproof the canvas that we had just cleaned and dried.
We had a nice chat with Fawkes who has been here on the hard for 6 weeks while having a new bow pulpit built, and with Larry from Star Shadow who we've know since Annapolis last fall.
After applying the waterproofing I put on some burgers, onions, and mushrooms in tin foil and stuck them on the grill. Kathy made a salad and before we knew it.... the burgers were over cooked and our meal was way less appetizing than normal. I did eat everything on my plate... but with some effort.
Kathy has also been cleaning inside the boat, taking everything off the shelves, washing and straightening. She is also trying to get rid of things we haven't used in a year and are just taking up space.