Mike and Kathy
08/30/2008, Deltaville, VA

August 28th... Deltaville, Va

Well we're back aboard after a wonderful month visiting family and friends. It was a little hectic. Making all of our Doctor, Dentist, Optometrist, and Banking appointments while at the same time moving Sam out of her house in Lansing and into a storage unit in Crystal. We did not always get to see people as much as we would have liked.

We worked on a couple of building projects with Matt and Ellie, (possibly violating building code and getting them in trouble) replaced an oak trim board in Mom's house (thanks to John and his planer and saw), split and stacked firewood with Dave for a couple of mornings, and even found time to read a few books in the shade.

We spent quite a bit of time at Dave and Kristie's house while they were traveling. When they returned we moved into their fifth wheel... which was very comfortable and roughly the same amount of space that we're used to. We had so many offers for lodging that we really didn't get to stay with as many folks as we wanted to.. but are sincerely grateful to all who offered.

The pig roast for all the graduates in the family was a great success. We had the first annual washers tournament, lots of laughs and catching up with friends and family. It was great to see how all the babies have grown since Christmas. We had many great dinners with family and also with Marty and Esther and John and Mary Susan. .

One weekend was spent at our old marina where we touched base with our friends on both sides of the lake. Carol, Larry, Mike and Lori put together a great dinner and Randy plied us with G&T's at Crosswinds. Dan and Colleen were as refreshing as always.

Kathy's mom treated the graduates to dinner with the family in Holland and fed us on a number of other occasions. We spent a couple of nights with her and were happy to see that she is getting around very well after a not-so-fun winter.

We saw Abby, Jake and Sam off to London, where Abby is working a Social Worker in the Child Protection Program and Jake is hanging out in libraries reading dusty old journals. Sam joined them a week later and has found employment (as of today) in a downtown wine bar / restaurant. They are moving this weekend from their flat in Nottinghill to Clapham Common where things will be less crowded rent is a little more reasonable.

Last Wednesday we drove up to our cottage on Douglas Lake in northern Michigan and spent a few days watching Davey stand in the water at the end of the dock while Debbie sunned in a chair reading. Kathy and I stayed on the deck in the shade.

While there we visited our friends Luke and Mandy to see their boys and to check out the new house. The last time we were there a year and a half ago it was mostly finished . Now with most everything done (it's never really all done) , it looks great. Their two acre garden was amazing for so far north.

Yesterday we headed back to Lansing to hand over our car to Jim Bob (Davey's brother) who was in need of wheels. I hope that it treats him as well as it has us. Later Ellie, Matt, Kathy and I met our good friends Marv and Roni for dinner and had a nice time catching up with them and their new life style.

Ellie and Matt delivered us to Detroit Metro this morning for our flight back to Richmond. It was cloudy all the way with the remnants of Hurricane Fay. Kathy had arranged for a driver to meet us at the airport and he got us back here without any surprises.

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Mike
07/29/2008, Deltaville, VA

July 26th... Deltaville,VA

Kathy spent most of the day cleaning inside while I cleaned the hull top side of the hull with toilet bowl cleaner to take off all wax and the brown stain along the water line. Then I scraped junk off the bottom of the keel that had built up with barnacles since we failed to do a very good job of painting down there before we left. I also inspected and cleaned the gouge that was caused by running into a rock last summer.

Before noon we borrowed Bill and Val's car for a quick trip to West Marine and the grocery.

It is very nice to be able to work in shade. The vast majority of the people here are not so lucky.

The "Fawkes" folks were going to attend a concert this evening so we put off our dinner date until Monday.

July 27th... Deltaville, VA

I was up early as usual and for some reason decided to go for a run. I walked through a gap in the woods and found a driveway that led out to a paved road. I ran about a half mile at a good clip before running our out of wind. I walked about 100 yards and then did the same thing again. After four of these rotations and at least a couple miles, I called it quits.

I got busy right away washing the boat again to remove any left over wax. After noon I began the process of putting a finish back on...by late afternoon I was done with the starboard side and quit for a shower. Bill and Val drove us to a restaurant that they liked for shrimp and crab/lobster bisque.

July 28th... Deltaville, VA

I went for another run this morning but the ladder work, on top of yesterday's run, had made my legs feel like lead weights. I only got about a mile and a half before walking back to the boat. I finished the port side and then sanded the bottom of the keel before quitting.

We walked over to the "Fawkes" to make dinner arrangements to find that Angel, (the daughter) had scheduled a concert for 5pm. We packed up our dinner and headed over to the main office before five and got front row seats for the concert. It was very nice. She has a portable piano on board and played one jazz tune, 4 classical pieces and a one of her own creation.

The boy scouts invaded the grilling area so we adjourned to "Fawkes" for dinner. Although we met Dave, Nancy and Kids in Georgetown, Bahamas and traveled north with them from time to time, we never really got to know them very well. Our meal was very good and we talked for a while before heading back to pack.

July 29th... Deltaville, VA to Crystal, MI

I went for a walk before coffee. (there was no way my legs were going to run) and began to close the boat) Tony, our driver, arrived about 30 minutes early and we scrambled with last minute jobs while he waited. The trip to Richmond was uneventful and we arrived at the airport with plenty of time for our flight.

Since the main purpose of this blog is to keep our family informed of our day to day activities...and we'll be spending the next month with them... we're taking a break from our daily journal until our return to the boat.

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Mike
07/27/2008, Deltaville, VA

July 25... Deltaville Marina, Deltaville VA

At about 8 a.m. I wandered up to the Boatyard office to find when we were scheduled to be hauled and was told "around noon." I killed some time walking around until I our neighbors on the dock were awake and then pulled the dinghy up on to one end of the dock. After flipping it over I began scrubbing with toilet bowl cleaner and in no time had it cleaned up as much as it was going to be. Then we retied the boat to position the bow against the dock and lifted the dinghy over the life line to its position on the foredeck.

Kathy worked on cleaning while we waited for our turn. I spent most of the time watching the guys run the lift, eventually striking up a conversation with the operator. He explained that at the time we were third on his list and at some point we has going to take a break before then for lunch. His best guess was 1:30. On my way back to the boat I stopped at the marina office to get permission to stay on the fuel dock for awhile before our haul out.

Back at the boat we had lunch and then I had to chase down one of our fenders that was floating away. At about 12:30 we moved over to the fuel dock, topped off our tank and pumped out the waste tank. We slid Sapphire to the far end of the dock and waited.

I was watching from the dock and when it was our turn got ready to cast off, but Mike the lift operator came out to apologetically say that he had to pull another boat before us. It was what they call a quick haul. The boat is hauled out and the bottom is power washed, barnacles are scraped and then it's relaunched. So we waited some more...we really had nothing our agenda so it wasn't a problem in the least that someone had pulled some strings with the management to cut in line.

Finally it was our turn. We left the fuel dock for the haul out well. I had to back our boat in and had been scoping out the area all morning to come up with a plan. From a little up stream, we headed straight for the well slowly and then at last second turned hard to the port and shifting into reverse to stop our momentum. Then by shifting from reverse to forward a couple times put the stern in the center of the well where Mike and his side kick pulled us in.

The lift was perfect. Mike ask us how long we were staying and how much time we were spending aboard before moving Sapphire to the best location in the yard. We are actually on the opposite side of the parking lot in a two acre clearing surrounded on all sides by large pine trees. It is one of three spots here that is shaded most of the time.

We are parked behind a boat from London and when the folks returned we struck up a conversation which led to an invitation to come over for a beer. As we were cleaning up a bit, the Fawkes people came over to invite us to dinne, but since we already had hamburger thawing, made a date to grill together tomorrow.

Bill and Val, our new London friends, were very nice, offering the use of their rental car if we needed anything. We also made plans to go to dinner with them on Sunday evening before they return to England.

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