Tuesday 15 October 2019
Mid month and we are into day two at Port Washington. This is such a great, cruiser friendly sort of place that I hate to mention the one thing that they could add and the other that they could clean up. There are no showers. Barb and I can always have one on the boat but others would be relegated to helmet showers which work but aren't really the same thing. I spoke to Matt, the water taxi owner operator and he agrees with us. There should be showers but he points out the one problem. This isn't a marina. It's a public dock so the general public has access to it. I can understand that they don't want street people taking up residence in the shower stalls but even they should be encouraged to keep clean. The solution, I think, would be to charge for the showers. There is a Harbour Police office right there on the dock. They could sell the tokens to get into the shower to anyone who wants one like they do in Annapolis. Then after hours they would be closed and locked. Problem solved. The other absence laundry facilities but there is a laundromat within easy walking distance of the Stop and Shop dock. The one thing that could be cleaned up are the washrooms but again, it isn't a marina and they are public toilets. None of these things detract in any significant way from the overall delight that we feel every time we come here. So, again, cruisers coming this way and looking for a really nice, inexpensive place to stop in NYC, give Port Washington a look.

Oh, and we also found out yesterday that the municipality has a couple of rowing dingies for people who miss the last water taxi out to their boat on a mooring or at anchor. The only condition is that they have to get the dingy back to the dock first thing the following AM.

We also bought an interesting device for our propane system called the Steak Saver. It is designed to hook into the hose that you fasten to your propane tank and allow you to attach one of those 1 lb propane bottles to it. The idea is that if you run out of propane while cooking dinner you can slap one of these things on instead of your bigger tank and finish cooking. On a side note we also discovered that with our propane deliver system on the boat we can use it to refill the 1 lb cylinders. Given the cost these have gone to and to try to stay more green and not have the empties go to landfill we have begun to reuse the tanks.

This morning we came ashore with our laundry and took the opportunity to buy a couple more hardware items. On the trip in from the mooring, Matt, the water taxi owner/operator offered us an alternative mooring in a more sheltered area that we could hang on for the upcoming storm tomorrow. Where we are would be quite bumpy he tells us while the spot he is suggesting would be more sheltered.

Meanwhile Estelle and Courlevent is moving ahead of us and I am shamelessly getting her to recce places that we might go.

By lunchtime we had done the chores ashore and filled with water and fuel. I was very surprised at how little compared to my expectations we had actually used. I thought that we were going to need at least 45 gal US and it turned out that the tank read full after only pumping in 25 gal!? And the water tanks were filled to the top in a jiffy.

We, or should I say I, will relax this afternoon.

Well I guess that didn't happen! I decided to install an inside 12v to USB power charging site to minimize the current draw on the battery bank. Great idea that didn't prove to be as simple as I originally thought in execution. Why is it that all these things seem to be in the most inaccessible spots? After getting to a point that I was ready to jump over the side, the Admiral took over and after about 20 minutes of trial and effort, effort and trial, with a whole lot more patience that I would have had, she succeeded where I had not persevered. Bravo Zulu Barb! I had bought her a bottle of Makers Mark Bourbon, her favourite tipple, and I poured her a shot.

Then, when I decided to change the oil on Yoki our boats engine, I discovered that we, or should I say I, had left Shelburne without replacement oil filters. Once again, Matt, the water taxi guy came to the rescue. Calling around among his friends in town he found one for us. So tomorrow I will get at that job again. As I have said repeatedly on this blog this place and that fellow are wonderful.

Tonight is our turkey dinner and Barb has even used the stove top oven to make a sort of pumpkin loaf that she let me try a sample as a sort of teaser. What can I say - yum!