22nd May 2023

Last night I imbibed freely but perhaps unwisely in celebration of the end of our airline trials and tribulations, so I can’t claim to have slept well, or simply passed out. As it was, Barb came to the bunk sometime later than I did and crawled over me without waking me so perhaps it was the latter. At any rate I woke this morning feeling well rested and, as I am really fortunate in not getting hangovers, clear headed and ready to go.

Our first job was to remake the trip to Glouchester to complete the provisioning list that we revised the night before after making the first trip. As we have the freezer operating we are able to pop a fair amount of protein in there which we did with the small amount that we bought yesterday and were comfortable with the purchase of any deals that we got today. So after another bill for $150US we completed our provisioning, mostly at Walmart which has a grocery section to rival any grocery store back home.

On the way home we tried to stop at a local raw Seafood distributor but they were closed until Wednesday, and at the local hardware store to buy a new anode for Nelleke and some electrical connections and eventually another laundry bag that I plan to use as a catch bag when I go diviing on our return cruise. I was also looking for a piece of 1”ss tubing 78” log that I can use to replace the length that got knocked overboard when Barb got her foot caught in a mooring bridle line in Port Jefferson, but no one seemed to havee it in stock. I am hoping that one of the canvas and sailmakers here that make biminis will sell me some of their offcuts but I won’t know until tomorrow.

Back at the boat we stowed everything away and got into our coveralls for the day’s work. For me the first thing was to grind off the small amount of fibreglass sheathing over the keel that had been broken off when we ran aground into some rocks trying to get into Josie’s Cove for an impending storm. The policy of our club is that if a storm is imminent, any member with a dock slip is required to leave the dock and go out to a mooring or to anchor. That was one of those occassions. There was a clear hole in the fibreglass and we needed to grind down the separated part and replace it. I grabbed a small tub of Bondo-Glass from the hardware store which is a fraction of the cost of the fibreglass kit you can buy from a marine chandelry and had the whole thing done and drying in 30 minutes. Tomorrow I will sand it down smooth and paint it.

As for painting, Barb and I got the whole hull done on one gallon of red ablative antifouling in about 2 hurs and were done by three o’clock, which was great since we usually get up early and try to get all our outdoor work done in the morning before it gets too hot for we wussy Candians to be able to function sensibly. As I said tomorrow we will finish off the lower leading edge of the keel and paint it and then we will put the new anode on. Then Nelleke should be ready for launch on Wednesday. Actually I am thinking of looking into launching late tomorrow if the marina’s schedule will permit.

We had one serendipious event after we got back from running around looking for the stainless pipe. We got talking to a fellow in the boat next to us who turned out to be an ex-US Army Special Forces Combat Medic, who was restoring a 40’ Gulfstar Sloop. We comiserated on the fact that the grackles here are a real nusiance with their constant defecating on our boats and I’m afraid that I didn’t earn any bonus points when we told him that Barb had found a nest within our sailcover and restored a baby bird that had fallen out of the nest back to his siblings. Then I found out that he worked for the Saailor’s Tailor, a canvas working shop here in town that we were trying to get in touch with to buy some 1” ss off-cut tubing from. It turns out that he works there and he reached under his boat and pulled out a length of tubing which was much more than I need and handed it to me, “Merry Christmas!”, he said. “Wow!”, I thought. This fellow just saved me $70US and he would take any money for it. Sometimes you just get lucky.

The other job that I have for tomorrow is to return the rental car. Althought the marina has a loaner, it has been great to have the dedicated rental for our exclusive use for all the running around that we have done in the last day and a half.