Floored by all the flooring...
25 October 2011 | Pensacola, FL
Heather/ sunny and 72 F
We held the renaming ceremony and oysters-and-champagne chug last weekend at the pavilion, with Ken opening oysters (and Coy from FantaSea brought Ruby Reds and cocktail sauce!) and Ken again, playing his guitar (despite the temptation, we would NEVER sail away with Ken in the bilge! As fabled bard and nautical wizard, he'd have his own cabin -- but since he's captain of his own beautiful vessel, that position just couldn't compete with the crews of lovely bikini-clad sailors he now commands!) and Carol and Ben (the fun-loving and great-blogging Monomoy) and Ted and Brooke, his lovely lady (he's fixer of everything at our marina -- more arms than Vishnu with all that he gets done in a day), and Terry (great neighbor!) from Grape Escape, and Roger and Betty (new owners and new neighbors on Sapphire) came by, and that nice young couple who were just about to be married the next morning, from Sea Lilly, Tim and Michelle. Stan would normally have been there, but I think he was doing something else that evening; Nate and Jen were on a flight... Conrad and Roxanne had a house showing and couldn't make the trip, but NEXT weekend...! Piper Hiedsieck was poured on both bows and as a tribute to the sea gods, many of whom were named... and I kind of forget the rest...?
Blue Angels scream past overhead this morning as the sun gently warms the last piece of carpet laid out on the deck. Over the last few days we've completed the cork flooring of all cabin spaces (except Grant's, as he has not decided on whether he wants cork or carpeting) and carpeting of the salon and the port half of the cross-deck (forms a "T" with the salon and goes across the tops of the two engines, separating the aft cabins from the galley to starboard and the navstation corridor to port). The space that we are carpeting was all carpeted from the construction of Parallax, back when she was Hull 180 in the Prout yards. If there were finishable wood under that carpeting, we would have done that instead. At least now it's clean and new carpeting of all one type, that goes with the color scheme of the interior. I will post pictures when I have time (once we are on the way, is my guess), so check back to see 'em.
The last piece of carpet will go into the "nacelle dip" of the cross-deck today (after it warms up for stretching); we'll "fiberglass tape" the portion of cork flooring atop the galley side of the cross-deck (again, the warmth of sunlight helps the fiberglass cure faster), and Derek will do the the plunge cut to provide underfloor access to the water tank port. He did the same yesterday for the starboard floor hatch access, it went beautifully.
But that leaves reloading and stowing provisions and everything else that we moved out into the cockpit to clear all the flooring area for work. So, after checking the weather forecasts, we slipped the departure to Thursday. Out of respect for nautical traditions, I won't start a voyage on a Friday.