Wow one week at the dock come and gone. Time is flying and we have been busy. We’ve made the acquaintance of the folks in the slip next to us Barb and Mike with their fur children Harry (dog) and Thomas (cat). Friendly folks on a trawler, he’s from the UK she is from Holland.
We’ve started to adjust to dock life with its rising and falling tides, freedom to get off the boat when you wish, people and boat traffic. It’s a happening life here on the dock. We’ve also gotten some work done.
Scott has started stripping the toe rail teak. We bought a heat gun from Lowes that he has been using to loosen the varnish. It has been remarkably stubborn in the areas where it was still well adhered. The starboard side rail is done and the port started. From there he’ll move to the teak on the coach roof and hatch. The rub rails will provide a challenge as they will have to be done by hand. That age old adage about water and electricity not mixing.
I’ve cleaned the rear water tank and quarter berth and started on the exterior stainless. The bow pulpit, port and starboard stainless are done. Left are the aft stainless,wind vane and the bimini and dodger frames. We’ve only knocked off one item on the list thus far. It’s starting to get more summer like, hot and sticky. We’ve been working in the morning hours before it gets too uncomfortably hot to work. I also promised myself to get this blog up to date and have been working on it a bit each afternoon. I can only type so long before my neck starts to hurt and I have to hang up the keyboard. And in between are the myriad of daily boat jobs, cooking, cleaning, dishes and laundry that fall on my list of to dos.
This morning we cleaned the dingy bottom. That has been a particularly nasty task this season. In Marathon we could take the dingy over to the beach to clean it. There is no beach close by so we had to devise another method. Using the halyard for the stay sail we hoist it up on the side of the boat and scrap the bottom while it dangles in the air. This requires the day to be low in wind because it wants to act like a sail. We found out the hard way after our first month here that you need to do this on a regular basis. The first time it was caked with barnacles and grunge that were nearly impossible to dislodge. After that experience we started doing it every 8 to 10 days. The bottom collects a stinky collection of barnacles, black goo and stringy green algae that smells as bad as it sounds. Yuck. We have the dingy tied to the back of the boat and the dock so the job will still need to be done while we are in the slip. The advantage here is we have water in a high pressure hose. Out on the mooring it was what we could drag out and pump with our little water pump. It takes a collection of scrappers, scrubbers, krud kutter, water and elbow grease to make the bottom look a modicum of decent. When we finally put the dingy on the bow I’ll give it the super serious scrubbing it deserves. That will wait until we are days away from being hauled. We’ve got way too many chores to do before it can be safely stored there.
In between all the cleaning, scrapping and scrubbing we’ve managed to make a run to the condo to close it up for a while. My sister is safely back north and doing well. We had a short visit and lunch with Sue and Roger. They had made a trip down to clean out the remaining storage units in Miami. Dangerously close to being full time dirt dwellers, they now own a car as well as a house. First time in 14 years, they seem to be enjoying it. We’ve also bid good bye to Gabridash. Sharon and Gary are swallowing the hook too and stopped by to say farewells a couple of days ago. Bittersweet and busy times here in the marina.

The picture is of granddaughter Chloe in her new apron that I made her for her birthday. She turned 9 on April 11 and we couldn't love her more.