Thursday, September 23 - Saturday, October 2, 2010
It's official...our tour of the Chesapeake area has come to an end. We left Annapolis for the last time this morning to make the day-trip to Solomons, marking the conclusion of our Chesapeake visit and the beginning of our trip south. The weather gurus are forecasting some strong winds and rough seas, but it only gets worse if we wait. We've decided to power through, crossing the mouth of the Potomac to Reedville on Friday and arriving in Deltaville on Saturday. It ends up being a good decision, because the winds pick up even more on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, and Sunday's rainstorm continues on all week.We've come to Deltaville to do some routine boat maintenance - hull sanding, painting, cleaning, polishing, and waxing; canvas repair, cleaning, and waterproofing; rail polishing; rigging inspection and tuning; engine inspection and maintenance; and dinghy cleaning and bottom-paint. Rick and Linda told us about Deltaville Boatyard and their great prices, and this seemed like a good place to do all the work we've been neglecting. It also gives us a place to leave the boat (and Tux) while we visit Stacy's family in Seattle. We're scheduled to haul out on October 1st, leaving Deltaville for nearly two weeks on October 2nd. Not much room for anything to go wrong!
We manage to get hauled out of the water two days early - on Wednesday instead of our scheduled Friday. Thank god, because the remnants of Tropical Storm Nicole pass through the area on Thursday. Boats in the anchorage as well as those in slips at the marina were rockin' and rollin' like crazy. Even Pipe was shaking on her blocks...not a comforting feeling when you're out of the water! The weather has messed up our plans of doing any real work before leaving for Seattle, but at least we're able to get the dinghy cleaned and the canvas taken down on Friday and Saturday. We get Tux to the kennel on Saturday morning, and finally manage to get a dry day so the canvas isn't soaked when we take it to Wendy for repairs. At some point we'll have time to pack, right?!
We manage to get hauled out of the water two days early - on Wednesday instead of our scheduled Friday. Thank god, because the remnants of Tropical Storm Nicole pass through the area on Thursday. Boats in the anchorage as well as those in slips at the marina were rockin' and rollin' like crazy. Even Pipe was shaking on her blocks...not a comforting feeling when you're out of the water! The weather has messed up our plans of doing any real work before leaving for Seattle, but at least we're able to get the dinghy cleaned and the canvas taken down on Friday and Saturday. We get Tux to the kennel on Saturday morning, and finally manage to get a dry day so the canvas isn't soaked when we take it to Wendy for repairs. At some point we'll have time to pack, right?!
We're finally ready for Carl and Debi (River Rat) to pick us up late Saturday afternoon. They're flying out of Newport News Sunday morning and have offered to take us to the airport with them. Talk about perfect timing! We enjoy a terrific dinner and drinks at their local martini bar & restaurant, Seven, and all manage to hit the sack by 10pm. We need to leave the house by 7:30 Sunday morning for the hour-long drive to Newport News, and missing the bus isn't an option.
Now we're off for a 10-day visit to Seattle. We'd better enjoy our downtime, because we'll be working on the boat from sunup to sundown when we get back!
Now we're off for a 10-day visit to Seattle. We'd better enjoy our downtime, because we'll be working on the boat from sunup to sundown when we get back!
(P.S. We'll post a blog in a few weeks that covers our haul-out and boat work. We'll try to remember to take some pictures between paint and wax applications...)
No comments:
Post a Comment