July 5, 2011

Because Carol was coming up for the long weekend to help me celebrate my independence day, I spent most of the week cleaning up the house for her visit. I even managed to get the last of the boat gear out of the living room and onto Circadian. Although that had the unfortunate consequence of temporarily turning the aft cabin into a store room, and therefore getting her slightly out of trim. I also squeezed in a bit more work on the plywood panel to convert one side of the v-berth into a double and started on modifying and refinishing the teak side board for it. I filled and sanded the plywood and put on a coat of stain-killing white primer.

The original teak side board for the v-berth was about a foot too long for the filler for the extended berth, and needed refinishing as well. I cut it down, rounded the corner and the edges, sanded it and got a first coat of varnish on it just before Carol arrived.

Bogle Winery in Clarksburg was having a small special event the afternoon of Carol's arrival, so we decided to meet there for a bit of a late afternoon picnic. It would give her a nice break from the long drive and be a delightful start to the weekend. The wine is good too!

Carol wanted special food for the special weekend, of course, so I took her to shop at the famous Corti Brothers Market. It's known for its variety of gourmet foods, expert advice, and, I discovered to my delight, a huge selection of beers and ales!

Because I officially retired effective July 1st, I decided to celebrate my own independence by setting off a couple of large, loud and colorful fireworks in the street in front of my house. Although a bit premature for our country's celebration, it was just right for mine, and I got no flak for jumping the gun a bit.

We completed our at-home celebration with a sushi dinner at Taka's, and the next morning headed for the Delta and a couple of nights on Circadian. Unfortunately, it turned out to be the hottest week of year, which made it a bit more challenging. With the temperatures well over 100, we were ultimately forced to fill up the air mattresses and retreat into the water repeatedly just to cool off. I ran into another problem when I topped off the the fresh water tanks. Fresh water was leaking into the hull from somewhere in the fresh water fill plumbing. After a couple of hours sponging out a locker and tracing the plumbing in the stifling heat, I gave up. It seemed the only possible places for the leaks were all hidden somewhere behind ice boxes, foam or other "permanent" obstructions. The "good" news: at least so far, it seems that it isn't the tanks themselves that are leaking, but the fill or air vent plumbing somewhere above the tanks. I'll dig a little deeper another time when cooler heads prevail.

Carol had wisely prepared a cool and delicious salad for dinner that night, and we enjoyed it on the aft deck when things cooled down a bit in the evening.

The next morning I launched the dinghy for the first time since I had acquired Circadian. Despite the fact that I couldn't find the outboard key and its gas was now at least 18 months old, I tried pulling the start cord a couple of times just on the off chance.... Not surprisingly, no luck. No biggie. I had planned to pull it off anyway, and get it checked out and tuned. (It also needs a mounting screw handle to replace a missing one.) I spent another hour or so removing old and decayed lines, lock cables, fenders and layer upon layer of dried out duct tape that were all attached to the dinghy in one way or another. (May the gods eternally curse anyone who uses duct tape on boat!) Once that was done, another 30 minutes or so of scrubbing and the old dink looked pretty good.

By then I was pretty beat from the heat. Another couple of dips in the water and some cold Bitch Creek Ale, and I was almost human again. My last little project of the day was rewiring and mounting the former chart table light (which now had only one working switch-see last week's post) for use as a white-only cockpit light. (I have a new l.e.d. white/red chart light on order that I will mount on the new ceiling panel next to the instruments.)

By now, all three of us (Carol, the dog, and I) were truly spent, and had completely succumbed to Delta Fever.
Nonetheless, we were all up early this morning so Carol could get home in time for an afternoon appointment and I could get the dog home before the back of the truck got dangerously hot for him. It had been a fun, but exhausting long weekend. At least I don't have to worry about going into the office now. Weird, but good.