I have to admit that I’m having a little trouble maintaining focus and discipline project wise lately. I’m not feeling worn-out or out-of-energy. It’s something different. Actually I feel like a kid who wants to do everything at once; insulate the cold box and install a 12 volt refrigeration system (can’t wait to see how the solar system handles the load), build shelves in the head and storage locker (I enjoy doing carpentry work), install the rain water catchment system, security grates for the companion way & main deck hatch, macerator pump for the holding tank… but it’s a little hard to focus on what exactly to do next. We’ve been working steadily for over a year getting the boat ready to sail and our houses ready to sell. Lately we’ve been working on the boat over 4 daylong weekends and on our homes, (me repairing tornado damage) during the middle of the week.So what we did this weekend was to load our new Montague folding mountain bikes aboard Gypsy and head to Block Island. We left last Thursday and had a beautiful 4-hour sail out to Block in delicious 12 to 14kt winds. It felt incredibly wonderful to be sailing again and we did some man-overboard drills along the way to sharpen our skills. The Great Salt Pond had its usual full load of summer boats and we ended up anchoring deep (in 44’ of water) in the middle of the pond, next to a Navy tug which, judging by the lawn furniture on the aft deck, is no longer in the Navy. I’d love to know the story on that.
The little Garmen GPS that I had installed next to our berth proved its worth as thunderstorms moved through during the night. The anchor watch alarm went off whenever we traveled more than 80’ from it last setting. That happened three times during the night and a quick glance at its chart display showed that we were just traveling in a circle around our anchor as the front moved by. We ended up doing a full 360 by dawn. Once when I got up in response to the alarm I heard a bit of yelling over the storm as two of our neighbors separated themselves from an unfortunate nocturnal encounter.
The next morning we loaded our new bikes into the dink and headed for shore. The bikes assembled easily and we were soon on our way enjoying the pastoral beauty of Block Island.
One thing I abhor is buying things as couples that “look alike”. Please don’t get me wrong; I love being with Susan, am proud to identify with her, and truly feel that she is the better half of the us that we are. Even so, I don’t ever want to dress similar to her and would have to kill myself if we ever jointly purchased shirts that said something like “I’m with him/her”. So it was a little hard on me when we ended up buying identical bikes. But here’s my excuse; Montague only makes one civilian mountain bike and in comes in a verity of one color scheme. The up side it that they are excellent bikes and we both were thrilled by them.
We headed out the Northern tip of the island, just past the old lighthouse. That place has always seemed like a natural power spot to me and I noticed that Susan seemed to be picking up on that as she broke out in a fit spontaneous yoga.
We next headed south to town when Susan noticed a storm moving in so we deiced to call our ride short and get back to Gypsy while the getting was good. Saturday was a gorgeous day and we took the dink for a trip out of the harbor and up the coast. I had more fun than a proper sailor should with a motorized boat as we blasted over the ocean’s liquid mogul field. It was really a pristine day. After we had our fill of bumps and thrills we toured the harbor ogling the boats from far and wide.Susan really is a genius and I’ve learned to pay attention whenever she suggests something and ever better I’ve learned to go along with her wisdom. It was Saturday and we had planned to return to Mystic either the next day or the day after that but Susan observed that it was a beautiful day for sailing and we had a lot that we could be doing for the boat if we were back at the dock where we'd be better able to get things accomplished. Even though I was having a great time I couldn’t (nor wanted to) argue with her logic. We immediately up-anchored and had another wonderful sail in 8 to 12kts of wind. We arrived safe and sound (after a slightly rough landing) at our dock in Mystic. Drinks with Rights of Man’s crew lasted til midnight; then we were up early for a full day of boat projects the next day. I mostly did electrical work and cleaned up the nav station (which had become a dump) and Susan worked on the bright work.
93 days...
