Ahh, the sweet relief of routine.. even if it’s not the floating version just yet, the days are finding their pacing nonetheless. We school, the girls roam, Andy and I tick items off of our ‘to do’ lists, and we unite throughout the day for meals.
The errand/chore list has had me running back and forth into town most days, and it’s amazing how much assimilation I am beginning to feel from these simple, mile-long golf cart runs. First of all, EVERYone waves here, whether you know them or not. From carts, cars, work trucks, tractors… just as you don’t pass anyone in town without saying ‘Good day’, you don’t pass a vehicle without a friendly wave. The fun part is that we’re now recognizing cars, and putting newly-made friends’ faces with their rides. As a non-driver still, Lily doesn’t quite see the parallel with our small town home here, but it’s more of a comforting gesture that I had realized. “Hey, guy I just saw in the hardware store!”
The other thing that we’re making mental maps of are the animals. (Of course.) When we see ‘Plump White Hen’ (plump being a rarity around here in the chicken world) by the fire station mural, we know to search for her three chicks, likely nearby, and always adorable. When we turn down a specific side street, we know to look for the brindle pup, always trotting this way and that with a big grinny look on his face. And if the orange and white hound isn’t curled up in her yard on the main stretch somewhere taking a nap, she’ll be found slowly circling to look for the next best spot. Creature comforts, literally and figuratively.
For some discomfort, we’ve learned that we have a major leak in our refrigeration run somewhere, likely a result of the boat falling over. So.. block ice is our new best friend. We’ve been holding our breaths with this system for about four years anyway, so rather than source the leak and pay for repair, we’ve ordered a new unit, which will hopefully arrive with our batteries next week. Fingers’ crossed on that, since the no-fly zone of the Superbowl (yep, that’s a thing) is messing with regular delivery schedules.
On the hull front, Andy’s still making headway with the repair, and he’s working on the final coat/coats of gel coat. We’ve tweaked our waterline a bit, so he’ll redo that as well, and once we have a launch plan, we’ll get the bottom paint on and.. splashy splashy.
In the mean time, we’ve been working on running halyards, and sending the Bird aloft to cut away a stray line that found its way around (and around and around) our mast during the storm, preventing us from tightening lines, etc. etc. Handy to have a lightweight flyer in the family!
It’s a bank holiday here today, so the girls’ friend is off from school and they are roaming around and off to lunch, like the socialites that they are. Back to the grind for the grownups!
