Mondays. Kind of the same everywhere. Ugh. Schooling has been largely kid-driven thus far, and surprisingly so- they’re one step ahead of my organizational prowess at the moment, since our gear has been so scattered until a couple of days ago. Now that we’re aboard and things are where they properly live, schooling things are easy access and I have no excuses but to bring my School Marm A-game. So.. ugh. For now I’ll enjoy my hot coffee, and the fact that they’re still snoozing.
No surprises on the Chickadee crew front, the weekend was a busy one. While prepping the bottom for paint, Andy found a crack on the keel, and spent more time grinding and fiberglassing. We thought we’d have put that chore to bed, but alas, always surprises. Thankfully the crack wasn’t deep, and didn’t even near the very-beefy glass on the structure itself, so his repair was easy. He then painted the bottom (sans keel until he puts the faring compound on), and it looks super sharp. A new waterline to account for a cruising family and all of our junk looks much better than it did. Can’t wait to see it in the water. Today a fiberglass and gelcoat whiz with fancy tools will come and spray our boot stripe on the starboard side, and then a hull buff is in order. And fin! That’ll be it for the hull repair.
In the mean time, halyards and sheets have been run, Andy installed our new bank manager (for house battery monitoring), I mucked out the final hadn’t-yet-been-cleaned space behind the stove, we’ve sorted lines for cleaning and storage, and our Underway Project shelf is orderly and ready to go.
We also managed some socialization and fun, in the form of dinners with friends, an exhausting-but-holy-cow-so-satisfying beach clean-up with about thirty people, and plenty of time at the beach not hauling splintered boards with nails in them.
Yesterday Lily participated in her swim team’s aquathon from afar, which was an ordeal. She raised pledge money, and her goal was to swim 160 laps (of 25 yards) in ninety minutes. We started off doing what we did last year- measured off a stretch of beach with markers at the ends, and had her go back and forth without the luxury of flip turns, but with the added bonus of potentially seeing plenty of sea life. We opted for a leeward section of Gillam Bay, though the weekend’s winds hadn’t yet died down, so the semi-frequent rollers wrapping around the nearby point made for some interesting laps. I stood at one end and had V at the other, so she’d be able to get as close to a straight line as possible, and also to check the scene for incoming sea life. At lap 52 we had a visitor in the form of a very large (3’ wingspan) Southern stingray, and when I called out to her, she scrambled out faster than I’d ever seen her move. In areas where dive and tour boats feed them, they can be quite social, so we waded back out to see if it’d come bump our ankles, but instead it proceeded to bury itself smack in the middle of Lily’s ‘lane’, which would have been a painful scene if a kick landed too low. Any further out and the waves were too much, and any closer in was too shallow- we had to wait. And wait. And… we gave up, and went to the only functioning pool on the island to finish up. Also salt water and still blowing quite a bit, by the time she saw 160 laps, she was so salt-saturated and exhausted, Diana Nyad would have been proud. We’re all glad it’s over!
Three more days until batteries and refrigeration! (But who’s counting?)
