We had our third boat guests this weekend. My cousins Carla and Jeff arrived Friday evening and stayed overnight in the starboard aft cabin, dubbed the Presidential Suite by my sister. We had a late dinner Friday with celebratory champagne for Carla’s birthday, and Saturday they kindly drove us to Walmart so we could pick up a few bulky items. The rest of the time we just hung out on Escape Velocity, which is our favorite thing to do. We love having time with family to just be together and catch up, and what better place than in the cockpit of our boat while we swing at anchor or a mooring. Unfortunately Jeff had to work in the morning so they left after sunset Saturday. I think Izzy misses them already.
Sunday was supposed to be rainy and breezy but by 9:00 am it was calm and just a little spritzy so we seized the moment and took the mainsail off once again. We had a much better method this time and without the breeze that wreaked havoc when we did it in Oriental, NC, we had it off in no time and bagged up ready for Mack Sails to pick up and fix. You live, you learn.
Jack replaced the fuel tank vents in hopes that we can fuel up without diesel burbling overboard so often, and I spent a few hours on general business, list making and mail ordering canvas for new sail covers. By early afternoon the sun was out and the day was glorious, so we opened up the hatches and dinghied over to True Colors to help Marty troubleshoot his watermaker. This is the one bit of equipment I know a little something about, but like most boat work it requires a fair bit of flexibility.
We traced the problem to air in the system, and unfortunately it looks like the air is coming in at a broken thru-hull. Not a difficult fix, but it can’t be done in the water. Bummer. On the other hand, they’ve got a very quiet and fully automatic watermaker, unlike our noisy and mostly manual one. But ours makes darn tasty water, so I’m not complaining.
We’re having leftovers for dinner. Maybe that doesn’t sound exciting, but some of it is homemade apple pie that Carla brought. Eat your heart out.