Windlass-less in Annapolis

Stan, Dave and Jeff in our "windlass workshop"  on the bow of Wayward Wind

The saga of mechanical issues continues, but thankfully the weather has cooled.  We ordered a new windlass from West Marine.  It came.  The footprint was much larger than Jeff expected, which would require some major retrofitting of the base upon which it sits.  We returned it.  Plan B was that Jeff would rebuild the old windlass and parts were available based on what we saw online.  We ordered the parts, but it turns out that six of the ten parts were discontinued  Jeff was on another boat delivery so upon his return on Thursday, we discussed Plan C - possibly a manual windlass.  The three of us are researching windlasses online.  To be continued...

The three guys delicately finesse the drum off of the old windlass.

A treat for us was that while Jeff was doing his boat deliveries, we got to dog-sit his little Cairn Terrier, Oz.  (Will post a photo soon.)  Oz is 16 years old and is deaf and blind...and perhaps dumb as he does not bark.   Jeff said he was thinking of renaming him, Tommy, because he "sure...plays...a mean...pin...ball."  Jeff says he also washes floors and windows, but we did not witness that.  We both fell in love with Oz who is pretty spunky for an old man.  Oz also inspired me to row him every morning in the dinghy over to nearby Truxton Park where he could take care of business.  Dave would take Oz in the evening to an even closer grassy landing.  (He did not row...snicker...)

Janis and Don, whom we fondly refer to as "the Texans," had us over for happy hour the other night.  They showed us a video on their humongous (for a boat) flat screen TV that was a travel-logue of various states and regions of the US as seen from the air.  Don especially wanted to show us Texas and Ohio.  I must say that it dispelled some of the stereotype images I have of the landscape.  Texas - near Don and Jan's home - has many wooded and green acres, although they said that with the terrible drought, there is little that is green now.  In the Ohio segment, there was a scene of a school bus pulling up to the drive that led to a white farm house in the midst of acres and acres of corn.  Don said, "That's me!  Except our drive was a half mile long."  Don says that they had everything they needed on the farm.  Their mom had a huge garden and canned fruits and vegetables, and they raised chickens and dairy cows.  Growing up, he said, they only drank water or milk, no soda.  Their mom would bake a dozen or more loaves of bread at a time along with rolls and cinnamon buns .  Don was the youngest of four boys when his mom and dad decided to try for a girl.  After the delivery, with tears of disbelief in his eyes, the doctor came out to the waiting room to tell Don's dad, "Well, it's twin boys!"  Not missing a beat, Don's dad replied, "Guess we'll be able to buy more cows!"  We're enjoying hearing about Don's childhood on the farm.

We also watched a segment on the travel-logue video about California.  We were surprised and proud that it mostly showed Northern California with its redwood trees, coastline, vineyards, farmlands and San Francisco.  But we know why...because it's the best part!!!  Sorry SoCal-ians!

We had a lovely happy hour that turned into hours with Stan from Coursaire and Greg and Jo from Sympatico joining in.  Greg and Jo have traveled to the Bahamas the past three winters, so we asked their advice on various subjects.  Jan asked about conserving water especially when washing dishes.  Jo said that she wipes the plates with a napkin to remove salad dressing and such before washing.  She said she knows someone who uses a spray bottle to rinse dishes.  Also used dish water can have other uses such as cleaning grime (bird poop!) off the deck.  Jo also bakes bread onboard so brings pounds of flour.  Lots of tips.



Anchoring Plane to Sea with Janis at the helm, getting ready for the next day's trip

The next day, Don and Jan left for St. Michael's on the east side of the Chesapeake.  I woke up feeling sad.  Even though we've known them just over a month, we really miss them.  Beyond being helpful by driving us around - they have a humongous truck - to buy food and pick up and return the windlass, we have enjoyed their companionship and have spent many fun moments together.  They showed us a place called Old Country Buffet, that has a pretty good meal for $7.29.  Such a deal!  I guess we've entered the cheap buffet phase of our lives...  Oh, well, guess I'll have another piece of chocolate mousse pie.