Almost Ready

11/25/11

I haven't written much lately for two reasons.  One, I was feeling kind of down because as it gets later in the season, we are becoming more anxious about getting out of here before it snows.  And two, we reanchored in a new spot closer to town but without an internet connection.  Now that we're at the dock, I'm catching up.  Also, we both are feeling much better now that the major tasks are done.  We were, in fact, going to leave today, but since we paused to catch our breath and enjoy a nice Thanksgiving meal last night aboard WW, we thought it best to take advantage of being at the dock for one more day to finish loose ends and stow things without being so rushed. 

One thing that we recently did was reinstall the hatch.  After the first install, it leaked, so we had to pull it out.  Jeff came by to do this.  Fortunately the caulk takes weeks to fully harden, so it was fairly easy to take it out, clean off the old caulk, recaulk (this time generously) and reinstall.  We had a good rain the other night and no leak, so all is good.

Here he comes to save the haaaaatch (sung to Mighty Mouse cartoon theme song)

Cleaning up the old caulk

Jeff, our friend and mentor

We feel so fortunate to have gotten to know Jeff who has become a good friend.  And what an interesting life he has led.  He started sailing when he was five and racing sailboats when he was ten in Deltaville, Virginia.  As a teenager, one of his mentors was a man in his eighties who taught him boatbuilding.  But Jeff left the water to pursue his 30-year career as a cameraman working for several TV stations as well as free-lancing.  He has amazing stories of meeting famous figures from the King of Jordan to Charlie Sheen.  One night at an MTV party, he chatted with a pretty, friendly woman; then he introduced himself.  Just as she said her name was Cheryl, he realized he was chatting with Cheryl Crow.  Besides his television work, (as mentioned in a previous post) he has chartered boats in the BVIs and beyond as well as delivered boats up and down the East Coast and to the Caribbean.  Many years ago he bought his sweet Camper Nicholson 35 sailboat, La Boheme, and refurbished it beautifully.  Sadly a couple of weeks ago, Jeff lost his little boating companion of 17 years, Oz, his Cairn terrier.  But he has someone else who brings joy to his life, his lovely girlfriend, Michelle, who is, as we say, land-based (meaning she lives in an apartment and not on a boat) though she does sail.  Michelle has two bright boys.  The four are a good team.  Dave and I thought it would be great if Michelle could join us on the trip, too, but she is busy managing a start-up company for a new medical device and cannot take the time off of work.  Yesterday Jeff, Dave and I enjoyed sharing more of our stories in our cozy salon over Thanksgiving dinner and are excited to have Jeff join us in Beaufort and head south.