Countdown to Push Off

Countdown to Push Off

Sunday, March 9th – another beautiful day; the scattered high clouds are gone, the fiberglass guy is due any time now to begin the bow repair.  We did outside work on the boat until time to go to Alex and Jane’s for a most enjoyable visit, the perfect end to a full, productive week.

Monday and Tuesday – more shopping, more work on the boat, and two more beautiful days, warm enough for Marian to wear shorts while washing the upper helm vinyl windows, spread out on the dock.  We even had paddle-boarders gliding around the marina on Tuesday. It looked like fun, but the water is still a bit cold for us.  Mike was so intent on caulking around the hatch from the salon to the aft deck that he missed all the cute girls in bikinis.  Marian’s next task, while we enjoy a beautiful evening in the salon, is updating the task list. 

Wednesday, 3/12 – Tuesday, 3/25 – Mike the fiberglass guy arrived and began work on the bow, a multi-step process that is still underway.  After Captain Mike had removed the rotted wood and dried the area, Fiberglass Mike installed a layer of Divynicell, a dense foam instead of wood.  Mike did a lot of the sanding after watching Fiberglass Mike demonstrate the technique.

Day by day, the work continued as Captain Mike worked on other tasks and Marian cooked, kept the boat reasonably picked up, and ran errands.  One much appreciated improvement was Mike's repair of the locker (closet for you landlubbers) light on Marian's side of the master cabin.  We've added rugs to the salon, a toilet paper holder in the master head, and a small shop vac that sucks up Midas hair, sand, and the like

with ease. It even sucks up the dreaded sand gnats, fondly known as "no-see-ums," that plague the  Georgia coast on warm days.

We became regular visitors to ACE Hardware in Richmond Hill, West Marine, and Home Depot, always with Midas along to make new friends.  One final stop at Harbor Freight Tools was a new experience for Midas.  It was a warm, muggy day, too hot to leave him in the car.  As he jumped out of the car and we headed for the store, an employee just outside the door told us he couldn't go in; only dogs small enough to ride in the cart were welcome. No problem:  Midas rode in the cart and made more friends as customers stopped to admire him.  Did he enjoy the ride?  Probably not, but he was a good sport about it. 

Finally, we had completed all the must do's and most of the want to do's, and we decided that 3/25/14 would be THE DAY.  Monday and Tuesday had been windy and cold, and Wednesday dawned with equally chilly temperatures and a very brisk wind.  Layers of clothes, gloves, and fake fur-lined caps helped keep us warm, and we were off the dock at 9:05.  

Farewell, Fish Tales and Fort McAllister Marina.  We'll see you again in twelve months or so.