Layering to as Little Clothing as Possible in Less than a Week

A little less than a week ago we still needed two fleece blankets and a light quilt on the bed. Last night we threw off everything but the top sheet. It has been in the mid-80's the last few day with humidity over 60% (YUCK!). Despite this, Peter and I have been hard at work getting everything ship shape.

Peter has been working on various projects, the major one yesterday and today being looking for gunk in the starboard fuel tank (there was not much) and cleaning it out. (We are able to pump all the diesel from the port tank to the starboard tank and vice versa.) He had suspected that the reason that the generator has never been reliable in terms of continuing to work after it is started was that there was dirt in the fuel. Over the last few year, he had already changed filters and done several types of interventions which had not solved the problem. Well, neither did cleaning out the fuel tank. It's back to the drawing board!

Yesterday, I applied oil to the teak rails, tried to get some rust off the swim ladder with only limited success, cleaned mold from the tubes running from the top of the pilot house which we use for rainwater catchment, and removed and thoroughly cleaned all nine dorades. (Dorades are cowl vents that can be rotated toward the direction of the wind. The wind is funneled down below. The vents sit on dorade boxes with internal baffles that divert seawater or rainwater to drains at the bottom of the boxes.) 

When I went to town mid-day for my Diet Coke, I noticed more new painted picket fences. Apparently, it is the time of year to display this year's contributions, which will be auctioned in the fall. There seems to be a trend away from two-dimensional artwork to layered, three-dimensional designs.

Front

and back

Mosaics and three-dimensional vines

Luckily, we had to quit working early yesterday because we were meeting some fellow sailors for dinner. Of course, we needed showers first because we were sweaty and I smelled of Mean Green and Peter of diesel fuel. We dined at Pope's Tavern at the Oxford Inn (circa 1880) in the dining room with the original tin ceiling. Our companions were Teddy and Anne Clucas as well as Marjorie, who is the port captain for the local chapter of the Ocean Cruising Club, of which Peter and I (as well as Teddy and Anne) are members. The owners of the Oxford Inn and the restaurant recently acquired the property, and the restaurant features Italian dishes, all made from scratch, using recipes the husband learned from his mother and grandmother. I ordered the ravioli, which may have been the best I have ever tasted. Everyone was pleased with the food they ordered as well as the wine. The five of us discussed boats and sailing as well as Oxford. I mentioned that I had researched the town's demographics and noticed that Oxford used to be racially mixed. Marjorie, who grew up here, made a slight correction. The town did use to have both whites and blacks, but there was little mixing. She recalled a time, probably more than half a century ago, when film producer David O. Selznick cruised into Oxford on his yacht. Of course, everyone in town was very excited, and her father invited him to dinner at their house. Selznick arrived along with his mate, a black man. Her father said he would never eat at the same table as a black man, so the mate was sent to the kitchen where he conversed with Marjorie's mother while she prepared the meal and ate his dinner there. 

Today was a particularly hot and humid day, and I spent hours of it on the dock cleaning the enormous boat cover which, when in use, extends from in front of the mast back to the pilot house and from one side of the boat, over the boom, to the other side. It is divided into two pieces, one being about 30 x 20 feet and the other only about 20 x 10. It's a lot of canvas! It was covering the majority of the deck while the boat was on the hard, catching a lot of pollen and dirt and, worst of all, bird poop. Of course, because this is a damp climate, it also had mildew. The grime was so imbedded in the fabric that it was impossible to remove, even with bleach. It felt like a thankless task, since the bird poop left stains of various colors and the mildew barely budged. I did not feel a sense of accomplishment. The only way to dry the canvas after the cleaning was to hang it over the mast. At least the intense sunshine allowed it to dry quickly. 

We took a break for lunch around 1 p.m. and walked into town to The Social, a coffee and ice cream shop that also has quiche and sandwiches. It is a lovely little storefront place and we sat by the window enjoying the air conditioning while we ate. I walked across the street for my daily Diet Coke before we returned to our work on Mantra. I had not yet finished with the bigger section. By the time we draped it over the boom, I was nearly suffering from heat exhaustion. When I went down below to wash up a little, I looked in the mirror and saw that my face was beet red. I stayed down below and cooled off for the next hour or so. When Peter reached a stopping point, we gathered up leftover food and our shower gear and clean clothes and went to the clubhouse. After nice showers, we heated our leftovers in the microwave in the lounge and ate in the lovely coolness there. 

The sun was low in the sky by then and it was cooler. We dropped our stuff at the boat and then walked around the docks to Scottish Highland Creamery, a very popular spot with locals and tourists. There are always some interesting flavors of ice cream. We enjoyed delicious sundaes overlooking the watermen's boats.

Back on our boat, we rolled up the second piece of canvas when it was dry. I tidied up down below while Peter puttered on deck and then, since it was cooler and there was only a light breeze, we attached the genoa to the roller furler.  Our friends Lori, Germán and Elizabeth from Washington, D.C. will be arriving in the early afternoon tomorrow and we want to ready to sail!