STILL Here in Oxford

Last week's weather delayed one of the main jobs that Peter contracted with the boatyard to do, inspecting and repairing the rigging. All of last week, it was too windy and usually too rainy to go up the mast. This week, the weather on some days will be good, but now the yard has all the local boat owners pushing for their boats to be launched and masts to be re-fitted in time for opening day for sailing this coming weekend. Peter will probably have to do the job himself even though he would have preferred using a professional.

Our time in Oxford is beginning to seem interminable and the predominance of gray weather over sunny days is a bit depressing. Yesterday, it was overcast in the morning but with the promise of fine weather in the afternoon. I took my daily walk to the Oxford Market with the mission not only of obtaining a Diet Coke but of photographing some of the outside artwork around town. Since 2007, the Oxford Business Association has auctioned colorful painted scenes on a 4-picket section of the iconic Oxford fence. Local artists from Oxford, Easton and St. Michaels volunteer their talents and time to produce scenes representing life on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake. The proceeds from the auction support local charities and non-profits including the little local library, the town museum, and the volunteer fire department. Below are some of my favorites.

The sky cleared and it was shorts, t-shirts and bare feet weather by lunch time. Peter began before that working on installing a new engine exhaust hose. It's 3 inches in diameter and 16 feet long with steel reinforcements. I helped him maneuver it into position from the engine room through the aft lazarette to the exhaust pipe, and then he spent hours in awkward positions in not well-lit places getting it attached.

Can you find Peter?

Finally, the weather was conducive to scrubbing the filthy deck, a major job on a 56-foot boat. Some people are fair-weather sailors; I am a fair-weather cleaner, so I had been waiting for this opportunity. Six non-stop hours after starting--with only occasional breaks to climb down in the lazarette to give tools to Peter, who could not easily extract himself--I finished almost everything. It was a joy to be doing something physical and productive. I would have cleaned the pilot house and the cockpit also, but since the hatches to the engine and the aft lazarette were open to allow Peter to work, I didn't. I am not neat with a hose. Peter could have done my job without getting a drop of water on himself, but my shirt was sopping wet. 

After cleaning up our tools, at 8 p.m., both of us exhausted, we gathered towels, toiletries and clean clothes and went to the large and modern and spotlessly clean marina showers to revive ourselves. The large, bright, yellow-white full moon hung low in the eastern sky, and we were hoping to observe the blood moon lunar eclipse. However, lightening was flashing in the distance and rolling thunder rumbled as clouds moved in. At 9 p.m., it began to rain. We stayed up for about an hour even though we were extremely sleepy, in case the weather cleared. It did not. After dinner and a game of gin, we gave up hope and dropped onto the mattress to be lulled quickly asleep by the soporific sound of gently splatting rain on the deck above us. 

Luckily, I have been using some of my overly abundance spare time to make various soups, so I was able to heat up some homemade corn chowder quickly for dinner. For meals, I am pulling out old recipes from my files and searching the Internet for new ones. In addition to corn chowder, I have made my cheese potato soup and Brazilian black bean soup. I also created a new dish for Peter a couple days ago, pasta puttanesca with garlic, mushrooms, capers, kalamata olive and tomato sauce. (It was only for him because I like neither capers or olives.) Tomorrow I will make a big pot of vegetable soup since the Oxford Market, I noticed this morning, had locally grown zucchini and squash and I assume will have some tomorrow. Then I will try a recipe I have found for tahini spinach, perhaps over rice.

It is mid-afternoon right now and the sun is shining; the sky is speckled with cumulus clouds. However, there is a severe thunderstorm watch until 9 p.m., and there may be isolated tornados. The weather here is fickle and reminds me why I live in California and not in the eastern United States (or England!). At least it is no longer chilly.