The sun returns

A beautiful day dawned with light fog that cleared off to a bright sunny day and a lovely breeze. The plan as I understand it is to move the boat out, put the masts up and have her in the water tomorrow about noon. So a very busy Wednesday.

We are down to just a few items on the to do list. The saltwater for the galley is done (drilled through hull, installed fitting, valve, hoses, faucet, and strainer on outside to keep seaweed etc. from blocking intake.) The instrumentation is all installed/reinstalled (GPS, radar and chartplotter.)

Lots of little things done. We have spent a couple of evenings cleaning. Some is cleanup from the work done (sanding dust, drilling curls and the like) and some is just the necessary maintenance. We have a few new tips for keeping the boat in good shape for next year, most of which are ways to deal with the buildup of humidity and associated mold growth, which is a cause of bad smells on boats. Fuels (diesel, kerosene, alcohol), varnish and paint thinner and food (stuff left to go bad) are also contributors. We remove all the food when we put the boat away for the year, even the canned goods. No point in giving mice or other vermin any encouragement to come aboard.

We have seen animals in the rocks along the docks. They may be some sort of water mammal, but they look a lot like a rat to me. The only sign of critters I have seen opening the boat in the spring is a single dead bee. Aside from the mosquitoes

We made a trip to the boat parts store as part of a loop through town. Unlike last year and the year before when we were making one and sometimes two trips a day to the parts store. I think we have only been down three times this holiday for something.

Our loop included a stop at the Lighthouse Museum and Visitors Center to see how the Lobster Festival kiosk turned out. The Museum has space for several associated non-profits in the lobby. The Lobster Festival kiosk is one of the exhibits. Looks pretty sharp all set up. It was difficult to tell how it would be when we only saw pieces in the wood shop while it was under construction.

Plant Notes

With the progression of days the dandelions have made an appearance and produced their little tufts of fluff. We noticed another yellow flower in the library lawn. I had to go investigate because it did not look like a dandelion, but more like a buttercup. Turned out to be a creeping cinquefoil. Large areas of the lawn are dotted with dime sized yellow flowers.

We also heard from other folks that up Camden way the weekend storms downed a large maple tree right across Highway 1, crunching a pickup truck in the process. Several people have said that the rains are unusual this year.