Saturday, January 14, 2012 Day 24 in the workyard…

Okay - I'm starting to count now... 24 days in the boatyard...
Dinghy is put together and holding air still (except for the bottom section with no cap) …
Wayne struggled with the remaining bolt to the windlass all day…
¼ turn an hour again, upside down, laying on the deck - half in and half out of the anchor locker… 
I’d forgotten to mention yesterday that he had a fan club…

of vultures…

They were circling him while he was laying half in the chain locker, half on the deck in his red jacket. I’m thinking that because he was in red and so still, while trying to loosen the nut that the vultures probably thought he was carrion. He’d remarked that upside down in the chain locker he’d periodically look skyward. It looked like they were getting lower and lower at times. There were about 12 of them. I kid you not and I think they were thinking they’d found the Kolibrie Diner jackpot. Wayne looked like there was enough of him to go around for everyone. Anyhow they were checking him out again today. Is it lunch time yet? I think we need to find a different color jacket for him to wear in the cold, other than that burgundy wind breaker… Shoo, shoo!

Around 4pm Rourke and Sherry (Good Goose) came wandering by to check out our rudder and propeller shaft. Bet they were wishing they didn’t. I was putting up the bimini and struggling with it and the dodger while Wayne had been struggling with the windlass. Needless to say, they ended up, up top with us, with Rourke half in and half out of the chain locker. New buzzard food... Sherry and I were struggling with the dodger to get the zipper re-zipped on the dodger…tight fit. An hour later after Rourke had started (he wasn’t going to let it get the best of him) we had the other bolt off. He’d had a product called PB Blaster that seemed to help loosen things right up. That called for a Yuengling! Then they were off to Home Depot to get wood for a rudder and we were throwing on our sweat shirts to go to the potluck.

Originally I thought “wow it’s too cold, let’s not go…” But with the pound cake sitting on the counter staring at me and nobody here to eat it but us, anddddd the chance that they might have more of that delicious corn like last week, we bundled ourselves up and headed down to the potluck. We spotted Klabara (Klaus and Barb - the boat next to us in the work yard) at a table and joined them. We had a wonderful evening getting to know them in spite of the cold... If anything the cold kept the mosquitos in check for the evening while I was learning about Klaus being a pastry chef, German Army Sergeant, Life Guard and world traveler. They’d met while he was taking classes at college and she was a professor. He’d ended up taking one of her classes after they’d met and he’d told her on the first date that he wanted a sailboat and was immigrating to Canada. Long story short – they’re together and working on their boat now :) Nice and interesting couple. Plus hey – they like similar things like ice cream (at Cold Stone) and parts at West Marine (right across the street from Cold stone)

Brrrr…. It’s going down into the 30s again tonight. Towel over the louvered door, check; Wally out and turned on, check; spare red, plaid, travel blanket from Tanzania on the bed, check; Now some mafia wars, then a little light reading before climbing into my berth…