Wish List

While we love our boat, we do have a few items on our wish list to make life more convenient. If we find a great deal or budget allows (or Santa wants to be REALLY nice to us), we may snag them! 

Lewmar 42” Folding Wheel. When we are cruising we live in the cockpit and come/go via the stern. Having this folding wheel would vastly improve traffic flow. We were on another 393 this season that had it and we really liked it!

Scepter 5-Gallon Military-Style Diesel Can. We have four diesel cans now and they work, but they are a “squat” style that takes up more room on deck than this military-style can, and I’ve drug my feet on making Sunbrella covers for them as they are such an awkward shape. I’m not-so-secretly hoping to upgrade to the Scepter tanks as they are easy to make covers for! This is likely a pipe dream as our tanks are nearly new, but a gal can wish!

Magma Rail-Mounted SUP Rack. Our inflatable SUPs are stored rolled in their bags for transit, but I’d love to have them “at the ready” and yet clear of the deck when we are in the islands. This rack can likely hold two boards and folds out of the way when not in use—perfect!

Nothing too crazy, but they all fall after “maintenance of critical boat systems” in the budget, so we will wait!

(P.S. Mom & Dad and siblings—these items and bottles of rum make great gifts! 😂)

Decisions, decisions...Time for a big project?

As we’ve been heading north we noticed that we were losing speed through the water. It’s time for a haul out! We were going to shoot for a short haul where they leave you in the slings for a good power washing and zinc change. But...maybe we want to do more? The hull seriously needs to be waxed which would be easier if we were out of the water. We also would like to touch up the bottom paint where it got gouged by the anchor chain and a few mooring balls. 

The good news? Lots of options for yards on the Chesapeake. We debated Deltaville for a quick haul, but having decided a week on the hard would do us some good, we started looking between Solomon’s Island and Annapolis. Our friends, family, and car are all up there which would make the work easier. And as we are intimately familiar with the services at Herrington Harbour, we made the call. Unfortunately, the earliest they can haul us is the week of June 15th. Not horrible, but not ideal. We could stay at the Navy base in Pax River to wait for our haul and still be close to friends. But alas, Herrington Harbour South is able to give us a competitively-priced slip for two weeks while we wait! YES! We will be “home!” They can put us only one dock away from where we used to live starting on June 1st!!!

This will work. We have plenty of projects that we can do while in the water that will be aided by the access to power and water. And we will have our car. And we will be near our friends and family! This means we will be spending at least three weeks, probably closer to four, in Herring Bay. Not a bad place to be “stuck.”

For now, I will celebrate the new plan with a cocktail with our stowaway friend! 🐸 

Free docks! EC to Great Bridge

We left Elizabeth City and opted for some quiet nights at anchor during the holiday weekend. We tied up at Coinjock on Memorial Day to top up our water and batteries before trying out a new-to-us experience—the free docks at Great Bridge, VA! We tied up on the side of the bridge. While the dock doesn’t have water or power, this is a fantastic stop with historical in the battlefield park and a nice system of trails to walk. It was also a nice spot for visitors! Mom came for dinner and an old Navy pal stopped by to see us and deliver a treat—it was awesome!

The location makes for an easy pass through the Great Bridge bridge and locks, too. We got an early start, have passed the Navy base, and are on our way to Deltaville for the night. We hit a bit of fog entering the bay, but our loud speaker horn worked great!

Northbound visit to EC

Elizabeth City, the “Harbor of Hospitality,” continues to hold a special place in my heart. Though COVID-19 currently has the free slips at Mariners Wharf roped off, both Jennette Bothers and Mid Atlantic Christian University docks are allowing transients and the price is right—free for 48 hours! There are also plenty of places to anchor nearby. Many restaurants are offering takeout—try Island Time’s family meals to feed a hungry crew for a great price, Montero’s for a big vegetarian menu, Muddy’s for great coffee, and Ghost Harbor Brewing for tasty brew to-go. The quaint downtown makes for a great place to stretch your legs!

Downtown EC

At the MACU free dock

We spent about a week in Elizabeth City on this stop so that we could help mom straighten out a few things at her house and see a few friends. It ended up being a cool, rainy week for the most part, but we all worked hard at the house and even got a few boat projects done. As usual, the kids also tried to steal our friends’ pets while we were there. 

Kids doing land chores!

Freshened the paint on the chain and cleaned the teak!

A dog! A cat!

It was a lovely visit, but it’s time to move on. We will inch north over the holiday weekend and try to avoid the busy areas. We are on our way to the Chesapeake!

Remodeling time!

So we sort of decided to do a galley remodel this summer! Nothing too crazy, but after a season of cruising my love/hate list is clearer than it has ever been!

There is so much I love about the little galley I’ve prepared meals in for the past decade. I love the magnetic spice and knife racks, I love that my grandmother’s cutting board fits perfectly over our stove, I love the trivets from past travels displayed on the bulkhead, and I even sort of love the challenge of cooking a full holiday meal on two burners and in a tiny oven.

The galley “before,” ready to cook a holiday feast!

But then there’s the list of things I would improve upon:

- The fridge. Oh, how I would love a drawer fridge/freezer so that my prep space could be left alone when I need something from the fridge!

- The countertop. It’s not horrible, but it’s a boring, stained laminate, and I put a bunch of dings in it years ago when I was pounding chunks off a 5-pound chocolate bar.

- Pantry space/access. I need more stuff “at hand” to feed feed a family of four that includes teenagers! And I need a better way to store pantry staples in general.

- The sink. This has been a big sore spot for me. We have a double sink, and the way it is now I wash in the little half and have a drying rack in the larger side. Both sides are pretty small, but I make a huge mess splashing water around trying to wash pans and even some plates with the current set-up. We use a Pur water filter on the water spout as well, and sometimes that further crowds things.

- The oven. I used all sorts of spice, oil, and honey bottles this season to wedge the gas knob on the oven so it would stay lit. 

- The microwave. I have wanted to ditch this thing for years! We hardly ever use it—I stored bread in it for a while! 

So, what’s the plan? A mini-update! Some things were easy, like fixing the oven thermocouple. Some things just aren’t in the budget, like the new refrigerator and the new counter that would have to go with it. But here’s the loose plan:

- Tear out microwave (DONE!). Wow, that left a BIG space for me to play with! This will be some sort of pantry, but for now I’m just sort of playing with different set-ups.

- Pantry overhaul. With the new space we gained from the microwave and a bunch of air-tight storage containers, I hope to have better access to items we use the most. We may also add fruit baskets to the bulkhead to help store the loads of produce we pick up every few weeks while cruising.

- Countertop refinishing. My SIL is an interior designer and recommended Daich countertop refinishing products for a counter facelift. I’m nervous, but going for it! This project will allow us to repair the fridge door, and will also push us to remove our Keurig (we don’t use it any more, but it’s glued into place!). 

- Sink. This is a big one! I want to flip the sink around. I’ve measured it a few times to see if the drain can clear the drawer and the faucet can reach, and I’m going to measure about 50 more times, but I plan to drop the sink when we do the counter anyway, so if I can flip it to have a “big” wash basin, I will. This will compress our dish drying space, of course, but I’ve done a few test runs and with a new dish drain I think it will work. Oh, and I may use this opportunity to get a new faucet with a pull-out head! Adulting is so exciting! Just need to figure out the water filtration...

So that’s the big plan! Not sure exactly when each part will get done, but I’ll post updates!

Goodbye, microwave!