Today’s song begins: I heat up, I can’t cool down. My head is spinning ’round and ’round.  Abracadabra! let’s make this heat skedaddle!  This is really yesterday’s song but we were too hot to open the laptop let alone type on it.

A forecasted high of 93 today fortunately did not materialize and how nice that a cooling breeze did.

Now for visitors; first the unwanted. While we are not getting the interesting critters that One White Tree (crossing the Pacific) finds on their deck most mornings in the form of tiny squid and flying fish, we do have those overly active birds, beetles (it’s that hot season) and other winged things, primarily at night. Flies check us out during the day and some even live to tell about it.  We also find tiny ant-like things with teeny wings; they like a bit of shade so we find them tucked under the hem of the Sunbrella, under the lines or in a corner of the stern steps. I attack them with Fantastic and so far the army has not grown appreciably.

Good visitors come in two sizes: adult and child. The adult ones are other boat owners, most of whom are working on their boats too, just all not living 24/7 on the hard as yours truly. They stop by to chat about progress or lack thereof, or in Mark’s case, he brings us 1 liter bottles of red wine. Red- see you don’t have to chill it to enjoy it. Something a boater with cruising plans would be tuned into.

Last week we enjoyed a visit from a friend and her two fantastic children; the youngest people (the kids) ever aboard. Now granted they (and I’m talking about the kids) know about camping, tractors, kayaks and attend summer camps with small boats, but their knowledge about the boat’s systems and how things worked was amazing.  Most the questions, and I fielded a boatload, were not of the “what does this do?” variety. In many cases the oldest told me what things did. They moved around the boat (ah, to be so young) like monkeys; inquisitive and observant. Full of knowledge to share; they did. I received intelligent and thoughtful answers to the “where would you find”, “where does XYZ come from” and “what does this look like” questions I posed to them as we inspected Ortolan inside and out.  The exclamations of “oh this is SO cool” and “you are SO lucky” gave a boost to our flagging morale.

Our youngest, coolest and most excited visitors ever!

Our next visitors are Benj and Lily who are driving down for a short visit with family and hopefully a two family brunch out before they head back to VT. Can’t wait to see you!

Today’s Stats:

Total fluid oz consumed by both: 128 (less than Tues)

Highest temp displayed: 90 (97.5 WSUN- your summer hot hits radio station on Tues)

Flies demise: 6