Well, at least we ate lobster, got together with friends and family, gorged on donuts, ice cream sundaes (twice!!), DQ and made a steady habit of not straying from our happy hour libation and snack.

The other 90% of our waking hours were spent getting it done, researching and purchasing needed supplies – I guess that mostly came first, and Russ was a great magician- kept pulling more to-dos out of the darn hat!

Lots of little things too along the lines of getting better organized and stowing loose items so that we didn’t have to worry about them while underway.

But you don’t want to read about this; you’d rather see proof of our hard work!

 

 

We managed to sneak in a dinghy tour of the marina and up the Patchoge River toward where Rte 1 crosses. Lots of memories here, especially for Russ who not only grew up in Westbrook, he owned a small marina for roughly eight years.  It’s in the above photo. See the white hulled boat on the left, Restless? Hiding behind the piling near her stern is a red phone booth. Between that and the small brown building to the right (over a couple of boats) was Rackliffe Marine, also home to Rackliffe Lock and Safe. 🙂

This cutie, and what I assume are other family members, could be spotted on a regular basis.

A sunny day with very little breeze was perfect for spraying 303 Protectant on our canvas and dinghy seat cover.

This was one project left to the experts at Affordable Boat Cushions who we found online last summer. The narrow back cushion held up well and we were very satisfied with the price and quality. This summer we ordered a bottom cushion to match. Lounging will be far more pleasant now.

Our horn had become temperamental and when we needed it, didn’t work. Soooo toss out the old and install the new, much louder horn.   Twins also received new bow lights- one green and one red, naturally.

Somewhere along the line during the window treatment ordeal, I decided I wanted to own a sewing machine again. Not gonna sew curtains mind you, but Russ had mentioned a slew of small sewing jobs that we really needed to do. I also wanted to turn the one exterior front window cover into two so that the left and right windows could be covered, but leave the middle (opening) window uncovered. We planned to take it to a canvas shop in Old Saybrook that we like, but doing the job ourselves probably paid for the machine which cost less than any machine I’d ever owned.

Our fridge has been a two-year troublesome piece of equipment. It likes frequent defrosting and is happiest if the outside temp is below 80 and not humid. Gee, I thought I was a princess! Calling in a marine refrigeration guy is unthinkable; not only because of the exorbitant cost, but in this area we’d be told, “oh we might be able to come out to take a look in a month.” Sigh. We replaced the gasket just in case that would help, but mostly for the challenge :-).  Purchased a re-charge kit but then discovered our fridge didn’t have the proper port for DIY-ers. The company took it back. The struggle continues, and we will resort to prayer if need be.

One of the last, and by far the most unpleasant, item on the to-do list was to try to sell our beloved Bonny, aka the Escape Pod. She was getting on in years- 14 to be exact- and the signs of aging were getting more costly each year. Rather than let her crumble, we thought the decent course of action was to sell her while she still had life remaining. Hopefully to someone who would love and cherish her as much (or nearly) as we did- and still do!

Would she prove to be the one thing we couldn’t sell easily? Would we find a suitable buyer? Would we sell her in time before we headed off, but not so quickly that a rental would be needed? Lady luck smiled on us once again and we almost had a bidding war.

Her new home remains in Connecticut and the owner has already written to say how much she loves her “new” Mini Cooper. Bonny will be instrumental in helping several young ladies learn to drive a stick shift, and for that I am delighted.

But before we let her go, we took a road trip for donuts!! The perfect last trip and look how coordinated she is with Allie’s!  Yes, they were excellent and super fresh. Worth the one hour drive.

I’m sure you are just itchin’ to know the window treatment outcome. I’ll spare you the gory details of what transpired between placing the order and installation, but if we EVER do this again, we will be much better informed and prepared. But then, we thought we were.

A final get together with family before we bid farewell to Bonny. What better meal than pizza?

A handful of final preparations, (a few very enjoyable for me) and we’d be off on Monday, July 31. See you up the Hudson somewhere as we venture into new waters. And locks, locks and low bridges.

 

Pilots Point that is. I’ll bet if you looked back to every time we arrived in CT, you’d read the same words: Projects, busy, getting it done, unexpected, friends, family, and let’s not forget the Donuts!

The only other words I am thrilled to add to this summer’s two-month stay in Westbrook, are: unlimited constant hot water, 50amp power, cable TV and comfy wide slip!! For all of you who take the easy land life amenities for granted, you are probably hard pressed to imagine my joy, but I know some of you can relate. Life is good in our slip, R7. We even got the correct dock; R.  Right?

We got right to work because even arriving two weeks earlier than expected we know how things go; the unexpected stuff consumes the time and there’s always that one thing that takes FOREVER. Can you say “window treatment nightmare”? We can.  Even as I write this on July 10, having new curtains is still not 100% guaranteed. Space constraints, desires and cost all combined into such a mish-mash of options that at one point I threw in the proverbial towel and said, “let’s just clean the ones we have and forget new.” Not gonna happen. Took them all down, made notes because two needed sewing repairs, lugged them to the best dry cleaners around with a seamstress on site. Then they wisely did a test. Result- nada. No change. That mold and mildew didn’t budge. Took ‘em home, tried a few natural remedies, same result.  Soooooo, hang around for the next post to see how this all ends up.

We continue to see strange sights in the sky. This looked like an ultra-light helicopter.

Pilots Point utilizes these very cool, environmentally friendly mini pump-out boats.

 

A slip and a car! Does it get much better? Not much. Bonny had a bad experience last summer and she spent the winter at our nephew’s place knowing a trip to the fix-it spa was due upon our return.  Our nephew brought Bonny in to a well-known local place ahead of our arrival so we could get her quickly.

Not only did she get fixed up within a few days, she also was in fabulously cool company and had a bit part on Cardone’s website. Who doesn’t love our escape pod? Well, the night guard at the marina sure does. When we’d return after a wild night out on the town, we’d see this big smile. Turns out he’s a huge Star Trek fan and always enjoys a good escape pod experience.

Replacing the salon air conditioner unit was one of those unplanned projects. The old one was a bear to remove but Russ caught a break with the new one which was just a tiny bit smaller and only required one shoehorn to fit it in! Let’s not forget the (unplanned) hot water heater replacement and the routine oil and filter changes in both engines and the genset.

Thanks to our friends and Tower Labs we enjoyed a touch of culture at the world-famous Ivoryton Playhouse in Essex.  The show was foot stomping, hand clapping, make you sing out loud excellent. So much fun and very well done. Inspired a slew of iTunes purchases 🙂

Driving around- not aimlessly…- but with a long list of stops and things to accomplish mind you- we watched this chomping display.

After hunting down Tony’s Square Donuts (truck) we tried to make up for the “bad” food stuff by stopping by a local farm for fresh eggs and to scope out their meat offerings.

Father’s Day arrived and so did our son! Seriously heavy fog crept in Saturday morning and ruined a hoped-for meet up with…our nephew Matt, aka “new boat owner.” Dinner with dear long time friends was just the best! We did get into Essex for a tour of Main Street and then headed over to check out Matt’s new ride.

Food gifts are highly prized. Benj never fails to treat us to old favorites as well as introduce us to potential new ones. He also brought greens from the farm and a delicious loaf of rustic bread from The Laundry in Vergennes.

And there was that one small project that needed an extra set of muscles and more height than I had. First off Russ had to use a large hole saw which managed to end up in the drink. Shallow water but murky. What if we fished for it with a magnet? A magnet that once belonged to Benj! No luck, even with serious effort- thanks sweetie!

The real project was to construct a brace so we could lower our mast for the trip to Lake Champlain.

A few ups and downs, a few tweaks and adjustments and…. well done men. I helped too- holding the line; aka the backup lady.

Before and after Father’s Day we lived in a window treatment nightmare. There’s always the extreme option- one that really expands the interior visually, but not one we prefer.

Not content with giving up one thing to the murky waters, the chamois blew in -somewhere.   A few days later Russ is walking near the power/water/cable TV pedestal. Low tide and the sun is shining down brightly. What? You think you see the chamois down there? Yep. Retrieved, washed and washed and sorta good as new. Yuck

The PWC docking stations (is that what they are called?) caught the attention of this heron who carefully walked across one from the dock.. and then slipped. Wings help with keeping one’s balance.

 

One of the easier projects was to sand and repaint our two propane tanks They look mahvelous dahling now! For the crowning touch at the bottom, Russ tapped on an edging strip material.

We both had our to-do lists; Russ wins the prize for quantity and longest duration. I have retained my lofty status as supreme assistant, as well as chief cook and bottle washer, recycling separator, photographer, blogger and finder of new hobbies to keep me occupied. Remember back in grade school when art wasn’t optional or in Jr High when you had to take some art class? Not my favorite subject; if I managed a “C” I was happy. Copper enameling and paper mache, both in 5th or 6th grade, were the only art forms I recall liking.

Growing up I sewed- clothes, not household stuff like curtains. Just sayin’.  But being able to make jewelry has piqued my interest and the techniques can be applied to decorative endeavors too. Call me a late bloomer, but it’s easier to do on a boat than say, candle making.

 

Some time during the month Russ began the buffing, waxing ordeal. One small section at a time weather permitting. This process continued into July- figuring he will finish up by July 15. Lordy. But her ladyship is looking and feeling very spiffy!

You probably get the idea of our month; I could share much more, but this post was long enough!  Hope you all are enjoying summer!