a little out of order, May 19th
Friday, May 19, 2017
Ahoy! After several VERY busy weeks, we are finally back on Zingara!
April 28th and 29th, our two boys, Patrick and Alex, graduated from their respective colleges, and are continuing to work and live in their college apartments. Patrick is doing an internship with ITS Partners, a software company in Kentwood, Michigan, and Alex is talking to several Civil Engineering firms across Michigan, and American Bridge Co. out of Pennsylvania. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that they both have permanent jobs soon.
On May10th, the moving company came to our boxed up home (thank you, Hurkmans & Pat Nowicki, for all the great boxes!), and took most of our possessions to place into long-term storage.
After a rather weird closing, we sold our Clarkston home on Friday, May 12th and have been homeless even since.
We spent the weekend with our wonderful local friends, said good bye to my parents living in Okemos (E. Lansing, MI), and other family members on Mother’s Day, put our cars in self-storage, and on Monday, May 15th, we drove a one-way-rental car to Oxford, Maryland to start our adventures.
For me, this week has been filled with unpacking, stowing, re-stowing, grocery shopping and trying to stay out of the way.
Rick has been working on what-he-thought-were minor repairs – unfortunately and/or fortunately, the engineer in him is running on overtime.
Example, when we were here in April, the bow-thruster (small independent motor at the front of the boat that helps with maneuverability) crapped out. Rick pulled it apart and ordered/received replacement parts while we were still in Michigan. Once we arrived THIS week, he spent most of Tuesday morning, laying on the front berth, bent at the waist, with his head and upper body vertically down into the hull. Imagine ->working on a jigsaw puzzle that is UNDER a bed, while you’re on TOP of the bed. I would have loved to take a picture of this situation, but often times I was holding his ankles so he wouldn’t fall in. Other times, I was afraid the tension and his language might break my phone, so I kept it out of sight. You’ll just have to use your imagination!
OH! And the end of the story – the thruster wasn’t even put together correctly in the first place, so the replacement parts didn’t work, and we have to order a whole brand new one. It will have to be air-shipped to wherever we are, once one’s available in 3 weeks.
And while Rick is fixing one thing, he discovers something else that needs to be fixed/re-engineered. – >> I’m staying out of his way.
However, there have also been so fun times – I enjoyed a beautiful morning walk around Oxford,
I cooked up some yummy Shrimp tacos for dinner Tuesday night, and we were invited to a “neighbor’s” boat for Happy Hour on Wednesday. Rick also took a break from re-engineering to put up the blue canvass awnings that cover the upper flying bridge. We had no directions, only metal bars, and large pieces of canvass, with multiply zippers!—kind of like putting up one of those older-style tents Yet, we got it done and right on our first tries, and enjoyed our lunch up there, in the shade. before and after
And, since we’ve been plugged into “shore power”, we’ve even enjoyed a couple of movie nights, watching Johnny Depp and the other Pirates of the Carribean, and the underwater thrills of James Bond “Thunderball”.
Thursday (yesterday) morning, we left lovely Oxford,
and traveled 1 ½ hours to Dickerson Harbor, in Trappe Creek, Maryland. A fuel trunk was waiting for us, there, and we started filling our tanks by 10:30 am. I couldn’t believe that it took almost 1 ½ hours to “full ‘er up”. Our Zingara has two 300 gallon (diesel) fuel tanks, and since the price was less then $2.00/gallon, we filled the tanks to capacity. Along our 6-week trip, we probably will never be so lucky. Marine fuel docks don’t usually have the best prices, as they mostly have “a captive audience”.
We also came to Dickerson Harbor to have some repairs done, including a broken bolt on a rudder and a broken bracket on a swim platform --- you don’t really want THOSE details, do you? Broken swim-platform bracket:
We expected to stay here in Trappe for the afternoon, however, due to the heat <- over 90 degrees, high humidity, everything takes twice as long to do. We ended up spending Thursday night tied to the dock. What a view ....
FINALLY, Friday mid-morning, we were next in line to be hauled out of the water.
So, guess how they pull a boat out of the water to make repairs! It was amazing! and quite scary to watch!
So now, we are trapped in Trappe, with nothing to do, and not even a boat to do it on …
I’m sitting out on a picnic table, typing away, swatting away ants and flies, while enjoying the much-appreciated breeze, waiting for the repairs to be done.
Friday night – repairs still aren’t done – waiting for the repaired bracket to be returned by Fred, the welder. Luckily, the boatyard owner/boat broker, John Shanahan, was free for dinner, so we dined with him at the 4021 Pub in “downtown” Trappe. The food was good, and John had lots of fun stories to tell (as usual).
As the repairs weren’t done, and therefore the boat wasn’t put back in the water, we had an interesting walk to our sleeping quarters. Hey, sometimes, you just have to go with the flow, and go outside your comfort level.
Hopefully, repairs will be completed soon, we’ll be put back into the water, and will be on our way!
Ahoy! After several VERY busy weeks, we are finally back on Zingara!
April 28th and 29th, our two boys, Patrick and Alex, graduated from their respective colleges, and are continuing to work and live in their college apartments. Patrick is doing an internship with ITS Partners, a software company in Kentwood, Michigan, and Alex is talking to several Civil Engineering firms across Michigan, and American Bridge Co. out of Pennsylvania. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that they both have permanent jobs soon.
On May10th, the moving company came to our boxed up home (thank you, Hurkmans & Pat Nowicki, for all the great boxes!), and took most of our possessions to place into long-term storage.
After a rather weird closing, we sold our Clarkston home on Friday, May 12th and have been homeless even since.
We spent the weekend with our wonderful local friends, said good bye to my parents living in Okemos (E. Lansing, MI), and other family members on Mother’s Day, put our cars in self-storage, and on Monday, May 15th, we drove a one-way-rental car to Oxford, Maryland to start our adventures.
For me, this week has been filled with unpacking, stowing, re-stowing, grocery shopping and trying to stay out of the way.
Rick has been working on what-he-thought-were minor repairs – unfortunately and/or fortunately, the engineer in him is running on overtime.
Example, when we were here in April, the bow-thruster (small independent motor at the front of the boat that helps with maneuverability) crapped out. Rick pulled it apart and ordered/received replacement parts while we were still in Michigan. Once we arrived THIS week, he spent most of Tuesday morning, laying on the front berth, bent at the waist, with his head and upper body vertically down into the hull. Imagine ->working on a jigsaw puzzle that is UNDER a bed, while you’re on TOP of the bed. I would have loved to take a picture of this situation, but often times I was holding his ankles so he wouldn’t fall in. Other times, I was afraid the tension and his language might break my phone, so I kept it out of sight. You’ll just have to use your imagination!
OH! And the end of the story – the thruster wasn’t even put together correctly in the first place, so the replacement parts didn’t work, and we have to order a whole brand new one. It will have to be air-shipped to wherever we are, once one’s available in 3 weeks.
And while Rick is fixing one thing, he discovers something else that needs to be fixed/re-engineered. – >> I’m staying out of his way.
However, there have also been so fun times – I enjoyed a beautiful morning walk around Oxford,
I cooked up some yummy Shrimp tacos for dinner Tuesday night, and we were invited to a “neighbor’s” boat for Happy Hour on Wednesday. Rick also took a break from re-engineering to put up the blue canvass awnings that cover the upper flying bridge. We had no directions, only metal bars, and large pieces of canvass, with multiply zippers!—kind of like putting up one of those older-style tents Yet, we got it done and right on our first tries, and enjoyed our lunch up there, in the shade. before and after
And, since we’ve been plugged into “shore power”, we’ve even enjoyed a couple of movie nights, watching Johnny Depp and the other Pirates of the Carribean, and the underwater thrills of James Bond “Thunderball”.
Thursday (yesterday) morning, we left lovely Oxford,
We also came to Dickerson Harbor to have some repairs done, including a broken bolt on a rudder and a broken bracket on a swim platform --- you don’t really want THOSE details, do you? Broken swim-platform bracket:
We expected to stay here in Trappe for the afternoon, however, due to the heat <- over 90 degrees, high humidity, everything takes twice as long to do. We ended up spending Thursday night tied to the dock. What a view ....
FINALLY, Friday mid-morning, we were next in line to be hauled out of the water.
So, guess how they pull a boat out of the water to make repairs! It was amazing! and quite scary to watch!
So now, we are trapped in Trappe, with nothing to do, and not even a boat to do it on …
I’m sitting out on a picnic table, typing away, swatting away ants and flies, while enjoying the much-appreciated breeze, waiting for the repairs to be done.
Friday night – repairs still aren’t done – waiting for the repaired bracket to be returned by Fred, the welder. Luckily, the boatyard owner/boat broker, John Shanahan, was free for dinner, so we dined with him at the 4021 Pub in “downtown” Trappe. The food was good, and John had lots of fun stories to tell (as usual).
As the repairs weren’t done, and therefore the boat wasn’t put back in the water, we had an interesting walk to our sleeping quarters. Hey, sometimes, you just have to go with the flow, and go outside your comfort level.
Hopefully, repairs will be completed soon, we’ll be put back into the water, and will be on our way!
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