Location: Zimmerman Marine - Cardinal, VA
Position: 37 24.426 N 076 21.139 W
Holy Molies! Has it really been almost three freaking months? Crikies!!
Today the wonderful folk at Zimmerman Marine put our Rachel back in the water.. We can't actually go anywhere until we get our final alignment and sea trial on Monday but we ARE afloat! Fianlly!! It actually feels a bit weird, but in the nicest sort of way!!
We apologize for the lack of info as to our status lately, but we didn't want to bore you with all the day-to-day tedium. Suffice it to say that we did you a really, really big favor by not being quite as communicative as we could have been.....
We just spent 10 days with Julie's brother and his family from England, along with both of Julie's kids and their families. It was a big family gathering and we all had a lovely time. Exhausting, but at least it was in a different (and nicer, actually) sort of way from just working on the boat!!
Update: The engine is installed, the new fuel tank is in. Whoopti-freaking-do!
Well, in, but not yet "installed" - We still have some stuff to do over the weekend - but we're so close to leaving the dock that "in" is good enough for tonight. If the repower gods are looking down on us we'll be ready to leave Zimmermans on Tuesday. Hot damn!
As we are such positive thinkers and we have really had such a wonderful time here, we are treating all the boatyard, staff and management, to lunch on Tuesday at 9:30am.
"9:30am" you ask with a certain amount of incredulity??
Yep. The guys here start work at 4 or 5am so by 9:30 they are ready for lunch - who are we to argue? Julie is making her famous crock pot BBQ with all the fixins and Mark is studiously staying out of her way and lending his assitance wherever he can. As any wise man/caring husband must do...
We decided to leave the new dinghy behind this winter - there's a new crack in the keel and we just don't yet have confidence in it's ability to handle full-time cruising. We're leaving it with friends in Deltaville for the winter and will pick it up in the spring. That'll give us a chance to mess around w/ it during the spring and summer and make a final decision. We're really hoping it works out because we really miss dinghy sailing. As well as Rachel sailing. As well as pretty much any kind of sailing we can think of. Thank goodness we have friends who have given us our sailing fixes over the last couple of months! You know who you are - seriously - thanks so much!
Whew. It's good to be back afloat.
