Thursday 4 October: Edgewater (on Almshouse Creek) MD, admin (cleaning) day.
No early wake up call today, bliss! Bright sunshine, perfect day for cleaning and pottering on the boat.
We start with a morning visit to the nearby laundromat in London Towne, where we load 7 washing machines with everything we could find to wash on the boat: beddings, towels, clothes, cockpit cushions, mattresses protection covers. This is the biggest washing session we had yet because these machines are excellent compared to other laundromats.
Few hours later, we return to Cloudy Bay and Glen goes into a frenzy of cleaning the aft deck lockers where he noticed some dampness and consequential corrosion on the stored metal items, like fortress anchor and passarelle. After which he moves forward, and digs out everything we store under the forepeak berth, to clean that locker too. Annoyingly, some black grease powder seems to come from the bow thruster (we suspect that is where it comes from). By late afternoon he is thoroughly exhausted, sweaty, but pleased with the result.
Early evening we are invited at Westbrook and Cindy’s for a drink, and we have a nice chat with them and their guests. Connie and Tony sailed around the Pacific, from Vancouver, in a 27ft yacht 30 years ago, then they did a full circumnavigation.
Lots to chat about, but unfortunately we can’t stay long as we need to head out to a reception organized by Free State Yachts, the Hallberg Rassy dealer. Where at long last, we meet Roger and Liz, the agent whom we bought Cloudy Bay from. Here we meet again Dennis and Cathy, owners of Endeavor, our acquaintances from Greenport, Long Island. A very nice event, and we chat the evening away with several other Hallberg Rassy owners.
As we leave the reception, we pick up our deliveries (which Liz has kindly received over the last few weeks) and when we load all the boxes in the boot of the car, feels like Christmas again. Glen cannot wait to open them up!
It rained a bit this evening, and as we drive back to Cloudy Bay we wander how much rain got inside the boat. We left the hatches on vent, and the bathroom window open. What we didn’t realize we forgot to close, was the wind screen, and that’s where we found quite a bit of water, over the companionway hatch and the instruments. And over the cockpit cushions, which were freshly cleaned this morning! Aghrrr…
Damage control over (mopping up) and we are ready to open the boxes: a new laptop, the warranty replacement Karma grip for GoPro, fridge gas gauge, USB sockets, audio bluetooth adapter … and those are just the items we managed to carry in from the car!
Then to bed, ready for more excitement tomorrow when we visit the Annapolis Boat Show. Oh, there is nothing like sleeping on fresh clean sheets!
