Stuck in the mud

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Mon 27 May 2013 02:15

Thurs, Fri, Sat & Sun -  23rd, 24th,  25th & 26th  May

 

On Thursday Craig & Karene drove up from Hampton to visit us and it was great to see them both looking so well and good to catch up on the past 6 months of their travels.

 

North Sails phoned to confirm that they had the sail back and would be working on it and in a separate call, their canvas section called to ask what it was they were supposed to be doing with the cushion that they had had for the past 6 months!  However they did arrive on Friday with both the repaired mainsail and the re-covered seat cushion, so they did at least make a go of retrieving the situation. However it was very windy on Friday and so there was no question of trying to put the main sail back on and we will have to wait until the weather settles down again before we can check their work.

 

In fact Friday was a pretty unpleasant day all round with a strong cold wind and quite a good deal of rain, so we concentrated on getting various jobs done indoors.

 

Saturday was at least sunny again, but the combination of an astronomically  very low tide and the strong wind blowing the water out of the bay, resulted in us (and pretty much every other large yacht in the marina) being firmly stuck on the bottom for a good part of the day.  Tricky, as it was hard to get on or off the boat as it would not move sideways to the fixed dock with the keel sunk so firmly in the thick Chesapeake mud. So this left us not only well below the quay, but a long way off as well!

 

Sunday was a better day and we got a lot of the stainless mostly redone, whilst entertaining – and being entertained, by our various boating neighbours.

 

On the wildlife front, it has transpired that the snake Sarah last saw was almost certainly a water snake (but she wants everyone to know that all snakes here bite…..) and in addition to the turkey vultures and ospreys that are abundant here, we have been entertained also by barn swallows, a red winged blackbird and a beautiful red cardinal. Photos are proving rather harder to produce as they are reluctant sitters, but patience is I am told, a virtue!