Storm approaching point |
With the passing of Labor Day last week, the marina is suddenly quieter. Some boats have already left for their off-season slips up river, and more will leave by October. Then the Bahamas migration will take a few more. Mostly, Labor Day marks the end of summer holidays, weekends on the water fishing, boating or just messing about -- the end of suntans and swimming pools.
What should also have passed with Labor Day was the ceaselessly repetitive daily deluge. I still decline to complain about rain per se so long as the hurricanes spin harmlessly (to us) toward the north North Atlantic. Though weary of the drenching, the rain storms are delivered by some spectacular clouds and squalls.
Squall line over creek |
Rain over marina |
Rain squall over river |
Last year, September was a lost month as everyone in this area began recovering from the destruction of Irene. The previous September, we were still newly ashore in Greensboro. So, I do not know what to expect, but we will see what the month brings. As of yesterday, it has brought drier, cooler air and a north wind. At last. So we opened the boat for the first time since early summer, turned off the air conditioning and slept cold enough to need covers.
We have a list of basic boatkeeping and maintenance that we have deferred due to the heat when it was too hard to scrub the decks, or anything else, when the sweat is salting your eyes and clouding your sunglasses. Clean the hull, decks, topsides, lines. Test the gas generator that has not been run in several months and the wind generator that we do not run at dock. Revisit my attempted repair of our leaking port water tank. Rub down incipient stains on the stainless steel standing rigging with lemon juice. Clean and reorganize the cabins that are strewn with the lazy chaos also born of too-hot-to-work. Pump up the flaccid dinghy dangling from the davits astern and run the outboard.
Then we can once again dream about going sailing.
We have a list of basic boatkeeping and maintenance that we have deferred due to the heat when it was too hard to scrub the decks, or anything else, when the sweat is salting your eyes and clouding your sunglasses. Clean the hull, decks, topsides, lines. Test the gas generator that has not been run in several months and the wind generator that we do not run at dock. Revisit my attempted repair of our leaking port water tank. Rub down incipient stains on the stainless steel standing rigging with lemon juice. Clean and reorganize the cabins that are strewn with the lazy chaos also born of too-hot-to-work. Pump up the flaccid dinghy dangling from the davits astern and run the outboard.
Then we can once again dream about going sailing.
We're enjoying the cooler weather, too. Nice to not sweat as I dry off from a shower. Can't wait to see you again in Oct.
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