No boat travel.
Clark came back to the boat after docktails yesterday with the day's sunset picture. By the time he came back, however, I had already posted my blog update for the day. Here is last night's sunset.
Today, Clark and I each had our own agendas for the day. I had piles of laundry to do, and Clark had an engine room project he decided to start. We got a very late start on the day's activities. I slept until 10:30 and Clark finally got out of bed at 11:00. With a wee bit of a chill in the air, we snuggled down instead of getting up.
By the time we got from the master stateroom to the salon, we had to decide if we would be eating breakfast or lunch. I opted for breakfast, and Clark opted for lunch. We normally go to bed on the late side; 12:30 or 1:00 a.m. is not unusual. It is not normal, however, for us to sleep past 10:00 for sure!
Folks from Alabama sure now how to plan a party, and Mel and Anne on "Morning Star II" decided that we would have a "Low Country Boil" today at the regularly scheduled docktails time of 5:00 p.m. Mel and Anne took care of acquiring and cooking the food. All we had to do was show up with money, an appetite, and if we wanted, a dessert to share. That meant that whatever work Clark and I planned for the afternoon, we had to be done by 5:00.
While I had my laundry going this afternoon, I baked applesauce cake for the 5:00 gathering. I had a timer set for the wash (and then dry) that was underway up at the marina, and a timer set for the oven on the boat. It kept me busy running back and forth between the two. In amongst that activity, Clark decided that he needed me to help him for a while with his engine room project.
Whenever we take on fuel, Clark has to climb into the engine room repeatedly to read site glasses to see how full the tanks are. Our boat has a fuel gauge on the helm that always shows empty because it is not set up with sensors. Clark is rectifying that by installing the necessary parts.
This project required that he move all the fuel from the starboard tank to the port tank. After that, he installed an elbow, a valve, a reducer, and a sensor into the bottom of the tank. Once done with that, he transferred the fuel back to the port side to balance the boat. My job was to watch the overflow on the side of the boat as the tank became full to make sure no diesel fuel escaped. Fortunately, the tank got to empty with no overflow problems.
Given all the weight of the fuel shifted from one side to the other, the boat listed quite severely during this activity. Tomorrow he will do the port to starboard transfer and installation of parts. Once done with that work, he will need to run wires and work on the electronics part of the job.
We managed to wrap up all our jobs and make it to docktails on time at 5:00. Mel started the cooking process at 2:30, so when we got there, food was ready for the taking.
 |
| Mel - the Chef |
 |
| Mel at work cooking dinner for the gang (mirror image - photo taken into the glass door) |
 |
| Cook pot with propane tank and burner |
 |
| Potatoes, Corn, Carrots, Sausage, Onions |
Normally the food is poured out onto newspaper on a table and folks dig in. Here, with limited table space, the cook decided to pour the food into a large cooler. The sun was out and the temperatures were quite pleasant, but we had very strong winds. The cooler kept the food out of the wind, so it remained hot for a good long time.
 |
| Ready with my empty plate to dig into the chest of food! |
 |
| So much shrimp!! |
Clark took an early picture of the dessert table, so it does not reflect the vast selection of desserts we had to choose from. Faith made her rum bundt cake, which I really enjoy. She insisted that Clark try some, and given he doesn't drink alcohol, we wondered if he would get drunk from eating it. He did not.
 |
| Homemade Cornbread - Yum! Lots of cakes and brownies came later! |
Even with all the cooking Mel did, he also contributed to the dessert by making homemade sherbet - orange with pineapple!
 |
| Ice cream maker - orange sherbet for dessert! |
Mel and Anne had sign-up sheets and planned on 40 people. Around 37 actually attended the boil.
After everyone had eaten their fill, the cooler still contained vast amounts of shrimp and trimmings. Mel handed out storage bags and told everyone to take some home for leftovers. We had such a good time that by the time we were done, the sun had set and it had gotten quite dark on the docks.
Walking back to our boats, Yasmine invited Linda and I on board her boat to see her sea glass artwork from the other day. Some how Clark found us and, after confirming it was not "girls only", he climbed on board as well. Fortunately, he had the camera with him.
 |
| Yasmine's picture has a lot more going on than mine does! Shells, driftwood, and sand dollars! Love the mermaid! |
Before calling it a night, Clark and I walked the docks for a tiny bit of exercise. No one was out to talk to, so we had a very short walk.
No comments:
Post a Comment