2026 October: Heading South

 The past week flew by with preparation to get underway by the 4th of October. We still had oodles of tasks to check off our lists before we could pull in our lines. We had last visits with friends, a dentist appointment for Clark rescheduled due to the hygienist being sick for the original appointment, and lots of last minute tasks to complete. No matter how much we plan ahead, there are certain tasks that cannot be done until the final hours before departure, e.g. empty the refrigerator. 

28 September 2026

The week started with dinner out with our long-time friends the Nicis and the DeMaios. Janet got elected to select a restaurant, and she picked MJs in Matawan. (It used to be Buttonwood Manor in the olden days.) The restaurant sits beside a lake, so it is a very pretty location.

Football Season at MJs

Scenery at the entrance

Fall colors inside

View of the lake out the back of the restaurant

After studying the menu, Clark and I both came up with the same idea -- share an eggplant and green pepper pizza, so that is what the two of us did. 

30 September 2026

The place where Clark takes our car for oil changes, etc. is, fortunately, located in nearby Fair Haven. He put one of our folding bikes in the trunk, took the car over for service, and peddled back home afterwards. He always does an oil change and puts stabilizer in the gas tank before putting the car up for the  winter. The last thing he does with the car before we get underway is to put the battery on trickle charge to keep it happy while we are away.

1 October 2026

In New Jersey, older cars such as ours require an inspection every two years. Since we bought the car in October, that is our renewal month. Clark checked the busy hours for the inspections and decided that going late afternoon was the better choice. Given that, we took a last run out to one of our favorite food places - Delicious Orchards in Colts Neck, New Jersey. They make great pies and other baked goods as well as having very fresh fruits and vegetables. 

Delicious Orchards was busy even though it was mid-week. The place was decked out for fall / Halloween season. 

Delicious Orchards Entrance

As we exited the store, we noticed some rather large pumpkins off to one side. The sign next to them read "Prize Winners; $100 each; Please do not sit on." Sitting on them would not have been my first thought, but then again, I am not 2 years old. I had to wonder who would spend $100 for a pumpkin!? Not I!

Prize-winning Pumpkins

Later in the day, after dropping me off at home, Clark took the car over for the inspection. Fortunately, the car passed with no issues. The inspector told Clark she approved of his radio station that plays oldies based in Eatontown, New Jersey.

2 October 2026

After the past weekend's storm, we had a lot of cleanup to do in our yard from the oak tree we planted there many years ago. It is now quite tall, and given the acorns, a favorite spot for a squirrel. No matter how many times we pick up branches of oak leaves and acorns, more appear moments later. 

My theory is that the squirrel is preparing for winter. Most of the acorns are missing their "meat". Once the meat has been removed, I think the squirrel throws the "garbage" shell on the ground. The deer appear to be loving the acorn and oak leaf diet as well. Our backyard is quite popular with messy eaters!

When not doing the thousand-and-one chores associated with prepping the house and boat for departure, I have been playing quite a bit of "Mah Jongg with Friends" online. I am practicing with hopes of playing more with real live friends when we get to Marathon. 

3 October 2026

Today, our neighborhood held our third annual block party - open to anyone who currently lives on our street or lived on our street in the past. We were able to attend the first annual two years ago, but last year, the organizers scheduled the event for the end of October making it impossible for us to attend. As soon as I saw the announcement for the party, I knew that we would not be leaving our dock before the 4th of October!

The invite said the party started at 1:00, but I had a number of tasks I was juggling at that time. We left our house at 1:30 to get to the party, and Clark was concerned we were missing the fun. It's about a 1/2 mile to the end of our street and the location of the event. When we arrived, we were some of the first to arrive. I correctly guessed that most folks would be "fashionably late" to the party. The homeowner where the party was held said that the only person there at 1:00 was the food truck they hired to serve up a barbeque. 

Ultimately, we had a good turnout. Attendees ranged in age from the elderly who had lived on the street for many years (like us) to new residents with very young children many of whom were less than one year old. I talked to one of the long-term residents on the street that talked about the difference now to the 1990s when we had children on the street. She said, at Halloween, there are so many children looking for candy, it is like the neighborhood has been invaded. I remember many years where having 8 kids come to the door was a lot.

As we enjoyed getting to know or to reconnect with our neighbors, Clark ran around throughout the party taking pictures. 

Bicycles appeared to be a popular transportation choice for the neighborhood children. I saw at least one scooter as well.

We had two food trucks come in for the event. 

Portable Barbeque ...

Ice Cream Truck as well ...

If ice cream was not of interest, we also had a very nice cake on a balloon-decorated table!

Cake anyone?

Neighbors:
Clark, Bonnie, Jeff, Ev, and Regina

Of course the face-paint station was extremely popular with a line down the street for artwork. 

Butterfly wings around eyes (I think)

A bounce house was also provided for the children.

A dock wagon appeared to be a favorite "toy" as well.

Towards the end of the party, one of our neighbor's, Garner, pulled everyone together for a "Kumbaya"-type moment to express what a wonderful street we live on. 

The party had no defined end time, but with work to do for departure on the next day, Clark and I headed our around 5:00 and got back to work on the house / boat. 

4 October 2026

Depart: Home, Rumson, NJ 12:15

Arrive: Horseshoe Cove, Sandy Hook, NJ anchorage 2:30

Distance: 11.0 nm

Conditions: foggy, rainy, and chilly

Even though we have been preparing since mid-September for this day, we both still had a bunch of tasks to complete before the boat could leave the dock. Over the last few days, I did last laundry, last garbage collection throughout the house, last cleaning / running the vacuum cleaner, etc. I like to thoroughly clean the kitchen so that ants or other insects don't move in while we are away. 

The major task this morning, however, was emptying and cleaning the fridge. I loaded bag after bag from the fridge and freezer, and Clark carried everyone of them down to the boat! I am so glad that I makes lists upon lists to help remember everything to be done. Otherwise, today, I likely would have forgotten to empty the ice cube compartment. I would have no ice and the fridge would have a giant puddle!

Unfortunately, by the time we were bringing the last bags down to the boat, it started to rain -- moderately heavy at times. On one of my trips to the boat, I noticed we had a "farewell committee" wading by the dock. 

Came by to say bye-bye!

We don't feed the swans that come to visit, but they haven't figured that out in all the years they have been checking us out.

Normally, when we are starting a voyage and motoring along the Shrewsbury River towards Sandy Hook, I am busy down below stowing all the "stuff" we have brought on board for our trip. Today, however, I had sentry duty. Our neighbor, as well as the US Coast Guard on Ch. 22, advised caution traveling the river as a 6x6 20' piling had been seen sticking up 2-foot out of the water in the middle of the channel.

With the drizzle and fog, visibility was extremely poor. I stood with my face as close to the front panel of the full enclosure as possible trying to peek between the rain drops to look for a hunk of wood we never saw. Living by the motto "better safe than sorry", it made sense to stand guard duty for the duration of the trip. However, we did see quite a few boards, pilings, etc. that had washed up on shore over the past week. Perhaps the advertised piling was one of those. 

Recently, we had dinner with our friends, Diane and Joe, who told us they had gone to a Yankees game via Seastreak. We saw the boat they traveled on as we passed by the commuter boat station.

"Home Run" 
Commuter boat to baseball games

Though it is hard to tell from the photos, the normal commuter boats are considerably larger. In fact the conditions for crossing from NY to NJ the day they attended the game were such that they had to change from "Home Run" to a larger Seastreak vessel to get back home to NJ.

Clark had two options in mind today for this evening's anchorage. We decided to check out the anchorage in Atlantic Highlands first hoping to find a spot protected  from the east winds. As we approached the anchorage, I could see four people in a dinghy floating in amongst the anchored boats.

Given the weather and their location, I wondered what they were doing. As I studied the dinghy, I noted that one guy was busy with the outboard motor while two others were using paddles to move the boat. It became quite clear quite quickly that the outboard would not start no matter how many times he yanked on the pull cord.

I was standing on the bow getting ready to drop anchor, so given the rainy conditions, I had a better view of the action than Clark. I told him what was going on, and as suspected, he said we should offer them a tow. As we approached them, they said, "We're heading to the docks." They seemed pleasantly surprised and readily agreeable when I yelled to them, "Do you want us to tow you?"  I got an enthusiastic, "YES!" from at least most, if not all, of the folks in the dinghy.

I ran to the cockpit to set up the tow. For convenience, so that I could talk to my captain as I worked with the folks in the dinghy to set up a tow, I suggested Clark and I don our headsets. I had no idea if the batteries were charged or dead. Fortunately, they were sufficiently charged to do the job. 

By the time I was ready to start work, the folks in the dinghy had paddled themselves over to be resting next to our boat. I easily dropped a line down into the dinghy for them to hold onto. After Clark rotated our boat to port, I told them to hold on tight as we got headed in the right direction. 

Towing the dinghy to Atlantic Highlands Marina

It took a while to get them to the drop off point. Clark said we were at idle speed and traveling about 4 knots. He asked if he should / could speed up. I recommended against it as they seemed to be working hard to hold the line at the current speed. I can only imagine how long it would have taken them to get to their desired destination by rowing the dinghy. 

By the time we got to the docks at the Atlantic Highlands marina, I was quite wet. My jeans were pretty well soaked, and even my shoes and socks were wet. The folks in the dinghy had on better rain gear than I did, but what a miserable day to get caught with an outboard that refused to start. They offered lots of smiles and friendly waves as we pulled in our line and they made their way the final few feet to the dock.

With that excitement over, it was now just after 2:00, and neither Clark nor I had had any food since breakfast. I was hungry and ready to get the anchor down and food in my stomach. However, looking at the AH anchorage, Clark decided we would have to anchor in a more exposed position than he would prefer. He was somewhat surprised by the number of boats in the anchorage. I reminded him that, being October, lots of folks will be heading south on the water.

He decided to choose option two and drop anchor at the Horseshoe Cove anchorage instead. At that point, I said I was going for a snack, but he said he would wait. We found a place to drop anchor. I went below and changed my pants, shoes, and socks, and  we finally ate lunch around 3:00. 

I took a few cloudy / foggy-day pictures at the anchorage. It was near impossible to see the shoreline, and NYC was nowhere in the picture.

After lunch, I continued to stow the various items brought on board. Instead of taking a nap, which I needed, I decided to update the blog with today's excitement. 

2026 September: Nor'Easter '26

 24 September 2026 - Thursday - preparing for the Nor'Easter

Weather forecasts indicated a big storm would be headed our way by the end of the week. Clark decided that we needed to do some preparation work in advance. 

We have windows on roof for two of our bedrooms. They let the light in nicely, but the one over the guest bedroom decided to start leaking a couple of years ago. Clark had climbed up there to put caulking in place and that helped for a while, but recently, he noticed dampness appearing in the bedroom once again. 

He decided that he should redo the repair with butyl tape. Unfortunately, the huge ladder he uses to get up there requires both of us to move and position it. We hauled it out of the garage and around to the side of the house to set it up against the roof.

Once we had the ladder positioned, I gave him a bag to use to carry his tools and supplies up with him. I position myself at the bottom of the ladder though heaven only knows what I could do should the ladder start to topple. I mostly stand around at the bottom of the ladder getting a stiff neck looking up at him working!

The worst part of working with this ladder is moving it from one spot to another. We had to move it from the left side of the sunlight to the right. To make it even more of a challenge, Clark decided we could shift it over without lowering it first. As such it is an unruly piece of equipment that has a mind of its own. We managed to wiggle it over with only a few ooohs and aaahs at it teetered this way and that.

With the window sealing completed and the ladder back where it belonged in the garage, I thought I would be able to "chill" for a bit before going out to meet up with some classmates of Clark's for a Happy Hour gathering. Clark had other ideas. Knowing there was bad weather coming, he wanted to take Sunset Delight out for a maintenance while we had nice weather. 

The Happy Hour gathering was in a town about 30 to 40 minutes away drive time. We knew if we took the boat out, we would be a late arrival but decided we could be "fashionably late" to the event. Clark said we did not need to go all the way to Sea Bright but could just go out as far as the main channel to get the job done. So, with that plan in mind, that is exactly what we did. 

Clark complained as we motored along that the boat felt sluggish. Looking at the depth finder to see just over a foot of water under the keel gave some explanation as to why the boat might be "struggling" to go as fast as it usually would. Hopefully that is the explanation!

The Happy Hour event started at 4:00. Arriving at 4:30, we just happened to pull into the parking lot as another of Clark's classmates attending the event. 

Unlike the one we went to in the spring, only 12 people came to this gathering. Several folks did not attend as they had other commitments. 

Clark did not want to eat dinner there. I, on the other hand, decided to order a Yuengling and nachos. The beer was ice cold the way it should be! We were home by 7:00, and I pulled out a selection of leftovers from the fridge for Clark's dinner.

We like to watch movies together at night. Clark surfs through Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc looking for something that might catch our interest. He found one that sounded oddly interesting - "The Love Hypothesis". It is hard to find a movie that we both enjoy as our interests differ considerably. However, we both rated this movie in the "Love It" category. 

25 September 2026 - Friday

 When we returned from out boat run yesterday, I noticed a tree on our property line that was damaged. The Nor'Easter had not even arrived yet and already we had yard work to worry about! 

Broken tree on property line

The base of the tree is on our neighbor's property - so technically, their tree.  However the broken part was hanging over our property. Clark decided to call our neighbor to find out how he wanted to deal with it. When we went out to work on it, it was his lunch time from work, so he joined us to tackle the project.

Instead of taking down the whole tree, they decided to lop off the broken part. Our neighbor brought over a sharp tree trimming tool that cut through the limbs of the tree like a knife through butter. The only tree trimming tool we had was probably older than Clark and covered in rust without the cutting tool that Clark was looking for - only  a saw end.

We threw the cuttings from the damaged tree onto a tarp and dragged it up to add to the pile we started the other day. I was hoping that the town would send a truck through to pick up brush before the Nor'Easter hit, but that did not happen. I wondered if we got high winds if the brush would be scattered up and down the street. That did not happen either.

After our tree trimming exercise, we got ourselves cleaned up to go out to dinner with our friends - Joe and Diane. Clark and Joe met through guitar class. Besides having dinner together, Clark wanted to consult with Joe about an issue with his (Clark's) guitar. So, before going out to eat, Joe and Diane came to our house to discuss guitar repair. Afterwards we drove to a local restaurant, Nauvoo Grill, for dinner. It is conveniently located in Fair Haven less than 2 miles from our house.

We had a lovely time with Joe and Diane. Sadly, with us leaving on the boat shortly, we won't see them again for a while. 

26 September 2026 - Saturday - Nor'Easter Arrives

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday the temps were in the 70s. Today the temps had dropped in preparation for a change in the weather. 

Time to put on a jacket!

Our house is on a creek, and our boat is at the dock in the creek. I looked out the back to look at the creek. It was easy to see it was an extra, extra high tide this morning!

The water level had reached the bottom of the steps to the dock, the ramp was unreachable without waders or a swim, and the ramp was pointing almost straight up in the air and certainly unusable. Clark thought he should have carried the dinghy up onto dry land the night before, but it was too late now. BTW: we don't own waders.

We had to wait until the weather receded in the afternoon to gain access to our dock. When we had dock work done to accommodate Sunset Delight, Clark had extra tall poles put in place for our dock. We learned from Hurricane / Superstorm Sandy in October 2012 that we wanted poles tall enough that our dock would not come off the top as it did in "Sandy". In that storm, we were out in our backyard until 3:00 a.m. working hard to save our dock and our boat. We crawled into be shortly after 4:00 a.m. that night.

Some pictures from Superstorm Sandy as a reminder of how bad it can get ...

Our creek has changed some over the years. When Sandy was coming, Clark tied our boat out in the middle of the creek with lines connected to both sides of the creek. He tied our neighbor's boat to a cleat on our boat.

Spider web of lines connecting Sea Moss
to shore with a neighbor's boat attached as well

When the water came in at high tide, our boat was not reachable by means other than another boat!

So of course, Clark rowed out to our boat.

Note the angle of the ramp

The water came up to the top of our retaining wall. Fortunately, that was no where near putting our house in danger.

Our backyard

Looking down our creek near high tide

Looking the other way on our creek
(see the outline of our landscaping under water)

We had a similar wind event in 2012 as we had for Nor'Easter 2026, but worse! The high tide from earlier in the day did not recede as the water was held in by the winds. When the second high tide came in that evening, the water had no where to go except up!  The water came up high enough that the dock came off the top of the pilings holding the dock in place.  

Clark and a friend, Mike, were out at the boat that entire night keeping our boat secure, working together to tighten and loosen lines as needed. Clark pulled out the Sea Moss fender boards  (2 x 6 planks) to use to help guide the boat back over the poles for the dock when the water receded. I stood on shore with my neighbor watching the boat all night. 

When we saw the water level drop down one stair on our walkway, I started yelling, "It's going down. It's going down." Clark and Mike got into position with the fender boards to direct the positioning of the dock over the poles.

When the water went down, it went down fast. When all was said and done, we were left with a neighbor's dock high and dry in our backyard and a lot of cleanup to be done.

What a mess!

Our neighborhood was without power for 12 days as a result of "Sandy". We had power at our house once the waters receded because Clark fed power to our house (and a neighbor's) from the generator on our boat "Sea Moss". Knowing the storm was coming, Clark went to Home Depot and bought a circuit breaker box to power our heat, hot water, fridge, and television, and a neighbor's fridge. We had television via "Over The Air" service that Clark insisted on using instead of cable tv. Sweet!

Power enough to run the essentials
sitting on the floor in our den

Back to current day  ...

With the knowledge of what we encountered during "Sandy", we decided we better prepare for the worst with Nor'Easter 2026. Although we were comfortable with our dock arrangement, we had concerns for our neighbors whose poles are the same height now as they were for "Sandy". 

We had our own little "Block Party" as our creek neighbor's came out to see what preparations could be made. We started with our immediate neighbor who called his son-in-law to come over and help take care of business. 

Step 1: Move our neighbor's boat out of harms' way. Clark suggested that the best place to secure the boat was tied to our boat, so he tied up on our port side.

Garner moving his boat

Step 2: protect our neighbor's docks; he has two

"We're gonna need a lot of line!"

Clark, Garner, and John

Once the dock is unhitched from the posts, Clark will need a means of getting back to shore - thus the use of our "new" dinghy.

It took four of us working together to raise the ramp off the floating dock. 

Ramp up; time to move the dock

Once the ramp was up in the air, Garner tied the line to a tree. I just hoped the tree had good roots!

Then, Clark got busy taking off the rings that hold the docks next to the poles. I did not like that he was under that suspended ramp!

Once free of the poles, Clark and John moved the dock out into open space to allow it to rise and fall unconstrained as the water rose and receded. They had one line tied to a cleat on the bow of Sunset Delight and the other end connected to shore.

Line running to shore from floating dock
(a different tree from above)

Ramp up; Dock moved

Good thing they have a dinghy 
to get back to shore!

First dock secured

To address the care of the second, and older, dock, the guys put their heads together to come up with a game plan. 

John, Clark, and Garner talking it over

Surveying the situation

Step #1, remove the canoe from the dock.

Garner carrying the canoe over his head

After considerable analysis regarding dock disassembly, Garner came up with the idea to put something under the ramp to allow it to float should it become disconnected from the dock. Being old and made of wood did not support the idea of suspending it in the air like the metal ramp. Garner had an old tubing toy that he was willing, due to its condition, to "sacrifice" for the mission. 

For the other neighbor, Jim, it was decided that they would put out an anchor (the spare anchor for Sunset Delight) to hold the dock, should it come off over the poles, so that it would not float away. 

Clark and Garner deploying the 
very heavy anchor

After deploying the anchor for Jim, Garner worked with John to install flotation under the ramp. Clark went to the Jim's dock to help him (Jim) decide what other preventative protection to put in place for his dock. 

New use for a tubing toy
John and Garner

Once the tube was in place, and Clark was done helping Jim, it was time to disconnect dock #2 from the poles so it was free floating. Clark tied lines to the poles and removed the metal rings that secured the dock to the poles. They left the dock with the ramp sitting on one end and the other end to float up and down without bein attached by the rings. 

Storm-prep work completed!

We knew all of this preparation work might be for no benefit if the water did not rise as much as to get higher than the dock pilings. However, having experienced the worst case scenario during "Sandy", we decided "better safe than sorry" was our motto. Jim fully believed that the water would rise no more this night than it did earlier in the day. Having dealt with "Sandy", Clark and I were less certain this would be the case. Only time would tell.

As we all worked on Jim and John's docks, we saw our neighbor on the other side of our house come out to deal with his dock. Garner had texted him and suggested he might want to do some prep work. He, Kerry, took in his US flag from the piling to prevent the dock from snagging on it and attached lines from the dock to shore hoping that would be sufficient preparation. His new-to-him boat was still tied to the dock. Hopefully, nothing bad would happen. 

The weather while we worked was interesting. We heard reports of downpours in Holmdel, NJ resulting in an accumulation of 5" of rain or more on Saturday. In Rumson, we had varying degrees of moisture in the air ranging from nothing to a slight mist to a light rain. So while Holmdel had rain, we "only" had to deal with tidal flooding. Nevertheless, our clothes were damp, to say the least, by the time we called it quits for the day.

Clark and I had eaten breakfast before our day's work began, but we missed lunch due to our endeavors. When we got back in the house, I pulled out some food and we had an early dinner. Earlier, as John and I stood on the shore watching Clark and Garner busy with some task or another, we commented to each other that living on the water brought its own form of excitement and adventure. It's not boring! What a day we had!

27 September 2026 - the high-water threat is over

Clark brought the portable spot light into the house from the boat so he could keep an eye on the docks during the night last night. He checked several times but all looked well. 

Ultimately, the worst case scenario did not happen. The water did not rise so high as to put the docks in jeopardy of coming off the poles. One might think it was all for naught, but it was far better to be over prepared than regretful. Today's job was to put everything back the way it is supposed to be. 

For today's activities, Garner was unavailable; however, Jim (the neighbor next to our immediate neighbor) was out there working with Clark and John to reassemble the docks. (I was on a winning streak playing "Mahjongg With Friends" and took a while longer to run outside to join the "fun".)

The dinghy had to be redeployed as Clark and John had brought it up on dry land to be available in an emergency during the evening / night. Once the dinghy was in the water, Clark, John, and Jim could begin work. 

Jim went with Clark in the dinghy to retrieve the anchor holding Jim's dock from floating away. The anchor rode consisted of line and chain. The flukes on the anchor are huge and sharp. I worried that one might puncture the dinghy, and wouldn't that be "grand" after we just bought a new motor for it! My worries were for naught as no punctures occurred. 

However, it was a struggle for Jim to pull up the anchor as Clark help the dinghy in place directly over it. The anchor had dug in quite nicely to the muck at the bottom of the creek and was extremely hesitant to let go of its hold! Balancing the dinghy while pulling up a a good sized aluminum Fortress anchor was a tricky situation. I wondered if the dinghy would toss both Clark and Jim into the water with the effort to haul the anchor up. 

Finally, Jim was able to get the chain into the boat and the anchor released from the bottom. They did not need to pull the anchor into the dinghy, just get it up to the dinghy so it could be placed on a dock. John and I were standing by on Clark's dock to receive the anchor. It was mucky and facing the wrong way so the flukes were under the dock. We got it reversed and dunked it a few times to get the worst of the muck off before dragging it onto the dock. Phew! Step one of reassembly mostly done! Cleaning the anchor would be saved for later.

Jim and Clark 
anchor retrieval completed

When the guys started working on reassembly, the sun was peeking through the clouds. By the time Clark and Jim had retrieved the anchor, it started to drizzle a bit. Clark had taken off his Gortex coat but quickly asked for it back as it started to rain.

Jim, on the other hand, was dressed in shorts and had no coat. By the time we were done with the day's work, he was totally soaked. He said he misjudged the weather. As the day progressed, the rain only got harder. By the time Clark and I got back in the house, we were both dripping water on the floor from our coats and hats. 

As the guys took the docks apart yesterday, I decided it would be prudent to keep track of the hardware. I ran to the boat, got baggies, labeled them dock #1 and dock #2, and collected the bolts from the guys as they took the docks apart. I feared that loose hardware in a bucket that could get kicked over was a recipe for disaster. 

Having the hardware in bags with the tools in a bucket proved useful when Clark was standing on the dock and the hardware was on shore. Fortunately, he had a boat pole that he could point in our direction. We hooked the bucket on his pole, and he pulled it over to begin the reassembly work.

John on older, wooden dock with rings back in place

Putting the newer dock back in place was a little tricky. Clark and Jim rowed out to the dock in the dinghy and climbed onto the dock. I ran up to the bow of Sunset Delight and threw the line attached there down to Clark on the dock when he was ready. Then they had to pull themselves in on the dock to position it where it belonged. 

This meant weaving it through between the two poles and rotating the dock to line up with the poles. Jim had to grab hold of the further out pole and stay holding it while Clark maneuvered the dock into position. Jim lost hold of the pole a couple of times, and Clark had to get him back in place. I can't imagine steering and moving a dock into position using one line and a pole, but Clark managed it.

Once Clark had the ring hardware installed, we had to deal with lowering the ramp back down to the dock. Without Garner to help, I was concerned about the weight of the metal ramp as we lowered it down to the dock. John and I grabbed the lines on shore while Jim and Clark held the base of the ramp. I pictured crushed hands if something went wrong and the ramp went down in a hurry. Fortunately, John untied the line from the tree, and we found going down was easier than pulling it up as it gracefully settled into place. Again, Phew!

Neighbor's Dock
Back the way it belongs!

Garner's boat is still tied to Sunset Delight's port side. I joked that we may be taking it to Florida with us.

I had one bit of disappointment with this whole adventure. When I went to do my NY Times puzzles, I found that, in all the excitement, I had failed to do the Wordle yesterday. I haven't missed a day in months, but now my streak shows "1 day"! How sad! My max streak is 186 days. Maybe it's time to find a new hobby.