Leaving Shawnee in Sunny VA

Thursday, May 22

Tuesday May 21, 2014

Atlantic Yacht Basin  MM 12 on ICW

Mazu at the helm

 Shawnee dockside where we'll leave her for 6 weeks or so.

 We watched high schoolers practice crew on the River  girls and guys.

 The whole boat looked like this after our mayfly swarm.  I used a number of cleaning products to wash off the speckles.

 The Great Great Bridge site of first Revolutionary War battle, supposedly.  Boats wait until bridge goes up on the hour.  There are many bridges on this section of the ICW.  The captain must call on the VHF radio to request an opening.

  We have spent our time dockside here at an excellent boat yard   (check out the boatyard at this website:  www:http://atlanticyachtbasin.com/

figuring out the next maintenance items and that is after James Taylor, the proprietor, gave us an estimate on redoing all the teak on the outside of the boat.  It takes 4 weeks to do the work and they can’t get to it for 2 weeks.  This is a maintenance item like all the others, keeping the boat looking good, in top condition – like painting a house.  This boatyard is known for quality workmanship.  They have lower per hour labor costs than New England boatyards.  The treatment to the teak lasts about 10 years. 

  Our other question we must answer is should we leave the boat here and spend next winter down south again.  We have mixed feelings about it.  We decided to leave the boat here and maybe fly back without Mazu to sail it north in mid July.  We’ll take it one step at a time.

  Did the laundry, we took Mazu across the canal to a long trail walk in the woods, and continued cleaning off the mayfly speckles.  At the marine store we actually bought “bird & spider stain remover.”  I worked on the stainless and polishing it this afternoon when it was cooler outside.

 

A couple of things we’d do differently: 

 1.  Store wine top side rather than next to hull in a bin when the  water temperature is 84.  We threw out a few bottles of wine that turned to vinegar.  Ocean water in New England keeps wine at exactly the right temp.  That’s why the drinks are stored close to the hull.

  2.  Bring our own car down south by train for $800 rather than rent all the cars for back and forth travel.

We drive north this afternoon in rental car for NYC and return mid July when the work will be completed.