Brain Break... Sort Of

Things have been busy aboard S/V Last Tango since our last post.  We're continuing to make progress on our refit/offshore/long term cruising prep (more detailed posts on those projects to follow) and I think we've got a good 6 or 7 lists in work: things to buy at the boat show, projects to complete now, projects in work, must do before we leave the dock, must do before we cross an ocean, things to do when we have time, aka the nice to haves and so on...

But between life (read: schoolwork and work-work) and some fun landlubber trips to play tourist and visit family we've been trying to get away from the dock when we can.  It can't be all work and no play!  

A few weeks ago we threw off the lines and headed to one our favorite spots up the St. Mary's River and anchored out for a night.  We got there early enough on Friday that we got some down time but sadly had to head back the next day.    Our dock mates and very good friends aboard S/V Doggie Paddle joined us.  It was a wonderful weekend, but as usual, all to short!  This is a pic, captured by A aboard Doggie Paddle - Thanks A!

 

Then the following weekend, with the weather working in our favor, we headed back to St. Mary's but this time we'd have a couple of nights on the hook - yay!  A few hours after dropping the hook, our friends on Doggie Paddle (unexpectedly) pulled into the creek as well - a great surprise!  That night we met for sundowners and decided to meet up again in the morning for a potluck breakfast.   This is one of the things we love about boat life - impromptu gatherings.

S/V Doggie Paddle in the background and the S's on their way over for breakfast!

J took the dink over to the college to pick up our friend P for breakfast. Love that we can pick up our land friends while we're on the hook!

 

The weather couldn't have been better, cool temps and a light breeze. We had two days in the river and while it was a much needed brain break from "normal life" it was a rather productive break.  J did some work on our electrical system and battery charger (more from him on that, I'm sure), he troubleshot and fixed our solar (seemed as though they were not working but turns out it was just a bad connection).  We've applied a Band-Aid for now until we can find better electrical connectors for them.   WM only carries one brand, the same ones that we currently (which we don't like, they broke after a few short years) so more researching on those will be needed before we can fully be done with that project.  We are swapping out our mast (post will be done soon on that topic) and were able to find a great deal on a used winch (we needed one more) on eBay so I spent a couple of hours servicing the "new to us" winch.  Also I knocked out some polishing and rust/corrosion treatment and was able to finish a couple of school projects.

I don't know if other boaters feel this way but boat work for us always feels cathartic, especially when being done on the hook.  You're outside, away from it all - just you, the water slapping on the hull and the project at hand...