Like the Neighborhood

A week plus in Norfolk. I'd love to say we were "waiting for a weather window" but it's just not true. Like cruisers everywhere, we must do some boat repairs in exotic ports. In this case a little less than exotic, but pretty cool sitting next to the aircraft carriers and all the other USN vessels. While the photo here is from the outside, the little Naval marina we are in is right behind the ships births. Having come through the Great Dismal Swamp with a non-functioning depth sounder, leaky head, and a tear in the mainsail, we wanted to get a couple things fixed. So we ordered parts while enjoying the Independence weekend, had them sent to the marina at Norfolk, moseyed in for a great deal on a transient slip and went to work. Here is the end of week score: We took the main down, patched her and got it back up; disassembled cleaned and lubed one of the reefing winches; built a bracket and moved our Fortress anchor to the bow relegating the small CQR somewhere else yet to be determined; got in the head parts but decided to put them in the spares and sent the second head directly to the dumpster...it's all about the weight and the space; installed a new shoot through the hull transducer that is IN FRONT of the keel (neat concept in my view, and it WORKS!); replaced a broken LP solenoid; finally split the settee bases which we've planned for years and installed a piano hinge so we can get to the food (another good quality of life issue); installed a deck pump-out fitting for the forward holding tank since we've now eliminated the aft head; Repaired a small leak and recharged the engine driven refrigeration; installed new navigation software as my old is very outdated and the new (almost) free stuff is getting pretty good; and finally, I made some neat facings (photo here) and installed the LED galley lighting we've been carrying around for months, BTW the old lights haven't worked for much longer that that. All in all a good week, met many new friends and now time to head north. Weather...once we're actually looking...will probably keep us in the Chesapeake. Tomorrow will tell. We'll update again soon!

N 36 deg 57.311
W 76 deg 18.610