Guests Aboard

A beautiful evening at anchor

Look at that shine!

[Once again, I’ve fallen far behind on our blog. This entry is from early August.]

We returned to Blossom the last week of July to find her looking spectacularly shiny and sparkly! We had hired a local detailing company who came very highly recommended to wax and detail Blossom. They were almost finished when we arrived – we flipped her around as soon as we got in so they could finish off the hull.  Wow – she’s pretty 😊 

We were only back for 12 days but packed a lot of fun into that time. Our friends John & Steve came up from the DC area on Saturday and we had a wonderful time enjoying happy hour on the flybridge and dinner at Sam’s Waterfront.  Sunday we played pickle ball and provisioned for the week ahead. We only recently realized the marina will provide a shuttle to where we need to go so we took advantage and did a “heavy provisioning run”. The boat was bursting with wine, beer, juice, laundry detergent…the essentials.

The following Monday we welcomed our guests, as my Aunt Lori and Jim arrived to spend the week with us. We had such a fantastic visit with them!  We enjoyed a day at the marina and took the opportunity to introduce them to our two favorite games straight away - Mollky and pickle ball... 

Lori, Martin and Me

Lori & Jim at happy hour on Blossom :)

An evening aboard (Martin is sporting his new flamingo shirt)

And then set off to St. Michael's for a few days of R&R...

Driving from the fly bridge

Ladies in Charge

We couldn’t have asked for better weather. It was warm and sunny except in the evenings when huge storms skirted us so we had dry views of distance lightening. We walked the town, pounded crabs with mallets, kayaked, toured in the dinghy, fished, and enjoyed the Wednesday night beer can sailing races from the flybridge.  

A picture is worth a thousand words so they say, so here you go... :) (Thank you Lori & Jim for the photos!)

On way to town

Me and Martin, being dorky tenticle twinsies :)

The ladies kayaking

On our way to the crabs

The restaurant provided instructions but there was a couple sitting next to us that provided additional and very helpful instructions :)

This is how it's done

Let the fun begin!

Jim learns the ropes

And away he goes!

We had an amazing time with them and boy, Blossom felt lonely when they left later that week!

It seemed impossible that time could go by so quickly but suddenly we found ourselves prepping for another trip back to Florida where work was in full swing.

 Gratuitous sunset photo

 Boat Business: 

• Sparkly. We’re really pleased with the wax and detail work we got. Blossom is so sparkly!

• AC and Dehumidifying. We came back to a warm boat this time. It seems that the 50 amp  breaker we’re using for AC had popped. We had closed all the blinds and had the window screens on so the boat was fine but it was too damp for my liking. Since she kept reasonably warm and not hot, we decided to set up the dehumidifier and fans when we leave again. That way, if the AC goes off, at least she’ll stay dry inside and there’s less to worry about with the big AC pump off.

• Updated the Maretron screens to the latest software version. This included functionality that Martin had requested to Maretron last year, so he was very happy!

• KVH Satellite Phone. Dead again! Twice in less than 4 years isn’t a very good track record. Their customer service has been stellar but I wish the reliability of the product was better. We need to get it up and running by this fall. Martin has arranged for a swap "in-place". The replacement unit has arrived and Martin will be installing it this weekend.

• Martin changed out the charcoal in the gray tank vent filter.

• Fly Bridge Fridge. We don’t normally have this fridge on unless we have guests aboard. We used it this week and it was fantastic to have drinks and ice up top!

• Blossom’s Bottom. We hired a diver to clean the bottom and check our zincs. We had noticed that she was running a bit hot during our run up. The diver confirmed that we had algae growth on the keel cooler, but very few barnacles. He did pull a few big barnacles out of the thruster tubes. Probably missed at the last cleaning when they were small. She ran much cooler when we ran her up this week.