5/29/18: Well, Pat went to the dentist today to address the pain in his molar. He has a cavity between the back two molars which is going to require a root canal and crown. Yay! Unfortunately, the entire process takes a month to complete. They first do the root canal procedure. Then, two weeks after that, they do a fitting for the crown. It takes another two weeks for he crown to be made before it can finally be cemented in place. His first appointment is next Thursday, and his final one is on July 5th. We’ve decided to hang out here in Kingston until (at least) July 9th – time enough to finish his dental work and also allow the 4th of July weekend to pass.

At first we were frustrated and disappointed as the delay will probably not allow us to get to Nova Scotia this year, and we might be hard-pressed even getting to Maine. We’ve debated a couple options including heading south to the Chesapeake Bay for the rest of summer, or possibly just going north as far as we can comfortably get before the end of July(ish), then heading south. For now, though, we have no firm plans. Time will tell. We do know one thing, however: this is certainly testing our flexibility and patience!

Our time here will not be completely wasted, however. First off, Kingston (and the surrounding area) is really beautiful. We hope to take some time to explore the area more. Secondly, we have a ton of minor boat projects that we can finally address. Things like varnish touch-ups, cleaning and organizing the lazarette, fixing the drip in our toilet (fresh water connection, not waste – lol), replacing wall outlet plates, and maybe installing another cabin fan as it’s been really hot and humid here. Really just all those little things that always stay towards the bottom of our to-do list.

We also hope to see Kathy and Peter, two of our Buffalo / Erie Canal friends from last season. They left us last fall in Catskill on their way to Florida. They were part of a group that was meeting in the Annapolis area to head south together. We reached out to them to find out where they were and surprisingly enough they were heading back north. As we write this, they are in New York City and hope to be passing by Kingston within a couple weeks.

This is also giving us a chance to experience what it’s like to just “live on a boat”. Yes, we were on our boat for 4 months last year, but for that whole time we were moving from place to place and never spent more than a few days at each place. Here, we are just sitting in the water, tied to a dock. So far, it’s not so bad.

P.S. Happy 75th birthday to Kate’s Mom (6/5)!!