7/3/18: Wow! It’s hard to believe it’s been over a month since our last post! Geographically, nothing has changed: we are still in Kingston, sitting in the same marina, berthed in the same slip. We’ve had a busy month working on various projects and visiting with friends, marina staff, and dock-neighbors. But our time here is quickly wrapping up – we plan to leave early next week to continue our adventure down the east coast to New Bern, NC.

Pat’s tooth turned out to be more than just a cavity. After conferring with the endodontist, he saw that it was actually cracked down into the pulp and nerve – thus the pain. He still recommended a root canal and crown, but given how the crack was situated, he gave it less than a 50% chance of success. Pat decided to give it a try to save the tooth as the other options were either too costly, or would take too much time for restoration. He’s had the root canal and the crown preparation and so far all is well (no more pain). It appears the procedure was a success, and the permanent crown is now installed (yay)!

Kathy and Peter, our friends from the Erie Canal trip, sailed in to our marina on their way back home and spent a weekend here. It was great to see them again and share our adventures over the past 8 months. Theirs with their cruise to Florida and back, and ours with our trip back home, our various road trips, and, of course, the birth of our grandchild, Kennedy!

We met a couple, John and Marilyn, on a trawler called “Blue Goose”. They were from Florida and were doing “The Loop” for the first time. The Loop is a series of contiguous navigable waterways in eastern North America that can be travelled by boat in one big circle. People who do The Loop are called “Loopers”, and there are several clubs and groups dedicated to boaters who cruise that route. There are several variations, and you can start anywhere along the route. There’s no time limit and it’s not a race – it’s just a popular cruising route among boaters. All the variations to The Loop are too numerous to detail here, but you can click the following link for a detailed map: Great Loop Map. Anyway, we took them shopping to reprovision and they took us out to lunch. They cruised in a sailboat for 40 years before purchasing their trawler. It was interesting to hear another couple’s perspective on the cruising life.

We also met Captain George while we were in the boatyard putting our mast back up. One day, this guy drives by out on the road and yells to us, “Nice boat – is it for sale?”. Of course, everything is for sale for the right price, so we yelled back, “Maybe!”. He turned around, drove into the marina, and started looking over our boat. We gave him a number. He’s in his 70’s, has been sailing his entire life, and raised all 5 of his kids while living on his various boats. He had a boat very similar to ours just two marinas down. He said he had a friend who might be interested in buying our boat, and was going to talk to him. It didn’t work out, but we got to know him pretty well. He certainly had some “colorful” stories to tell!

One of our boat-neighbors, Jon, lives here in Kingston and would come to the marina several times a week. He always had some project he was working on (like us and all other boaters), and would take his boat out once in a while. He retired as a radiologist in his early 50’s, and now putters on his boat and plays guitar in small venues around town. He and his friend “Wild Bill”, a banjo player, have played at the marina several times.

On our many journeys to the rest room / shower building, we sometimes saw people working on small wooden boats. One day we stopped to see what was going on and met Kevin, coordinator of The Veterans Wooden Boat Workshop. This is an organization that assists veterans in the reintegration into society and gives them purpose. Over the course of several months, they get together at the marina and each of them builds a kayak, which they later launch and paddle around the river, complete with a nice ceremony and gathering of family and friends. We attended the get together and watched as each veteran launched their kayak. They all floated and none tipped over! They also hold a contest at Kingston’s annual “Brightwork: A Makers Festival”. Here, they each have 4 hours to build a boat with plans and materials given to them at the beginning of the contest. It was fun to watch as they scrambled to cut and fit all the pieces together! It’s a worthy organization that provides a much-needed service to veterans. You can read more about them here: Veterans Wooden Boat Workshop

We also got to know many other people (and dogs) during our time on F-Dock: Jay & Lori, Rhonda & Al,Jen & Steve, Jeff, Peter, James, Shadow, Auggie, and Walter, just to name a few. We’ll definitely miss the “neighborhood” once we get back underway.

Our time hasn’t been all socializing, though. We’ve also worked on several projects that never seemed to rise to the top of the to-do list. With all the extra time here, we finally managed to knock out many of them:

• On one of our journeys we broke the deck board that our lazarette hinges screw into. We completely removed the deck board, cut and shaped a new piece (of course, it had to be curved), and bedded (adhered and sealed) it back to the cockpit deck.
• When we purchased the boat, many of our portlights had leaked. They needed new gaskets, which we had installed by the marina we purchased Shantí from. But the teak boards below the portlights still showed water trails from all of the leakage, so we sanded them down and refinished them.
• Our black water holding tank (aka waste holding tank) is solid fiberglass, with no easy way to see how full it is. We researched various options for tank level sensors, and decided to try out one that seems too good to be true. The entire sensor comes with a long, thin strip of adhesive-backed aluminum foil, two adhesive backed copper foil squares with wires attached and leading to the sensing unit, and a gauge that indicates how full the tank is. You adhere two lengths of foil strips vertically on the tank, from top to bottom, separated by about 2-3 inches. You then adhere the two copper foil squares, one in each aluminum strip. You run wires between the sensor unit and gauge, hook the gauge to your batteries, press a couple buttons to set the empth and full points, and presto, you now can read the level of “stuff” in your tank. Sounds kind of hokey, but it actually does work (without any “inside the tank” work needed – a very good thing)!
• One morning, Kate comes out of the head and asks Pat, “Did you pee on the floor?”. He didn’t remember doing so, but wiped up the puddle anyway. About a week later, another puddle appeared, and this time Pat WAS sure he hadn’t peed on the floor. Upon closer inspection, the head (toilet) intake valve was leaking. Good thing this just was for the lake/river/creek water that fills the bowl. Great. We ordered a rebuild kit and replaced / greased all the washers, O-rings, and other parts. This was NOT a fun job, as part of it required replacing a valve in the discharge hose. Let’s just leave it at that.
• Miscellaneous stuff: installed a new cabin fan, touched up some of our brightwork, added a new anchor on our secondary rode.

We didn’t do as much exploring as we wanted. Kate came down with a chest cold which laid her up for about a week. And, we had that nasty heat wave that lasted another week! There were a few events around town that we went to, and we saw a great fireworks show on the 4th. They fired them from a bridge that’s only a few hundred yards from our boat. We just sat in our cockpit and enjoyed the show.

One place we did go see was Opus 40. This is a huge, environmental sculpture creted by one man, Harvey Fite. It covers over 6 acres, and took him 40 years to construct. It’s made entirely of quarried bluestone, and has several ramps, stairways, platforms, and a huge monolith as it’s “centerpiece”. He created it as a showcase for the many statues he created from the same quarried bluestone. It’s a stunning piece of work, and is made even more so by the spectacular backdrop of Overlook Mountain in the distance.

All in all, we enjoyed our stay in Kingston. We met some great people, got a lot done on the boat, and were able to explore the area a little bit. We want to thank all of the staff at Rondout Yacht Basin for making us feel at home this past month+, and for letting us leave our car here while we travel south. But now that Pat’s crown is finished, it’s time to start our journey. We leave Monday for Poughkeepsie.

Pics of us still in Kingston