The journey back to Kintala was aided by my Brother-in-law and Sister-in-law. They drove in from PA to meet us at Oak Harbor so we could drop off the car. We then went off for dinner with family from that half of the family. The next morning we stuffed their car with the stuff we had stashed in the hotel room and headed to Oriental.
The plan was to have them stay with us on the boat for a couple of days but, alas, boats move. As much as we like this town, boats at the piers near the bridge in Oriental will move a lot in surprisingly little wind. In less than five minutes of sitting in the cockpit my sister-in-law decided that staying on the boat would not be an option. They took a room at the marina. A very nice room for a very reasonable cost. The total package was good enough to keep them here an extra day, so we all had a kind of mini-vacation.
They left Oriental yesterday morning. Normally we would have started in on a couple of boat projects with the idea of being ready to head south at the first available weather window. Unfortunately, as stated, the piers here are not very well protected. (Unless one manages to snag a spot at one of the free docks.)
On our first day back, Kintala suddenly danced, swung, and rolled against her lines like she was trying to get away from something. Deb and I both popped up on deck to see what was going on (along with virtually every single person who was on a boat at the time) but there was nothing to see. No mega yacht had just passed through throwing a monster wake. There was no tsunami sucking the water out of the bay, airliner crashing into the harbor or tractor truck falling off the bridge. Still, it was a serious hit. The power boat on the face dock just off Kintala's bow got tossed into the pilings so hard that the rub rail was split and the starboard side upper hull was cracked. Ugly.
We never did figure out what caused it.
Now, two days later, the boat is still dancing and rolling. Truth to tell, after a couple of weeks on the hard we haven't gotten our sea (pier) legs back yet. Sitting and reading (or typing) is not a problem. Well, not a big problem. We do get off the boat to "stretch" pretty often, but that is only because we have been sitting too much for the last couple of weeks. Right? Hanging upside down in the bilge to install a new gray water tank or to find a small oil leak under the Beast? That will pretty much ensure we will be getting off the boat to do more than "stretch".
It may take a weather window to get us ready for a weather window.
Then we can get started south once again.
The plan was to have them stay with us on the boat for a couple of days but, alas, boats move. As much as we like this town, boats at the piers near the bridge in Oriental will move a lot in surprisingly little wind. In less than five minutes of sitting in the cockpit my sister-in-law decided that staying on the boat would not be an option. They took a room at the marina. A very nice room for a very reasonable cost. The total package was good enough to keep them here an extra day, so we all had a kind of mini-vacation.
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| My brother and sister-in-law and yes he does look like Santa :) |
They left Oriental yesterday morning. Normally we would have started in on a couple of boat projects with the idea of being ready to head south at the first available weather window. Unfortunately, as stated, the piers here are not very well protected. (Unless one manages to snag a spot at one of the free docks.)
On our first day back, Kintala suddenly danced, swung, and rolled against her lines like she was trying to get away from something. Deb and I both popped up on deck to see what was going on (along with virtually every single person who was on a boat at the time) but there was nothing to see. No mega yacht had just passed through throwing a monster wake. There was no tsunami sucking the water out of the bay, airliner crashing into the harbor or tractor truck falling off the bridge. Still, it was a serious hit. The power boat on the face dock just off Kintala's bow got tossed into the pilings so hard that the rub rail was split and the starboard side upper hull was cracked. Ugly.
We never did figure out what caused it.
Now, two days later, the boat is still dancing and rolling. Truth to tell, after a couple of weeks on the hard we haven't gotten our sea (pier) legs back yet. Sitting and reading (or typing) is not a problem. Well, not a big problem. We do get off the boat to "stretch" pretty often, but that is only because we have been sitting too much for the last couple of weeks. Right? Hanging upside down in the bilge to install a new gray water tank or to find a small oil leak under the Beast? That will pretty much ensure we will be getting off the boat to do more than "stretch".
It may take a weather window to get us ready for a weather window.
Then we can get started south once again.
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