A fine day in Washington

The finest weather we have see this trip!! Today the 7th was beautiful. It started cool with little wind and warmed right up. We wore everything from long pants and sweaters to shorts today.

I took a couple of long walks this morning on search for a sweet roll and bread. I found the bakery which is at the end of Waters street but they had just made the dough and no finished bread expected till noon. The sweet rolls were simply sugar coatings and not what I really wanted.

I looked for a coffee shop and found one on Market street but they only offered "coffee, liquor, and tobacco - kind of a dismal place actually. What can you expect from a place that has a neon sign that says "give me my coffee and I won't hurt you".

I explored the road by the opening bridge (opens with 24 hour notice) and there was a convenient/store gas station about 23 blocks away -- I waited for the bakery.

Back on the boat to recover from the long walks and do some maintenance. I cleaned the filter on the fresh water pump, added 12 oz of oil to the engine and inspected and tightened the alternator belt. While investigating how to get more travel to tighten the belt further I found 2 more of Ol Al's kluges.. Maybe not Al but previous to my ownership.

The holder for the antifreeze reservoir was loose. I was going to try and tighten the mounting screws and found they were a combination of a too long screw that used an combination of nylon nuts and washers to effectively (not very) shorten the screws so they wouldn't punch through the wall into the cabin. Ohh and the screws were an assortment of head styles too. I can't imagine this was a factory install.

Karen went shopping/exploring with Dovie and Craig while I did this.

After lunch Karen and Dovie went shopping and Craig and I dumped the dinghy in the water and explored the water front. I discovered when turning on a river with current to not turn into the current sweeping my side into the current - got a wet butt a couple of times.

We saw the Railroad Bridge close across the waterway into Washington. We went there to watch it lock up and the train cross. We found that it was not automated but had an operator - a 70 year old retired engineer. He was quite talkative and explained a lot about this 104 year old trestle.

We got some pictures of the waterfront and boats from the river then put the dinghy away.

We then relaxed till 4:30 when Karen presented us all with "Fuzzy Navels" Around 6:15 we left for Pia'S for dinner. This was a much nicer place than the Main Street restaurant we went to last night. I had some Crab soup and the GROUPER - love the grouper.

Then back on the boat for some games.. Unfortunately Craig was greeted to his fresh water pump running dry and his bilge pump running wet - a hose connection had burst while at dinner and he had pumped 50 gallons of fresh water into the bilge.

He was able to effect a simple repair and then we played a couple of games of Farkle -- uhh I was not the LB last night!!

It was the end to a very nice day. Tomorrow we need to begin the trip back.