Just us Chickens here tonight

I had a restless night on the hook here. The anchorage is deep and I had a 100 foot of chain out. Spacing looked good when we arrived with strong current and stiff breeze but as the night wore on and the wind became light we started to hang to just the chain rather than the anchor. Now we were getting close to boats that I didn't expect to be close to. Thus a restless night constantly checking to be sure we didn't go bump in the night.

This morning I hailed the City Docks marina to let them know we where here and ready to come in when they had space. They said they were ready.

We pulled the anchor and first went to the mega dock for fuel -- 19 gallons. Then surprisingly they had a slip for us inside the docks -- better than we expected. The light wind and current made docking easy. They were calling for 25 knot winds tomorrow and I didn't want to be navigating in close spaces then or be put on the outside of the Mega-Dock.

Our buds SKAT and BUBBLES and Victoria Gaye heard the weather forecast and thy decided to come to the marina today too rather than face those 25kt + winds tomorrow -- thus the "chickens" have all come to roost tonight.

We were settled by 10:45am so we had an early lunch and took the 12 noon shuttle to Harris Teeter for provisions. We didn't go crazy since we thought -- hell we will just go there tomorrow and Sunday too. We plan to leave Monday after this absurd weather passes.

While checking out I told Karen I was going to head to the liquor store across the street for some GNT -- Gin and Tonic.

I picked up a bottle and the WORSE happened. I stepped out of the store and twisted my ankle and down I went in a heap!! Folks ran quickly to help me. I guess an old guy splat on the pavement elicits that kind of response. I said no I was fine. I only had a sore hip and a bloody elbow but my brand new never worn jeans were still okay. Grrrr.

We checked out from the grocery then Karen noticed the gravel imbedded in my elbow -- what happened to you?! Can it get any worse failing out of a liquor store?

Back on the boat and everything put away I tackled our wayward water pump. Hell I have a spare let's just replace it. So I cut the wires and re-plumbed the spare in and wired it up -- no joy. Would not pump. I looked at the old one and I found that were the piston rod meets the diaphragm it was loose. Meee bad -- I replaced the diaphragm several days ago. I fixed that and reinstalled that pump and it worked fine. I'll tear down the spare tomorrow to see what is going on with it.

Busy day here -- Karen did laundry and I filled the water tanks. There was a free happy hour on the docks so I joined in that for an half hour -- pain killer for my earlier injuries.

Now back on the boat waiting for the big Arctic blast tonight -- so far --- NADA.