When I last wrote on September 20th we had left Annapolis and were in Herrington Harbour to pull the boat out of the water for a bottom cleaning and painting.  On the 21st we picked up our ladder, sander, and big shop vac from Jamie’s house in Richmond in anticipation of working on the bottom.  We hauled the boat on the 23rd.

Living “on the hard” is worst than camping out in a tent if no other reason is that there is a twelve foot ladder to climb to get on and off.  So I sent Elena off to Peoria Illinois on 24 September to visit her friend there.  I contracted the waxing of the hull to a contractor in the yard here, but did the sanding and painting of the bottom myself as well as painting the waterline.  We re-launched the boat on 29 September and Elena returned on midnight 30 September to a clean, polished, and shiny boat.  On the October 2, we traveled back to Richmond to bring the ladders, scaffolding and some of our tools to Jamie’s for long term storage.  We even managed a small surprise party for Elena’s birthday which was the next day–much to Zoe’s delight.

Somewhere in all that I managed to get a dental checkup and a pre-departure physical.  Everything seems to be in working order.

We celebrated Elena’s birthday on October 3rd with a steamed crab dinner and a couple of friends here at the marina.  I generally avoid going to eat crabs with Elena, because she eats every morsel and it takes at least 30 minutes per crab, but since it was a special occasion I relented and sat there watching her find every piece of crabmeat that could be extracted from those blue crabs.

We were expecting to leave for points south on the Oct 4th with me sailing and Elena driving the truck to support a trip to Norfolk for a citizenship interview on the 6th.  But Hurricane Matthew was expected to come up the Chesapeake Bay, so we re-evaluated and stayed in Herrington Harbour for the week as we felt this was the safest place for us.  We have not been affected by Matthew except for a day of rain today.

Here is an example of government inefficiency and ineffectiveness for all you Teapartiers.  On the 5th we headed for Norfolk for a citizenship appointment.  This was a biometric appointment (essentially fingerprinting).  But we had had a biometric appointment in June. We tried to clarify through to customer service, but was told we needed to show up without any further answers.  So we drove 5 hours to Norfolk, spending the night because it was a 9am appointment.  Arriving at the appointed hour, we were informed that this was a duplicate appointment (a system error) and that no appointment was necessary.  Why customer service couldn’t answer our questions, no one could answer. And who knows if the next interview will actually happen or  will we be lost in their “system”.  Since this operation is funded with fees from immigrants, you can imagine what “customer service”  is like.  Two wasted days.  Yes, I am still fuming!

Now that we think that she will not have another citizenship appointment for a few weeks, she is going to visit her mother in Russia on the 10th returning on the 17th.  I will solo sail down the bay to Deltaville (Rappahannock River, south of the Potomac).  Elena will leave the truck at the airport and then drive to Richmond upon her return and Jamie and/or Manny will drop her off in Deltaville (details to be figured out later).

We need to have the generator looked at in Deltaville.  It is overheating and shutting down.  If it can’t be repaired we might use a portable Honda generator for battery recharging or have the installed generator replaced in Florida. After Deltaville, we will spend a day or two in Norfolk, before crossing into North Carolina sometime before November 1st.  We need to move south quickly to get ahead of cold weather we know is coming.  After leaving Norfolk, we intend to travel to Oriental NC through the Intracoastal Waterway, spending a few days to resupply, and then to Morehead City to proceed south offshore. (we could use crew on the offshore route. Anyone interested?)  We hope to be in Florida by December 1st.