Autumn is definitely here

While Saturday turned out to be a beautiful day, there weren't many people on our dock. Fall activities such as inland fishing trips and car races drew away many of our boating friends although, like us, there were still a few people enjoying the rapidly ending boating season.

We couldn't resist climbing the hill above the marina and shooting some video of our dock and the city beyond. The leaves are just beginning to turn.



We concerned ourselves with really important stuff, like cleaning the plastic windows on our bridge enclosure. We used Plexus Spray Cleaner, which was recommended to us by Defender Marine. Like all marine stuff it isn't cheap at $20 for a 13 oz. spray can but if you have cleaned the heavy dirt and salt from windows first, it does polish them beautifully.

We also wanted to fix an issue with the home-made camera mount on our upper helm. We just couldn't get our camera tight enough and we decided to try a rubber washer between the mount and the camera tripod socket. No good. All the washers we had were too thick. Frances came up with the idea of using a small piece of black plastic matting with a hole punched in the middle to expose the mounting screw. She even had a hole punch on board. Worked perfectly. Amazing what the Admiral can come up with!

Around dinner time, we saw a lot of pizza arriving for our remaining dockmates but Frances always prefers to cook and she really enjoys doing it.  This isn't a great picture but it shows Frances in her favorite spot on the boat: the galley.

We promised each other that over the winter, we were going to get rid of that hideous OEM copper thing on the wall. Frances has some good ideas of what should replace it.

While cocktail hour progressed, we noticed the collection of little characters that adorn the space over our lower helm.

There are a couple of crows on bird houses, two figurines given to us by our friend Ellen, a lighthouse and although you can't see it, a special badge awarded to Frances a few years ago for "guarding" the dock so effectively. Everything up there has a story and we really like the way they look and how they remind us of all the fun we have had on this boat.

By Sunday morning, it was cold and rainy but we still enjoyed a very good breakfast and the Sunday New York Times. We had wanted to wash the boat but that wasn't going to happen today.