May 12 and our summer has started

We've never been at our summer slip in Norwich, CT this early. Thanks to the mild winter and the complete lack of a spring freshet on the Connecticut River, we arrived last weekend and now it's time to find, reconnect and reinstall all the stuff we need (or think we need) for great summer on our boat.

First off the weekend was greeting our old dockmates and meeting the new ones. Then we began to unpack the things we took off the boat last fall and wonder where some things went. "Did we bring that home last fall?" was a frequent question, followed by "I can't find ______!" Bear in mind that we're not new at this. We've been doing it for years. Still, it's fun and we're sure we'll find everything eventually.

Saturday was an early night after a great dinner cooked by Frances at home. We were both pretty tired and hit the v-berth just after it became dark. Pooka, our boat cat, was on board for the first time and seemed to take up exactly where he left off last fall.

We had a bunch of things to do on Sunday morning but it seemed better to sit down and have an extended chat with our dockmate John, who has almost as many hours running our boat than we do. Then it wa time to get down to work, We installed the Sunbrella cover over our front windows that cuts the air conditioning load when it get really warm.  Note the characters and other things lined up inside the lower windows ready to go for another season.

We love those little RV type water filters and we installed one on our water line. We don't drink dock water but it's nice to know that what comes out of our faucets is at least free of marina water line scum.

Our Christmas present to the boat last winter was Taylor-Made boarding steps. It  took a while to attach the railing and get the thing screwed down in the right spot, but what a pleasure to be able to walk three steps and then step onto the boat.

Our nice big tan fenders were only in the water for a few days when we went in the water in Portland, but they needed a good scrubbing.

Note Bill's new short summer haircut.

The boat received another Christmas present, a ship's bell and of course, that had to be mounted. It's engraved "ACT THREE," and it's a Bevin Brothers bell, made right here in East Hampton, CT. Bevin Brothers has been making bells here for 179 years. Frances always buys the perfect present and we think that we and ACT THREE will enjoy hearing this bell ring for many more years.