It’s been sometimes long waiting for our new shaft and coupler to arrive. St. Mary’s Boatyard is a place where many people work on their boats at their own time. It is also a favourite place for Canadians who keep their boats here during the summer months and pick them up in the winter and head south. The people are friendly and Rocky , the owner is the no-nonsense, kind who runs a tight ship. He and his son Clayton drove us to St. Mary’s to do our laundry and then picked us up. Such kind hearts.
While we waited for our new shaft, we did some boat jobs that we had been meaning to do: installed the wind vane ( auto pilot) , moved the dinghy motor to a more secure position, installed the BBQ (which we used to make tandori chicken ( hosted Ian and Deborah who are on a cherubini – like a porsche for sailboats- named Patience) , painted the mast and stairs , I added some fish to the mast and currently David is raising our waterline as it is too low and we want to protect the hull from sitting in salt water. As he didn’t have a laser to draw a straight line through the chines, he used water and a hose and used the water level and gravity to mark the straight line on the hull..mm he scares me sometimes.
By injecting water into a tube and holding the ends up the water is level so you can make a straight level line across the hull. David didn’t have a laser as he had to draw the original line for the anti-foul paint. (He is scary at times)
The fish motive on the mast was inspired by the movie THE CHOSEN, a crowd funded movie, currently 3rd in the US box office. They have a theme image where a school of plain fish are swimming clockwise and then 13 other brighter fish are swimming counterclockwise. This represents the 12 who followed Jesus in counter culture. There is a necessity today to live counter-culture, even for those who are not Jesus led. We have met so many people, single, couples who have decided to leave the rat race, sell their big homes, and live on less. We have met young couples with babies on board who have chosen this life as well as older retired people or those who have seasonal jobs and can make it happen even part of the year. BE DIFFERENT as Ghandi would say.
I also resumed my walk/jog routine with handweights in the morning and even talked David into coming with me. He walks fast, I job slow. It works.
Two sailors, Steve and Sandra, who have been sailing south for many year if not decades, lent us their truck to travel back and forth from town. It’s just unbelievable how people just share what they have and take care of each other here. They didn’t need it for a few days. So, with a truck at our disposal, we took a Sunday, to visit Agape Church with pastor John Rogers and were wowed by his sermon about hope in dark times (these times especially) and the humility of his congregation (good music too) . Then we drove to Fort Clinch State Park and brought some yummy steaks and coal as they had some BBQs and picnic areas. We hiked some jungle trails and David harassed the wildlife. We walked the beautiful Fernandina beach and looked for shark teeth. I found a tiny tooth David didn’t find any… Then I found some welks (those big conch type shells. What a beautiful Sunday. Our first outing besides doing laundry and provisioning since arriving at St. Mary’s Georgia.
I love the different vegetation, stuff we can barely grow at home grows into big trees over here.
Parting thoughts:::
