Oysters, deck work, and back home... for lots more work

Well, here I am, back in St John, sweating lightly in the closed cabin while a light shower passes... a pretty nice change from the cold of Cape Cod in the spring... although I miss my miss.

The last week or so on the Cape after ice-out (the amount of ice was really amazing and unusual... just as was the dry warmth of the west coast. Is this a symptom of "global weirding"? Well, one winter hardly constitutes proof, just data.).

So, what to say about the last week? Spring comes late to the to the Cape, so winter lingers. Cynthia and I collected oysters at an unnecessarily extreme low tide. These made a wonderful pre-dinner snack a few days later.

 

A local red fox really enjoys the bits and pieces we toss out into the "meadow", our local "kitchen midden". I tossed out some compost and nearly hit it before I looked. It dodged into the underbrush at this assault, but returned within two minutes to check for anything edible, watching warily for further missiles.

 

Another day, we took a walk on Morris Island with a north wind biting. The island sheltered us for most of the walk, but the wind really tore at us for the final five minutes. Cynthia pointed out that the multitude of bird carcasses on the south end of the island bore tags.... I wonder if researchers are investigating deaths or other details of this harsh winter. Anyway, we had fun looking at them and locating blueberry bushes for revisiting in July.

 

The deck is coming along nicely, but I'm having back issues and didn't get much done before heading back south. At least I got the posts & decking installed and set the top rail installed to keep folks from walking off the edge. I'll finish up before June.

Now that I am back (slightly over two days now), I've been going nuts with working on the to-do list. I've installed the required "St John, USVI" on the stern, installed the trim on Gigi (I brought Dorado alongside so I could use my power tools), repaired the aft pulpit feet, measured my spare jib, ordered materials on-line, & installed the trim for the jib halyard on the mast.

 

My back enjoys the flat, harder bed I have on-board. Sometime in the next few days I need to scrape the bottom and head down to St Thomas to deal with the waste tank and the sail repairs. I feel tired just thinking about the endless list.... maybe I should eat more coffee/chocolate. At the very least I need to do some of my night yoga on the deck: that always leaves me ready to face the day. Well, time to hit the hay...