Shopping Day

North Burlington, N44 30 W73 15

(08/18/05) Today Libby went off with Jennifer to shop and do laundry. I stayed behind to work on the brightwork varnish.

One mishap today. This place makes me nervous because it is exposed to so much of the lake with no shelter from wind or waves. Of course the exposure is what makes the scenery so spectacular. Anyhow, I decided to test the mooring's security by backing up with the engine. Pop, just as soon as I pulled the ring broke off and the mooring ball started floating away.

Darn, I should have known better. There are two designs for mooring buoys. The first kind you attach the boat to the chain under the buoy, never to the top ring. There is supposed to be a pennant attached under the buoy with a line or chain that you pick up and attach to the boat. The second kind, the chain comes up through the buoy and you attach to the ring on the top. Anyhow, this mooring was the first kind but there was no pennant. I attached to the top ring and broke it.

We moved to the next mooring over. It is of the second kind. With the dinghy I retrieved the loose ball. I told the owner that I'd repair the broken one before we leave.

We have a new friend, Tim Parsons. We met Tim as he and his dog swam past Tarwathie yesterday. There are several other families here that swim with their dogs. The water is very clean and the shoreline is sand beach. There is also a bunch of pre-teen kids who swim out to a swimming raft near us. They swim unsupervised. What a nice life living on the shore here.

Today, Tim brought some vegetables from his garden, and we chatted for a while. Sometime soon we'll get Tim to go sailing with us.