HAPPY HALLOWEEN from River Dunes

This is my little vignette - - a token to the day.   It's tough not to be carving a pumpkin or watching grandkids get all dressed up.  The floral bouquet was a gift from our dinner guests tonight.  We have been e-mailing wit Jerry and Mallory Harwood for four years but never met them until tonight. They have a Catalina 400 and found our blog on the C-400 website and started following it.  They live in New Bern, NC (less than an hour away) so we asked them to join us for another yummy cruisers dinner here at River Dunes.  We had a great time getting to know them and sharing C-400 ideas and experiences. 

We spent the day washing down the boat, both inside and out...a sure sign that it will rain tomorrow. Dan messed with engine coupling and I finished measuring, cutting and sewing the rest of the "skirts" for the enclosure.  We should be ready for the rain no matter which direction it comes from!

My electric knife works like a charm, cutting sunbrella it leaves a clean edge that doesn't unravel.  I brought a 14" square glass shelf (it stores neatly under one of the seat cushions) keeps the hot knife from cutting my plastic cutting board.  With Dan supporting the window part of each panel I can sew the seams easily at the dinette table.  All in all a good system.  I just wish my Sailrite sewing machine didn't weigh a ton.  It also takes up a lot of room and we have to keep it away from the fluxgate compass that is part of the autopilot system!

We had signed up for the courtesy car that is available to dock guests from 12-2, so we headed into Oriental for lunch, a West Marine stop and a small provisioning stop at a small but sufficient grocery store.  That filled to two hours.  When we returned we saw that several boats that we had been with in Elizabeth City had come.  Dinner was quite crowded tonight and there was lots of lively conversations particularly about tomorrow's weather predictions.   Hope it isn't too lousy!  

~~~_/)~~~ M&D