24. May 2009, Montague

Trying to head north during the last two days to get to my next planned anchorage would have felt, despite sunny weather, rather 'miserable'. The northwest winds and huge ebb tides would have combined into a slow, bouncy and freezing ride. Much better, to sit it out here, pleasantly warm, and fret about my capricious remote anchor control.
I took it apart again, all things electrical work, BUT...the down button in itself does not make reliable contact when depressed. OK - it's wiggle time, or manual operation time, once it comes to anchoring. At least the UP button works, that's where the heavy work lays anyway.
Ha, I even took my pressure stove pump apart - it leaked. Easy thing to do, except for replacing an old o-ring. Digging that out of it'very badly designed location kept me entertained for a couple of hours. Nothing could budge it, neither screwdriver nor pincers, needlenosed pliers nor wire, sharp end of a file nor spikes. Swiss Army Knife to the rescue, the smallest blade reached into the tiny crevasse and I lovingly demolished the little rubber thing, and finally extracted it like the root of a tooth. That, and a little further surgery, turned the pump into a wondrous tool again - so I cooked rosemary chicken on my perfectly functioning kerosene stove.
Montague invites a longish stay to fully enjoy the hikes around the shore. There is the daily show of doggie pit-stop transport from neighbouring boats to the beach - and back again. Doggies are mostly turned out in life jackets and trying to take in the breeze by stretching as far forward of the bow as precarious balance allows.
Observing mooring maneuvres of arriving vessels either gives rise to head-shakes or admiring thoughts, depending on the skill or lack thereof of skippers and their hard pressed spouses. Indeed a test of true love considering all that yelling and division of labour - he steers, she struggles with the heavy duty stuff...
The wind is supposed to change tomorrow (maybe), and if I really get up and going at about five in the morning (good luck) I may have reasonable conditions to slither a little further north.
In the meantime - one soaks up the sun...