After vacation was over, we returned to Hampton and got back to work.  And that means literally, back to work.  Cathy started working part-time at a local marine canvas shop -- not to start a new career, but to improve her skills and learn more about marine canvas techniques.  The first few weeks have been – aah – challenging.  But ever so slowly, she is learning and improving.  Who knows, maybe you can teach an old dog new tricks. 

Dave continues to look for new ways to market Orion. This led him to start working with Northstar Marine, who agreed to list the boat on their and other websites accessible only to brokers, while letting us continue to try to sell it ourselves.  Through discussions with Shawn at Northstar Marine, Dave decided to lower our asking price to $94,900.  This has resulted in our first real traffic on the boat, with several people actually coming to tour her, including someone from as far away as Toronto. 

As the month ended, we took a trip to Richmond to celebrate our grandson, Jayden’s, 6th birthday, returning to Hampton with Droz, who spent a week with us.  

Summer’s heat arrived with a vengeance as July began and has given us only rare breaks.  So, we were grateful for some time off the boat to visit with family and friends.  After celebrating the Fourth with a picnic at Steve's house, we spent a week at the beach with Cathy’s family and our grandson, Droz, followed by a weekend with our daughter’s family in Jarratt.  

After a great time away, we arrived back to the boat in time for -- you guessed it -- the next heat wave.  

When not traveling, Dave continued to explore new ways to market Orion, and was also steadily reducing clutter on board (and increasing our cash flow) by selling off equipment that we no longer need, such as our original Garmin 172C chartplotter and its accessories.