SV Orion - Annapolis, MD
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Late February - End of an Era

2/28/2023

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PictureDave watches Orion Jr leave Faith
We continue our volunteer efforts at Faith, working with a small group to transform 5 rooms into space for Beyond 90. But our efforts to sell all things boat-related were successful in a big way, when Orion Jr became the property of a new owner as February came to an end, and we ended our 19 years of living and sailing on a boat of our own. ​

PictureHitching the trailer up to the jeep.
Moving On

After our first showing of Orion Jr yielded no response, we were keeping our expectations in check when we had a scheduled a showing a week later. Since the prospective buyers were arriving at 11:30, Cathy made her way to the boat in the morning to set up the bimini. Before she could even get on the boat, she was getting facebook messages from a different person. After informing him that we had an appointment already, he said he would be there in 40 minutes. With that accelerated schedule, we set up the canvas and set aside the other work we had planned for the morning of what would be a record-setting hot day.

With Dave as guide, the father/son pair looked over the boat and learned what she had to offer. Within a couple of hours, it was beginning to look like a sale might happen. Since they seemed very serious, the obvious question was, “how well does the outboard run?” Oh, yes.

While we were confident it would run well, we didn’t have fuel ready and we needed hoses to enable it to run safely. Grabbing hoses from the RV, the fuel tank and gas from the truck and oil stored in the boat, we managed to mix up a gallon of fuel and connect it to the outboard. We had kept some “muffs” that enable the hoses to connect to the lower shaft of the outboard.

Dave then pressed the button and . . . nothing happened. After some head-scratching, he realized the battery switch needed to be turned on. While the electric start was then working, it wouldn’t turn the motor over. So, Dave just pulled the cord (something we almost never did while cruising Orion Jr), and it started right up. Whew!​


PictureOutboard in place ready to test
That began a series of preparations to complete the sale, and it became apparent, to get Orion Jr ready to move because they planned to take her with them. Dave went with the buyers to the bank, taking the title paperwork if it could be completed there. Cathy stayed behind to start making the boat ready to move. She brought over the compressor to inflate the trailer tires. Then the bimini had to come down and the bimini bows needed to be secured. The license plate had to be removed from the trailer. Each task required a different tool that always seemed to be back at the RV. No problem making her steps goal for the day.

When Dave returned, the paperwork still needed to be completed. We retreated to Asbury Hall to fill out the documents that would sell both the boat and trailer. Cathy went to make copies while Dave worked with the buyers to inflate the tires and finish securing the boat to move on the highway. Meanwhile the parking lot was getting pretty full, since a basketball event was being held in the gym. We kept an eye on the space around the boat to make sure they could maneuver the trailer out of the parking lot. But sure enough, by mid-afternoon, Orion Jr was underway, moving toward her new home in St. Augustine.

But we weren’t quite done.

We had offered to help them launch the boat and raise the mast the next day. So, we met them around 11am in the parking lot of one of the busiest boat ramps we had seen just north of St. Augustine. With 4 launch ramps, there were trailers constantly in motion. We had a little difficulty just finding a place to park. We talked the new owners through the steps necessary to get the boat ready to launch. When the time came to put the boat in the water, they positioned the boat on the ramp, but then had to stop and pull forward to extend the tongue to give the reach needed to launch the boat in deep enough water. Despite the added distance, the boat would not float off the trailer. Not to give up, they decided to extend the tongue one more position. With that change, Orion Jr was back in the water.
​
With some stronger backs available, they opted to use a winch and a pulley to raise the mast without the gin pole. And they were successful with one exception. The forestay wasn’t correctly attached at the top of the mast. So, sailing wasn’t going to be an option on this trip. However, with the bimini back up, they were ready to get out on the water. We waved goodbye and wished them well.

PictureOrion Jr at sail in the Gulf of Mexico
​Orion Jr was no longer ours, but that was a good thing. We still had lots of good memories of our time sailing and living on her. Those we will keep for a long time.



PictureA few paint splatters
Church Stuff
As we finished the drywall prep in the rooms for Beyond 90, we have moved on to painting and installing doors. With the unseasonably warm weather, Joe welcomed the chance to do some indoor work, re-framing 2 door openings to accommodate a smaller 32” door. Fred and Pat installed doors in the remaining new walls, and the rest of us picked up paint brushes and rollers and began painting. Some of us are a little messier than others.



PictureJoe rises high to change the parking lot lights
Dave kept disappearing from the construction work to handle other tasks. He ordered a replacement computer and monitor for the livestreaming, gave some training on maintaining the website, worked with Beyond 90’s IT support to locate a problematic switch in our network, and supervised the installation of an electrical panel at Pastor Jacob’s, among other things. We both took a morning away to once again “spot” for Joe as he rode a lift up to replace parking lot light bulbs.  

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And, for the first time in almost 3 years, we took the reins of the livestream again. On Ash Wednesday, Nelson was going to be delayed and asked if we could cover for him. We were a bit rusty, but took some time to practice beforehand. It went pretty well, but Nelson took over shortly after the service began and that was probably a good thing.



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And More

Cathy joined Pat one afternoon at the Beyond Van Gogh exhibit in downtown Jacksonville, which was an immersive experience in sound and images from Van Gogh’s work. It was a stunning display that is hard to capture in still images. 

PictureNelson with his proud mom, Elsie
​The next week we were invited to the local high school to attend the Miss Englewood, Mr. Englewood pageant. Nelson, who runs the church’s livestream, was one of the contestants. It was a blast, and Nelson did a great job, taking the award for the most talented with his talent playing the tuba. Yes, that’s right. The tuba. You had to be there. He took 1st runner-up, and we enjoyed cheering him on. 

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Early February - Pushing Forward

2/15/2023

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We continue to make progress transforming the A building classrooms into therapy rooms for Beyond 90. The walls are all framed and the drywall put on. And when not working, we continue to thin out the boat contents as well, and have put the boat itself on the market. But we are really excited about plans we have for a train trip out west later this spring. ​

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Construction Work

The sound of saws, compressors and nail guns for framing walls began to give way to that of drills for fitting dry wall screws in the first week of February. We were benefiting from the assistance of Jack and Bill from the Nomads team in their last project week here at Faith. And they came very close to finishing on their last day. But Pat and Cathy, with some of Dave’s assistance, were able to fill in the last gaps, mutually agreeing that dry wall hanging will never appear on our resume. By the end of February’s 2nd week, there wasn’t much noise at all, unless you count the sound of sanding joint compound and perhaps a nasty word as the dry wall mud didn’t lay on as smoothly as planned or was too hard to remove.  

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When not pitching in on the A-building project, Joe made some significant repairs to a shed that holds roofing supplies. In the process, he moved the shed to a new location and exposed some severely rotting wood on another shed that holds the mower and other landscaping supplies. With some new T1-11 panels, he repaired the walls and ensured it would last a bit longer.



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Boat Stuff
​We continued to empty out Orion Jr, placing the bigger items for sale. We mounted the outboard (actually both outboards), measured the drifter sail, and sold off more individual items. With the inside emptying out, we finally decided we were ready to try to sell the boat itself. While not expecting much activity, we were caught by surprise by several responses that had us scrambling to actually clean her up to show. Maybe she actually will sell this spring.

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Downtime
​Taking advantage of some of the warmer evenings, we have explored some new restaurants, one of which was the Bearded Pig, which had some great BBQ. Skip and Cherylle passed through one evening driving the van that they had recently converted into a mini-RV. And we had a quick visit from Bonnie, Troy and the kids as they passed through en route to Orlando.  

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Looking ahead to our next travels, we booked an Amtrak trip that will take us cross-country to Seattle and back over the last 2 weeks in March. You may remember we tried out the train’s roomette service last May heading south out of Philadelphia. That was a dry run for this trip that we had been hoping to find time to take. We are really looking forward to it.



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Late January - Another Year Older

1/31/2023

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PictureHappy Birthday Dave!
We spent much of the last 2 weeks of January making as much progress on the new rooms for Beyond 90 as we could. We took a few breaks though, including ending the month with Dave’s birthday celebration.

PicturePat, Dave and Fred raise a new wall.
Framing Work
​

Under Fred’s direction, we managed to raise 2 walls in the 2nd of 4 rooms being modified for Beyond 90, and began clearing the space to do the same in the 3rd room. Since the room ceiling is slanted toward the center of the building, determining an accurate stud height has been an on-going challenge. With the 1st 2 rooms framed, we had room to take delivery of more supplies from Lowe’s, including dry wall. As we moved forward into the next rooms, we were now positioned to enable others to begin hanging dry wall soon in the rooms recently finished.

PictureMike Pat and Dave position new roof frame at Neptune Beach
 We were asked to break away for a day to consult on a project at nearby Christ UMC  in Neptune Beach. A Nomads project was scheduled for mid-February, but Mike, the church coordinator, wanted some help validating and buliding a prototype of the roof design. We joined Pat, Fred and Joe to refine the design, and then built a 12 ft section of roof beams to provide a pattern for the many sections to follow. As a thank you, Mike treated us to lunch at nearby Bono’s, which was delicious.

PictureDave and Butch replace faucet in Kim's Open Door classroom
We juggled a few other tasks, which took time away from the new rooms for Beyond 90. Kim’s Open Door had a sink that developed a leak and needed a new faucet and a repair to the drain. She also had a few tables that needed “re-assembling” as well. And the church’s Accounting / Payroll software had on-going problems with a badly designed year-end version upgrade. At any rate, it’s all in a day’s work.

PictureSetting up the Portabote one last time before it sold
Boat Stuff

Our efforts to lighten the load on Orion Jr pretty quickly yielded results after we posted our first ad. A number of items sold within days – PFD’s, tethers, our mast Top Climber, etc. But a couple of the more significant items that sold were the Portabote dinghy and the composting toilet. There are still a number of things left, but the initial response is encouraging, and Jr is certainly getting lighter.

PictureCathy Evalyn and Dave by the carriage barn
Parks and Celebrations

​The town of Mandarin is a Jacksonville suburb that sits on the St. John’s River 's eastern bank just south of the city. Walter Jones park preserves some of the historic buildings from this community and tells some of the stories of its past. We joined Evalyn to visit the park one day when all of the buildings were open and staffed with interpreters. One of the more interesting buildings was the Post Office / General Store where one of Walter Jones’ descendants was present to talk about her family’s history at the store.

PictureCelebrating with friends
And, as the month ended we took advantage of an unseasonably warm night to enjoy some fellowship and great seafood in a birthday picnic celebrating Dave’s birthday. Pat made a delicious birthday pie that topped off the evening on a sweet note.

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Early January - New Year

1/17/2023

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Picture
With several major projects happening simultaneously, Faith has been a busy place since the start of the new year. Our focus has been transforming several rooms into space for Beyond 90. And we have started lightening the load on Orion Jr in preparation for her sale.



PictureAssembling a new wall
Reconstruction​

Anticipating a move and expanding services, Beyond 90 needed some changes made to existing room layouts within the church’s A building. This building formerly housed classrooms for the school, but are currently not being used. After meeting with Lori and Barton from Beyond 90, we reviewed their plans and worked with Fred and Pat to develop a list of supplies. Cathy turned this into a Lowe’s VSP request and got a discount through them for the initial purchase, which we picked up the same day.  

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Then the construction began. By the end of the first week, the first wall was framed and much of the demolition work had been done for a wall to be removed. It’s been a while since we were actually hammering nails or cutting wood, but we have no complaints.

Not all of the reconstruction at Faith involved lumber and dry wall. Dave continues to work on restoring the church’s computer infrastructure from last summer’s lightning strike. After a lengthy conversation with Lenovo, he was able to get them to move forward on repairing the livestream computer’s ethernet port. He was also involved in upgrading the church’s accounting and payroll software to the latest release so payroll checks could be run and year-end processed.



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Before
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After
Cathy and Pat made a trip to Pastor Jacob’s to repair the support for a dangling bathroom fan. Thanks to lots of suggestions, some awkward maneuvering and some persistance, they were able to install a support arm and connect the fan housing to it. Luckily Pastor Jacob still had the original trim for the fan, or the finished product would have looked less – well - finished. ​
PictureThe rotten deck behind Peeler was unsafe and little used. Joe removed it.
Meanwhile Joe was removing some severely rotted decks behind a couple of the buildings on the property. He also helped us and Pat trim the crepe myrtles in a single day – a new record. While the Nomads volunteers refreshed bathrooms and began remodeling the kitchen, we assisted with a couple of shopping runs, answered questions and helped with the occasional RV repair.  For example, shortly after her arrival, Jane discovered her batteries lacked the power to open her slide.  About an hour later they were working OK, but over the course of the next 3 weeks, Dave and Fred worked with her to buy and install replacements. 

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Dave and Fred installing Jane's new batteries.
PictureDave amid Orion Jr's clutter
Boat Stuff
When we arrived back at Faith the boat cover on Orion Jr was in sad shape. The forward part of the cover had parted in the last hurricane (Nicole) that had passed through. While Cathy contemplated remaking it, we decided the time had come to take more decisive action on the boat. So, we started cleaning it out with the intention of selling it. ​

It was much easier in the cooler weather of January to get on board and sort through the supplies. Several bags went to the dumpster. Several to the thrift store. A small number of items came back to the RV. We reserved a few items to convey with the boat, and the rest would be sold if we could find a buyer. It takes some persistence to keep whittling away at the stuff, but we are slowly but surely making progress.

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Look Who’s Here

While Carolyn was attending a conference nearby at St. Simon’s Island, she took a break for a visit to Jacksonville on a chilly Sunday afternoon. We enjoyed some time together over a late lunch /early supper before saying goodbye again. It was a nice treat to see her again so soon.

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Parting shot

​We got one of the best looks we’ve had from Jacksonville of a rocket launch one evening.  
​

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