Day 9 - Of Wine & Fishes

Monday, July 9

This morning the bed broke. For a startled second I thought that Mister Hattie might have been under it but, thankfully, that wasn’t the case as the bed extension that I built a couple of years ago so that the double bed could be wider came crashing down; right on the spot where she likes to sleep.

Mister Hattie sleeping on a safer portion of the bed

Anyhoo… spent the morning at anchor fixing that and re-attached the rear hatch cover that had been off for re-varnishing purposes. During this time, Mister Cookie constructed a swell removable bug screen for the salon door. (Picture below) It even has vents at the bottom so the cats can come and go as they please with no bug intrusion. 

Mister Cookie's Screened Cat Gate

 

In the afternoon I fished again and caught a bunch of perch including one that was a foot long. The biggest perch I’ve ever seen. We considered eating them but, as we had pork chops in the cooler, I released them. Later I saw the big perch lunker eying me from the weeds. He had a tear of gratitude in his eye as he hovered there, accompanied by his wife and two small fry. At least I think he had a tear, it’s hard to tell with a fish.

Later we took the boat over to the winery for dinner with the dinghy in tow. I managed to run over my tow line reversing to anchor and so I had to dive under the hull to release the painter from the screw. (I’m deliberately using nautical terms here so you will actually learn something from this blog. You’ll have to look them up if you can’t figure them out.) Then, I washed my hair while I was down there so I’d be all spic for the dinner.

Dinner at the Waupoos Winery was underwhelming. I had over-cooked pork chops and Brooke had the duck-in-beets… um, yeah. Surprisingly, the wine was not that great considering we had their two best bets… the Red Rabbit and the Baco Noir (which came chilled…?) The best aspect of the dinner was looking out from our table in the gazebo and seeing the Mary Mary floating, nicely lit in the summer sun.

Anchored off Waupoos Winery

Very amusing return to the boat as Mister Huxley was waiting for us and evidently had been doing so for some time, her little arms hanging over the gunwale.

We decided to sleep where we were. The bugs down here in Waupoos are the worst I’ve seen in quite a while but thanks to Brooke’s screen we live in relative comfort. Until the next morning, that is, when we find thousands of dead shad flies littering the outside of the boat.