A very interesting week, actually, as Sally and I worked our way north towards Annapolis and our next group. Long ago we heard of the Monk Rendezvous, an annual gathering of the Monk Owners Group, a collection of some of the owners of these boats who try to communicate, brag and confess about some of the things they have done, plan to do or are looking for reasons not to do. These projects include but are not limited to things like enclosures, refinishing teak, extra window treatments, lighting, dinghy handling, galley arrangement, seating, electronics, anodes, oil selection, fuel filter choices, anchor selection and deployment, thrusters, waxing, spice racks, fender selection, route planning, chart selection,. This list goes on to just about every topic involving boats and often has discussion fueled by adult beverages that carry on well into the night. I don't know why they just don't listen to me as the definitive source of all boat-related knowledge, but they don't always. I think I was crowned King of Running Aground when they saw my photos of the big event by Bobcaygeon last spring.
The group was lots of fun and I learned a lot from folks I had just emailed for all these years. It was fun to see them and their boats! Almost everyone's was tricked out nicer that ours, but we have the excuse that we're living on it and it tends to be a bit more cluttered for that reason. We had some special items, though: my bike rack was a very well inspected addition; most liked our dinghy arrangement, flybridge seating, our AlpenGlo Lights, split forestay and storage under the settee. We hope to put in new hatch screens, a new dockbox over the aft cabin, polyurethane the floors, redo the teak, change our anodes to aluminum,
Sally and I did a presentation to the group on our DownEast Circle Loop, with lots of slides, a handout and advice about a trip a little more advanced than the Great Loop. We sold a bunch of equipment we would never use again and the boat is running a little lighter.
Big new (for us anyway)! Our stereo has been failing, at least the speakers on the port side. We tried gentle persuasion, harsh language, a bit of the physical stuff and downright threats, but it seemed to be getting worse. Now this is the device that couples with our Sirius radio, AM/FM, iPad and iPhones for Pandora, NPR and all sorts of communication, a serious partner on the boat. Oh, and the damn thing buzzed every time the fridge went on, an annoying habit we have sort of lived with.
Well today while the tropical storm, Andrea, went right over us, I replaced it with a new and improved model that does Bluetooth, SiriusXM, flashdrives, SD chips, AM/FM, weather radio, Pandora, iPod, iPad, computer, makes toast, changes the oil, waxes the boat and does minor surgery. WOW. And it works. A great day on Adirondack, I can tell you. We had a party right afterwards. Others in the group thought the party was for some other special occasion, but Sally and I knew better. I'd take a photo, but they don't work on this machine. Capt. Jeff
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