Rainy interlude

It is raining, which they really need down here, and which is a good break from the winds that have been howling thru for the past 2 days. When we decided to stay another month, we also decided to re-tie the boat, which is in this 75 ft(!) slip. We originally tied up thinking we would stay for 3 days, and we just used bumpers to hold us off the finger pier, but several northers convinced us that we needed something more substantial. They would pound us against the finger pier, and the motion was horrible.



So we unplugged from electricity and cable, and untied all of the lines(!) to get underway 35 feet(!) to the far piling, where Ralph attached our longest dock line. The bow-thruster was quite useful for this evolution. Then back into the slip, and re-tieing the lines, and re-hooking the power and cable. At least the inverter worked well to provide AC while we were "at sea". Small tests like this are reassuring. The motion now is much better, and we don't have to worry as much about the fenders.



Since it is raining, the kitties are staying inside, and they, especially Dante, want to be amused. He has become a royal PIA about getting attention, to the point that he now bites when ignored. Not any sort of serious bite, but he just opens his mouth and lets you know that he has teeth, which is quite disconcerting. We have a squirt bottle to try to discourage this behavior, but it is never quite readily at hand. He used to do this in HF when he wanted food first thing in the AM - he did it to rxc regularly when he got out of the shower at 5:25 am. Just a lite nip to let you know that he is there, with needs...



We are also waiting for the delivery of a new WiFi access point that will (1) give us better connectivity (it is already great in this marina, but elsewhere it will be better), and (2) allow us to hook up to Vonage, so we will have VoIP phone service, with a Pittsburgh phone number. The Vonage box arrived in only one day, but the AP seems to be on a slow UPS truck. Hopefully the ISPs here and other places we hook up to will not filter out Vonage. I think we will even be able to use these two items at the house in France, and maybe even on the boat in Europe.

Maybe I will do some more paperwork. We have left the printer out, since we are not going anywhere, so I can print out some stuff and get it ready to mail.