The Clam Pearl

Pam and I went out to dinner about a year ago, to the Mansion Clam House in Westport CT. She had trout, I had linguine with fresh clams, some chopped and some in the shell. I bit down on something hard. I pulled it out and looked at it. It was a pearl. I showed it to Pam and said "Look what I got in my clam", to which Pam exclaimed "EEeeeew! A fish eye??!" No, a clam pearl.  We saved it, of course.  Pam decided that she'd like it as her engagement ring, with a special meaning she'll never forget.  She had the "eye" side of it mounted down. 

We're going back to that restaurant in Westport on Friday, and will show it to the owner.

In boat news, we're running a bit behind. Both generators are now running (YAY!!), $23,000 worth of equipment fixed for $2,300. ?The mechanic who worked on Drift Away's name is Dave Ackermann and I recomment him highly. If you need diesel work in the Norwalk area, consider Dave at Norwalk Cove.  

We moved the boat back to Stamford today because Norwalk Cove Marina is setting up for next week's boat show and the place will be really busy over the next few days.  I was a bit nervous because the marine forecast had a small craft advisory due to a cold front moving through at 2 PM with winds 10 to 15 gusting to 30 MPH.  We got at our dock in Stamford at 1 PM, just as it started raining.

The electronics install is almost done. As it turns out, we are missing two cables. The NSS chartplotters are on an ethernet network and many other things are on the Simnet and we need to connect them together. The parts will be in tomorrow and we should finish that project.

Tomorrow I also need to hie myself to motor vehicles and register the Boston Whaler, and then I need to sand and paint the stern so the sign company can apply Drift Away's name and home port.   

I sent my US Coast Guard documentation application in July. Still don't have it. I called them yesterday and they said they work on applications based on the time stamp when received. They're up to June.

I also just found out that we really need a mail forwarding service. The post office does it, but they charge an outrageous $15 a week. I can go private for $12 a month.

We still hope to leave on Monday, although I hear that the Hudson is flowing very quickly and it's full of debris, and we'll be going upstream, the wrong way. Cross your fingers.