The July Dock Digest- Lots of Really Good Nothing

     "I'm gonna tell 'em that I've got no one to blame..."
                                                   -Sheryl Crow



*I recommend grabbing a beverage- I've got a lot of ground to cover here.*

  So, where to begin?

  At the lack of beginning, I suppose.

  As I am sure you have figured out, Faithful Reader, I have been procrastinating.

  And a near bloody thing it was.

   See here's the thing about procrastination, it's a delay of stages.
  
   It starts with, "I'm (tired, busy, working, sailing, eating, drinking, pick one), I'll do it tomorrow."

   Then "I'll do it tomorrow" becomes "I'll do it this week," then this week becomes next week, next week ends up in the dust and becomes last week, then last week becomes two weeks past, then becomes last month, then  Procrastination Induced Panic (henceforth known as PIP- if it's not a documented disorder, it should be)  starts to nibble the already frayed edge of my writer's psyche, and I begin to wonder if procrastination has mestastasized into writers block or worse...

.... have I run out of things to write?

  Or am I just fuckin' lazy?

   Neither diagnosis is an attractive one, and in either case , the only solution is to sit my fat ass down in front of a keyboard and pound away until I produce something fit for consumption by the voracious hungering masses handful of loyal readers who have, thankfully, stuck it out and stuck by me.

    If I can't come up with something fit for consumption, we still have this.

     So, as Inigo Montoya uttered, "Lemme sum up"

    July was a great, busy month.  But I realized I should backtrack:  Let's review who is on the Dock roster this year, who is on the disabled list and who is missing in action:

     Phil and Whiskeyjack are back, Gordon and QuidiVidi are back, the Irelands are back, Rick is back with 20th hole, (still for sale), Hillary is back, Jordan is back, with a new-to-him ex-Jack Bluenose, Buttons,

  Eric is back with After School, his DS20, a boat muskrats seem to admire:

 Jamie and Tran have upped the Soundbox fleet game with a pontoon boat.  Yes, it may arguably be the coolest boat on the Dock.

    Nancy and Drew are back with their Precision 23, resplendent with refinished brightwork and renamed in Nancy's honour...

Frank and Lorraine are back in the slip beside us with their new-to-them O'day, Keara and Bruce is back with Prolific, two slips down...

   ...and of course Jack is back, splashing a Bluenose...

 ...and with Jim's Carpe Diem returning, that's  4 on the Dock this season- that may be a record fleet west of Mahone Bay... I even got him to take the helm on Karma:

  Speaking of helming Karma,  SWMBO has demonstrated a degree of badassery at the helm.

     The rental SeaDoos are corraled at the foot of the Dock again. 'nuff said.

   John is back to work, cancer-free, and busy, so his Sirius 22 is absent from the Dock this season, although he still wanders down from time to time.


The water level is WAY up.  Two winters with almost complete great Lakes ice-over really helps.  This season, the water level is at least 3 feet over 2013, month for month.  It is a little weird to have to walk UP from land to get onto the water.

The water level is high enough that Hillary was able to safely make a run into Hoover's Marina in Nanticoke, normally a dicey proposition for a boat with a 5' draft.

We paraded in the Canada Day boat parade on July 1....

...finishing 3rd, behind Keara....

which got us $25 and a nice plaque, now hanging in Karma's saloon.

Speaking of Karma's saloon, a number of low-buck projects found their way onboard-  the tv wall was covered in the aft cabin...

and I built a new cabinet to make better use of the storage space in the saloon:

and the cockpit table is finished and installed in the, er, cockpit.

More on that later.

Pottahawk was relatively trouble-free and drama-free this year-  nobody sank in the fairway, for instance.  The return parade was relatively subdued, evidence that all had a good time.

  The weather has been damn near ideal for sailing this summer, so we sailed.  We sailed Ereni, we sailed Karma,

 We discovered what a sweet sailing boat a Bluenose is.

And I am again racing on Cyclone...

....where out crew continues to surprise with their skills including spinn pole surfing:

  And there's lots more going on- stay tuned.

  All told, life on the Dock doesn't suck.

Thanks for taking the time to read the D6C.  If you liked what you read, please Talk the Dock! Spread the word.