2 West Marines, 1 Defender

I woke up to Jeff eager to work on the anchor chain and drive up to West Marine to pick up a new head. Unfortunately, I needed to wait until 10 AM for the dentist to open to see if he could see me today 🙁

Before leaving for West Marine in Old Saybrook, the cabin looked like this – a slightly different mess than yesterday.

We went to the flagship West Marine in Old Saybrook as it was the only one that had the head we needed. As a matter of fact, we were lucky to get it, as this model is no longer in production. This is a great store with a large selection and very helpful sales associates.

Jeff carrying the goods

Next stop, Defender in Waterford, to pick up a new battery for our house bank, extra life jackets for visitors, marine-style dinnerware, furling line, lazy jack lines, a switch for our battery monitor, and tea tree oil cleaner.

A rare spotting of the wild Jeff in his natural habitat

A few years ago the back seat of my car was used for bootlegging kegs from Newport to Batesville, the dry county I lived in for 5 long years!

Fishies!

On the scenic route back to Bear, we stopped at the Book Barn, a fabulous used book store in East Lyme. Only photographs can describe this awesome use of acreage.

Buy and sell used books here! If you are selling 44+ books they say you have a butt-load of books!

Entering the store

Scattered throughout the grounds are reading areas with tables, chairs, and umbrellas

Rapunzel

Chess anyone?

Ye olde poop scooping station

Books and bikes go hand in hand

I stopped by to give this sleeping kitty a couple of scratches and pets

And then I went inside and found The Cat Spotting Chart, which identified all of the friendly felines who live on the property by photo, and outlined their personalities with a brief bio.

I want this shirt!

On the way back through Branford, we stopped to indulge in a few of our vices, coffee and ice cream. As we sat on a shaded bench in the town square, we saw the local Episcopalian church, with its striking red door, and took this photograph for Taylor Kidd (the church is right next to the city hall, too, Tay-Tay)!

Back on the boat, Margaret resumed cleaning

And Jeff rigged a contraption to cut the bad link out of the anchor chain

Success!

Jeff marking the anchor chain

Jeff whipping the anchor line

With his new leather palm

Some boat work is not very fun, like hauling close to 100 lbs. of old chain to the garbage

She is starting to look salty and seaworthy!

As you can tell by the setting sun, we made a late evening run out to the local West Marine, for a couple of shackles for the anchor chain and a new stern navigation light

We experienced our first thunder and lighting storm aboard Bear tonight just after dinner. She handled it well, with only one minor leak in one of the starboard port lights, which was really caused because we had not properly dogged it down. As you can see, the cabin is a bit cleaner than it was earlier. Progress!