Live and Learn!

Day 5 June 30, 2011 Pt. Washington, Long Island

Matt has spent the last five days trying to teach these "old dogs" new tricks. Here are some of things we've learned:

*Lou - Matt made Lou practice using paper charts to navigate into Pt. Washington. It was a bit of a struggle to give up the computer navigation system, but he got the hang of it. He also worked on analysing the methods of a project before beginning it. He's really good at boat organization.

*Donna - Matt showed her all the interesting things in the Eldridge Tide Book. The information was interesting, but the tide charts are still a mystery! He also got her to realize that there is a difference between a 2009 and a 2011 Waterway Guide Book. :-( We couldn't find the marina from the '09 book.

*Matt - The old folks are slow; their hearing is GONE; and bad things happen when the rigging tape is missing.

*One thing both Lou and I have noticed is that when Matt sees something that needs to be fixed, he fixes it........RIGHT NOW! That's not our system.......notice that it needs to be fixed, write it down and lose the note, search for supplies, think about it, think about it some more, get around to fixing it.

One thing (among many) that Matt pointed out to us was that we should bring the dinghy up close to the transom when getting ready to do docking/mooring tactics so that the lines don't get caught in the prop. Great idea that we had never considered. So, he drew in the dinghy and discovered that there was no rigging tape on the backstay. The cotter pin punctured a hole in the front of the dinghy. It was a fixable problem (we carry patching kits with us) and he put the rigging tape where it needed to go.

We've had some great sails with Matt After we left the Connecticut River we went to Milford, CT. It was just as cute as it was two years ago. Our next stop was to Northport, Long Island. We dinghied into twn with our pump on board for a walk-about. The boys found the Happy Hour spots, and I got a pedicure. What luxury. Today we're in Pt. Washington to wait out the Fourth of July activities. Matt will be leaving us and Mike and Marlene Cosgrove will be arriving.

It's been great spending a few days with Matt. Thank you Tomeaka for sharing him.

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