Thursday, August 5, 1993 - Baltimore

Sanded the doghouse again in preparation for the second coat. The big decision was whether or not to varnish. No rain was forecast, but there were a lot of dark clouds. NOAA said the clouds held no precipitation, but my eyeballs told me otherwise. The sun came out for a few seconds, so I took the plunge and started varnishing. Of course, as soon as I finished, it started sprinkling. We quickly put the blue canvas over the varnished wood. The sprinkle didn't last long, fortunately, so the varnish had a chance to nearly dry before the next rain hit. Again the canvas cover saved the day, so I was really in luck.
Tomorrow, it's supposed to rain all day, so we'll go sightseeing on the bus.
Linda's going to get in as many hours as possible at work this week to make up for the days she'll miss next week. She and Gina will come out to the boat early Sunday morning. I plotted our course, and it's 48 miles, so we'll have to leave no later than nine to get there before dark. I checked with the dockmaster, and she said it was okay for Linda to leave her car in the parking lot here, no charge.
Roy finally found a store that has the "Hurricane Havens Handbook", but it isn't a book (we're not sure what it is), and it costs around $200. Now we know why stores don't carry it. We've decided to live without it.
They have strange-looking "vacuum-cleaner" boats here that go around slurping up the styrofoam cups and plastic bottles and other trash in the water. It's a great idea and really helps, but they don't come to the marina, so the marina is loaded with trash. And the water itself is a yucky brown. Someone who has lived here all his life told us the water is a lot cleaner than it used to be. I'm glad I didn't see it the way it used to be. I don't see how anything can live in this water, yet there are fish, crabs, jellyfish, and even ducks with cute little baby duckies.