Last Days "On the Hard"

Only a few days remain for this dear boat to be so utterly out-of-place, perched above the grass.

Adam finished the bottom paint.

Then we gingerly pulled the tape away from the line between the blue and red.

Lovely!

I even took a bad selfie in that shiny paint :)

We disliked our boat's previous name ... "Take It Easy" or "Nice and Easy" or some such nonsense. We wanted a better name, and chose "Nocturne" years ago. At last, it was time to put her name on her transom.
Adam printed out two pieces of paper with the name printed on it.

Then he poked hundreds of tiny pin holes, outlining the black letters. He taped the papers to the transom on the boat's stern and dabbed powdered aluminum oxide on the paper so the white powder would go through the holes and stick (hopefully!) to the dark blue paint, leaving just enough of an outline so that the letters could be painted.
Then it was my job to take a very sticky white paint, and a very small brush, and paint her name. It's not perfect, but it turned out okay. I'm not complaining -- it was pains-taking, nervous work. But she's got her name! This week I'll paint "Oriental NC" just below it.

This evening after supper Adam and I clambered up on the boat to look at the just-painted cabin. It's so clean and white. I might even sleep in there now!

 And he painted inside the quarter-berths. These are the two storage spots under the seats in the cockpit, and I think it's quite a stretch to call them berths!

 We're expecting rain, so Adam wanted to get the scupper hoses in there so the water would drain out of the cockpit.

 Let me 'splain. See those two little holes in the floor of the cockpit? They're supposed to allow rain water to drain out of the cockpit easily. The water goes through two hoses and drains out of the boat via the through-hulls. They've never worked very well. The old hoses were decades old, dry and ready to break. The scuppers were clogged. We sailed with very wet feet.

 After inserting the new hoses, Adam poured a bucket of water into the cockpit, and glugglugglug ~~ out it went!
He's varnished the companionway door panels; they are the original teak, and you can tell by how dark they are. The cabin is buttoned up for rain.

Hopefully ... quite soon, the Nocturne will be scooting along on the beautiful Neuse!

Up river ...

...or down river.

This is South Ave., the street along the riverfront in Oriental. I ride my bike here often. What a view! I'll miss living in Oriental when/if we move just a few miles away to our new place, but we can come here easily with bikes and ride the village streets when we care to.

Here's to the  Nocturne!