Hot hot hot

As all Americans know, as does anyone else following the US news, there is a heatwave running across the country and it has been HOT, with the highest temperature we saw on the boat at 101F (38C) at 10am and still that at 5pm the day before 4th July. That day was also almost as bad which put a dampener (cynical joke) on festivities with most people electing to stay inside in the cool (airconditioning) than party on the dock.

There was a dinghy "race" earlier in the day where everyone got squirted with water to cool off

Still, we had a great get-togeter with the other members of I pier with a pot-luck dinner with all sorts of goodies. We took along a bacon and egg pie as that is an unnknown in this neck of the woods.

We were treated to a spectacular fireworks display later that night that went on for about half an hour.

The following day was a bit cooler and we went on yet anothershopping excursion down near Chicago to a Guitar Center, for obvious reasons. The conclusion was positive with us returning with a Washburn "Chicago Original - est 1883" Guitar (made in China!!!!). But its a nice sounding instrument and plays well, so who cares? The Roland Street Cube amplifier arrived from Amazon over the weekend so we are set to party.

I said in an earlier post that after fixing the hose on the washing machine it worked fine. Well I spoke too soon. The first wash we put in it wouldn't rinse and when it tried to spin it nearly ripped itself out of the boat. Investigation suggested it wasn't draining properly so I pulled the check valve in the drain line apart and this was the contents thereof:

About a tablespoon of lint which, in a small valve, almost completely blocked it. The poor thing was trying to spin dry while it was half full of water. No wonder it shook! With that removed NOW the machine goes well and we have done a number of loads without further incident. We also had an issue of water dripping out of the overhead cupboards in the companionway, but that turned out to be a loose connection on the galley faucet. There was some distance between the source and the leak so it took a bit of finding. It s just amazing how water will find its way around a boat in the most confusing manner. 

Charlie and Pauline came in from O'Hare on the Wisconsin bus on friday and, as scheduled, we picked them up from the Brat stop, a famous retaurant up near the freeway (and Woodman's) that sells sausages and cheese. We had been having a lot of communication issues on the boat - Carolyn's iPad had not received any emails since the saturday before and internet connection was patchy, to say the least. On their arrival Charlie comfirmed that his iPad reception was also bad. As July 4th was a wednesday, a lot of folk had taken the whole week off and the marina was chocker! So we figured the Wifi was just plain overloaded.

Saturday it was blowing from the NE so a lot cooler. We went out for a shop and when we got back it was BITO and the flags were trying to tear themselves off the pole, so we took them down. A much cooler night down to the low 70's ( 20-ish C). On Sunday we decided to go to brunch at Franks, the oldest diner in the US (apparently). It only does breakfast and lunch but when we got there the queue was about an hour long so we went to a Golden Corral (US equivalent to Valentines) for a buffet breakfast that morphed into lunch, as we arrived just before the 11am transition. We then drove down to Chicago and took a look at what the locals do on a warm summers day. The beaches were packed, but the town was relatively quiet - and the Chicago traffic was as bad as I remember on the last trip. I was good to get out after driving around for 3 hours!

On our return we had a light dinner and after watching an episode the new series of "Falling Skies", we went out on the dock and made a little music, unplugged. The guitar goes well - it is quite loud acoustically, but I need a new capo as the one brought with me doesn't go well on this guitar. Yet another major expense!

Today I will get in touch with CBP at Milwaukee to arrange our cruising Permit and, hopefully, get our stay exended till January. We are still having comms issues but not as bad as last week. The new anchor should be here today and I ordered the chain last night so that should arrive tomorrow. The electrician should be doing the inverter sometime today or tomorrow. After all that we should be good to go cruising.

Should...........

TTFN