Deltaville - Fleeting is launched!

Fleetwing is airborne!

 It was starting to get cool up north and the time was ripe for our annual trip south on Fleetwing. We arrived Wednesday and launched Fleetwing on Friday but I could not get a good internet connection for my blog - but I finally got a reliable connection today. Deltaville is really out in the boonies. There is one and only one motel within 30 miles of our marina. There are no national pizza brands, no McDonnells, no KFC, no Burger King, no Dairy Queens, etc. There is one large market (I wouldn't call it a supermarket) that's actually pretty good. There are a ton of marinas and as befitting such demand, there's a super hardware store. 

By shoal keel is visible here, only 4' 9" of draft

My interest was in getting Fleetwing launched and that was accomplished Friday. We are going through the usual hectic activity of getting Fleetwing ready for our annual trip south. This was after our excitement of getting a prop shaft replaced when all we thought we needed was the replacement of the shaft seal, talk about sticker shock. 

Today it was all teak work with sanding and staining. Tomorrow it's time to get the bimini and dodger up after zipper replacements. There's a lot of work to do in getting a boat ready after a summer of layover. 

To keep the excitement level up, I'm monitoring the activity at Souther Railway bridge #7 that was due to be closed to navigation for Mondays through Wednesdays for the next few weeks - right in the middle of the busiest weeks for the year for boatings on the ICW. Who plans these things!! We won'[t know if we can get through until we actually reach the bridge!

Even with the added "excitement", it's good to be back on Fleetwing! We have Sarah with us on this trip south. She's enrolled in her first year of college and since it's all remote, she can take all her courses online. It's all part of the new normal with the advent of COVID-19. Sunday will be another day of boat work and Monday will be a test on the replacement of the prop shaft by taking it out for a spin. Then on Tuesday, we plan on heading down the Chesapeake for Norfolk. We are on our way south!