Day 282, Year 6 Back At It
Date: Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Late Evening Thunder Storms with Rain
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts

After a few days of visiting with Justin, Jo, and Ziggy, today we were back at the daily routines. This morning we both worked on washing the hull of the boat with AwlWash. Actually, I only got to help with one side of the boat as my sister called and we managed to talk long enough for Mark to wash and rinse one side by himself. I thought my sister’s timing was just perfect! Washing down the boat with fresh water should have been done routinely after Windbird was painted with AwlGrip in Thailand in March of 2009, but since we almost never had a fresh water source, those wash downs just didn’t happen. And as a result, we have a build up of salt that we are slowly removing. We can’t undo the damage to the paint job that has already been done, but we can now at least do these wash downs after weekend sails and apply AwlCare a few times a year to give the paint a protective coating. Just before noon, we finished the wash down job and Mark decided to go into town with me to pick up Jonah and Sam. We went in a little early to do some grocery shopping, and then Mark spent the afternoon on the phone and the computer at Heather and Jed’s while I did the Granny Nanny thing. Heather had to work late today, so Jed and I threw together a dinner and Mark and I stayed to eat. Heather got home earlier than expected and actually got to eat with us which thrilled Sam and Jonah.

Tonight while I’m writing this log, Mark is trying to figure out the Massachusetts law governing the registration of boats, specifically of dinghies. Windbird is federally documented and doesn’t need to be registered in any state, but dinghies are a different matter. Some people tell us we need to register our dinghy here while others say that is not the case. We aren’t Massachusetts residents, but from what we can tell by reading info on the internet, it looks like we need to register the dinghy after being here for 60 consecutive days. But different offices that we check with tell us different things. We went through this when we moved Windbird to Boston in 2003. We tried to register to vote in Massachusetts and they wouldn’t let us. The Secretaries of State of New Hampshire and Massachusetts agreed at that time that we are legally transients and as such will remain residents of New Hampshire until we own or rent property in another state. Paying for a slip in a marina doesn’t count, so until we are told differently, we remain transients, have New Hampshire driver’s licenses, vote in New Hampshire, but register our dinghy in Massachusetts.