IT’S been a surprisingly busy week since our boat was crashed: in addition to lots of work on the boat, we’ve spent many wonderful days and evenings with friends, enjoying drinks in the roomy cockpit and swimming in the pool.

Sunday, Val and Becca came out, thoughtfully bringing a cake wreck from the local Giant — and some champers! — to celebrate my birthday.  (If you’re a fan of Cake Wrecks, do stop by the Giant in Annapolis at Bay Ridge and Edgewood:  AMAZING cake wrecks!)  Monday, Didi came out for the whole day as part of her stay-cation, and we had a lovely day taking the dinghy into Annapolis proper, about a 25 minute ride, for ice cream cones and a walk around town.  Yesterday, Jessica and Mathew visited, bringing roses and the makings for strawberry shortcake.  It’s been a lovely few days!

Today, though, it was back to work, just in time for me to spend another day scraping caulk in scorching 95+ weather.  It was so hot in the afternoon, we went for a swim and then decided to bake cookies and bread.  WHAT?  Seriously.  I was thinking that we needed bread, and we spend the evening in the cockpit anyway, and we might as well bake early enough that the cabin cools by bedtime  . . . maybe not the smartest thinking.  I think my brain was a bit fried.  A very hot and cranky Philip just popped into the air conditioned bath house where I’m writing this post while waiting on the laundry and informed me just how damn hot it is in the boat.    Oops.

The yard tells us that the bowsprit repair may be finished by Friday, with the stainless coming in tomorrow afternoon.  Whether the repair is finished by the weekend, though, is irrelevant now, as I’m flying to Iowa to help our friend Kristin’s parents evacuate from the flood zone.  Her dad is on the levee council and fully expects the levees to fail soon, so we’re helping them pack up everything they can save and get whatever possible out of their house, which may be under 10 feet of water for months if the levee does go.  Kristin learned earlier this week that her mom and dad have nobody else to help, because — of course — everyone else in the area is also evacuating.  So, a mini-adventure it is; let’s hope that the levee doesn’t go while we’re there, and that we’re able to save as much as possible in case it does.