Maiden Voyage…and the new Salon Table

Two Thursdays ago, s/v Alchemy’s maiden voyage was from the Sailcraft boatyard, down the canal, heading towards the Neuse before hanging a short left into the marina where we will keep her temporarily until we are ready to leave and the weather has warmed up a bit. While turning the key to the engine and throwing off the lines felt momentous – the less than ten minute trip felt a little like a cruel joke – since we have taken dinghy rides that are longer in duration. Nonetheless, the small sense of freedom feeling the water drift by the hull was hard won and deeply rewarding. We pulled her into a nice big slip and settled in tying our new lines.

We spent the weekend enduring the freezing cold visiting with friends in New Bern, Betts and Doug. Chris helped Doug figure out how to program his new GPS puck and figure out some technical issues while Betts and I enjoyed some time together to chat about aspects of our lives we had never shared together and running some errands complete with some crafty pursuits at Michael’s.

Sunday found us layering up and assembling the replacement salon table our friend Tipper Davis made for us. We needed to repair the crack in the table but when we contemplated repairing and replacing the middle section we decided no time like the present to fix the inherited bubbling of the veneer on the rest of the table. We affixed the table leaves before we left the apartment and then packed her up and took her down to the boat. It took a couple hours to reassemble the table and bolt it to it’s original placement. It is beautiful!!!! Tipper is a master carpenter and made a couple of really nice modifications to the table. Sunday afternoon was a banner day. I was so inspired that I cleaned a large majority of the boat, the galley cabinets, put down shelf liner, dusted the floor, wiped down almost every surface I could, and generally prepped her for moving back aboard…there was still a lot of dust in the boat from the yard…it was nice to shower s/v Alchemy with a little housekeeping and love…

Sunday we left the boat with smiles on our faces and a feeling of contentment we hadn’t felt in awhile. Thank you Tipper for your help with rebuilding our table…we will think of you and Patti whenever we are enjoying a good meal or playing cards…

The photographs below illustrate the salon table’s journey by ferry to Tipper’s for repair and then the trip over to mix the stains, and the final install.