there is something very special about biking to church! we were singing a little hymn we’d learned some time ago, to the beat of our feet turning the peddles, cranking the chain, turning the wheels... “we are biiiking in the light of God, we are biking in the light of God,” ding-ding on the little bike handlebar bell, “we are biking, biking, we are biking, biking, biking in the light of God,” ding-dinggg!

we parked our bikes outside and found the sanctuary of the phillippi church abandoned, so that they could fill the fellowship room with folks sipping coffee at long tables for the “informal" worship service.

we all started with the singing of a heart filled “what a friend we have in Jesus...” twice, because the pastor felt passionately moved by it, since we were singing it in memory of a beloved member who had passed away a couple of years back. today not only happened to be the day before memorial day, but also this “regular saint’s” birthday. we all felt passionately moved to sing it again. even the kid who handled the c.d.’s of our “virtual organist” didn’t mind switching the disk back into the c.d. player! that set the stage for a very lovely service that consisted of a sermon in which there was quite a lot of good, meaningful dialogue between the preacher and the congregation, a time of freely sharing joys and griefs among the people, more hymns and communion.

we stopped at the little coffee cafe on our way back to cricket.

we’d planned on putting another coat of bottom paint on her, but discovered some spots that were in need of more scraping, sanding and priming. these areas had been previously covered up by the stands that hold cricket upright on the hard. the stands have been intentionally moved to different locations on the hull when we were moved closer to the water in the boatyard. it was grrreat to have a partner to do this work with! so good!

it was a hot day, so when we’d finished up with the dirty, dusty work we showered to rinse off the bottom paint, and then treated ourselves to an ice cream and an iced tea from the ship’s store here at the marina. we went out to the end of the fueling dock to enjoy our treats, enjoy the sight of all the memorial day weekend fun on the water, and enjoy each other’s company. it was fun to capture some of the bay activities with the new canon camera.

after a few visitors on the boat we went out for a couple of beers with my new sailboat friend graham and his author/actress wife lydia. a very lovely time.