Home Is Where I Want To Be

This past weekend was total turmoil.  After many postponements we were finally supposed to pick up the boat on Friday, 8-27.  We had been staying at Fred and Sharon's place that week while they were in Canada.  They were scheduled to return on Friday afternoon so we were all packed and heading out the door that morning when we got a call from John Hellwege at Gratitude.  When they sprayed the primer the day before it didn't set and had to be sanded down and redone.  This would take all day Friday and they'd need Saturday  for final assembly and cleaning.  This really threw a wrench in the works because we were now out of options for a place to stay, requiring a stay in a hotel.  Normally this wouldn't be a problem but we have a dog (well, a 6 pound beast) and 99% of the decent hotels don't allow pets.  We booked a room at the Comfort Inn at Chestertown and considered sneaking her in under our coat.  When we got there we sat out in the car debating how we were gonna get her past the front desk.  In the end we decided the best way was to be totally obvious about it.  We walked in the front door pulling our bags behind and with Bella in Cheri's arms.  The lady at the front desk never said a thing, probably didn't even notice.  Too busy picking out her next lollipop.

After we got settled into our room we headed over to see the boat.  I had picked up 2 six-packs of beer to share with the dudes doing the work, thinking this would be a nice way to show our thanks.  Walking out to the dock we offered several beers but they were turned down.  Huh?  This is a boat yard right?  Lardy-dar types everywhere ya look.  When we got to the boat, Howard was the only guy there, just finishing up the fiberglass work.  I offered him a beer, told him how much we appreciated all the hard work.  He declined the beer.  I opened one for myself, took a swig, asked him if he was sure he didn't want a nice, ice cold beer on a 95 degree day after working his butt off on the boat.  "No thanks", says he, "I'm on my 76th day of recovery".  Oops.  "Well", says me, "I'll drink to that!" ( I modified history a bit here but the truth is I did have a terrible time getting anyone to hoist a cold one with me.)

We washed down the topsides while the cleaning crew took on things down below.  There was quite a mess from all the cutting and grinding of fiberglass and the dust had permeated pretty much everything.  Howard had cleaned up the forward compartment once already and then these guys went over that again and everywhere else too.  After they left, Cheri and I went below and went over it again ourselves.  We had all our clothes to move back aboard and didn't want our stuff to be full of fiberglass.  That stuff's kinda itchy, ya know?  We finally finished up around 1930, made up some chicken salad sandwiches and had our first meal aboard in 2 months.

Sunday morning we got up around 0730, had breakfast aboard, got cleaned up and prepared to head home to Herrington Bay.  When we cast off we took the old dock lines and stashed them in the cockpit locker.  These things were so old and stiff it was like trying to bend steel cable.  For Cheri's birthday I gave her 4 new dock lines, 3 strand line, 3/4" x 35', just what every girl dreams of.  As we cruised down the Bay we tied a double loop bowline in one end of each line so they'd be ready when we got to our slip.  Leaving Rock Hall, Cheri took the helm and took us around to the fuel dock.  We were getting low, down to 3/16's of a tank, and I was concerned about the fuel pump sucking up crud from the bottom of the tank.  Our tank holds 150 gallons and with the impending bill for the holding tank I wasn't too excited about paying $500 (diesel is currently $3.49/gallon) to top off with fuel.  We put in $200 worth and it brought us up to 3/4 full on the gauge.  Must not be a linear gauge.  Doesn't matter, that should be enough to last us for another year.

So at 1030 we head out into the Bay on a course of 210 degrees magnetic.  This takes up directly to the main span of the Bay Bridge and it also takes us directly into the wind.  At least what wind there was, maybe 5 knots.  Because of this we chose to run under power until we could point further south and would then raise the sails.  We had a full days cruise ahead of us, at least 6 hours, and still had to drive back to Rock Hall to retrieve our car, about a 4 hour round trip.  This was gonna be a long day no matter what we did.  So, we maintained our course pretty much all the way to Thomas Point Light.  At this time I checked the wind, looking good at about 12 knots out of the WSW, and proceeded to raise the mainsail.  Actually on our boat you don't raise the main so much as unroll it.  We have in-mast roller reefing (see the picture) so you just sit in the cockpit and tug on a couple of lines and the sail is set.  At least that's the way it's supposed to work.  Not this time.  I started crankin' on the out-haul, the line that pulls the clew of the sail out along the boom (see the picture again), unrolling it from the mast.  It was really tight and wouldn't budge.  ???  Two days later I was told that this could be caused by having too much tension on the halyard, the line used to raise the sail to the top of the mast.  At the time I didn't have a clue (clew?) so we just motored the rest of the way home.  Bummer.

It was a pleasant cruise though, temps in the high 80's, nice breeze and not a cloud in the sky.  We got back to Herrington at 1630 and by the time we got back from getting the car it was 2130, bedtime.  Long day.

One other thing we discovered was that the sump pump for the forward shower didn't work.  At first I thought it might have been related to the work that was done on the holding tank since the wiring goes through the same area.  The way our showers work is they have a deep fiberglass pan built in under the floor of the shower.  I think the reasoning here is that it's more efficient to let the water collect while you shower and then pump it all out at once.   There's a plunger type switch that you pull out when you're done taking your shower and it starts the sump pump which runs for a few minutes and then starts to growl when it sucks air, at which time you turn it off.  Anyway, I needed to verify the problem with the pump so I pulled out the plunger and went to check the voltage at the pump.  By the time I got in place to check it, the electric motor was hot to the touch but the pump wasn't pumping.  The shaft from the motor is connected to an offset arm that drives a piston connected to a diaphragm.  The pump mechanism moved freely but the motor wasn't turning which indicated an electrical short in the winding of the motor.  The pump is just a big clump of rust so we'll replace the whole unit instead of only the motor.  Of course, when we looked into a replacement pump we found that this model has been discontinued so now we need to source a replacement.  Ugh.

So,we're finally home.  Now if we could just find some time to get settled in.  With Hurricane Earl due in three days I'm sure we'll have more to discuss before too much longer.

Doldrums

 Well, Summer is coming to a close, school buses are holding up traffic again and we're still mooching shelter from friends and family.  Pete and Gina let us hide out in their home for six weeks while they stayed at their vacation home on Virginia's Eastern Shore.  But all good things must come to an end.  They were scheduled to return on August 13th (Friday the 13th!!!) so they could prepare to go back to being teachers for another year.  That's gotta be a tough transition to make.

Anyway, Cheri and I packed up and moved out, thinking we'd be moving onto the boat and sailing back to Herrington and getting on with our lives.  This was not to be.  The tank didn't arrive from Wellington Plastics in the five days planned and took another week beyond that.  Grrrr.  Musta had some trouble getting through customs.  I can just see it.  US Customs probably wouldn't take big black boxes lightly.  No ticking sounds but it could be a bomb.  I'm probably lucky they didn't blow it up to diffuse it.  So the tank didn't even arrive until late on the 12th and you just know everyone had to sit around and stare at it for a while.  And of course not much of anything is gonna get done on Friday the13th.  So now we're shooting for the 20th.

We send Cheri and Bella down to Florida again to stay the week with her Mom and I move back in with Ed and Ellen.  I'm really getting to like the pillows on their guest room bed.  The week I spend at their place is also the week of the worst storms Maryland has seen in the past 500 years.  It rains so hard you can't even see the front of the car and I have an hour commute in each direction.  That's an hour if things are going well.  They weren't.  My commute from Reisterstown to DC takes me onto 695 (Baltimore beltway), I-95 and 495 (DC beltway).  These are easily the 3 worst roads to be on at 6am and 6pm because you have the biggest conglomeration of idiots and race car drivers, all going in the same direction, idiots at 50 mph and race car drivers at 90.  Just doesn't work.  Add in some raindrops and the idiots slow down to 20 and the race car drivers speed up to 95.  Most days I'd leave before 6 in the morning and wouldn't get back to Ellen and Ed's before 8 at night.  I did realize through all of this that there are thousands of people out there who do this every day.  And they call that living?  I can't wait to get back on the boat and sail away from this madness for good.

So, Cheri comes back on the 19th and we find out that the boat won't be ready until the 27th.  Yikes!  What're we gonna do?  We are now truly homeless with no plan, other than sleep in the car and shower in the men's room at work.  Then from out of nowhere Cheri's music teacher, Sharon (and her husband Fred) offer us the use of their home while they're on vacation in Canada.  The Lord is definitely looking out for us.  I just don't know how we'll ever be able to repay all this kindness.  Gonna take a lot more than a bag of McNuggets, that's fer sure.

So, where do we stand with the repairs?  Good question.  The tank is installed.  I saw it with my own two eyes last weekend.  It's in place with the lines reconnected and nicely braced and battened down.  This week (the final week?) my old buddy Mac will be doing the final fiberglass work.  Mac is a genius with fiberglass, even built his own boat from scratch.  I have no doubt the work will be top notch.

A nice upgrade we're doing on this project is a sensor and readout so we can tell how full the tank is.  I don't ever want to have to clean up from an overflowed pump-out line again.  Yuck!  I mean it's just disgusting!  Definitely worth a few bucks to be able to avoid that.  The unit we're putting in is made by Electrosense (click here for their website).  A common way for reading out tank volume is with a float, just like in your toilet tank or your gas tank.  Not such a good choice in this environment because it can easily get stuck.  Then ya hafta go in and clean it.  No thanks.  Another way is with pneumatic tubes or hoses but these can clog.  Then what?  Blow through the hose to clear it?  I don't think so.  Probably the most common readout for a holding tank is an electronic sensor that mounts on the outside wall of the tank.  This seems like the way to go because there's no moving parts and it doesn't actually come in contact with the contents of the tank.  The problem with this system is that it can be fooled by buildup on the inside of the tank.  Maybe an even bigger problem is that there have been reports of a high rate of electrical failure.  The unit made by Electrosense mounts at the top of the tank and has five sensor rods inside, each being a different length and custom tuned to our tanks volume.  The rods are mounted in a 1.5" PVC plug which threads into the top of the tank and contains the electronics for the sending unit.  Low voltage signals are sent over a Cat5e cable to the display, which in our case will be mounted at the Nav Station.  The only time this thing uses any power is when you push a button on the display which lights up the LED's of the rods that are immersed.  Pretty simple and a nice power saver too.

I just received a few more pictures from John showing the most recent progress.  I'll include them here for your perusal.  The one with the blue squiggly line shows the black poly tank in place with bracing.  The blue line is the Cat5e cable for the sensor readout.  This picture was taken at an angle so the black tank is actually laying horizontally under the floor.

The next picture shows the new wood panels installed with an access panel for hiding stuff way down there.  After that we see the next level being glassed in.  This provides another level of storage below the bunk and has multiple access panels.  There's a ton of storage space under this bunk!

So, we're almost there.  Just a few more days and we can begin to get our lives back to normal, whatever that is.