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.