Good Times, Bad Times

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 This weekend was fairly mild and with sailing season right around the corner there was quite a crowd in the marina.  Most people were working on their boats but there was also a number of people just walking around with their kids and dogs.  Kinda like going to the park for the day.  Then there was the usual power squadron crowd on the next dock over, started drinking at 1000, yelling and screaming by noon, totally obnoxious by 1400.  We suddenly realized how pleasant it's been this Winter having the place all to ourselves.

Saturday we splurged and bought a Blu-Ray player for our home theater.  We'd been copying our DVD's onto the hard drive and found that we couldn't do the B-R movies.  Some of our favorites are in B-R and we figured it was cheaper to buy the Blu-Ray drive than to replace the movies with regular DVD's.  So we picked up a nice Samsung model that up-converts so we can get 1080p on regular DVD's too.  Also has a lot of other nice features which we'll probably never use.  What's really nice is it does a handshake with our Samsung 37" flatscreen and controls that too.  When we sat down to watch our movies we were blown away by the quality of the picture.  OK, now we have a pretty nice system.  And all we need is enough power to run it when we're out on the hook.  That's another project for the list.

The weather report for Sunday (2-27) was calling for temperatures in the high 50's, winds out of the SSW at 10 kts. and overcast skies turning to rain in the early evening.  It sounded like it might be a good day for getting out on the Bay but we had some chores to take care of first.  Cheri is working on a quilt for a niece's new baby which is due some time in March so she wanted to finish it up this weekend.  I took on the laundry so she could finish her sewing.  We both finished up by 1100, had the boat secured for sea by 1130 and were on our way.

We cruised out of the marina at a nice 6.2 knots.  As we approached the breakwater I gave it a little more throttle to give our little Yanmar diesel a chance to stretch her legs at 2500 rpm's.  As engine speed went over 2000 rpm's the boat began to vibrate.  I mean visibly shake.  What?  I'm thinking broken motor mount, maybe something trapped in the prop.  Who knows?  I reduced throttle and the vibration stopped.  I handed over the helm to Cheri and went below to investigate.  Easiest access to the engine is through the galley.  When I opened the door to the engine I shined my flashlight around but didn't see anything suspicious.  I did a full look-see beginning at the front and worked my way back.  As the light hit the transmission I noticed the propeller shaft swinging in a wide arc at 1500 rpm's.  Uhm, it's not supposed to do that.  I called up to Cheri to drop it into neutral and swing the boat around to head back to the marina.

Access to the rear of the engine is in the aft cabin under the bunk.  It's also under about 1200 pounds of junk that we've stashed back there.  That was planned out well.  Took me about 5 minutes to get access to the engine and when I raised the panel I could clearly see what the problem was.  The propeller shaft is connected to the transmission through a flange with four bolts.  Three of the bolts were scattered around the trough under the engine.  The fourth bolt was hanging on for dear life, but just barely.  Yikes!  I guess it's about time to do some maintenance on the engine!

I don't think we've put more than 40 hours on the engine since we bought the boat.  I had been putting off maintenance until March, thinking I'd have her freshened up for the upcoming sailing season.  Since March begins tomorrow I'll be getting started on that right away.  I had been planning to do things like change the oil and fuel filters, replace the impeller and all the hoses, maybe clean the heat exchanger and adjust the valves.  Now I think I'll go over this baby with a fine toothed comb.  Maybe start with the propeller shaft and work my way forward.

OK, so back to the story.  We're sitting dead in the water, with the engine off to save my ears.  We're slowly drifting back towards the entrance to the harbor just outside the breakwater.  We have plenty of room to drift for a while and there's not a single other boat in sight.  I scrounged around under the engine and located all the bolts and lock washers and bolted the shaft back in place.  Getting up from the bunk I notice this huge red stain on the cushion and realize I've shredded my arm on a hose clamp or something.  Cheri's still manning (womaning?) the helm and asks if we're ready to head out.  I take a minute to wash off my arm and find it's not as bad as it looked.  OK Baby!  Let's go sailing!

We fired up the engine and ran it up to 2500 rpm's.  Sounded good, nice and smooth.  We headed down towards red #2, raised the sails and killed the engine.  That instant when you stop the engine and all you hear is wind and water is one of the most awesome moments in sailing.

We sailed out into the Bay on a course of 90 degrees magnetic.  As soon as we got out there the wind died down and we just ghosted in an Easterly direction at about 3 knots until 1500.  I had been watching a tanker coming up the Bay for quite a while.  He was apparently moving pretty slow as our courses were converging and we were only going about 5 knots.  As we came up to the edge of the deep water channel I luffed our sails a bit and waited for him to pass.  It took forever.  As he finally went by I decided we'd better head for home and we came about to course 270.

The temperature in our cockpit enclosure was 70 degrees up to this point but as we sailed home it dropped like a rock.  Clouds had blocked out the sun and the temperature plummeted to 55 degrees.  We were making pretty good time heading back to Herring Bay, 6.5 knots and heeled over at 8 degrees.  Cheri went below and fired up the diesel heater which quickly restored the cockpit temperature to a comfortable 65 degrees.  While she was down there she cooked up a batch of peanut butter cookies.  We sailed back close hauled, steady on our course with flat seas and a constant breeze.  I'm talking perfection here.  I barely had to touch the wheel!  And we had peanut butter cookies!  Life is good!  As we rounded red #2 for the return run home we dropped the genoa and staysail and let the main out on the port side, running before the wind at 3.2 knots all the way back to the harbor entrance.

We were back at the dock by 1630 and celebrated our "perfect" sail with a cup of hot chocolate mixed with peppermint Schnapps.  We earned it.  Despite our little mishap the day turned out to be very relaxing.  Aside from that one tanker we were the only boat out there.  With the light winds, glassy water and the occasional flock of Canadian geese overhead it was very mellow.  Cheri suggested we should go out beyond the fish traps some time and just drop the anchor and hang out for the day, enjoy the peacefulness of having the entire Chesapeake Bay to ourselves.

This is Wintertime in Maryland and I'm thinking it's pretty nice.

Dreams Do Come True

Thursday night (2-17) we finished getting the boat ready for sailing.  I got home from work at 1900 and when I stepped through the companionway I found that Cheri had already done 90% of the work.  All that was left to do was install the footman loops and 1" webbing straps for the two flatscreens (home theater and computer) and 2" straps and loops for the ottoman.  Job done.

Friday morning we got off to a late start due to sleeping in late, goofing off, drinking coffee and waiting for the morning air to warm up a bit.  Unfortunately we were on a timeline here because of a commitment to be at our dancing lesson at 1900.  The plan was to be back in our slip by 1600 so we'd have plenty of time to get dressed, go out to dinner and still have time for an hour drive to our destination.  Good plan.

We headed out at 1100, following one other boat out past the breakwater.  We motored down to R2 in Herring Bay because the wind was right on our nose, coming out of the SSW at about 15 knots.  We raised the sails as we rounded the marker, shut off the engine and enjoyed the silence.  Cheri was at the wheel while I played with the sails, very pleasant start to our day.  The outside temperature was 60 degrees (F) but with our brand new cool-man cockpit enclosure we were toasty enough that I was wearing just jeans and a T-shirt and seriously considering taking off my shoes.  I'm talking about total success here with the enclosure.  Throughout the day it kept us comfortable, even in the afternoon when things got a little nasty.

Here's a link to a chart of where we went (Earth NC).  It might help to see where some of the markers are.

After passing G1 we entered the Chesapeake Bay on course 120 degrees magnetic and headed for the mouth of the Choptank River.  Visibility was restricted because of a heavy haze and we couldn't see the Eastern shore at all and had difficulty picking up distant markers.  We held to our compass heading, adding about 5 degrees to compensate for current, and came up dead on at each marker.  The wind picked up a bit once we were out in the Bay, increasing to 20 knots steady and gusting to 25.  As we approached R82 about half way across we were really moving, averaging over 9 knots with a top speed of 10.3 knots.  With the wind off our starboard side we were heeled over about 10 degrees and makin' like a bakery truck - haulin' buns.  Nice!  When we broke through 10 knots (check it out) Cheri made up some Bloody Marys to celebrate our first sail of the year.  Mmm, mmm, mmmmm.  This is, indeed, the sweet life.

The wind died down to about 15 knots as we entered the Choptank.  We picked up G7 just below Tilghman Island at 1300 and decided we had better head back home to get in by 1600.  I'll tell ya, it was pretty tempting to just keep on going and blow off our plans for the evening but we're all growed up and responsible so we came about and headed home on course 330 degrees magnetic.

The haze burned off and the sky turned from grey to a brilliant dark blue but the going was slow, about 6 knots in a 14 knot breeze.  Around 1500 we were halfway across the Bay and I knew we weren't gonna make it back by 1600.  So much for being responsible, huh?  The surface of the water was pretty glassy and the breeze was variable.  Looking off to the West I could see the water was textured and darker due to some wind so we came about to 220 degrees magnetic to try to pick it up.  As we sailed into this fresh breeze it quickly increased to 35 knots.  We were sailing close hauled and heeling over about 20 degrees but we were really moving now.  After passing a tug/barge coming up the Bay we came about and headed North.  We reduced sail by furling the genoa and proceeded under full Main and Staysail averaging 8.5 knots.

As we sailed past Chesapeake Beach the winds were gusting over 40 knots, blowing out of Herring Bay.  We decided to sail further North to GC 83A before turning into the Bay as this would give us a good angle for our next tack.  The plan was to make one tack and sail in towards Herrington Harbor South.  Of course with the wind blowing off the shore at a steady 35 to 40 knots we got pushed back out into the Chesapeake on our first tack and had to come about again and head North once more.  We did this two more times before finally getting in as far as HHS (aka Rose Haven Harbor) at G 1A where we dropped the sails and motored in the rest of the way to HHN.

I'd like to point out here that we were sailing hard, heeled over at 15 to 20 degrees and making about 8 to 8.5 knots throughout all this.  Cheri and Bella were taking a nap in the cockpit through most of it.  We tacked a number of times in rough conditions and it was all completely effortless.  This is because we were sailing without the Genoa, just the Main and Staysail.  Our Staysail is attached to a Hoyt self tending boom (more info here) so there's no line handling required once the sail is set.  Coming about is just a matter of turning the wheel, pretty much like driving a car.  Well, except that the car is leaning over and crashing through the waves.  I'd also like to note here that our cockpit enclosure kept us very cozy throughout all of this.  Excellent!

So, as we motored back to HHN Cheri went down below and made some homemade chicken vegetable soup because we weren't gonna have time to go out to dinner.  It was 1700 as we backed into our slip with 30 knot winds blowing across our port side.  Took us a while to get in but we handled it pretty well, if I do say so myself.  I stayed at the helm, goosed the engine in forward and reverse, bumped the bow-thruster side to side and spun the wheel like a madman while Cheri handled the lines.  It actually looked like we knew what we were doing!

We made it to our dance lesson with two minutes to spare.

Are You Ready?

Monday night (2-13) the wind was really howling.  The radio reported gusts of 50 kts and I believe it.  Every now and then the boat would just lay over and it sounded like a freight train was coming through.  Really something.  The wind was blowing out of the West and it took all the water in the creek with it.  We've been through this several times this Winter already but this was the best one so far.  The water receded all the way to the first slip on the dock, just two slips down from ours.  We were definitely sitting in the mud by the next morning because the wind was still blowing but the boat had stopped rocking.  All that wind had two direct effects on us.  It kept us awake all night with the noise and in the morning it made it really tough getting on and off the boat.  If you ever had a tree fort when you were a kid you can picture what we had to go through to get onto the dock.  Well, maybe I tend to exaggerate a bit but it was a climb none the less.

The weather report is calling for this Friday to have temperatures in the high 60's with 16 knot winds out of the SW.  Cheri suggested that we should go sailing.  I love that woman!  This is one of those heat waves I've been praying for.  Just a short blob of warm weather so we can go out on the Bay for a day, give us a taste of it to help us get through the rest of the Winter.  Everybody else has their boat on the hard and wrapped up in plastic so we'll probably have the entire Bay to ourselves.

This being our first time out since last October (yikes!) we're going to have to spend some time getting the boat ready to go.  We've been living aboard just like we were in a house and there's stuff that's been set down or hung up without a thought as to how it would behave heeled over at 20 degrees or crashing through 15 foot seas.  As if......

So, we've got a few projects to take care of, things to be nailed down or put away.  The aft head has become a walk-in closet / storage unit.  We've got all of Cheri's ankle length skirts and coats hanging in there.  There's also all the high priority appliances that won't fit anywhere else, such as the coffee maker, hot-air popcorn popper, crockpot and pressure cooker.  That list is in order of priority by the way.  If we can get this area under control then we still have to work on the forward stateroom.  In there we have our new home theater which isn't quite finished, meaning that it's not even close to being ready to go to sea.  I think we're gonna need some duct tape or something.

Aside from all the little stuff that needs to be stashed we have three or four major pieces that would create havoc if they started bouncing around the interior.  We brought in an ottoman to the Main Salon that's made a big difference in the comfort level out there and has also given us a great place to store Cheri's sewing machine.  By itself it probably weighs 20 or 30 pounds, not exactly a lightweight.  With the sewing machine and a few other things jammed inside I'm sure it weighs more than fifty pounds.  I plan to add two footman loops to the base of the starboard side settee and we'll strap it snugly up against that using 2" webbed strapping.  Our cool-man 37" flat screen also needs to be secured for sea.  Originally I was planning to make up some nice teak blocks with brass hold downs but for now I think I'll use the footman loops and web strapping here too, only 1" webbing for this one.  This'll probably become one of those projects that never gets completed because it got a "temporary" fix.  I guess that's OK as long as it looks good and does the job.  Another spot that needs securing is the 23" flat screen monitor for our Mac-mini at the Nav Station.  This is mounted on an arm that has tension adjustments on each joint so you could really lock it down if you wanted.  I just recently got it adjusted the way I like so it's easy to swing out of the way to get to the power panel behind it.  I had originally planned to use a hook and eye to secure the arm against the cabinet but now I'm thinking this would be a great spot for some more footman loops and webbed strapping.

OK, so aside from 300 pounds of small stuff scattered around the boat I think we have it all under control.  We have a regular routine of putting stuff in designated places each time we go out sailing.  I say "we" but it's really Cheri who has this all organized.  Anyway, during the sailing season we have it all down to a science and can be ready to go in about 20 minutes.  This time it'll take a bit longer so we're working on it ahead of time so we can get an early start.

Woohoooo!  We're gonna go sailing!

Ice Ice Baby

Living aboard La Vida Dulce has certainly been a learning experience.  The first part wasn't too bad because the weather was still nice and we had weekends of sailing to look forward to.  In my inexperienced mind I thought that the winter wasn't going to be all that different and even planned on some weekend sailing during those heat waves in January.  Uh-huh, dream on dude.  Life on board in the wintertime is a whole different game.  First and foremost, it's just too cold to go sailing.  There have been days when I thought to myself "we should be out there" but the reality is that my crew has no interest in getting frostbite and I haven't tried sailing solo yet.  To be completely honest, I'd probably get out there and be miserable.

Of course going sailing is pretty much a pipe-dream anyway because since mid December we've been iced in for all but two days.  OK, so I'm exaggerating, but not by much.  According to the National Weather Service for December and January we had 10 days with the high below 32 degrees (F) and 60 days with the low below 32.  I'm talking frozen creek here.  So sailing has been pretty much out of the question unless you have a boat with 1/2" steel plate in the bow.  Being iced in has been interesting in it's own way.  I started out being overly concerned about ice building up around the hull and would run the engine at 1500 rpm's in reverse for an hour or so twice a day.  This served to stir up the warmer water below the surface and break away the ice for a pretty good distance around the boat.  The dock lines held us in place at our slip and the water just flowed forward across the hull.  It worked great but it was noisy and used up precious fuel which now has to be carried in by hand.  I eventually stopped doing this and settled on using the boat hook to break up the ice about a foot or so out from the hull all the way around.  Even when the ice on the creek was 4" thick it stayed thin around the boat due to my boat hook and the natural motion of the boat.  We do have to keep an eye on it though.

OK, so ice is pretty much the main theme here (I would also like to mention that we've been making ice cubes in our freezer, one tray at a time, and it's been working out very nicely.  Just gotta have those Bloody Mary's!)  Since we've been iced in so much it's created a problem that we didn't foresee.  With our new handy-dandy gold plated ($$$ cha-ching) 60 gallon holding tank we can last about 2 weeks between pumping out.  I'm a pretty simple guy, don't mind making the trek up to the showers on most occasions.  Cheri on the other hand is a total "Princess" and demands the comforts of home.  I don't blame her at all here, in fact I think she deserves it.  Way back in the beginning I promised her this wouldn't be "camping" so we've made every effort to make life on board as comfortable as possible.  And why not?  It's our home, not a pup tent!

Herrington Harbour North makes a big deal about being "green".  They have tidal marshes and nature walks and recycling stations and lotsa rules about working on your boat in a "green" manner.  The owners are very active in "Save the Bay" kinda stuff.  The owners, by the way, are a father/son team, not some faceless corporation, and they operate things on a personal level.  They also preach customer service.

So here's the rub.  Since we've been iced in for most of the time this winter we hired a company, Safe Harbor Sanitation, to come to the boat and pump out our holding tank.  These guys were supposed to have some kind of agreement with HHN for this service.  Some companies provide this service using a boat and come right up to your slip and do the dirty deed.  These guys have a system mounted on a cart and they can come out onto the dock which is what's needed when the creek is frozen over.  So we called these guys and arranged to have them come out every two weeks and take care of things.  They came out at the end of December, once, and then we never saw them again.  Two and a half weeks went by and we called them a number of times, left messages, and never heard from them.  After three weeks we were feeling rather desperate and asked HHN to launch a boat to break the ice so we could get over to the pump-out station.  We explained our situation and they grudgingly helped us out.  While they were breaking the ice for us I walked out the dock to the pump-out station and found they had "winterized" the system and there was no way for us to get pumped out.  Uhm, we seem to be having a breakdown in communication here.  I talked to the folks at the office and they made phone calls and finally we got a hose hooked up and pumped out our tank.  The folks at the front office said they'd be happy to help us out next time as long as we gave them enough notice to get things set up.  OK, sounds good.  Great customer service.

Two weeks go by, it's time to pump out again.  Still no word from Safe Harbor so on Tuesday I call the office and ask to have arrangements made to pump out on Friday.  "No problem" they say.  Friday comes and the station is all set up but we're iced in.  The entire creek is iced in all the way out to the breakwater.  I walk over to the office and on the way there I run into the yard manager who is the dude in charge of all operations, including setting up the pump-out station and having the ice problem taken care of.  I asked him about getting the boat out to clear a path for us and he said no-way, it's too expensive.  He suggested we hire this company, Safe Harbor, to do it and I told him my sob-story.  No tears from this dude.  He said we should do like everyone else at the marina and use the facilities over by the pool.  Huh?  There's ten other boats at HHN who are live-aboards during the winter and supposedly we're the only ones asking for pump-out service.  The marina thinks all these people are using the "facilities".  Right.  I know the owners of two other boats and both of them are pumping their tanks into the harbor.  This is illegal by the way.  It's also pretty disgusting when you figure that one of them is also using a water maker.  Gag me with a spoon.  That's like putting your well right down the hill from your septic tank.  So I ask the guy what happened to customer service and what about the extra $100/ month we pay to be live-aboards..  He says that covers the extra toilet paper we use.  Wow, what a deal!  I walked up to the office and asked for some pump out tokens and they made sure I understood that we were the only ones using this system.  Grrr.  They really need to think about what they're doing here.  We're trying to "do the right thing", the legal thing, and they're trying to make us feel bad about it.  So now we're starting to realize that live-aboards are just a pain in the ass to this marina.  Why let us stay here in the first place?

I returned to the boat and told Cheri we were gonna start looking for another marina.  I explained what happened and she picked up the phone and called the owners of the marina and relayed our story.  Half an hour later the ice was broken up and the "son" half of the father/son team was sitting on our boat discussing our problem and promising a solution.  Wow!  That's fast action!  This guy explained about their interest in the environment and how their goal was to be the "greenest" marina on the East coast and at the same time to be known everywhere for their customer service.  OK, that's great but the staff has a bit of re-training to go through.  He said he was going to reinforce the company goals at the next staff meeting.  I picture everybody getting chewed out after being told about some unnamed boat owner who's been having problems getting pumped out.  Hmmm, I wonder who that could be?  I'm pretty sure the staff will soon have a new nick-name for the owners of La Vida Dulce.  But maybe not.  Maybe this'll all turn out for the best.  Maybe HHN will truly become Super-Green and be the Shining Star of all marinas on the East Coast.  Maybe they'll even provide dock-side pump-out service in the winter.  And just maybe I'll wake up tomorrow morning and be twenty years younger.

So, yikes!  I've really gone on and on about this.  I started out to say how different life on-board is in the winter.  Ya don't go sailing after all.  You eat, sleep and work during the week and then on weekends you eat, sleep and work on the boat.  Plus you get to haul 25 gallons of fuel down from the parking lot every weekend.  And break ice away from the hull.  I'm sure there's more.  Maybe the biggest challenge is being cooped up inside because of the weather.  It's kinda like spending every weekend being locked up with your wife inside a walk-in closet.  It's only gonna be as good as you make it.  People keep saying that we're "Living The Dream".  I just hope that when I wake up we can go sailing.

Note:  This is an update from almost three years later.  As it turns out Herrington Harbour Marina is now considered one of the top marinas on the East coast.  It's the top "green" marina on the Chesapeake Bay.  Within a year the owner invested in a pump-out boat and completely rebuilt the pump-out system on the dock.  They provide year-round service at a fair rate, $20 per month.  So they did become "Super Green" and they did become a "Shining Star".  I'm sure it sounded like I was being sarcastic a few paragraphs back there but it was simply me being prophetic.  Unfortunately I did not wake up 20 years younger.