Irene

This past weekend, 8/28/11, we had a bit of a storm work it's way up the east coast.  On Thursday morning, 8/25, it hadn't made landfall in North Carolina yet and the projected storm track showed it hugging the coastline but staying in the Atlantic after crossing part of North Carolina.  The winds were a steady 110 knots, gusting higher.  If it stayed on this course I felt like we'd be OK at our marina because we'd be far enough from the storm that the winds would be less than 65 knots and the wind direction wouldn't cause serious flooding.

At noon that day I checked the National Hurricane Center's website and the update now showed Hurricane Irene coming inside the Chesapeake Bay with 100 knot winds.  Double Yikes!  I'm not kidding, my hair stood on end.  This was a whole different game.  Storm surge would be a serious problem with water being pushed into our creek from the Bay.  In 2003 Hurricane Isabel brought a storm surge of over 7.5' to our creek.  Once I got my hair back under control I left work early and headed home.  When I got to the marina I put our boat on a list to have her hauled and stored on the hard.  This costs about $700 but insurance pays for half so it's not too bad.  I was told we had about 100 boats ahead of us and chances were pretty slim of us getting hauled.  OK, it's worth a shot.

I figured I had about 48 hours to get ready for the worst.  I hadn't been through this drill before so I didn't know how much time I needed to get ready.  I started that afternoon by removing the Bimini and Dodger canvas.  This gave me access to the solar panels.  I felt it was a good idea to get them down because it was a good chance that they'd catch that 110 knot wind and rip the Bimini frame right off the boat.  Once I had all that removed I tied down the frame.  We removed the Genoa and Staysail and rolled the Main up (furled) inside the mast as tight as she would go.  The idea here was to reduce the area exposed to the wind as much as possible

By Friday morning we got another update on the storm and now they were saying it would track out to the Atlantic, just as they had said originally.  In addition to that they thought the winds would be reduced to about 85 knots.  If it holds to that then we'd be OK.  We had already done more than was necessary but I figured it was better to be safe than sorry.  We doubled up all our dock lines and prepared things down below as if we were going out sailing.

On Saturday the marina informed us they'd be shutting off the water at noon and the power at 1700.  OK, guess we won't even have to consider sticking around.  At this point the storm was working it's way across North Carolina.  The sky was overcast but we had no rain yet and just a light breeze.  My sister and brother-in-law, Ellen and Ed, offered us refuge at their place, which we gladly accepted.  Thanks guys, we really appreciate it.  We got to their place around 1500 and the rain was just starting.  We all hunkered down in front of the TV and watched the news reports.  This was a big mistake because those reporters are more interested in drama than giving the real story so they tend to exaggerate like crazy.  I'm sitting there listening to these goons and by 2300 I couldn't take it anymore.  The storm was supposed to peak in our area around 0200 Sunday morning and I just had to get down to the boat and see how she was doing.  I mean, the wind was blowing straight across the Bay and the water could be high at the dock requiring an adjustment of the dock lines.  Or the bilge pump coulda failed and I needed to be down there to bail.  That boat is our home, has everything we own aboard and I just couldn't sit there and listen to those idiots on TV anymore.

The three of us, Cheri, me and Bella, piled into our car and cruised on down.  The rain was coming down in sheets and the windshield wipers were on full blast and could hardly keep up.  The wind was blowing pretty good too.  Luckily we were just about the only car on the road so I felt pretty comfortable driving 45 MPH on the the Baltimore Beltway and then down Rte 97 into Annapolis.  We got on Rte 2 and headed south and as soon as we got out of Edgewater we saw flashing lights.  Trees were down across the road.  There was a cop there but as we drove up he cut around the tree and headed south at 35 MPH.  Well what else could we do but follow?  We had a police escort all the way down to Deale.  Cool!  Along the way we had to drive around several more downed trees but it wasn't really dangerous or anything.  Just kinda surreal.  We got to the marina around 0030, grabbed a flashlight and walked down to the boat.  As we walked down the dock we were relieved to see that the water level was pretty normal.  This was a big relief for me because I figured as the storm went further north the wind would veer around out of the north and drive the water out of the Bay, meaning less chance of flooding as the storm progressed.  So we were already pretty much out of danger from storm surge.  I think the wind was blowing about 65 knots steady at this point and the rain was now coming down even harder.  When we got to the boat she was sitting in the center of the slip, heeling over with the wind but in absolutely no danger.  I shined the light up and down her length, didn't see anything wrong and decided to head back.  Three hours of driving, up and back, for a two minute visual confirmation.  In that two minutes we were totally soaked to the skin.  It was worth it, let me tell you, just for the peace of mind.  We got back safely around 0230 and climbed into bed and slept like babies.

Looking back on things now I can see that I totally over-reacted and did way more than I had to.  We could have left the sails and canvas on as well as the solar panels.  It was right to have doubled up on the dock lines and securing for sea down below was definitely a good idea too.  I don't regret having done too much because if I hadn't then the storm woulda come right up the Bay and clobbered us.  I'm pretty sure that's how that works.

Living With Doctor Dolittle

Monday evening I got home from work around 1830.  It had been raining on and off all day and I could see some pretty dark clouds approaching from the south-west as I walked down the dock.  When I get aboard I find that the holding tank needs to be pumped out.  We have contracted with a service to do this every other week and that's worked out real nice but this time we need to take care of it ourselves.  No problem, we just need to beat that storm that's drifting our way.

In record time we get the boat underway and head over to "C" dock.  As we pull up alongside we notice a commotion on the dock.  There's a big old bird dancing around with his wings spread out.  As we tie up the bird backs away and falls off the dock into the water.  We race over to see what he's doing and it's obvious this guy is gonna drown if we don't do something.  Cheri grabs a net from our boat and angles it down towards the bird who grabs onto the rim and hangs on for dear life.  We pull him back up on the dock and set the net down and back away real slowly.  This bird is an adult Osprey with a wingspan of about 5' and talons as long as my fingers.  Yowza!  The bird is pretty freaked out and screams and dances around, eventually falling back in the water.  We fish him out again and this time he just stands there, screeching with his wings spread out.

So now what do we do?  His movements make me think that his right wing is injured because he keeps holding the one wing out and folding up the other.  Cheri goes down below and starts making phone calls to see if she can get a Vet to come out and help.  No luck there but she eventually gets hold of the Maryland Dept. of Natural Resources and they direct her to a raptor rescue lady (chick?) down in Solomons Island, about 40 miles away.  She can't come up tonight and asks us to put the bird in a box and keep it for her.  What?  Put this monster with 4" claws in a box?  Yikes!

Cheri wanders off looking for a box and I go back and take care of the boat.  The bird is only about 15' away while I'm working on the boat so I move around very slowly so I don't frighten him.  I still hafta get the holding tank pumped out before this storm hits and it's now getting dark too.  I finish up just as Cheri returns with a big box which she sets down beside the Osprey.  By now there's another boater, an old English dude with lots of suggestions and no intentions of assistance, and Miguel, the 6'6" security guard who also has no intention of going near the bird.  Cheri picks up the net, which the Osprey is still hanging onto and sets him down in the box.  I throw a towel over his head and he instantly goes quiet and stops moving around.  This is good but his gigantic wings are still sticking out.  Cheri takes one and gently folds it into the box and I do the same with the other.  As I push his wing into the box I picture his big old beak ripping the flesh off my hand but the bird just quietly sits there under the towel.  This is much easier than I ever woulda imagined.

We can't put the bird on our boat because Bella would just go nuts and then the Osprey would probably eat her.  There's already been enough excitement for one night.  We pick up the box and put it in a cart.  Miguel offers to take the cart down by the office for us so we could get La Vida Dulce back to her slip.  Cheri writes up a note and pins it to the towel: "Injured Osprey in box".  Yeah, that's a good idea.  Can you imagine finding a box on your doorstep, lifting the towel and finding this gigantic bird of prey right in your face?  She also included some info about it being picked up in the morning.  Miguel found a good safe place for the cart under the stairs where it'd be protected from the storm and out of the way of critters.

I checked on the bird the next morning and he was doing fine.  The rescue chick picked him up at 0900.  Turns out she's related to one of the gals in the marina office.  Small world.  Actually, out here in the sticks, probably everybody is related in one way or another.

So, this isn't the first time Cheri has been involved with big birds and strange animals.  She has a way with critters and they really respond to her.  She's turned Bella into a circus dog.  Down in Mexico she inched her way up to a Pelican on the beach and got within about 6" of it before it decided she was a nuisance.  Throughout her life she's had all sorts of unusual pets, including a 6' Boa that got away from her when she was living in an apartment building and didn't show up for six months.  During that time there were numerous reports of missing pets and small children.  She's also had horses, Mynah Birds, Hermit Crabs and Koi as well as cats and dogs.  Probably a lot more that I just can't remember right now.

I guess I might as well get used to this.

The Endless Project List

Our boat, an Island Packet 420, has some beautiful exterior teak trim.  On the side of the cabin, over the top of the ports, is a thin half-round strip called the "eyebrow" which runs on both sides all the way back to the cockpit.  There's more to be found in the cockpit across the top of the coaming.  Just in case you don't already know, the coaming is the raised wall around the cockpit that forms the back for the seats.  It's real purpose is to keep water out of the cockpit but it also serves as an equipment platform (for winches), additional seating (for wenches), and a convenient, but hazardous, place to set your tools (for wrenches).  The coaming on our boat is topped with a piece of teak about 1" thick, 4.5" wide and full length on either side of the cockpit.  The majority of the exterior teak is in the toe-rail at the outer edge of the deck.  This runs from the bowsprit (also teak) down both sides and across the stern.  The toe-rail serves to keep things, such as tools and crew members, from sliding off the side of the boat.  Ours also serves as a mounting surface for cleats and safety rails, as well as sealing the joint between the deck and the hull.

When we bought the boat the teak had just been refinished and looked really nice.  Until now I've never had a boat that had teak with a varnish-like finish on it.  My parents had a Dickerson ketch that had loads of teak but it was kept unfinished and we just scrubbed it all the time.  In fact, back then we used a teak cleaner that was like Ajax or Comet cleanser and you just sprinkled some on and scrubbed it with a handbrush.  Probably not considered environmentally friendly these days.  Our last boat had some teak but it too was unprotected and we thought it looked just fine in it's weathered state.  A good protective finish for exterior teak will have at least 6 coats.  Our neighbors have 15 coats on their teak.  It looks like ours had two, maybe three coats, just enough to make it look nice.  Over this past winter it completely deteriorated and by the Spring it was looking really shabby with blotches of gray and black stains.  Now our beautiful boat looked ratty and neglected.

While we were on vacation last month I finally decided to do something about the teak.  That's right, this is how I spent my vacation.  I can only sit around and relax for so long before I get bored and then I have to find something to do.  Restoring the teak seemed like an excellent little project to take on.  Got hold of some really cool stuff called Captain John's Boat Brite Soy Stripper.  Put on a heavy coat of this stuff with a brush, let it sit for a few minutes and scape it off with a paint scraper.  The finish lifts right off the wood with very little effort.  Pretty amazing stuff.  You want to work only on what you can do in about 45 minutes because the stripper will start to dry out after that and it makes things really difficult.  I figured this one out the hard way, coated about 40' of toe rail and went back and started to scrape it off.  I got through about 25' before it began to harden.  After that I worked on sections, maybe 15' at a time, and that worked out much better.

So, I got one side and about half the bowsprit stripped and then the weather got really hot and muggy and stayed like that for the rest of our vacation.  I went back to work and another week flew by before I got back to it.  Even then I only got sections of teak stripped between doing more important stuff like laundry and grocery shopping and going out for day-sails.

Now, three weeks have gone by and I finally got all the finish stripped off the toe-rail.  I then went over it with a two stage cleaner to get the gray and black stains out.  I used a medium bristle hand brush like you might use for scrubbing grout between tiles.  Using the Stage 1 cleaner with just a light scrubbing lifted the stains and the teak looked like new wood again.  Cool!  I tried the second stage cleaner and couldn't see any difference so I just skipped that part.  Once I had all the teak cleaned I went back over it again, rinsing it off every ten feet or so as I cleaned it.  The wood looked really nice at this point but I had to stop progress because it was Sunday night and I had to go back to work.

By the time I got back to it another week had gone by.  Yikes!  The wood was already turning gray again!  Cheri and I talked it over and decided we didn't want to go through the struggle of putting on 15 coats of finish and then maintaining that.  We both like the look of the varnished wood with multiple coats of clear but neither of us can picture keeping it up once we sail off into the sunset.  Instead we decided to go the traditional route and try oiling the teak.  It looks really sweet when it's all cleaned up and with teak oil, if you let it go the wood will turn a nice even gray.  This is opposed to the hard finish that wears off in spots and looks awful if you don't stay on top of it.  So we decided to try the oil for a few years and see if that works for us.

First I spent another day cleaning it (again) and in the process found some more spots that needed stripping.  Now this stuff looks really good.  We then put on two coats of oil and the color and grain came right out, looking really nice.  The color is kind of a golden, reddish, browney, orange and has a rich, antiquey look to it.  Now all we have to do is maintain it.  That means a light coat of oil now and then, less than an hour's worth of work.  Probably have to clean and brighten it again in the Spring but that still seems better than having to sand and brush on a hard finish.  We'll see how it goes.

We set up a maintenance cycle on our computer using the calendar program.  We scheduled stuff like cleaning air and water filters as well as oiling the teak.  Things that are done periodically.  One of the air filters needs cleaning every week.  Up until now we've waited until the A/C system freezes up before we realize it's time to clean the air filters.  There are also traps in the raw water lines for the engine, deck wash-down pump, A/C water pump, and the shower sumps.  These get pretty grotty over time too.  So, now with our cool-man scheduling program I'll be able to stay on top of this stuff, take better care of our gear and keep the teak looking sweet for many years to come.

I've been working on a "preventer" for the mainsail and the staysail.  A preventer is a line that attaches to the end of the boom and pulls the boom forward to keep tension on it.  When you're sailing with the wind coming from behind the boat the boom is out to one side, usually the downwind side.  In light winds the rocking of the boat can cause the boom to swing around and if the wind gets in behind it you have a situation called an unintentional gybe where the boom swings from one side of the boat to the other.  This is super dangerous and people have been seriously injured, clonked on the head, even knocked overboard.  You can also have an intentional gybe where you control the motion of the boom by pulling it in to centerline with the sheet and then letting it out the other side.  What I'm doing is using a line to "prevent" the boom from swinging unintentionally.  The line is attached to the end of the boom and leads forward to a block (pulley) halfway down the side of the boat (midships) and then back to a winch in the cockpit.  I can control the tension on the boom from where I sit and make adjustments between the main sheet and the preventer.  Simple, huh?

Have you priced gold recently?  This past weekend it was $1500 an ounce!  We traded in some necklaces and broken jewelry that had been sitting around collecting dust and walked away with a check for $3000.  Yowsa!  This'll cover a good portion of the cost for new electronics on the boat.  Unbelievable!  Sure wish I'd stashed away a few Krugerrands back when I was a yout.  We coulda paid off the boat.

Quick note: anodes are used on a boat to deal with electrolysis.  This happens when you place different types of metal in water.  With our boat we have stainless steel in the propeller shaft, bronze in the prop and brass or bronze in all the through-hull fittings.  This difference in metals sets up a "battery" condition and electric current flows from one piece to another.  The piece that the current flows from is eaten away and this can get expensive when it's your propeller or create other problems if it's your through-hulls.  Zinc anodes are bolted to the propeller shaft and are eaten away ,"sacrificed", first before damage occurs to any other parts.  Anodes need to be replaced about every year.

This past Spring we had planned to have the boat hauled to clean the bottom and replace the anodes. We had originally planned to have it done while Cheri was out of town on business but because of one thing or another it never happened.  Now here we are coming up on August and I'm planning again to have the boat hauled for a week while Cheri is down visiting her Mom in Florida.  Good plan.  Yesterday I came home from work and saw a young lady in a bikini doing calisthenics on the dock near our boat.  As I got closer I realized she was wiggling into a wetsuit.   She's a scuba diver and she was getting ready to clean the bottom of the boat next to ours.  I talked to her and found out she'd be able to do our boat this week for $175 plus the cost of the anodes.  Cool!  Let's do it!  This is compared to $585 plus storage to have the yard haul the boat, powerwash it and block it so I could scrape of the barnacles, repaint and replace the anodes.  Yeah, this diver is definitely the way to go.  Plus we won't have to deal with living on the boat while it's up on the hard for a week.

We've gotten some stuff done around the boat and still managed to get out on the water now and then.  Getting the teak done was a big deal, not the small job I first thought.  Getting the bottom cleaned is also a big deal.  And do you mind if I bring up the jewelry thing again?  Yes, big deal.  This Fall we'll take that cash and invest it in a chartplotter, radar, GPS, AIS and sonar.  That'll keep me busy for a while!