The Other Side

This past weekend (9-31-11 through 10-3-11) we finally took some time for ourselves and had a relaxing weekend.  We started out on Friday by going to the Annapolis Boat Show.  Jack and Sharon Malatich had been the brokers out of Gratitude Yachts when we bought our boat two years ago.  We had such a good time with them and they treated us so well that we've kept in touch ever since.  I sent them a note last Thursday saying we planned to go to the boat show and hoped we might run into them.  They wrote back with a couple of comped tickets and asked us to stop by the Southerly 44 they were working on.  When we left Friday morning we stopped by the bakery and picked up a buncha goodies because we knew they wouldn't have much time for getting anything to eat.  Once we got to the show we hunted them down right away, found them to be totally swamped so we only stayed for a few minutes and dropped off the goods.  We'll try to connect with them later in the season when things have slowed down for them.

Last year at the boat show we had a list of things we wanted to see, mostly stuff we wanted to add to the boat such as life raft, water maker, electronics, etc, etc, etc.  This year was different for us.  We've pretty much made up our minds about the gear we wanna get so we spent all our time looking at cool-man boats and eating good food.  The good food was at Pusser's Grill where Cheri had a crab cake and I gorged on a turkey wrap.  Mmm mmmm good.

We've been living aboard La Vida Dulce for over a year now and have become pretty well acquainted with her.  Despite all the good things about an Island Packet there are some design compromises.  With the aft cockpit, usable interior space is a major issue for us.  Cheri has been saying for a while now that she needs a bigger boat.  She's a gal with many interests and two of them in particular, sewing/quilting and gourmet cooking, have been severely restricted by living aboard the boat.  She also works at home which requires office space of some sort.  My interests, building hot rods and Japanese gardens, are also on hiatus due to a lack of space.  Duh.  On our Island Packet 420 the only "extra" space is a guest cabin that's tucked under the cockpit and is limited in headroom so it doesn't serve very well for much other than sleeping and storage.  The galley is "U" shaped and small with limited cabinet space and storage.  Cheri has had her eye on an Island Packet 485 which is 52' total length, has a nice galley and a third cabin set up as an office.  The 485 is a center cockpit layout, which provides more space down below but in my opinion is kinda tubby looking and is difficult for an old geezer like me to get from the deck into the cockpit.

At the show we looked at boats in the 50' range.  Needless to say we could never afford one but they sure were fun to browse through.  Of course, this was a very bad idea.  In the end I decided we really needed a Hylas 49.  Man-oh-man, what a sweet boat.  This one has everything we're looking for, answers all the things that have been bugging Cheri about our 420.  The galley is a major issue, as I've mentioned before.  The Hylas has what's called an in-line galley running fore and aft.  It has a 7.5' isleway with counters and cabinets on either side.  The fridge/freezer is both top and front loading.  The stove has a flip-up splash guard that doubles as more counter space.  There are slits cut into the countertop that hold the knives.  There are handholds built into the side of the cabin over top of the counter, just at the right level, so you have something to hold onto when the boat is dancing around.  In the main salon the table has a removable leaf and plenty of seating.  There's a nice cabin forward for guests with a second guest cabin just aft of that, both sharing a head/shower on the starboard side.  We think the smaller cabin with the single berths would be the perfect place for a shop/office.  The aft cabin is large with good access to three sides of the center-line bunk, 6.5' headroom and lots of storage and hanging space.  Access to the cockpit is easier than the 485.  Plus it's a cutter rig which is important to us.  Nice boat.  Right now it's a pipe-dream but ya never know what tomorrow may bring.  Of course, the Hylas still wouldn't have room to build hot rods or Japanese gardens.

On Saturday we finally broke away from our slip and went across the Bay to visit other worlds.  Note that I didn't mention anything about sailing.  The Bay was as smooth as glass all the way across.  We motored our way to the Choptank River and turned up into Broad Creek (click here for a chart of the area).  Since it was getting close to sunset we drove into the nearest anchorage, Balls Creek.  The entrance here is kinda interesting because it does a little dog-leg around the first coupla markers.  A little further down there are no markers at all and the deep water just kinda peters out.  I figured that one out all by myself.  We're still navigating the old fashioned way, with paper charts, a depth gauge, a compass and the good Lord watching over us (not in that particular order).  I cruised past the final marker real slow.  The chart showed deep water (8') extending a ways beyond so I just drifted on until my gauge suddenly went to 4.5' and we sorta stopped right there.  We hit so softly Cheri didn't even know we were aground.  I backed down hard and got us back into deep water, circled around to verify there was plenty of depth around, and dropped anchor.

For dinner that night we had a great Porterhouse steak, cooked on the grill to perfection, along with some kind of yellow veggie.  After dinner we sat out in the cockpit with a glass of Amoretto and a coupla Davidoff cigars.  This might just be where the expression "Holy Smoke" comes from.  The night was crystal clear with a 3/4 moon lighting up the creek, geese honking and ducks quacking in the distance and a big old Blue Heron making his own bizarre sound (there's just no good description).  It was perfection, I'm telling ya.

We slept in late, around 0930, and had blueberry pancakes for breakfast with a cup of cappuccino from our new cool-man coffee maker.  A little after noon we packed up and motored up to the far end of Broad Creek and turned into San Domingo Creek.  This is the back-door entrance to the town of St. Michaels.  We went in as close as we could and anchored in about 8' of water, along with five other boats.  At 45' LOA we were the smallest boat there.  One of them was a big custom built trawler, about 70'.  There were a few other sailboats and a big stinkin' power boat.  We recognized this one right away as being from I dock back at Herrington Harbour North.  It's named "Got Girls" and is about 60' LOA (length over-all) with a black hull and super swoopy contemporary lines.  We anchored way over on the other side of the creek.

Once we got settled in we decided to take Bella ashore for a chance to run around.  She hadn't been off the boat in a few days and she gets pretty wiggy after a while.  We all piled into our 10', 6 hp RIB (rubber inflatable boat) and were just getting underway when this 18' RIB came flying up beside us.  It was Phylyp from "Got Girls" with a friendly greeting and a request for us to join them later on.  This so-called dinghy of his was pretty cool with cushioned seats and a console with a wheel for driving instead of hanging onto the arm of the outboard.  I asked him what kind of power this thing had and he modestly replied "100hp, inboard/outboard, top speed of about 40 knots".  Yikes!  Not your average dinghy.

We took Bella into St. Michaels and let her run around the park for a while before heading back to the boat.  We dropped her off and mixed up a batch of Sour Apple Martini's before heading over to "Got Girls".  This is a pretty awesome boat, high tech everything, luxury at it's finest.  The salon has a round table with several track-mounted quarter-round seats.  The seats can be positioned anywhere around the table to give the best views.  Sweet!  There's a full barbecue and galley on the upper deck and another full galley below.  There are five flat screen TV's and a 1000 watt stereo system.  The walk-in engine room has twin 800hp diesel engines and a 21kw diesel generator.  This is one of those boats you read about in those large format coffee table books about the rich and famous.  Easily a gazillion dollar boat. Despite (or maybe because of?) the ostentatious, in-your-face display of wealth, we had a nice time and enjoyed getting to know Phylyp and JoAnne.  Phyl even called his buddy Chad, the owner of the Big Pickle Foodbar in St. Michaels and ensured us a table for dinner later that evening.

After the "Got Girls" experience we drove our puny, incredibly slow dinghy into the town dock and walked a few blocks down to the restaurant.  The atmosphere is pretty laid back but the food was truly excellent, probably the best crabcake I've had anywhere.  After dinner we wandered around town window shopping before heading back to the boat.

The next morning, after a late breakfast we spent a few more hours checking out the shops in St. Michaels before it was time to head back across the Bay.  We managed to get the sails up for a few hours on the Choptank before the wind died down to nothing and we motored back to our slip, getting in just as the sun set behind the trees.

This was such a nice weekend!  We were so relaxed we both felt like Jello.  Only coulda been better if we had some more wind.  You know, to actually sail that sailboat.  Still, we had a great time.  Broad Creek has a number of good anchorages to explore and it's a straight shot across the Bay for us.  St. Michaels is a fun place to hang out with lotsa nice shops and places to eat.  We'll be going back that way, fer sure. 

Remodeling Plans

We've been living aboard for about a year now and have gotten to know the boat and our needs pretty well.  Looking around we can see places where changes could be made that would add storage or convenience for our particular situation.  I enjoy doing this kind of work, it saves money doing it yourself, but the reality is that I don't have a woodshop or the tools to do cabinetry.  I used to but I gave that all up when we moved on board.  So the next best thing is to hire out the work and hope that we can afford to pay someone else to do it for us.  We've been kicking this around for a while now and had actually talked to a woodworker person last winter but that didn't pan out.  Recently we were taking to a friend of ours and he mentioned that his custom home remodeling business was struggling in this economy.  Lightbulb!  We have work that needs to be done, he needs work and he does beautiful stuff too.  Perfect.  Hey Anthony, take a look at this idea of ours and see what you think.  The only real drawback to the whole thing is that he lives almost an hour away but we're not in any hurry on this stuff, got about three years to get it done.  We're pretty flexible and he could work on it when it's convenient for him.

One of these projects is in the forward head.  Behind the toilet is a shelf that wraps around between the sink and the wall for the shower.  There's a large open space underneath here that could be divided up and used for storing extra towels or TP or almost anything.  It just seems like a good spot for another shelf.  Of course it would need to be removable for servicing the toilet but that's just a matter of design.

Another spot is in the forward stateroom where we have the home theater stuff (check it out) sitting on top of the hanging locker.  The top has a fiddle, about a 2" lip around it to keep things from sliding off but the whole pile of stuff just looks unfinished.  We have a DVD player, hard drive and controller as well as a power strip and a bundle of wires.  I had pictured building a cabinet on top of the hanging locker that would hold all this stuff.  Anthony had a better idea.  He suggested recessing the top of the hanging locker so all the gear would sit down inside with just the DVD player showing.  He'll also route out a piece of teak to hide the wires going to the flat screen on the bulkhead.  Muy beuno!

This next one is going to be our first project.  Back in the aft head is all the heater and A/C ductwork underneath the cabinet.  I was thinking about making a grill that would cover it up.  He went one further and suggested a teak bullnose with slits cut into it to let the heat out.  The teak will be backed with aluminum to keep the heat from damaging the wood.  The bullnose will have a nice curve to it and match the cabinetry, better than what I had planned.  This dude is good!

The aft stateroom really needs help and is going to be a major project.  The ductwork from the heater comes through the aft bulkhead and runs along under the shelf on the port side.  The area above the shelf is a great spot for some cabinets to give us extra storage.  I had actually seen this done on an Island Packet 320 (this picture is of theirs) and it came out really nice.  Anthony made some suggestions for making it tie in to the existing look and I think what he's got in mind is really gonna look nice.  Kinda difficult to explain here but I'll post a picture or something as soon as possible.  This is definitely gonna be a nice addition to the boat and have a factory look to it too.

Finally we have the galley.  This is a sticking point for Cheri and it's understandable considering the kitchen she designed for herself in the house on Franwall Avenue.  We're talking gourmet here folks, top of the line everything.  So, she understands the limitations of a galley on the boat but she wants to push the envelope a bit.  I'm all for it because she's an excellent cook and enjoys playing with food.  If she's happy then I'm happy.  So we're looking at a bigger sink, Corian countertops, more cabinets, better layout for the fridge and freezer and probably more counterspace.  I think it's all do-able.  At least, as long as it falls within the 3 year timetable.

Beyond all this we're saving our pennies to buy some electronics for the boat.  We have a plan to get the boat ready for extended cruising when we retire in 2014.  Hmmm, that's about three years from now.  A major part of the plan is to get out away from the Chesapeake Bay and do some offshore sailing with some over-nighters, watch standing, food planning, water conservation - the works.  We want to do the DelMarVa circumnavigation which is about a ten day sail going north on the Bay, out the C+D canal into the Atlantic and re-entering the Bay at the southern end.  We're hoping to do this in May of 2012 which is coming up pretty soon now.  After that we want to take three weeks and sail to Bermuda, one week over, one week there and one week back.  That one is planned for the Spring of 2013.

To do these trips we want to have our electronics up and running.  We've picked out some gear for a pretty good system and based our choices on ease of use, world-wide serviceability and cost.  Originally I was going to mix and match pieces from different companies based on cost but it was pointed out to me that if we had a problem then one manufacturer would end up blaming another manufacturer and we'd just have a headache.  So we're gonna stick with just one manufacturer, Furuno.  A real popular thing right now is having touch screen control but I was concerned about it being difficult to use on a sailboat with things moving around all the time.  You'd end up putting in extra way-points or changing the display by accident.  Furuno seems to have designed their display for real world use and they don't offer touch screen control.  Plus, when you change scale on the screen to zoom in on a spot it's seamless, totally smooth, compared to some other displays we've seen that have to rescale over and over making the display very jerky as it zooms in.  Furuno also has a 3D display mode that is really nice.

So we're planning to get a 12" multi-function-display (MSD) which will be the heart of the system and controls and displays everything.  It provides charts for any region of the world and can display them in multiple formats as well as overlay them with satellite photos.  It can also overlay or split-screen information from the other units.  To this we'll add:

GPS - this will provide us with accurate position info to within 10'.

Radar - this will be mounted half-way up the mast and will provide surface information out to about 30 miles.  I expect it'll mostly be used when approaching land or in areas with a lot of traffic.

AIS - this is an automated ID system that can provide info about who we are and our course and receive the same from other ships.  This gets displayed and provides alarms for intersecting courses.  It'll help let the big guys know we're out there even if they can't see us.

Sonar - right now we're planning to use a fish finder (click here) to provide bottom information when we get into shallow water.  Inexpensive sonar is progressing by leaps and bounds right now so by the time we leave in 3 years we may actually have a system that provides a clear, detailed, 3D display of bottom features.  Cool!

Weather - this provides weather information through a satellite link for a fee.  We will also be able to get weather info through our single sideband radio.

So, it looks like the upcoming year is going to be a busy one.  There's a ton of stuff we want to do and time is becoming a major factor.  Tick, tick, tick.  I think maybe it's time for a priority list.