Monkey Business

Since our weekend in Rock Hall we've made a few changes around here.  I guess the biggest one is that we've decided NOT to sell our boat.  Now, the reason we wanted to sell in the first place was because we had gotten to know this boat pretty well over the past few years and had become aware of a few shortcomings.  We thought a center cockpit with an aft master cabin and an in-line galley would really be what we needed for comfort and, of course, it would have to have all the gear we wanted already installed.  One thing we found was that every boat is a compromise and there really isn't the "perfect boat" out there.  Another little bit of enlightenment was realizing that the market for boats in this price range is really, really dead right now.  La Vida Dulce has been on the market for almost a year now with very little interest.  Our broker says we should give it another six months.  At this point in our lives we just don't have another six months.  We have less than two years to go before we retire and head out to chase our dream.  It's reached a point on our timeline where going deeper in debt to buy another boat just doesn't make sense anymore.  It would push our departure date further off and I don't think we can handle that.  I'm already salivating at the thought of leaving in less than two years.  As the great Johnny Weissmuller (click here) once said "long wait bad".  We want to have both ourselves and the boat ready to go and all our debt paid off.  It's about time that we got back on track.

Once we decided to take her off the market we sat down and made a list of what we wanted to change or improve.  At the top of that list was comfort.  Island Packets are really great boats but if you've ever spent more than fifteen minutes lounging in the salon you'd realize that they aren't built for comfort.  Our salon cushions are in good condition but they are hard as a rock.  When we gave it some thought we realized that we hardly spend any time at all in the salon and always gravitate into the forward stateroom.  What a waste of space!  That's supposed to be the living room on our boat.  We want the cushions to be more couch-like and maybe have the backs recline a few more degrees.  One thing we really liked when we looked at other boats was having one settee divided into two single seats with armrests and a table in between.  We figured we could do that with the port side settee and have the back cushion in the center flip down to make a table.  That way we still have it for a sea berth or an extra bunk when we have 25 people spend the night.  We talked with Cathy Tucker (Catherine's Draperies and Upholstery) and looked at some swatches of material.  Cathy gave us a very nice deal on this project, about half of what it would cost getting replacement cushions through the factory.  They should be done in a few weeks.

Island Packets have tons of storage but most of it is so deep that things tend to get buried.  The port side settee in the salon has three cavernous (24" x 24" x 29") storage areas (lockers) beneath the cushions.  The middle one is taken up with an A/C unit, the vacuum cleaner and a thousand pound bag of dog food.  The front and back ones are used for canned food and dry goods (sugar, flour, etc).  You really need to be organized, which I'm not.  Luckily for me my wife is a Project Manager, the epitome of organization.  She came up with a good solution for storage of canned and dry goods at "The Container Store".  She found these soft, flexible plastic buckets that are just the right size to squeeze four in the bottom of a locker and with the lids on we can get a second level with four more.  The buckets have handles too so they're easy to grab and they're not so big that they'd weigh too much, even with cans.  We numbered each bucket and listed everything that went into them.  We keep a paper copy of that list on top of the buckets so we can find stuff and we have a digital copy on the computer for inventory.  Now that's organized!  Cool!

We have a number of major items on our list that we're looking into.  We'll update here as things move along.  In the meantime....

Last Spring we added a chartplotter at the helm and did a custom installation that included re-shaping the stainless steel hoop sticking up on top of the steering pedestal.  We laid it back 90 degrees and formed a platform for the swivel mount on our display.  This is working out really nice because it keeps the display down low enough to see over when you're sitting at the helm, although it did create a pretty serious problem that I hadn't anticipated.  We now have no place to mount our cup holder.  I know that doesn't sound like a big deal but let me tell ya......when you're heeled over 15 or 20 degrees and crashing through the waves at 8.5 knots you're gonna need a place to set down your Sangria for a few minutes so you can relight your cigar.  It's a problem.  I gave it some thought and came up with a design for a cup holder that mounts around the edge of the display  platform and holds six glasses or coffee cups.  It even has room for a small bowl of peanuts or something.  Anyway, I ordered some creme colored Starboard from West Marine, drew out the parts and cut them out with my handy dandy jig saw, using the dock cart as my workbench.  I routered all the edges using a 3/16" round-over bit to give it a more finished look.  The final piece works out well and can be reached from the helm pretty easily, an important factor.

Last week we had Hurricane Sandy come up the coast and threaten our neck of the woods.  For a while it looked like she was going to come right at us, showing her coming in towards shore a little further south with each update.  The wind speed at the center was 80 to 90 mph which is kinda mild compared to Katrina and some others but that kind of wind can do a lot of damage.  The storm surge was predicted to be huge in areas to the north of us.  I felt that as long as she came on shore north of us we'd be OK.  By 1800 Monday evening she was headed straight in for Dover, Delaware, which woulda brought her through Baltimore and our own back yard.  We  had doubled up our lines and secured things topsides but I figured the wind was going to be coming mostly out of the North which would push the water out of our creek so flooding wouldn't be a real problem.  When Sandy hit the coast she walked north and entered at Atlantic City.  Bad news for New Jersey but it was certainly good news for us.  We stayed on board throughout the storm and never really felt like we were in any danger.  The wind built up to about 45 to 50 mph with gusts going way higher (local news said up to 70 and 80 mph gusts).  The wind that night was out of the NW and our slip faces N so it wasn't right on our nose but even with it hitting us at an angle the motion wasn't too bad.  I think Bella got a little seasick maybe.  The next day the wind came out of the SSW and the water came up in our creek to the bottom of the dock.  We were out of power for three days and had to charge our batteries with the engine once a day.  Our wind generator did really well!  That baby was cranking out some amps Monday night, let me tell ya!

Since last Summer I've noticed that our bow thruster was down on power.  It makes this screeching noise too.  We've had several instances where we weren't able to get the bow around into the wind and I didn't remember it being like that before.  Being down on power is kinda subtle because we're dealing with a 30,000 pound blob sitting in the water and we're trying to rotate it with a six horsepower electric motor.  Not really instantaneous, if you know what I mean.  I found this really helpful pdf (click here) that shows step-by-step how to service the motor.  It took me a coupla months to get around to it but last Saturday I finally did.  I replaced the lube and even modified it by cutting the filler tube and putting in a screw-together connector so it'll be easier to drain next year.  I pulled the motor and carried it out to the dock where I blew it out using a can of compressed air.  There was quite a bit of carbon dust built up in there!  Once I had the motor blown out I removed each of the four brushes and inspected them for damage.  They all looked good, had plenty of life left in them and the springs all had about equal pressure.  So far, so good.  Next I carefully filed out the buildup inside the brush holder to ensure the brushes had free movement.  I blew out the whole thing again and reassembled it.  With Cheri at the helm while I watched for arcing and sparking, we fired up the engine and ran the bow thruster controls back and forth in short 5 or 10 second bursts.  Big difference!  That baby was thrusting our bow all over the place!  And no screeching either!  Woohooo!  Total success!

This update is taking me weeks to get out.  I now need to update the update.  Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.  We have a four day weekend so we're planning to anchor out, either on the Wye (our favoritest haunt now) or maybe down on the Little Choptank.   We're planning a non-traditional dinner for Thursday with a pork roast, macaroni and cheese and sweet potatoes.  Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm.  Last year we went nuts with a more traditional meal and it required spending all day in the galley.  By the time we were done with the clean-up we didn't even have time for cigars!  This year will be different, fer sure.

While we're at anchor I have a new project to keep me out of trouble.  I'm installing all new instruments at the helm and also below at the Nav Station.  They'll get their power and talk back and forth with each other over a single cable system called NMEA 2000 and it all ties in with the MFD (multi-function-display) at the helm.  This weekend I'll be installing the backbone cable for that so when my instruments come in next week all I hafta do is plug them in.  The real beauty of this system is that you can easily add or change out instruments with screw-together connections and one power connection feeds it all.  Plus you can monitor tank levels (fuel, water and holding tanks) and get detailed information about the engine and genset.  Everything will display and be controlled from the MFD as well as on smaller programmable displays at the helm and Nav Station.   This is gonna be soooooo sweet!  To think that less than a year ago we used simple analog displays for speed, wind and depth and relied completely on paper charts.  We used to get stuck in the mud at least twice a year.  Now using sonar we'll be able to see the bottom of the Bay as we grind into that mud.  We'll be able to analyze our environment as we sit there in the mud.  We'll be able to watch digital read-outs as the engine sucks up mud and overheats.  No more surprises!  It'll all be instantly updated and displayed in 256 color high resolution!  What a wonderful world we live in!

A Bit of a Breeze

Chart for Bay area outside Rock Hall

Last weekend (10-12-12) we sailed up to Rock Hall, Md. to attend a festival of some sort.  Beer, food and music for the most part.  We departed Herrington Harbour North around 1100 on Friday morning with clear skies and 18 to 20 knot winds out of the NW.  Running close hauled we were aiming for a straight shot up the Bay and through the Bay Bridge but we were fighting the wind the whole way, pointing up every time the wind veered a little to the west.  As we got into the cluster of large ships anchored outside of Annapolis the wind got funky on us, dropped to 10 knots and clocked around the compass.  We were unable to clear the bow of an anchored tanker so we fell off, steered downwind, and went around the back side of her.  When we came out of the tanker's shadow on the other side the wind blasted us at 35 knots out of the N.  We were under full main and full genoa and it didn't take long to decide to reduce sail, furling the genoa to about 60%.  Approaching the southern span of the Bay Bridge we had to tack several times to get between the #28 - 29 pylons (clearance 119', Bridge clearance info) and once again the wind got squirrelly on us.  I guess the bridge creates a barrier to the wind even though it looks like it's full of holes.

After we cleared the Bay Bridge we were immediately slammed with a constant 40 knot wind out of the north, gusting to over 45 knots.  We rolled up the rest of the genoa, reduced the main to about 60% and brought out the staysail at 100%.  This gave us a nicely balanced helm and the boat was only heeled over about 15 to 20 degrees.  We were able to make about 8 knots (SOG, speed over ground) but about every 7 or 8 waves we'd get hit by two big ones in a row and our forward momentum would get knocked back to about 3 knots.  Some of the waves were so big we'd take green water over the bow and we'd have rivers of water running around the cockpit coaming and pouring off the leeward side.  With the wind and the waves coming out of the north we were on a course of about 050 but we were also getting pushed towards the shoreline of Kent Island.  Check out this video we shot (click here).  In an effort to get closer up into the wind I adjusted the main to flatten it out a bit.  I leaned out over the leeward rail to get a better view of the sail and saw my knife (anniversary gift, coolest knife ever) fall from my belt and bounce into the Bay.  At the same time I saw our boat hook float by.  Sheesh (or words to that effect).  Every time we got hit with a big wave we'd lose ground and it eventually became clear that we weren't going to clear Love Point.  If we came about we'd probably stall out and I didn't want to take any chances of being driven closer to shore so we started up the engine and drove further out towards the middle of the Bay on course 020, just enough off the waves to prevent being pounded too badly.

Once we got out to the middle I felt like we had enough room to safely clear the shallows off Love Point.  We killed the engine and resumed our course of 050.  About half way in to Rock Hall we heard a loud crash from down below.  Cheri went down and found that my French coffee press had taken flight and exploded against the cabinets.  Glass was everywhere.  Looking around she also found that our large container (2 gallons) of water had been punctured and had drained itself onto the aft bunk.  Nice mess. I really thought we had done a better job of securing things before we left.  The wild ride continued as we rounded GC #3 outside of Rock Hall.  We secured the sails and ran in the rest of the way under power.  The wind didn't begin to let up until we were inside the entrance to Swan Creek and even then it was still blowing 30 - 35 knots.  We came into Osprey Point Marina and had a terrible time pointing up into the wind to get into a slip.  The Dockmaster was yelling "This slip here.  Oh.  How 'bout that one? Oh.  Maybe that one.  Oh.  Take anything you can get into except that one there."  We ended up backing into the wind and with the help of about 5 or 6 folks on the dock we got into a slip.  We were totally exhausted at this point.

So, perhaps you're wondering why we continued to run under sail instead of using the engine.  There are several good reasons.  First of all, under sail the boat is pressed into the water by the force of the wind and the sails and the weight of the keel hold it steady making the ride much more stable.  Without the sails up she'll bob all over the place and that makes for a very uncomfortable ride.  Second, we probably sail faster than the engine could take us in those conditions.  After passing under the bridge we followed a large catamaran that was headed in the same direction.  Before long the skipper decided he'd had enough and secured his sails and ran under power.  That cat was all over the place, having a very rough ride, and we blew past it with just the power of the wind.  'Nuff said on that.  Third, fuel consumption was an issue for us.  We were under a quarter tank when we left Herrington that morning and I wasn't sure how long it would last.  I didn't want to run the engine for hours and not have enough fuel to get into the marina.  Of course, a quarter tank on our boat is 40 gallons and that would probably last for 3 months or more.  It's the same fuel we had in there last March for Pete's sake.  But it's always better to err on the safe side and sailing is way better than running under power anyway.

That's Using Your Head (Old Post 6-21-12)

We shut down the blog for a while, about six months, but we're back in it knee deep once again.  The reason for shutting down was that we had an offer on our boat.  It was down to the wire, almost a done deal, and then the buyers discovered this blog.  We had a wish list showing all the things we wanted to do on the boat over the next few years to get it ready for our retirement.  The buyers felt that we should complete the list and include things like a gen set and auto pilot, at our expense, to close the deal.  We did offer to go halves with them on an auto pilot but they wanted us to pay for it all so we told them to pack sand.  Pulling the plug on the sale was so hard to do because we knew it could be a long time before we got another offer.  We just felt that we had been pushed too far and the deal wasn't equitable.  We don't have to sell the boat and we're not desperate.  Most of all, we don't want to feel like we were pressured to sell and then walk away from it feeling like we got screwed.  I'll tell ya, these are not good times to be selling a boat.

Just a week before all that went down we had MTS install our radar on the mast.  We also began replacing the running rigging, starting with the out-haul on the main.  Since then we've replaced everything except the halyards and they are definitely next on the list.

When I installed the new furling line for the in-mast roller furling part of the task was to drop the main to free up the spool so the line could be wound on.  As I was removing the halyard I noticed it was showing some pretty serious wear at the eye splice.  Gotta get that one replaced before she lets go.  It'd be such a bummer to be out in high winds and lose the halyard.  The main would drop but even worse, the halyard would pull itself up inside the mast.  Once that happens it becomes a major pain in the butt to get it re-strung.  Best to replace it before anything forces the issue.  The halyard runs from the top of the mainsail to the top of the mast, over a sheave (pulley) and then back down through the mast for most of it's length before exiting through a slot just above the winch.  This keeps the lines from slapping against the mast when the wind blows.  If you've ever been in a marina during high winds you know what a racket this makes.  Sounds like 100 winds chimes only not as pleasant.  I've never done it but I've been told the best way to replace the halyard is to sew the ends of the new and old lines together with sail mending thread and then pull the new line through as you remove the old one.  Doesn't sound too tough.  I'll report on how that goes soon.  Real soon.

We've had an offer in on a Trintella 47 since February but we need to sell our boat before we can move ahead with another one.  In the mean time Cheri fell in love with a Tayana 48.  Nice boat.  If it's still around when we finally sell ours it may be the "one".  Time will tell.  One thing about the Tayana that caught our eye was the exterior teak had twenty coats of varnish and it looked spectacular, like it was encased in glass.  This is not something I would strive for myself since I try to minimize the amount of labor needed to keep up a boat but Cheri really liked it and decided our cockpit coaming would look really nice like that.  Last Fall she took it down to bare wood and added five coats of Cetol so the coaming was looking really nice already.  She wanted to add that extra touch of pizazz so she added two more coats of clear to that.  Before it had a chance to harden Bella got up on deck and ran across it leaving cute little doggy prints across the surface.  Then we went sailing and the jib sheets dragged across the coaming and really tore it up.  Now she's taking it all back to bare wood and starting all over.  This is a lot of work so we had better make sure it's completely cured before going near it again.

While she worked on the coaming this weekend I spent my time rebuilding the valves for our two heads.  This is a fun job but I won't go into detail about how disgusting it is.  Use your imagination.  After rebuilding the forward head I went through the aft head and had that one done in about half the time.  Practice makes perfect I guess.  When we first bought the boat we had the yard at Gratitude replace all the waste hoses in an effort to rid the boat of ever-present odors.  Of course that turned out to be a bad holding tank but that's another story and it's been beaten to death.  When the new hoses were installed Cheri declared that the aft head would not be used because the length of the hose to the holding tank would cause it to go bad, become permeated and it would start stinking again.  So, we haven't been using the aft head at all for the last two and a half years.  I took the time to rebuild it since the boat is for sale and we wanted everything to be in good condition.  When I took the valve body apart I found what looked to be a brand new system that was pristine inside.  I rebuilt the valve anyway since I had it all apart.  When I was done I ran water through it to make sure everything was working properly.  It wasn't.  The flange on the outgoing side, where the joker valve is, was leaking.  I tried tightening it but that didn't help.  I took it apart and under close inspection discovered that the flange was cracked.  It looks like the new hoses that were installed were too long and caused a bad angle at the flange.  Instead of shortening the hose to get a better angle the installer just put his weight on it and forced the flange to mate up.  Too much pressure cause the flange to fail.  So, now we have a new flange on order and when it comes in I'll shorten that hose by about an inch before I put it on.  The repairs on this boat are never-ending.

Once I finished rebuilding the heads I went topside and scrubbed down the teak toe rail and eyebrow trim.  I used step one of a two step process to clean the teak but when I rinsed it off I found the teak still looked dark and had these black streaks in it.  Besides that, the grain was raised quite a bit from scrubbing and looked pretty rough.  Grrrr.  Nothing is ever easy.  I ended up taking a green pad ( actually a purple one) and scrubbed the teak using that instead of a brush.  I could have gone over it with sandpaper but I'm concerned about taking off more of the wood than I have to.  Using the pad I was able to knock the top off the grain and clean it up without taking off more wood than necessary.  When I put the first coat of oil on it looked really nice.

We've been out for a few nice weekends over the last few months.  We stayed three days on the Wye in the beginning of May and then had two days on the Choptank River in Baby Owls Cove off of Broad Creek.  I think I still prefer the Wye River over anywhere else on the Bay.  You can find a place to anchor that's secluded and chances are that you'll have it all to your own.  I like that.  When we anchored at Baby Owls Cove there was a raft-up of 10 Beneteau's as well as three or four other boats besides ourselves.  That's a lot of boats crammed into one small cove.  I go out to get away from it all, not to get back in the middle of it.

One Thing or Another (Old Post 5-13-12)

Because of the timing with a potential sale of our boat we throttled back on our plans for vacation.  This was a big one for us and we had been preparing for a two week trip around the DelMarVa Peninsula.  We decided we weren't in a good position to take this on right now so we took a week off (May 4th to the 13th) and made plans for staying on the Wye and Miles Rivers.

The original plan was to take off Saturday morning and stay out until the following weekend.  We'd spend some time on the Wye River and then move down to several of the creeks on the Miles, across from St. Michaels.  If time permitted we would also head up to the Chester River.  As it turned out, time didn't permit.

We goofed around on Friday and had to delay leaving until Sunday so we'd have time to take care of some essential things.  Sunday rolled around and Cheri woke up feeling terrible so we decided to take her into her doctor's office Monday morning.  By the time we were ready to go it was 1030.

We headed out the channel from Herrington North and before we got to the breakwater we got a "raw water" alarm.  Yikes!  The channel here is narrow with very shallow water on either side and I felt there wasn't enough room to turn to head back to our slip.  I decided to head out past the breakwater and then make our turn.  All along the alarm is making this shrill "beeeeeep beeeeeep".  Gets your attention but it sure is hard to concentrate with that going on.  I had Cheri check the bilge to make sure we weren't sinking (we weren't).

Once we got out past the breakwater we got a "high temperature" alarm for the engine.  We shut the engine down right away and proceeded to drift towards shore and the breakwater.  Great.  The wind was blowing a steady 20 to 25 knots out of the SE.  I put up the Main to get us back out to the channel.  Cheri suggested we drop anchor.  In the end we went with her idea.  We radioed for a tow but got no response.  Pulled out our card for TowBoat US and called on our cell phone.  The guy answered and said he was out grocery shopping with his wife but could be there in about 45 minutes.  OK, that's not too bad.  Our anchor was holding against the wind and waves.  I couldn't really do much until we got back to our slip anyway.  It was a little unnerving seeing the stone breakwater just a few hundred yards off our stern though and I kept checking our location to make sure we weren't losing ground.

Two hours later the little red tow boat finally came out and tied up on our port side aft.  In short order he had us back at I dock.  He got us up against the pilings at the end of our slip but the wind was blowing so hard against us that we had to manhandle ourselves back in with help from friends on the dock.  After we got some lines tied down we signed the paperwork and thanked Captain Mike.

OK, so now what do we do?  Raw water is the cooling water for the engine.  We definitely lost that because we also got the "high temp" alarm.  There was no water running into the bilge though so it wasn't a blown hose or anything like that.  We simply lost circulation through the engine.  The first thing I checked was the impeller.  I had just replaced it less than 100 hours ago but who knows?  After securing the intake valve and removing a hose for better access I pulled off the cover plate and wedged out the impeller.  Except for the damage I did getting it out the impeller was in perfect condition.  That's good but it doesn't explain what the problem was.  I had some spares up in our storage shed and wasn't really sure what to do next so I walked over to Zimmerman Marine (used to be Conlyn) and talked to Brian, the dude who helped me when I replaced the heat exchanger.  I showed him the impeller and he agreed it looked good.  He said before I put the new one on I should bump over the engine a few times and watch the impeller shaft to make sure it turned.  He also said the problem could be a stuck thermostat but it wasn't very likely, that just didn't happen very often.  He felt we had probably sucked up a plastic bag against the screen on the intake, blocking water flow and giving us the "raw water" and "high temp" alarms.  He said when we shut off the engine the bag would have fallen away and we would have been OK.

I went back to the boat, bumped over the engine a few times and that looked OK.  I installed a new impeller, put the cover on and got the hose back in place.  I could have pulled the thermostat at this point and put it in a pot of water on the stove to verify that it worked but instead I fired up the engine and let it run for 15 minutes to see what happened.  Water was coming out the exhaust and everything looked normal so I put it in gear and revved it up to 2,000 RPM's and let it run in the slip for 45 minutes.  No problems and I felt pretty certain at this point that the plastic bag theory was what the problem was.  By now it was 5PM, too late to head across the Bay so we decided to wait until the next day.

Tuesday.  We headed out at 1030 with strong winds, 20 to 30 knots, out of the SSW.  We sailed with 75% Main and full Staysail on a broad reach.  We averaged 7.5 knots and entered Eastern Bay after only two hours underway.  We had been running with the waves hitting us on the starboard aft quarter and rolling under us.  Every few minutes there would be a set of big steep waves that we'd have to turn into to prevent getting laid too far over on our side.

Once inside Eastern Bay the wind died down a bit and we continued on at 6 to 7 knots.  After rounding the mark into the Miles River we furled the sails and ran under power the rest of the way into the Wye River.  Using our chartplotter for the first time we continued up the winding Wye at 6.3 knots without the stress we felt the last time we had come out here.  Without the GPS and digital charts the navigation requires concentration and we still managed to run aground twice last Fall.  This time around the drive up the river was very enjoyable, totally stress free.

We arrived at our destination, Ward's Cove, just upstream from Pickering Creek on the Wye East River.  At 6.3 knots it took us an hour to get there, just to give you an indication of how far back we were.  This spot is secluded, no homes, no fishermen and no other boats.  We had the whole place to ourselves for the entire time we were there.  We pulled into the cove and, using the chartplotter, drove way back towards the back and circled around once to verify that we had plenty of water under us.  The wind was still howling at 30 knots and back here it was coming off the shore closest to us.  It took us several attempts to get the anchor to bite and when it finally did we backed down hard in reverse to set it, our usual procedure.  While backing down the painter for the dinghy got sucked into the prop wash and wrapped around the prop.  Cheri immediately shut down the engine.  She jumped down onto the dinghy and gave the line a pull and it came free from the prop.  Whew!

With that out of the way we got settled in down below.  The weather report was calling for some cool nights so I thought this would be a good time to service our diesel heater.  I had put off replacing the glow plug and diffuser screen because I wanted to see how many hours we could get out of it before it just wouldn't run any more.  The manual says to service it every season.  Our first year we put on about 2500 hours and it was still running strong.  This past Winter we put on another 1000 hours before it finally quit in mid March.  I crawled down into the port side cockpit locker and got to work on the heater.  After about an hour Cheri came out and said she thought we might have dragged the anchor.  I poked my head up and looking around could not figure out where we were.  After a few minutes I realized we had dragged all the way across the cove and across the river to the opposite shore.  We were gently nestled against the bank, in the trees, and the wind was still howling at 30 knots, holding us in place.  I hadn't felt a thing.  I went up on deck and pulled in the anchor while Cheri got the engine started and we motored back over to the other shore.  Back in our original spot I decided to use the other anchor, our trusty Bruce on 300 feet of 5/8" chain.  I let out 60 feet of chain and when we backed down this time the anchor dug in firmly.  We held that spot for the next three days.

The next day, Wednesday, it rained for most of the day so we just sat out in the cockpit and read our books and relaxed.  Around 1800 the rain let up and we jumped in the dinghy and rowed around for a while.  Cheri tried some fishing but the only thing she caught was a tree branch.  It was still connected to the tree.

Thursday was a beautiful day with clear skies but the wind was blowing a constant 20 knots.  Cheri wanted to get out in the dinghy to go fishing but I declared small craft warnings for the day.  Another kick-back day, relaxed, reading, movies, munchies.  I can do this, should do this, more often.

Friday we pulled anchor early and headed home.  Winds were light and variable and after several hours of frustration we fired up the engine and ran home.  This turned out to be a nice short break.  It was kinda over-shadowed with all the problems we had but we dealt with them all just fine and didn't let them ruin the fun.  In the end we came out on top with smiles on our faces and joy in our hearts.  And bruises on half our bodies and these awful little cuts on the hands that'll just drive you crazy.

Buyers Market (Old Post 4-13-12)

This past Friday (4-13-12) we drove into Annapolis and dropped off some of our worn running rigging at the West Marine store on Hillsmere Drive.  They offer a rigging service and several of our lines needed eyes at one end.  The dude who usually does this was off that day so his apprentice took over for him.  This is a young guy, mid twenty's, who's only been working there for a year.  He offered to splice the eyes in the double braided lines and whip the ends.  My only other option was to use plastic clamps which might be plenty strong but just don't have that "good seamanship" look.  I took my chances with the kid.  The lines we replaced were the roller furling for the Genoa, the Mainsail out-haul and the Staysail roller furling, sheet and out-haul.  We used single braid line for the roller furling and Sta-Set X double braid for everything else.  In less than 90 minutes the kid had everything finished up and I gotta say I was very impressed.  He whipped the ends of all the lines, running a needle down through the center in four places to prevent the core from slipping.  The eyes were spliced in neatly and he explained to me that the whipping he added on the splice was really just for looks since the friction of the splice was plenty strong enough on it's own.  The "kid", Mike Johnson, does extremely nice work and I highly recommend him.

We spent most of Saturday getting the boat cleaned up in anticipation of some buyers coming the following morning.  This qualifies for our Spring cleaning so we pretty much killed two birds with one stone.  I washed the boat topsides then polished and waxed all the smooth surfaces using McGuire's products.  The tricky part was doing the transom since the boat is in the water and we have our dock lines crossed in back.  The transom is what's called a "sugar scoop" and provides a narrow step that's used for a swim platform and easy access to the dinghy.  It is pretty narrow though and requires hanging onto the railing with one hand while polishing with the other with 90% of your weight hanging out over the water.  Good circus act for young folks but miserable work for an old geezer like me.  Cheri cleaned things down below and then helped me with the topside chores by adding a fresh coat of teak oil to the eyebrow and toe rail.

Sunday morning we staged the boat with some nice music quietly playing in the main salon and the movie "Ratatouille" showing silently in the forward stateroom.  We left the boat with high hopes of a good showing because our broker had told us the people were local and he thought we had a good chance.  We drove into town and took care of some chores then headed back to the marina with the intention of sitting in the shade and enjoying a nice cigar while we waited.  As we were getting out of the car we got a call saying they were done looking at the boat (after about 45 minutes).  That's not a good sign.  Their broker saw us in the parking lot and walked over for a talk.  After asking a few questions about the history of the boat she mentioned that it was about $100k higher than what they had been looking at and Cheri and I both mentally wrote off our labor as wasted time.

Aside from the disappointment we had a beautiful day, mid 80's with a nice breeze, and it was only 2 in the afternoon.  We decided the best thing we could do was to go for a short sail.  We had the boat outside the breakwater by 3 and enjoyed the nicest day-sail we've had in a long time.  Out on the Bay the wind was pretty steady at 16 to 18 knots out of the WSW.  We sailed out towards Poplar Island (click here) at 6.5 knots on a broad reach and midway into the shipping channel, just past G4, we came about and headed home.  The return run was close hauled at 6.5 knots, running into the wind so we donned our jackets.  We had a direct run all the way into Herring Bay where the wind got kinda funky and we furled the sails and motored the rest of the way home.  Just a short 3 hour sail but it lifted our spirits and turned out to be the just what we needed.

Once we were back in our slip we had just finished hooking up shore power when we got a call from our broker.  He said the showing had gone really well and the folks were extremely pleased with the boat and planned to put in an offer.  Wow!  Guess we read that one wrong!  It'll be interesting to see where this goes.

In the meantime we're still moving ahead with our plans.  We decided a while ago that it wouldn't pay to put things on hold while we tried to sell the boat.  Nothing is certain until the ink is dry and you have money in hand.  If nothing comes from this showing then we still plan to take our vacation, whether it's doing the DelMarVa or just taking a few weeks on the hook.  I'm still working on getting the electronics installed.  I knew this was going to turn into a marathon at the end.  We called MTS before we left for San Diego and contracted with them to get the radar mounted on the mast.  They finally got it done yesterday (4-16-12) and I'm really pleased with how it came out.  I still need to put in the circuit breaker for the radar but should be able to get that done this weekend.

You Call That Progress?

Over the last few months we've made some progress on several of our projects.  Of course, how we define progress may be a little different than how you do.  For us it's mostly "one step forward, two steps back".  Still, I'm a "glass is half full" kinda guy so I tend to focus on that one step forward.  I thought I'd do a quick blurb here to show some pics of what we've been doing.

In the aft head and aft stateroom we finally got around to closing in the air ducts from the Espar heater installation.  Needed about 14 months to really give it some serious thought.  In the end we had our good friend Anthony design some nice enclosures for us.  They're made with solid teak and milled to match the surrounding cabinetry.  There's also a recessed grill to let the heat escape.  We're really pleased with how this turned out.  The piece of teak used on the face in the aft stateroom is dark but in the picture it looks much darker than it actually is.  The shelf with the sombrero used to be about 3" wide and Anthony widened it to 10".  Much more usable now.  In fact we were originally thinking to put cabinets in there that would extend up to the ceiling but changed our plans when we decided to sell the boat.  With that nice wide shelf it would be very easy to add cabinets in there now using that shelf as the base.  Good project for the new owner!

We also got some work done on the instruments by adding a multi-function display at the helm.  I had the grab bar modified to create a mounting plate that would hold the display lower and be less of an obstruction.  It also allows it to be turned around so it can face forward.  Handy for when the boat is sailing on it's own with auto-pilot.  The display is mounted in a plastic instrument "pod" that comes from the factory in an "arctic white" that just didn't look right with the Island Packet beige.    I was unable to find a good match in a spray paint and struggled to make the most of it.

In my last installment I told about my first effort and how it came out two shades too dark.  For round two I tried a different paint, slightly lighter.  I sanded the original coat and sprayed on the new paint.  It reacted with the old paint and wrinkled up across the entire surface.  Yikes!  What a mess!  I sanded it down and tried spraying on a coat of primer thinking that would form a barrier for the new paint.  The primer also wrinkled up.  Grrrrr.

I ended up sanding down the entire housing, by hand, removing every bit of paint.  The original paint I used was a store brand and was incompatible with anything else.  Yes, I know, ya gets what ya pays for.  After 6 hours of sanding I sprayed on a coat of primer and two coats of color.  It's not an exact match for the Island Packet color but it's a lot closer than "arctic white".  That was a fun project.

Once I got the display mounted I ran into another minor headache.  The data cable for the radar had a plug end that wouldn't fit through the grommet that I mounted at the back of the steering pedestal.  In the picture the grommet is the round fitting with the black rubber center below the shelf.  I had to pull the wire back through the entire length of the boat and feed in the small end first through the grommet.  To save some time I attached one end of some twine to the data cable before I pulled it back to the cockpit.  Once I fed it through the grommet I was able to pull the string from the end up by the mast and drag the cable back into place without having to yank up the entire cabin floor.  This actually worked pretty well and with Cheri's help the job was completed pretty quickly.  This is good because I only have so much hair left to pull out in frustration.

We took a vacation from March 28th to April 7th and visited with Cheri's brother and sister-in-law (Scott and Terri) in San Diego.  They have a beautiful home in Point Loma overlooking the entire bay and city down below and you can see down the coast line all the way to Mexico.  Incredible.  We had a great time visiting with them and it was especially cool to stay in a place bigger than 250 square feet that had flushing toilets.

When we got back on Sunday the 8th the weather was clear and breezy so we decided to go out for a short sail.  As we got out into open water the wind was blowing a steady 20 knots, gusting to 30, out of the WNW.  We had a quick sail across the Bay on a broad reach under full main and staysail.  Once we got to Bloody Point Light outside of Eastern Bay we came about and sailed back close hauled.  The wind increased to a steady 30 knots, gusting to 35 and occasionally getting as high as 40 knots.  The waves weren't bad though and it was a nice sail, still under full main and staysail.  As we got into Herring Bay we had to tack back and forth and on the 3rd tack the outhaul on the main let go with a loud "crack", like canon fire.  Cheri thought we hit something and was mentally preparing to abandon ship.  Because of the racket caused by the main flapping in the wind it quickly became apparent what had happened.  The picture shows the outhaul running along the top of the boom to the clew of the mainsail.  We fired up the engine, furled the sails and headed home.  To finish off the day we backed into our new slip (lucky #13) in 30 knot winds coming at us across our port side.  Took us a little longer than usual but we managed OK with no raised voices, no grrr at all.  I'm talkin' teamwork here!

So now I've got another project to take care of before we can even consider our sail around the DelMarVa.  Our running rigging has dropped the subtle hint that it needs to be replaced.  Let's see, I've got two weekends to get ready.  Something tells me we're not going to make it.  Might have to fall back on that "glass is half full" mentality and adjust our plans and make the most of it.  On the bright side, we'll soon have all new running rigging.  Of course we'll also be penniless.

Half full, half full.

You Can't Match This

Almost all Island Packets come from the factory with a unique creme colored hull.  Designer Bob Johnson deliberately chose this color for his boats to make them stand out in a crowd and it really works.  You can spot an Island Packet from a mile away just from the color of it's hull.  Most fiberglass boats are done in white and it's not just white but a stark, bleached white like the sheets from your bed after your Mom did the wash and hung them out to dry. You look at these boats on a sunny day and you have to squint because the reflection is so bright it hurts your eyes.  Island Packets are easy on your eyes in more ways than one.  They are beautiful boats with traditional lines and when you stand back and look them over they have that "just right" look to them.

After I got the chartplotter mounted at the steering pedestal I took a few pictures to show off the results of my hard work.  What they actually showed was the glaring white of the new instrument housing in contrast to the creme color of the cockpit. I learned in my model railroading hobby that you have to take a picture of what you're doing to see it the way it really is.  You might think you're done and you've constructed this awesome model but then you look at a picture and realize you neglected to paint the left side of the building or you forgot to add the smokestack to the locomotive.   It will always show up in a photo.


So, I thought I was finished but in reality I was just starting down another path of creative frustration.  I wanted to match that creme color that Island Packet had used so my custom installation would look like it came from the factory.  If this was a car it'd be a snap because you can go to the local auto parts shop and pick up a can of spray paint that's specifically mixed for your "Midnight Blue"1969 Buick Skylark.  Boats don't have the same kind of following that cars have though.  White is pretty easy.  I guess that's why the instrument housing came in white.


I went to the "Island Packet Yacht Owners Association" web site (click here) and asked on their forum if anyone knew of a matching color in spray paint.  No luck there.  I also wrote to the Island Packet factory with the same request.  Karsten Johnson (Bob Johnson's son) wrote back with a formula for mixing my own paint using Awlcraft paint.  He also suggested trying an "ivory" or "clotted creme" shade of Rustoleum spray paint but nothing specific.

I ended up removing the floor panel that covers a compartment under the Nav Station and taking it with me down to the local hardware store.  This is a new store and they have something like 4,348 different colors of spray paint.  Holding my sample up to the caps on the paint cans I found one perfect match in an indoor/outdoor enamel that's compatible with plastic.  Woohooo!


When I got back to the marina I carefully disassembled the housing, removing all the brackets and hardware.  The only piece I couldn't get off was the nameplate so I covered that with some masking tape.  Next, I washed the housing with TSP to remove any wax and oil that might have been applied at the factory.  Then I scrubbed it with a green pad until I had knocked down the high gloss finish.  This will allow the new paint to really grip on and have a lasting finish.  We have a group of storage sheds up by the parking lot and I just happened to know that the one next to ours is empty and thought it would make a great spray booth.  I got a cardboard box from the dumpster and taped up all the seams and corners with the flaps on the top taped open to extend the size of the box.  I placed the box on it's side with the opening facing towards the front and put the instrument housing inside.  This'll control the over-spray and protect the new paint from dust until it dries.  I sprayed two light coats and let it dry overnight.


The next morning I went up to the shed to see the results of my labors.  When I opened the door to the shed my first thought was that the housing looked kinda dark, darker than I had expected.  I held the paint cap up to it and sure enough it was about two shades darker than the cap.  Grrr.  I took the housing down to the boat, hoping it would look better there but it definitely was darker than I wanted.  It was a good match for the cockpit cushions but that wasn't my goal.

I took the paint cap, since that had the color I was looking for, and went to another hardware store.  These guys had a smaller selection but different brands of paint.  I found one called "antique white" that looks like it might be "The One".  I couldn't try it out though because the original two coats need more time to cure so I'll hafta wait until next weekend.  I think I'll try it out on a scrap piece to see how well it matches before I go to all the trouble of repainting the housing again.


We did have some success on another project though.  Our friend Anthony has been doing some woodwork for us.  He's building a teak valance to cover the heat and air conditioning ducts in the aft head and stateroom.  The one in the stateroom runs down the port side under an existing shelf.  Anthony widened the shelf to 10" and added a face panel with a recessed grill to allow the heat to escape from the duct inside.  The valance looks like a headboard for the bunk and the shelf is now wide enough to actually be useful.  He took the time to match the trim and existing woodwork in the cabin and it looks really nice.  He also did a few other projects for us in the forward stateroom, including  some teak trim to hide the wires for the home theater.  Cheri and I will be doing the stain on all this next weekend so I'll post some pictures when it's finished.

So here we are coming up on Spring.  We never made it out to go sailing this Winter, even with all the mild weather we had.  The last time we got away from the dock was the weekend following Thanksgiving.  When Cheri asked me what I wanted for my birthday (3/15) I said I wanted to spend the weekend on the hook so the plan is to have three days on the Wye River.  I think that's our new most favoritest spot on the Bay.  Maybe with the use of our new cool-man chartplotter we can avoid running aground this time!

Doin' This and Doin' That

 This past weekend (02-18-12) I finally got some serious work done on our electronics project.  Until now I've managed to avoid working on it as much as possible.  There's just so many really good excuses out there. 

On Friday I picked up a Navionics Platinum + card for the chart plotter.  Cool!  Now we're all set with 3D charts and tons of additional info.  I rushed home to try it out, fired up the display and plugged in the card.  Nothing.  Hmmm.  Maybe I should read the instructions.  I went into the manual for the chartplotter (a PDF file with 114 pages) and read through everything.  It says to go into the 3D application and set it up the way I want.  OK, where's the 3D app?  I spent hours going through the program but didn't see anything about a 3D application.  Grrr.

More importantly, whenever I plugged in the card I'd go into the menu and look around and after about three minutes the chartplotter would freeze up.  I couldn't even turn off the power.  I eventually figured out that when I pull the card out the chartplotter would reset itself after a minute or two.  If I left the card in it stayed hung up.  Bad card?  I kinda doubt it.  I'm thinking it must be a problem with the card reader.

Monday was Presidents Day so I had the day off.  I played with the chartplotter some more and tried calling the Raymarine helpline.  They were on holiday too.  I called MTS, the dudes I bought the unit from, and they sent a tech over right away.  I mean, the guy was walking down the dock in five minutes.  Now that's what I call great service.  The tech, Ryan, fired up the chartplotter and showed me how to set up a new application to be used for 3D charts.  Oh!  I see! That makes complete sense.  Too bad they didn't mention that in the manual.  Then he put the card in and the whole thing froze up.  At least it's consistent.  He also tried his own card and that froze up too so we were able to verify that the problem was in the chartplotter, not the Navionics software.  He also tried a factory reset and that didn't help it either.  In the end it was decided to send it back to the factory for repairs.  It's supposed to be back in my grubby little hands in about two weeks.

Since I couldn't play with my new chart software I decided to pull the wire for the radar and autopilot.  I started at the foot of our bunk in the forward stateroom.  All the wiring that goes up the mast runs into a compartment located here and is connected to terminal strips.  The idea is to make it easy to disconnect the wiring when it's time to pull the mast.  So this is where I began by adding another terminal strip to connect power for the radar.  From here I ran 10 gauge, 3 conductor wire (#10/3) to the DC breaker panel where we'll be installing a 10 amp breaker for the radar.  To get the wire pulled from the forward stateroom to the Nav Station required dismantling the starboard side settee and pulling the wire through three compartments underneath.  Two of these compartments contain the fresh water pump and the water heater so while I was in there I also did a quick visual inspection to ensure all was well.  It was.

Next I had to pull the control wire for the auto pilot and the data cable for the radar down through the steering pedestal into the compartment under the cockpit where the genset will eventually go.  This meant unloading the aft cabin's bunk (aka the garage) and crawling through the access panel in the aft bulkhead.  I had to go back and forth between here and the cockpit a number of times because the wires kept getting hung up inside the pedestal.  I finally used my trusty fish tape (click here for more fish-tape adventures) to get it pulled through successfully.  Once I had the wire into the genset compartment I combined it with the wiring for the rudder reference and the power cable (#8/2) and clutch (#14/2) for the linear drive.  I had to feed this bundle down into the trough for the propeller shaft and then pull it through a wire run into a storage bin under the floor in the galley.  From there it gets pulled through underneath the cabinets and into a compartment under the Nav Station.  This is where the course computer will be located and all the auto pilot components will tie into that.

I also had to find a place for the fluxgate compass (click here for Wikipedia's explanation of a fluxgate compass).  It's supposed to be located pretty much centerline in the boat to minimize the effects of side-to-side and front-to-back motion, but has to be away from large cast iron masses such as the engine, which is also pretty much centerline in the boat.  I think I found a good spot for it just forward of the fuel tank on the aft bulkhead of the bilge.

With the worst of the wiring out of the way I feel like I'm pretty much on schedule with this installation.  I still have to mount the radar and pull wire for it up through the mast.  A friend of mine just finished this job on his boat using a 20' extension ladder.  Our mast is a bit taller than his though so I think I'm gonna have to use a bosun's chair.  The biggest problem with this is that I'll need Cheri to haul me up the mast using a winch or maybe even the anchor windlass.  I found a better option here.  A guy up in Maine was selling a fairly new (used only once!) single-handed ATN MastClimber (check it out) for half price.  Using this Cheri won't have to destroy her arms trying to hoist me up and I'll have complete control over how fast I go and when I stop.  Best of all, no screaming back and forth.  Perfect!

While I'm waiting for the chartplotter to come back I attacked the cockpit with polish and wax.  After I laid on the polish I hit it with a power buffer and it really brought out the shine.  This poor boat had spent about eight years down in the BVI and all the fiberglass was looking very chalky.  Last year I buffed out everything but the cockpit so now I'm pretty much caught up.  The buffer really brought out the gloss, looks mighty nice.  I also tried out a 3M product for restoring plastic.  I used this on the bezels for the instruments and also on the line locks for the running rigging.  Wow!  Everything looks brand new!  That's really amazing stuff.

My biggest problem now is that the boat looks so nice I don't want to sell it anymore.

Winter Update

We're now into our second season with the Espar diesel heater.  We have the parts needed to service it (glow plug and diffuser screen) but I'm letting it go to see how long she'll run.  Last year it ran 24/7 from mid-December until mid-March, something like 2100 hours, non-stop.  We didn't get any data on fuel consumption last season so I'm paying closer attention to it this year.  We've been having a milder Winter this time so we didn't start it up until January 5th but it's been running 24/7 since then.  We started with a full tank, hand carried 80 gallons with 5 jerry cans.  Ugh.  After fifteen days we topped off the tank again and found that we had used 35 gallons of fuel.  I was a little alarmed at this until I did the math.  15 days x 24 = 360 hours.  We're using 1/10 gallon per hour, exactly what the book says.  We paid $3.50/gal (grrr) so we're paying about $250/month for heat.  We keep it comfortable, 71 degrees during the day and turn it down to 68 at night.  Considering the situation, zero insulation in a fiberglass box immersed in 34 degree water, I think this is acceptable.

Forced hot air is a good way to heat your boat.  It keeps it dry inside, for the most part.  Places that don't get warmed up tend to sweat, inside some cabinets and the inner surface of the hull for instance.  The system is quiet and reliable.  Our exhaust is kinda noisy but that might be because of the configuration and a little time spent on it could bring it down to a better level.  Besides, the noise is mostly outside and at this time of year we don't have any neighbors to annoy.  We've used the heater while out sailing (full cockpit enclosure) and on the hook.  It has little drain on the batteries and extends the sailing season to year-round.  Let me tell you, sailing on the Chesapeake Bay with no other boats around is pretty sweet.

I've made some good progress on installing our new electronics.  I contracted with a local company, Atlantic Spars and Rigging, to modify the grab bar on our steering pedestal.  I got it back last week and it came out almost exactly as I had drawn it up.  They made the bracket for the display larger than I had planned but it turned out to be better the way they did it.  I had to modify the supports that it mounts to and once I got them cut down the whole thing went together perfectly.  It's super strong too so it'll still act as a good place to grab onto when you're moving around the cockpit.

Once the bracket was in place I mounted the multi-function display (MFD) to it and admired my handiwork.  In most cockpits the display faces the dude at the helm and if you want to take a look at it you have to go around behind the wheel to see it.  In a boat with an autopilot you won't be spending much time behind the wheel and will most likely be sitting up in the front of the cockpit for most of your watch.  I wanted the display set up so you could turn it around and see it from anywhere in the cockpit.  The mount I chose is a ball mount, like on a camera tripod, only bigger.

Once I got the display mounted I had to figure out the wiring.  Our system is pretty simple.  We have three gauges showing depth, boat speed and wind speed/direction.  These tie into the MFD using a data system called SeaTalk that uses a three conductor cable.  It's pretty much plug and play.  The gauges are powered through the DC breaker panel which was pre-wired from the factory with a 10 amp breaker and #14 two conductor wire.  By sheer coincidence this is exactly what's called for to power the new display.  I figured I could just tie into where these gauges are connected and it'd be a simple thing.  Uh huh.  Sure.

I found the cable supplying power to the gauges inside the steering pedestal.  It was a black SeaTalk three conductor cable.  I went to the breaker panel to see if maybe they had run it all the way up to the breaker but that had a blue two conductor wire.  I looked in the wiring diagram for the boat and sure enough, it called out wires 84 + 85, 14-2 wire.  I found a note from the factory that said this wire was run into the starboard side cockpit locker and coiled up, to be used for electronics.  OK, let's look in the starboard locker.

So next I emptied out the starboard locker.  This is no simple feat because the locker is big and deep.  You could sleep in there with three dogs and two sheep, if you were so inclined.  In the two years we've had this boat I've never had the guts to empty out this locker.  It's packed full.  I found two full sets of dock lines that I didn't know we had.  I also found a dinghy bridle, a two gallon tank of gas and an extra set of paddles for the dinghy.  There was a buncha other stuff that I won't even go into here.  Anyway, I finally got the locker emptied out.  Now I could get back to my project.

I crawled down into the abyss and discovered that this is where they hid the two compressors for our fridge and freezer.  Actually, I had heard a rumour they were down there, just hadn't seen them face to face before.  I could see the bundle of wires coming from the steering pedestal but when I cut the wire ties I couldn't find the black SeaTalk cable.  I did see a blue 14-2 wire though.  Hey!

My next step was to climb out of the cockpit locker and go down below into the aft cabin.  At the back of the cabin is an access panel that opens up to the genset compartment under the cockpit.  Of course, you have to take everything off the bunk to get to it.  This cabin is what we call the garage.  Everything we don't have room for anywhere else on the boat eventually ends up back here.  Right now all the stuff for our new electronics package is taking up space back here.  This includes the radome (huge!), all the wiring I'll be using (also huge!) and the box full of stuff for the autopilot (medium huge).  Also back there are two tool boxes and a storage box full of electrical connectors, all of Cheri's quilting stuff, two sewing machines and a storage box with all our extra linens and towels.  Once all this was transferred out to the Main Salon I pulled up the bunk cushion and moved that out too.  Now the aft cabin was emptied out but the rest of the boat was trashed.  Life on a boat.

With access to the genset compartment I could see the wiring bundle coming through the floor from the steering pedestal.  I didn't see my blue 14-2 wire though.  I proceeded to cut off all 47 wire ties to expose the innards of the bundle.  There it was!  The 14-2 blue wire was connected directly to the black SeaTalk wire using butt connectors.  This is OK as long as you know it's there.  It would have been really helpful if someone had updated the drawing to show this.  Note to self:  Do unto others.....update those drawings.  I run into this all the time at work.  The equipment I work with was built back in the '50s and '60s.  Everything has been modified numerous times but no one has taken the time to update the drawings.  So much time is wasted just trying to figure out what someone changed 30 years ago.  Grrrrr.  No wonder I'm all grey and look like I'm 60 years old when I'm only.....uhm, never mind.

My solution for the wiring was to mount a terminal strip on the bulkhead and label it "Instruments".  The blue 14-2 wire leading in is labeled on the prints as wire #'s 84 and 85 so I marked that here too.  The wire leading to the MFD already has an in-line fuse but I needed to add a 7 amp fuse to the one going to the gauges.  With this done I headed back topside to try it out.  I flipped on the "Instruments" breaker and by the time I got to the cockpit the MFD was already powered up and progressing through it's initialization.  Cool!

After it got through the initialization it settled into a display of some harbor in Florida.  Uhm, that's not right.  I started punching buttons and found my way through the program to the part where you turn on the GPS.  It took about 30 seconds to figure out where it was and finally showed our position in Traceys Creek.  So far, so good.

So now we need to spend some time out on the Bay.  I'm pretty excited about having a chartplotter and look forward to seeing what all we can do with it.  It'd be especially nice to go places without running aground all the time, although I have gotten really good at that.  The manual for the MFD is on a disc and I'm slowly working my way through a PDF file with 114 pages of instructions.  I also ordered the upgraded charts (Navionics Platinum +) for the Chesapeake Bay that'll give us 3D display and satellite shots that overlay the charts.  Sweet!

Speaking of running aground......this past weekend (2/11/12) winter finally hit.  Around 1530 on Saturday the temperature dropped about 20 degrees in 15 minutes, the wind increased to 25 knots with 45 knot gusts and it started snowing, sideways.  The wind was blowing out of the NW and continued non-stop for two days.  By noon on Sunday the water depth at our slip was 3'8", which is pretty low.  Our boat draws 4'10".  Our deck was 32" below the dock which made getting on and off a bit of a challenge.  The boat next to us draws 6'6" and they were really sticking out of the water.  They haven't hauled their boat in over three years and the exposed crud quickly dried out in the wind.  They've got quite a garden under there.  The NW wind is pretty common here in the winter but in the two years we've been here this is the lowest we've seen the water at our slip so far.

...And This Is My Other Brother Darryl

Some people never grow up.  Take me for instance. 

Saturday we went into Silver Spring and visited with some friends, got home around 2000.  The next morning we got ready for church and walked out to the car.  I climbed in and was surprised to find that I had to adjust the mirror on my side because it was facing down towards the rear tire.  That's weird.  Maybe some klutz bumped into it.  Had to manually force it back into position.  Then I looked over at the passenger side and saw that the glass was missing from that mirror.  On closer inspection I saw that someone had tried to rip both mirrors off the car, trying so hard that they scraped them against the windows and left scratch marks.  I looked around at the other cars and found that no one else had any damage.  Man, I musta really  pissed somebody off.  I just couldn't think of anything I mighta done that would deserve this kind of action.  I mean, this is high school retribution kinda stuff.

I reported it to the marina office and they said there had been a drunk that was picked up Saturday night and escorted off marina property.  They didn't give me a name but maybe this was the dude who went nuts on my car.  Still, I couldn't figure why anyone would do such a thing.

I shoulda realized.  I grew up in Cockeysville, Maryland.  Back in the days before it was overrun by big-city commuters Cockeysville was a nice little farming community in upper Baltimore County.  It was also the home to a group of rednecks who called themselves the Cockeysville Wrecking Crew.  Cute huh?  These guys figured they lived in a small town and could get away with pretty much anything.  They were known for street racing and fights but they were also good at intimidating younger kids and ramming people's cars with their pickup trucks.  Rednecks.  Just another part of "The Great American Experience".

Last week I was coming home from work around 1900 and stopped off at the post office to pick up our mail.  I was driving back to the marina, going about 35mph (5mph over the limit), when this car comes flying up behind me and practically drives up my tailpipe.  This dude was really close, so close I couldn't see his headlights.  I really hate it when people try to intimidate me with their driving and I could feel my blood pressure going up.  I pulled off to the side of the road to let him go by and he just stops and waits to see what I'm gonna do.  He finally goes around and I pull out behind him.  I'm perhaps a little overenthusiastic and, uhm, smoked the tires coming out.  He floors it and, like the idiot that I am, I floor it too.  Going across the bridge out of town we're going 60mph and the dude is way out in front.  He flies past the entrance to the marina and just before he goes around the next turn I slowed down and turned in.  I laughed the whole way to the parking lot.  I figured we both acted like idiots, had some fun playing race cars and nobody got hurt.  Pretty dumb but that's what us rednecks do, we play stupid.

Apparently that redneck plays by different rules.

Being all growed up now I had forgotten what it was like to live in a small country town.  Deale is even smaller than Cockeysville was and I'm pretty sure the redneck coefficient is inversely proportional to the size of the town.

I figure I musta embarrassed this poor guy the week before.  He probably got around that corner and realized how stupid he looked by running away from one of those moronic boat people.  He saw me turn into the marina so he knew where I hide out.  That weekend he was probably sitting in the bar down the road, drinking his fourteenth Bud Lite and decided it was time to set things right.  Imagine his delight when he found my car parked among the boats out there.  He flew into a skunked-beer rage and thought those mirrors were my ears and he was gonna tear them off.  I'll bet it really pissed him off when he couldn't get em to come loose.  Built Ford tough!

I don't know why I let myself get in these situations.  If Cheri knew about this I'd be sleeping in the dinghy tonight.

In my other life, where I play an adult, things are progressing nicely.  I came up with a design for mounting the Raymarine display at the helm.  I drew it up and talked to the folks at Atlantic Spars about modifying the grab bar on the steering pedestal and adding a bracket.  I actually tried taking the pedestal apart and wasted several hours on that before I realized I only had to remove the compass from the top.  That gave me a huge hole to work through and I had access to all the wiring and gauges.

When we bought the boat it had gauges for wind speed and direction, boat speed and depth.  These are Raymarine ST-60 gauges and they're about 11 years old now and showing their age.  I sent out the boat speed display to be rebuilt because the face was fried from the sun and you could barely read it.  The bezels for all three are looking kinda fried too so I also ordered new bezels.  The gauges will work with the new Multi Function Display (MFD) and they'll all tie into it by one cable, providing both power and data. The circuit breaker and wiring for these gauges is sized right for the MFD so I'll just move it over to that and then it'll supply power to the three gauges over the single data cable.  Perfect!  There's a data cable and separate power for the radar that'll have to be run also.

I was looking into an autopilot for the boat but the price of a new system is kinda prohibitive for right now.  But then I ran across an ad for a used system that had everything except the linear drive.  I think I mentioned this the last time around.  Anyway, I just closed the deal on that so we'll have autopilot for when we do the DelMarVa run in May.  This will also tie into the MFD and provide compass and heading information.  It will need it's own power and circuit breaker though so I'll hafta run a line for that also.  Next month we should be able to get the linear drive and I'll need to have a bracket made to mount that near the rudder shaft under the cockpit.

OK, so now I've got plenty of projects to keep me busy over the Winter.  We have four months to prepare for our trip.  That's 15 weekends from now.  I'll need at least 2 weekends just to pull wire.  Probably 2 more to mount the radar on the mast.  Figure another 2 or 3 to get the autopilot mounted.  Then at least 2 more weekends to get everything working together and tested out.  I usually take twice as long as I plan to get anything accomplished so I need to double all that.  Let's see, 2 + 2 + 2 (or 3) + 2.....that comes out to 8 or so.  Then double that and I get.....16 weekends.  Guess I'd better stop playing games with the local boys and get to work.