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.