Nap Town

We had company stay with us this weekend, a first for us.  Cheri's niece and her daughter, Jill and Abbie, stayed on board for about 4 days.  We decided to head for Annapolis, thinking that would give us something fun to do, walking around the streets, window shopping and hitting the bars.  For Jill and Abbie, sailing would be a first.  For us, going to Annapolis by boat and using a mooring ball would both be firsts.

We departed later than we had hoped on Friday, around 1300.  The wind, less than 5 knots NNW, was on our nose the entire way so we ran under power.  Bummer.  When we arrived we found all the mooring balls were taken.  I hadn't arranged for a plan B so we stalled in the "south anchorage" while I perused the charts looking for a place we could spend the night and still have access to the downtown area.  We thought of anchoring right there but this anchorage is way out in the open, totally unprotected and boat traffic is constantly cutting through there.  The choppy water alone would make it miserable.  The fact that most of the anchorage is in 35' of water also played into it.  It was now 1730 and this place was packed.  Our options here were limited so we decided to head out and come back the next day.

We cruised over to Whitehall Bay (click here) with the intention of dropping anchor at the NE end, near Meredith Creek.  As we entered the bay I noticed a small creek running off at the NW end which looked much more interesting.  The entrance to Mill Creek is a tight zig-zag but it's well marked and not difficult.  Once inside, the creek opens up and extends back for a long way, almost to Rte 50.  We snagged a nice, quiet spot just below Providence Cove along an unpopulated piece of shoreline.  Just on the other side of the trees is an Annapolis landmark, the large radio towers at the entrance to the Severn River.

Once we got the anchor set we launched the tender for a trip upstream to explore things for a while. If you look on the chart (click here) you'll see where the depth goes from 7' to 5', changes from light blue to dark blue, back towards Rte 179.  That's about how far we got before turning back.  Not really very far but it was a nice ride with lots of beautiful homes and big boats to see.  Lotsa money back in there.  When we got back to our boat Cheri made pizza for dinner.  We put Abbie to bed and then the three of us crawled up on our bed and watched a movie.

The next day, Saturday, we had French Toast made with cinnamon-raisin bread. Mmm mmmm good.  Finally got under way around noon and headed over to Annapolis again.  I was planning to anchor out in the "south anchorage" for the day and then head further up the Severn River to anchor for the night.  When we got over there though we found that the mooring area was half empty.  We cruised over and snagged a ball that gave us a great spot looking down the throat of "Ego Alley", the nickname for the city docks.  Probably one of the

best spots there and it only costs $35/night.  The Annapolis mooring field has something like 75 mooring balls available with different sizes to suit different sized boats.  The 24" mooring ball is attached to an anchor of some sort, engine block, large chunk of concrete, etc.  The ball floats on the surface and has a pennant attached with an eye in the loose end.  You're supposed to snag this line and loop your own line through it which is then attached to the boat.  When it's time to go you simply let one end of your line go, pull it through the eye and take off.  This being our first shot at using a mooring ball I'll admit it took a few attempts.  The wind was blowing 15 knots out of the ESE so we circled around the mooring field and came at the ball headed into the wind.  I slowly coasted up on the ball but we hadn't pre-arranged any hand signals and I missed it.  With the wind blowing us around and other boats in the vicinity I didn't attempt any maneuvering and just circled around for a second try.  This time we settled on some hand signals and Cheri was able to snag the line.  Unfortunately I decided we were being blown off to the side and hit the bow thruster to bring us back, yanking the line out of Cheri's grasp in the process.  OK, third attempt.  We circled around again, came up on the ball, Cheri snagged the line with her boat hook and had us tied off before, well...you know...before I could yank it away.

Once we got settled in we hailed the harbor taxi and got a lift into town.  We walked around (click here), working our way up Main Street towards St. Anne's on Church Circle.  About half way there we stopped in a small Deli for lunch (crab cakes and Sam Adams Summer Brew!).  Feeling reinvigorated, we continued up the hill, perusing the shops as we went.  When we arrived at the circle we crossed over to the State House on State Circle.  Annapolis served as the capitol of the United States for a brief period from 1783 to 1784 and this building ( the State House) is where  George Washington resigned his commission as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army.  This is also where the state senate ratified the Articles of Confederation in the forming of our country, the good old USA.  Walking through these streets you get a sense of history all around you.  We walked around to Maryland Avenue and eventually found our way to a nice cigar shop about halfway down the road where we picked up some stogies for later on.  We then walked down through the old neighborhoods on Prince George Street to Randall Street and worked our way back towards the docks.  Middleton Tavern invited us in for raw oysters, shrimp and drinks before heading over to Hats in the Belfry on Main Street to try on about 100 hats.  From there we walked down to the harbor and found a good spot on the wall to take a load off our feet and smoke our cigars.  Continuing on we walked around the harbor and checked out all the boats before deciding what we really needed was some ice cream.  There's an ice cream shop right there on Dock Street but it had a line going out the door and wrapping around the block.  Standing in line is not how we like to spend our time so we continued on and found a nice old general store on Market Space that sold ice cream without the wait.  Perfect!

By the time we finished our ice cream and got back to the boat it was 2200.  I checked the weather for an update and found they were calling for rain to start around midnight.  We pulled in the tender and packed up the cockpit.  Finally hit the sack around midnight.  This was such a nice day.  Relaxing pace, good food and drinks, interesting shops and plenty of things to see and a fine cigar to top it all off.  Plus the girls ended up with a few hats!  Note:  in the picture is a monstrous yacht, about 80' or 90', that was parked near our mooring.  I think that thing has been there for at least a couple months.  Probably has to wait for that "once-a year" extra high tide to get back out to the deep water.  Or maybe he's waiting for the price of diesel to go down.  Or he came to Annapolis, wised up and traded it in for a sailboat.  Or it could be that he got in there and then realized he didn't have enough room to turn around to get out.  Or maybe he's waiting for the swelling to go down on those things on his mast.  Yegads, can you imagine the operating cost for that thing?  The dock fee alone is probably more than I make in a year.

We were on a tight schedule for Sunday because Cheri's older brother was stopping by for a quick visit in the afternoon so we had to be on our way early in the day.  We got up at 0630 and had a quick breakfast before getting under way.  Once we were clear of the mooring field we set the sails and were on our way.  Wind was about 10 to 12 knots NNE which was good for the beginning of our trip, giving us a nice breeze on our port side and good speed over ground (SOG) of about 7 knots.  After we got down to Thomas Point Light we turned more before the wind and our speed dropped off to 5 or 6 knots and we sailed wing and wing with the main out one side and the genoa out the other.  We cruised on like that for about an hour with everyone except me asleep in the cockpit.  Approaching Herring Bay we secured the sails and went in the rest of the way under power.  Backed into our slip around 1430.

This was such a nice weekend.  Got some sailing in.  The anchorage in Mill Creek turned out to be a really great spot.  The time in old Annapolis was a total joy.  I also researched anchorages in the area when we couldn't find a place to anchor on Friday and it looks like there's several good places further up the Severn River worth checking out.  But best of all, our visit with Jill and Abbie was a blast.

Chesapeake Perfection

Last weekend (8/2 to 8/4) we sailed out to our favorite spot on the Wye River.  Again.  It's just the most serene place I know within a day's sail from our marina.

We didn't get going until 1430 because of prior commitments.  Once we got the sails up we were making over 7 knots the entire way though.  The wind was blowing out of the SSE, 15 knots, so we had it on our beam the entire way across the Chesapeake and up into Eastern Bay.  Made it all the way to the Miles River on a single tack too.  Sweet!  We sailed right up to the entrance to the Wye River before dropping the sails (uhm, furling the sails) and then motored the rest of the way to our destination, Ward's Cove.  Had the whole place to ourselves except for the occasional crabber.  And I won't mention the one that showed up at 0300.

We anchored further out from shore than we usually do in order to take advantage of the nice breeze.  The anchor was set and we settled in for the evening by 1830.  That's a four hour run from HHN, record time.

Saturday I spent way too much time trying to repair the broken handle on the forward head door.  It had gone limp on us during our trip to Bermuda and wouldn't stay latched.  I pulled the handles off and removed the latch mechanism.  I could see a broken spring inside but didn't want to go to the trouble of dismantling it any further.  Instead I swapped out the latch from the door to the forward stateroom.  This door stays open 99.999% of the time so I figured it could donate it's parts until we got a replacement.  The thing I didn't account for was that these two doors open in opposite directions  This meant that the latch had to be turned around as well as the lock mechanism.  Took me several tries before I got that one figured out.  In the end, my ten minute repair took over two hours but we now have a door to the head that'll stay shut.  That's important!

It was pretty grey out all day Saturday.  We rigged tarps over the sides of the Bimini in case it rained and spent most of the afternoon in the cockpit enjoying the breeze.  Sometimes it's nice just to kick back and waste a day away.  Cheri worked on her watercolor painting and I worked on a Bloody Mary.  Later in the afternoon we got in the tender and rowed around the cove.  We ventured  further out than we had before and found a nice inlet just up-river.  We explored that for a while and decided it was probably too shallow to bring the boat into.  Too bad.  This is a pretty nice spot, cut way back from the river, completely out of site.  I suspect the water's only about 3 or 4 feet deep though.  On the way back to the boat we fired up our cigars and drifted with the current for about an hour.  Sooooo laid back.

Back at the boat I still had half my cigar left so I crawled up in the bow seat.  Cheri surprised me with a Breakfast Martini (orange marmalade and vodka, mmmmmmmm).  I sat there for another 45 minutes and listened to the birds and watched the fish jumping out of the water all around us.  This is such a peaceful spot, very mellow.  It draws you into the serenity and practically forces you to relax.  "Sit there.  Shut up.  Breathe.  Enjoy".  I can take that kind of abuse.

For dinner Cheri made pizza (the best - cheese stuffed crust, hot sausage, mild spices) which we enjoyed while watching a movie.  After the cloudy day the evening air was cool with the sky crystal clear.  When the movie was over I went up on deck and stared at the stars for a while.  This is a great anchorage for that.  There are no homes along the shore, no intrusive lights, and the nearest town is St. Michaels which is miles away, just a distant glow.

Sunday morning we slept in late.  We had waffles, eggs and coffee for breakfast and then just laid around and enjoyed a clear, breezy morning.  We finally packed up and headed out around 1400.  Once out into the Miles River we found a nice breeze, 15 to 20 knots out of the NNW.  After making the turn into Eastern Bay we had a straight run all the way home at 7.5 to 8 knots.  Actually had to reduce the genoa by about 30% to keep the rail out of the water and make for a more comfortable ride home.  I think I've mentioned before that our boat runs best when heeled over 15 degrees or less so it really pays to reduce sail.  In this case it had little affect on our speed and we enjoyed an exhilarating run back to the marina.  Another four hour sail for the record books.

The little blurb about the night sky reminded me of something we saw on our sail to Bermuda.  Marine phosphorescence.  I think I saw it from a distance when I was in the Navy years ago but I remember it as a glow in the water.  What we saw from our boat was more like sparks from a campfire, only greenish/blue, and sometimes in bigger globs, like when chunks of burning paper rise up from the flames.  We could see it in breaking waves too and used it's glow to help steer on really dark nights so we'd meet the waves at a good angle even though we couldn't see the wave itself.  I tried to find a picture on the internet but couldn't find anything that even resembled what we saw.  Probably for the same reason we don't have any pictures of it....we were so fascinated by the phosphorescence we didn't even think about taking pictures.  It was so faint though it probably wouldn't have shown up in a photo.  Nice memory though.

Looking Back and Forth

Looking back on our trip to Bermuda I'd have to say we're fairly satisfied with the work we've done on the boat so far.  There are a few things that need to be improved and we're now working on a list of new projects to take on over the next year.

Improvements mainly have to do with the job that was done in the galley last Winter.  There are a few things we've found that just don't work as well as we thought they would.  The biggest thing is the lids for the fridge and freezer.  We removed the strut that originally held up the single lid thinking we'd get better access with it opening wider.  This looked good on paper but in actuality those lids are now much heavier because of the Corian and they don't open far enough back to stay on their own.  We need to add a latch to hold them up or go back to the struts.  We're also having a clearance problem with the lid seal on the fridge and it's slowly destroying itself every time we close the lid.  The one other thing that didn't work out is the location of the faucet.  They set it back too far from the side of the sink and it needs to be moved about 2" closer.  Fortunately we still have a piece of the Corian counter top and can make an oval piece to cover the hole and give a little more thickness around the new location.  The concern was that the Corian would crack if the faucet was too close to the edge but I think we'll be OK by doubling the thickness.

On our list of new projects, this coming Fall we're planning to have some cabinets made for the aft cabin.  The largest one will be at the head of the bunk along the port side of the hull.  There's a shelf there now that had been previously widened to 10" and that will now serve as the base for the cabinet (in the picture this is where the hat is).  We're also thinking about adding a cabinet on the aft bulkhead between this shelf and the bump-out for the genset (in the picture, the genset is out of the picture to the far left).  The space has already been taken from the bunk because of the genset and a shallow cabinet there would serve well for storing tools.  We also want to add a storage slot in the overhead where we could slide the Eisenglass panels for the cockpit enclosure.  We're making storage pockets for each panel (seven panels total) out of cheap cotton sheets but they need to be stored flat to keep the panels in good shape.  The slot only needs to be about 2" in height but would take up the entire ceiling over one side of the bunk.  This space doesn't have headroom for standing up at the bunk but you can crawl around on it OK.  I don't think the overhead storage slot would take away from that although we are slowly chiseling away at that aft bunk and will eventually get it down from a double to a single.  On the bright side, if there's a couple staying aboard we could still stack 'em up in there pretty well.

In the forward head we have an idea for adding a cabinet for more storage but we're not sure at this point if that'll get done this Fall.  We do have plans to replace the manual pump toilet with an electric one though.  That's pretty high on the priority list.  In fact it's right at the top.  We want to plumb it with fresh water instead of raw water from outside to prevent the hoses from going bad.  Using raw water they get a buildup of calcified crud on the inside that leads to poor flow and eventual stink.  It'd be nice to avoid that if we can.  We've been flushing with fresh water for the most part already so hopefully our hoses are still good, all having been replaced in 2010.  The electric head will be wired up to the leads for the bow thruster since that's located almost directly below the toilet and the wires are beefy enough for the job already.  I seriously doubt anyone will be using the head while we're running the bow thruster.  The noise alone would drive them out of there.  Using fresh water we'll have to change our water pump to a continuous pressure pump instead of the variable one we have now.  It currently runs between 20 and 40 psi and a continuous pressure would be an improvement all around.  The new pump is on order, Whale constant pressure (p/n UF1815), rated at 4.75 gpm and 45 psi.  This project is already moving ahead!

Another project for the forward head is to add better lighting.  There's a 115VAC line under the forward bunk that I could easily tie into and run up the forward bulkhead for an extra outlet at the head of our bed.  It'd be an easy job to take it through the wall to a spot above the mirror for a light fixture in the head.  That line is already GFI protected.  We just need to find a nice light fixture that'll fit in that small space.

Topside we also have a few projects coming up.  We have two 85 watt solar panels currently mounted on the Bimini frame.  I have two 140 watt panels waiting in storage but we need to build a frame to hold all four.  I have a design in mind that would be free-standing instead of using the Bimini frame.  It would be mounted to the toe rail giving it more width and be made of beefier SS tubing than the 1" stuff that's up there now.  We looked into an arch but it's more elaborate than what we need and definitely too expensive.  I think we could have a frame built locally for less and tie it into the existing wind generator mount located at the aft port side corner of the boat.  Maybe even add a second wind generator on the starboard side.  Maybe we could also attach the Bimini frame to this and clean up the clutter in the cockpit a little bit.  Man, this dreamin' can get carried away.

Our cool-man tender derrick is almost complete.  I have the cleats and stuff needed to finish the derrick itself but for storing the tender on deck we need something cooler than a couple of 4x4's.  A really nice cradle, maybe made of teak, would be just the ticket.  I think the cradle would most likely be 6' long boards angled in towards each other just a bit so that the tender could slide onto them from one side or the other.  The boards would support the fiberglass hull of the tender and maybe have a canvass pad for a smooth ride.  The picture kinda shows what I have in mind but mine would would go across the cabin top just behind the mast from port to starboard instead of running fore and aft like that one.  I'm also thinking the cradle would be attached to a stainless steel frame (1.5" tubing) that would attach to the handrails on either side of the cabin top.  It would have to be high enough off the deck so the hatch in the Salon could open a bit for some fresh air but not so high that the dinghy would block the helmsman's view forward.  We'd probably have to come up with a slick cover for the tender too, maybe one that matches the Dodger and Bimini.  Yeah!  Now we're talkin'!  This is gonna be a fun project!

The list is longer but if I write it all out then it get's kinda intimidating.  This is a good start and if we can get this done in the next six months we'll be doing well.  Let's get to it!