Liberated From Suffering

 Chart of Rhode River

5/17/14 - This weekend was simply beautiful.  Blue skies with fair weather clouds, temperatures in the low 70's.  We decided to head out for an over-nighter.  Left our slip around 1030 and motored down to Herrington Harbour South to get some fuel.  When we arrived there was a Sport Fisherman tied up to the fuel dock, smack in the center, hogging the entire pier.  Winds were light so we executed a 180 degree turn just past the fuel dock and patiently waited for him to clear out.  After about 15 minutes the Harbor Master hollered over for us to pull in behind.  There was only about 20' of dock available so we'd be sticking out 25' into the lane.  OK, we can do that.

We gently glided in behind the dock-hog, tied up and asked for a fill-up on diesel.  Current price was $3.58/gallon, best prices on the Bay.  We took 109.365 gallons for a total of $392.37.  This should last us into next Winter so that's not as bad as it sounds.  By the time we finished refueling it was noon.

We headed out into Herring Bay and found light, confused winds, 0-10 knots, swinging between W and E and back again.  Being the masochists that we are we tried sailing for a while but eventually gave up and motored north to West River.  I should point out here that this was our first sail since last September and we experienced some difficulty getting the Mainsail unfurled.  It was bunching up in the slot as it came out and took several attempts before it finally pulled out.  Grrrr.  Especially grrrr considering that we only sailed for about an hour before giving up because of the fickle wind.

We motored into the West River and wound our way up into the Rhode River (see picture above).  We'd been here last year and found it to be a beautiful and quiet spot.  It's only about 2.5 hours from our slip so it's convenient for those last minute departures.  At the north end of the river is a great anchorage with several small islands.  In the very center is what used to be an island, actually called High Island, but is now completely submerged just below the surface.  We scooted around the south end of this and anchored just to the SE of Big Island in 8' of water.

While Cheri was getting dinner ready I serviced the diesel heater, thinking we might need it to keep warm that night.  I cleaned the injector, vacuumed out the combustion chamber and replaced the diffuser screen.  When I fired it up I got a "low voltage" error and the fuel pump would not come on.  Tried resetting it but no-go.  In the end we were plenty warm that night but this is now something to add to the "List of Repairs and Other Stuff To Do".

For dinner we ate in the cockpit and had Rockfish fillets cooked in butter (mmm, mmm, mmmmm!).  Afterwards we sat out on the bow with cigars and Sangria and watched the sun go down.

The next morning we got up reasonably late and had blueberry pancakes with eggs and coffee for breakfast.  Another beautiful morning with a more promising breeze of about 10 knots steady out of the East.  Around noon we pulled anchor and headed back home.  Just outside of the West River we headed into the wind and attempted to raise the Mainsail, looking forward to an excellent sail home.  No such luck.  The sail repeatedly jammed in the slot, worse than before, and after about 27 attempts I gave up.  We motored home at about 7.5 knots with "Grumpy Tom" at the helm.  He quickly recovered when Cheri suggested a cigar and a glass of Sangria.  Her Sangria recipe is awesome!  The cigars were good too.

We got back to our slip around 1545.  Still had plenty of time to finish up some chores and add a few more items to my list of repairs.  I suspect the problem with the heater is a fuse that's buried in behind the Nav Station.  The problem with the Mainsail is something else.  I'll need to go about halfway up the mast and try to keep it from bunching up as Cheri winches it out from the cockpit.  Once we have it out we'll make sure everything is properly aligned and tensioned and then try rolling it up again.  The last time we sailed was back in September when Chris and Trish came to visit.  We had a problem with the topping lift letting go and I suspect I did a poor job of rolling the sail up that day.  It has been bunched up for about nine months now so hopefully that's all the problem is.  The mast is straight and the rigging is properly adjusted.  The only other thing I can think is that the sail has lost it's shape since being shredded last June.  Uhm.........let's not go down that path just yet until everything else has been eliminated.  Seems like it's always one thing or another.  Sure would be nice to have an empty "List of Repairs and OSTD" for a while.  Just once.  But then it wouldn't be "Life on a Boat", it'd be "Nirvana" or something.