Memorial Day Weekend '14

Phillips Creek on the Little Choptank River

We had an extra long weekend, four days, because of the Memorial Day holiday on Monday and neither of us work on Fridays.  I had hoped to work on the boat after work during the week and be ready to depart on Friday morning but due to weather and my job things didn't pan out.  Fortunately, I'm a flexible kinda guy so we adjusted our plans and spent Friday making repairs and grocery shopping.

Last weekend we had sailed (?) up to the Rhode River and had problems with the Mainsail jamming in the mast.  This was an absolute "must fix" so we attacked it first.  There was a pretty stiff breeze blowing out of the NNW at perhaps ten knots but we park in the slip stern first so the wind was coming across our port bow.  This was what we wanted for playing with the sail so we lucked out there.  We have a "mast climber" (click here) which is a solo style bosuns chair that uses mountain climbing gear to hoist yourself up a rope.  It's an inch-worm operation where you slide your feet up, lock the bottom line-jam on the rope, stand up and slide the top line-jam up, lock that and then sit down and repeat the operation.  Check out the link for videos and a better explanation.  We add a line (the spinnaker halyard) attached to the chair for an added measure of safety.  I was getting ready to go up the mast when Cheri mentioned that she really wanted to do it.  I hesitated but decided that probably made more sense since the person on deck has to crank the sail in and out and handle the safety line.

Once we got it rigged up Cheri went about 2/3 of the way up the mast, just above the first spreader.  This was where the sail was jamming and it was her job to stuff her hand in the slot while I cranked out the sail.  She had to work her way up the mast while the sail came out and eventually ended up above the second spreader, way up there.  After a number of attempts we managed to get the sail out but it continued to bunch up when we rolled it back in.  I ended up adjusting the topping lift so the boom was supported at the height it wanted to be when the sail was fully out but this didn't have any effect.  Then I tried the halyard, the line used to raise the sail.  I noticed then that there was slack in the sail at the bottom of the track in the mast.  It wasn't hoisted up all the way and this was causing the sail to bunch up along the mast and jam.  Once we had it hoisted up correctly the sail ran in and out much better although it still tends to bunch up about half way up the mast.  We suspect it lost its shape when we tore it last Spring and should have it re-sewn to get it to lay flatter.  So our problem seems to have had several causes but by far the real culprit was incorrect halyard tension.  This whole operation took the better part of the day and Cheri was up the mast for more than 2.5 hours.

We got our laundry done, went grocery shopping, tended the garden and prepared the boat for an early departure on Saturday.  The alarm was set for 0630 and we were under way by 0930.  That's a record for us, just can't seem to shake out any earlier than that.  Once out in the Bay we found slim pickins for wind, mostly 5 knots NW, which is barely enough to get us moving.  We ghosted across the Chesapeake at about 2 knots.  It was mellow and we were in no big hurry.  As we got over towards the Eastern Shore, approaching what used to be Sharps Island, I glanced behind us and

found a rather large freighter headed straight for us.  I got on the VHF radio and hailed him to make sure he saw us.  The freighters Captain said he was a little late in making his turn out towards the middle of the Bay.  I asked him if he preferred us to hold our course and he asked if we could head due East.  Uhm, sure, no problem.  We fired up the engine and ran in an easterly direction at about 7 knots.

Once he was past I got back on course and found that the wind had changed and was now coming out of the SE, just like that.  It wasn't blowing any stronger and was coming out of the direction we wanted to go so I furled the sails (yes, even the Main) and we motored into the Little Choptank River at 6.5 knots.  The entrance zigs and zags for quite a ways and there were a buncha boats headed up the same direction as us.  Fortunately they all peeled off for anchorages closer to the mouth of the river and we continued up to Phillips Creek, way back there.  Look for the blue arrow in the picture of the chart.  That's where we anchored for the weekend.

When we arrived there were only two other boats ahead of us.  We set our anchor, using the Bruce after the other failed to dig in.  As we settled in for a quiet weekend fourteen other boats came streaming in together and rafted up as close to us as they comfortably could.  They actually set up three separate rafts but they all partied together. Loud music, yelling and screaming, sky rockets and a starter canon were their contribution to the peaceful anchorage.  There was also a large party going on  at one of the few houses on shore and they added amplified outdoor music and large fireworks to the mix.  Everything quieted down by 0130 the next morning though and best of all, the rafts broke up and departed at 0730 on Sunday.  Once they were gone we were back down to two boats in the anchorage and peace and quiet.

We launched the dinghy and rowed over to a small island where we just drifted up on shore and sat there taking in the beauty of the area.  Well, the real reason for sitting there was to enjoy a lemonade and bourbon over lotsa ice with a really good cigar.  By the time we finished our cigars it was mid-afternoon and getting pretty warm.  We rowed back to the boat and kicked back for a few hours.  While we were sitting there an Island Packet 40 motored by and anchored in closer to shore.  We don't know any other IP owners in this area but I figured we cold dinghy over later on and say hi.

Around 1700 the day had cooled down enough for us to venture out again.  We chose to head over to the northern shore of the cove we were anchored in to see if the fishing was any good.  On our way we went by the other IP but didn't see anyone in the cockpit so we continued on our way.  When we got about 50 yards off shore we threw out our lines.  In these back creeks we were expecting to find smaller fish like Spot and Croakers.  Within two minutes my bait got hit hard, the pole bent over at a sharp angle into the water then veered off to the right.  Our boat spun around and followed where ever this beast decided to go.  It was a Nantucket Slayride in miniature.  The pull was hard and frantic, easily the best fight I've experienced.  Every now and then it would swim under our boat and we'd catch a glimpse of something big and light colored but we had no idea what it was.  We also had no idea what to do with it because we didn't bring anything along to handle hooking a whale.  We decided the best thing would be to row/drag over to the IP40, the closest boat, and ask them for assistance.  The beast seemed to know where we wanted to go because it pulled us in that direction.  I used the oar on the other side just to keep the boat headed straight.  When we got to the boat we knocked on the hull and the owner and his wife came out.  We explained what was going on and Jim jumped into our dinghy without hesitation.  We pulled the beast in and found it to be a Skate about 3' across it's wings.  At that same instant it broke the line and took off.  We didn't get a picture of the skate but it was similar in size to those in the photo I stole off the internet.  Maybe a little bigger.  I'm not kiddin'!  That booger towed us, two adults in a 10' boat.

Once he got away we stood there chatting with Terry and Jim for about an hour.  They invited us onto their boat, gave us the ten cent tour and a glass of some really nice vino and we sat around and chatted some more until somebody realized the sun was going down.  These are some really nice folks and we hope to meet up with them again later this year.

Back at our boat we cooked up some Tilapia with rice, drank some Sangria, watched a movie and collapsed.  The next morning we had French Toast for breakfast after waving goodbye to our new friends as they headed back to Annapolis.  We also packed up and got underway around 1030.  We motored out to green # 3 before unfurling the Genoa and Main.  The wind was light, 5 to 8 knots SW but that worked fine for trolling so Cheri dropped in a line and I manned the fishfinder.  We had fun cruising along at 3 to 4 knots and watching the fish ignore us.  Crossing the deeper section at the mouth of the (big) Choptank we could see some nice sized fish hanging out along the wall of the riverbed.  I was thinking we could continue trolling out into the Bay and follow the Susquehanna trench north to look for more.  As we approached the west wall though the wind instantly increased to 18 knots and held so we put away the fishing gear and sailed home the rest of the way at a glorious 7.5 knots.  After limping along for hours it's so exhilarating when the wind cranks up, the boat lays over 15 degrees and takes off.  Pure joy.  From the middle of the Chesapeake off the Choptank River we stayed on one compass point the entire way into Herring Bay.  As we passed #1 the wind fizzled out so we furled the sails and motored in the rest of the way.  Pulled into our slip around 1630 for an end to a really wonderful weekend.

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.

All About Our Anchors

On our boat we currently have two anchors mounted at the bow.  One is a 25 pound S1600 Danforth which is a little undersized for our boat.  It's attached to a 20' long 3/8" chain lead and 230' of 3/4" rope (rode in sailor speak).  Actually, according to Wikipedia, "rode" is a term for both rope or chain or both when it's attached to an anchor.  The rope is marked off in 30' lengths with green flags that are woven into the braid.  This is a nice set-up that is easy to clean when pulled up off the bottom and when it's set it holds well.  We've used it to hold us in 30 to 40 knot winds that blew all night from all points of the compass and it never broke free.  This anchor has served us well in most situations on the Chesapeake Bay where the bottom is mostly mud.  The few times it's failed, just wouldn't bite in, was when the bottom was covered with dead leaves over clay and oyster shells.  Our other anchor is a 44 pound Bruce attached to 300' of 3/8" chain.  The chain was originally marked in 30' lengths with different colored wire ties but they got brittle and fell off and then you couldn't tell how much chain you had out.  While the boat was on the hard at Hinckley last Winter I painted 1' lengths of chain with florescent yellow and green every 25', one band of yellow for every 25' and one band of green for every 100'.  The Bruce has been very dependable and always digs in.  The only reason I don't use it all the time is because the chain drags up mud that has to be washed off before being stowed in the chain locker.

We have a deck wash-down system that includes an anemic water pump that feeds a hose up to a deck fitting at the bow.  We plug a plastic 50' coiled hose into this and use it to rinse off the anchor and chain as it comes up.  It's a pretty wimpy system though and I've been eyeballing a pump that's rated at 70 psi and 7.5 gpm.  When we build our water maker we'll tie into the same thru-hull that supplies the wash down pump and set it up so we have a choice of using salt or fresh water for washing the boat.  This'll come in handy when we're ocean sailing because everything gets crusty with salt and you really need fresh water to clean it off.  I also plan to go to a regular garden hose instead of that crappy coiled plastic tubing.  Within one season the tubing develops pin holes and you get water spraying all over the place.  The fittings on it restrict the flow too.  A garden hose would take up more room but would flow better and last longer.

La Vida Dulce is designed with a chain locker that takes up about the first 7' in length of the boat.  This is in the bow so the space below decks is V shaped and pretty tight.  It's divided up into two bins side-by-side up forward and one bin behind.  The chain and rope drop down through two open holes in the deck so any water that gets in here drains overboard.  We've buried the bow in waves so a good amount of water must get in there.  The rope connected to the Danforth is on the port side, chain for the Bruce is starboard.  There's a board with a divider down the middle that lays across the front of the two forward bins and it's purpose is for when the chain (or rope) is dropping down into the bin it will slide down this board first.  This prevents the chain (or rope) from piling up and creating problems during anchoring operations.  The divider ensures the chain (or rope) goes into the appropriate bin.  The third bin stretches across behind the front two and creates a nice wet locker with plenty of room for rain gear, mops, etc.

As long as we've had the boat we've had trouble with mold and mildew up in the chain locker.  It's always damp up there and air circulation is pretty poor.  We checked it this Spring and found it had gotten out of control and this is what instigated our boat bombing that I mentioned a few weeks ago.  The mildew bomb did a great job of killing all the mold and mildew on the boat, including up in the chain locker.  You still have to clean up the dead mildew though.  This past weekend Cheri and I spent hours scrubbing down the chain locker with bleach based cleaners.  This is not a comfortable space to work in, let me tell ya.  There is no flat surface to stand, even if you could stand in there, which you can't because there's only about 3' or 4' of headroom.  You have to lay across the tops of the three bins and reach into spaces that were never meant to be touched by human beings.  This is a job for an Orangutan!  After we scrubbed it down three times we painted it white with a mildew resistant bilge paint.  It looks really great now and our boat smells fresh and clean.  It'll be really nice if it lasts for more than just a few weeks.

Before we take off for shores unknown we plan to move the Danforth anchor to the stern and attach it to 300' of 3/4" rope mounted on a spool in the cockpit locker.  We'll replace it with the Bruce on the chain and rode up in the bow along with a new Rocna 33 (73 pound anchor) on 300' of 3/8" chain.

I Think They're Calling for Rain

We're in the midst of a three day rainfall.  At times it's been pretty heavy, especially last night.  I woke up three times to the sound of the spare Main halyard slapping against the mast.  Actually went up on deck twice to secure it.  I guess the first time I didn't get enough slack out and two hours later when the wind changed direction a bit it was even worse.  I keep the halyard shackled to the mast pulpit and the conditions were just right last night to get that baby whipping around.  On my second trip up on deck I moved it further outboard to the hand rail.  That did the trick.  So in the end, instead of my usual 6.5 hours of sleep I got about 4 and also got drenched twice.  That's right, I'm too lazy at 0300 to put on my foul weather gear.  Fun night.  Life on a boat.

This morning when I climbed up to the cockpit to go to work I found the creek was up pretty high, almost to the decking of the dock.  I think I earned a Bronze in gymnastics for getting off the boat.  At the end of our dock is a nice picnic area where Bella likes to run around.  She would probably need water wings today.

We have seen it higher here.  About four years ago we drove into Annapolis to get some ice cream (B-R's mint chocolate chip) and when we came back the water was just over the decking on the dock.  Felt like we were walking on water, kinda eerie.  The boat was sitting so high I fell in the creek trying to get aboard.  Shortly after that we bought that cool-man step you can see on the side of the boat in the first picture.  But I'm pretty sure that was in the middle of a tropical storm.  This is just a good old fashioned rainstorm, nothing unusual.  The wind seemed to be blowing out of the NE which is kinda weird because we usually only get flooded when it blows outa the S or SE.  There might be something else going on here.  Maybe Greenland melted down last night!  Or the poles reversed causing the earth to tilt and all the water rushed over to one side!  This is up about 3' higher than normal where the deck of our boat would be level with the dock.  If the global warming dudes are right it's gonna go up at least another 3' beyond this.  Good thing we're on a boat.

Earthly Delights

Last weekend (04-25-14) we installed the Mermaid Condensators on our two reverse cycle air conditioning / heating units.  The installation is pretty straightforward.  You cut about 3" out of a straight section of the water line running from the A/C condenser to the overboard discharge.  There's an arrow on the Condensator that shows the correct direction to mount it.  Then simply remove the old condensation drain that fed into the bilge and replace it with the line supplied in the kit.  This has a filter that'll need to be checked occasionally and a reducer that attached to small diameter tubing that runs up to the Condensator.  Everything gets secured with clamps to prevent any wear from motion.  That's about it.  It sounds simple on paper but the job took most of the afternoon to install these two simple items.  The second one went much faster then the first.

The hardest part was clearing the area around the A/C units to be able to get at them.  On our boat the larger 16,000 BTU unit is located Port side behind the settee in the Main Salon.  You get to it from beneath the settee, which is a storage area, and also behind it, which is another storage area.  The other unit (8,000 BTU) is located in the Forward Stateroom beneath the head of our bunk.  Once the mattress is pulled out of the way a 2' square hatch is revealed that's right above the A/C unit.  Finding a place for all the stuff that got removed for access was the most time consuming part.  The boat was a mess with no where to sit for most of the afternoon.

Once everything was installed we fired up the A/C water pump and checked for leaks.  The Condensators make a little chug-chug slurping sound but once everything gets closed up you can't hear it at all.  With no leaks we put everything back in it's place and fired up the A/C.  We flushed out the bilge using dock water and pumped it out with both the electric and manual bilge pumps to get as much out as we could.  There was still about an inch or so of water down there but that's the best we can do without using a shop vac.  Our bilge is quite deep, probably 48" down and about 18" wide and maybe 36" in length.  In the past with the A/C running we would get about 10" or 12" of water over seven days in there before the bilge pump would kick in and the standing water would get really pukey, stinky.  Part of our weekly routine, March through November, has been flushing out the bilge.  It's been like that for over four and a half years now, constantly flooded.  The only time it's not is when we run the diesel heater and shut down the reverse cycle systems.

It's obvious now that all of that was coming from the air conditioning condensation run-off.  I checked the bilge on Sunday and found the suction end of the hand pump was partly under water.  My biggest concern was that we still had water leaking into the bilge because that would possibly mean it was coming from our water tank.  Island Packet boats are notorious for having leaking tanks, be they water, fuel or waste.  The tanks are all located beneath the cabin sole, the floor, which means that replacing a tank is a nightmare and very expensive.  We've already replaced our waste holding tank and I don't want to have to go through something like that again.  With this in mind I started making plans to figure out if the water tank was leaking.  I was going to add colored dye to our fresh water tank and see if anything showed up in the bilge.  Cheri was going to be out of town this next weekend and I was planning to do it then.

This morning, Tuesday, I got the urge to take another look in the bilge.  We had a good rain all night and odds were good that the water level would be even higher due to rain water running down the mast into the bilge.  When I pulled up the floor plate and shined my light down there I was pleasantly surprised to find the water level had actually dropped maybe half an inch.  The intake box for the hand pump was almost completely exposed and dry now and just the floor of the bilge was still under maybe a half inch of water.  It was evaporating.  This is a first for La Vida Dulce and I can now see a time in the near future when we'll have a dry bilge.  This weekend, instead of coloring our drinking water maybe I'll get the shop vac out and pump the bilge dry.  I'd like to scrub it down with bleach and then give it a few coats of paint.  And then maybe stare at it for a few days.  A dry bilge!  What  concept!

I'd just like to point out here that when we bought the boat in September 2009 we paid big bucks for "experts" to install the A/C systems.  There are a number of things I've come across that I woulda done differently.  In the Forward Stateroom they ran the duct into the cabinet at the foot of the bunk and directed the air right at the head of the bed.  Even with the fan turned down as low as it would run it was still very annoying having wind constantly in your face.  This past Winter I pulled the old duct out and redirected it out the foot of the bunk so it blows at floor level and distributes through the room.  It still heats and cools just fine but is now much more comfortable.  The return for this system was a vent built into the side of the storage area beneath the bed.  The problem there is that the storage area has compartments that are walled off from where the A/C unit is located so the air can't get through.  The system was pulling air up from the bilge.  I cut 4" holes into the compartment walls to get better air flow.  In the Main Salon the through-hull is plumbed with pipe fittings (not hose) to the strainer basket and the basket is mounted rock solid against the floor of the compartment.  The strainer basket gets removed from the top but the glass container screws off for cleaning from the bottom.  There's no way to remove the container and the opening at the top is too small to reach into.  The worst thing they did though, was running the condensate drains into the bilge.  It just doesn't pay to have someone else do the work.  It's only going to be done to my satisfaction if I do it myself.

Another project we took on last weekend was getting our vegetable garden back in shape.  Two years ago Cheri got permission from the marina's owner to use a small piece of land for a vegetable garden.  It's located across the street from the marina near an old tobacco barn so we have water and power and a place to store our garden tools.  The owner let us use some planting boxes they had used for growing shrubs and trees for landscaping the marina.  The boxes are about 7' x 9' and made of 2" x 8" lumber.  We rented a rotor-tiller and dug up an area about 20' x 20' for four boxes with aisles around and between each one.  Our first year we lost pretty much everything we planted to the deer and ground hogs but we did learn a lot.  Last year we didn't do anything because we concentrated all our time getting ready for our trip to Bermuda.

This year we got a good early start on the season.  We weeded and turned the dirt in the boxes, then added about six bags of good topsoil to each one.  We're only doing two boxes this time to keep our work load down.  We then drove in wood steaks around the boxes and added wire fencing.  In the middle we planted 6' steaks and added a chicken wire roof to each box.  Cheri planted a bunch a veggies and we included two flats of marigolds to help keep out the bugs.  Some of the veggies included two kinds of tomatoes, cherry and heirloom beefsteak, zucchini, cucumbers, mint, oregano and strawberries that survived from two years ago, bush beans, thyme, Thai and regular basil, rosemary, lavender, artichokes ( a gift from a neighbor), and some summer squash.  With the help of a little Miracle-Grow I think we'll have a pretty good harvest this year.  Cheri is an excellent cook and enjoys being creative in the galley which is the primary reason we made the improvements we did last year.  Having fresh veggies from our own garden is really great and something not a lot of live-aboards can claim.  This will most likely be our last year for this so we'll try to make the most of it.

Friendly Fire - Bombing our Boat

At the start of every Winter for four years now we've closed the boat up tight, turned on the diesel heater and insulated all the ports and hatches as well as any interior hull surfaces that we might come into contact with.  This has worked well to keep the boat, and us, nice and cozy even in the coldest weather.  Because of the temperature difference between inside (70 degrees F) and outside (usually somewhere between 0 and 40 degrees F) there's bound to be condensation that forms inside the boat.  Condensation left unattended results in mold and mildew.  Of course, this only happens where there's poor air flow, which would be in places that you can't normally see or reach.  Of course.

So every Spring we field-day the boat and scrub it down from bow to stern with bleach and water and soap and more bleach.  It's a nasty job.  We hit every place we can get into and some spots really require a 12 year old dwarf contortionist but we do it because we're dedicated to keeping our boat really, really nice inside.  But there's always those spots that you can't see or reach.  These are the areas that are responsible for that lingering odor throughout the year and for the never ending runny noses.  We know it's not just allergies because when we travel and stay somewhere else our noses stop running.  Starts right back up when we return to the boat.  And every now and then, under the right conditions, we'll get a blossom of mold in the boat that tries to take over.  More bleach and water gets it back under control but we know it's always there, somewhere, just waiting to come back again.

Back in March we had dinner with some friends who had recently bought a previously owned Island Packet and are cleaning it up and modifying it to make it their own.  Over dinner they told us about a mold bomb (click here) they tried and were very pleased with.  This sounded like the answer to our woes.  We ordered two cans (just in case one didn't do the job).  The order came in on Friday and we tried it out before leaving Saturday to spend Easter with our family.

It works just like a bug bomb where you set it in the middle of your home, pull off the cap and press down the lever, then leave for a couple of hours while it fills your home with a mist, killing off any mold spores.  It's supposed to be good for up to 1000 square feet.  We opened up all the storage areas and the access to the bilge.  Our chain locker was the worst place, practically black with mildew, so we pulled all the chain and rode up onto the deck and opened the access door into the forward head.  We set the bomb off right in the forward head thinking it would cover all our spaces pretty well from there.  I think we might have about 400 square feet of total space in our boat.  Maybe.  Smaller than some people's closets.  We lit it off, closed up the boat and left.  I wasn't really aware of a problem on our boat because we constantly work at keeping it clean and Cheri uses these melted wax things from Yankee Candle to keep it smelling nice down below.  When we came back the following evening the boat smelled the cleanest it ever has.  It was immediately obvious.  There was no residue to clean up from the bomb so we just closed up all the cubbies we had left open and went to bed.  The next morning Cheri contacted me from work and said this was the first time in over 4 years that she hasn't had a runny nose.  Me too!  This stuff really works!  It's not cheap but it's worth every penny.  Highly recommended for all those stinky boats out there.  This stuff will make you love your boat again.  It's that good, I'm not kidding.

We do take pride in how clean our boat is.  It smells nice and fresh when we come home from our jobs.  At least most of the time.  We're still fighting stagnant water in the bilge caused by air conditioning condensate.   The two A/C systems were installed so the condensate drains into the bilge, guaranteeing that we always have water down there.  In warm weather it turns pukey within a week and we have to flush out the bilge.  The solution is to drain the condensate overboard and to do that we need a device called a Mermaid Condensator (click here).  This cool little device gets placed in the cooling water line that exits from the air conditioning condenser.  It T's off into a small tube that runs up to the pan beneath the A/C unit where the condensation collects.  The cooling water running through the hose creates a vacuum at the Tee and sucks out the condensation and dumps it overboard.  Now that's the way to do it.  We have two of these on order to the tune of $165 each from Defender.  That seems like a lotta dough (it is) but to be able to dry out the bilge and get rid of this occasional stink it's worth it.

Something else we worked on this past weekend was finishing up the dinghy cradle project.  It's not actually finished but we made some significant progress on it.  With the dinghy hanging on the derrick over the side we disassembled the cradle on the dock and sanded it down with 120 grit sandpaper.  For paint I selected an exterior latex primer/final coat with a semi-gloss finish.  I had the paint custom mixed to match the ivory color that Island Packet uses.  Three coats should give it enough protection to last a few years.  I also added bunk carpet to the rails.  I used aluminum strips (1/8" x 1/4" x 48") with holes drilled through every 7.75" or so and mounted them on the underside of the rails to hold the bunk in place.  It gives it a nice finished look but more importantly it provides a non-scratch surface to slide the dinghy onto.  To finish up this never-ending project I still need to install anchors in the deck so I can bolt it down securely instead of using tie-down straps.  I also want to make a zip-up cover for the dinghy.  Probably come up with more to do before the next time I write.

We're also working on replacing our mattress on the forward bunk.  We picked out a nice 10" latex mattress and saved up our bucks.  Cheri made a template using heavy brown paper because the mattress will have several interesting cuts to fit the space we have and the corners are more rounded than a regular stock mattress.  The sales lady said it was no problem with a custom order for the foam mattress.  On Saturday we drove into Annapolis to place our order.  When we opened up the template the sales lady immediately started back-peddling.  "I'm not sure we can do that!" says she.  "Give it a try" says me.  She's supposed to call us by the end of the week with an answer.  We do have several other options so I'm sure we can get what we want one way or another.  It would have been nice to get it locally because these guys will deliver it to the boat and take away our old one.  If they fall through it'll be up to me to muscle two mattresses through the companionway opening and around the dock.  Uhm, yeah.  That should be fun.

Springtime is a busy time for boat owners.  We still have to scrub down our exterior teak and re-oil it.  Also have to wash, polish and wax the exterior from the waterline up.  And re-paint the anchors.  And finish up all those chores that I managed to put off all Winter.  But it'll be nice to wash away the Wintertime blues, spend some time in the cockpit and get back out on the water.  I think that last one needs to go to the top of the priority list!

Jiffy Lube

Last weekend I took on the annual chore of servicing the engine.  While doing this it occurred to me that this will be the last time it's done annually and from now on will be done according to engine hours.  That's a pretty cool sign that we're getting very close to our goal.

We have a new oil transfer pump that was actually installed last year with the gen-set but I hadn't tried it out until now.  It's a Reverso 3012 with two valves and it can service two separate systems.  You can get them with up to six valves but we only need two.  The pump is mounted in the starboard cockpit locker and has hoses and fittings permanently mounted on the oil pans of the engine and generator.  Each line has two valves, one at the oil pan and another at the bottom of the pump.  There's also another hose running from the top left of the  pump that's about 6' long and is used to transfer old oil out or new oil in.

Here's how it works.  It's best to transfer the old oil when it's warm so it'll flow better.  Run the engine for a bit to get it up to temperature.  Shut it off and let it sit for half an hour to let the oil drain back into the pan.  Open the line valve at the pan and the other one at the pump labeled "engine".  Place the end of the transfer hose in an empty container.  My engine holds 6.5 quarts of oil so I used a couple of empty one gallon oil jugs.  There's a green switch on the right front cover labeled "Fill" "Drain".  Hit drain and it starts pumping out the old oil.  This is just a light duty pump so it's not real fast (2.5 gpm) but it is easy and clean.  The hose is attached to the bottom of the oil pan so I think it's probably more efficient than pumping oil out through the dip stick tube.  After pumping out the old oil I added two quarts of fresh oil and pumped that out too.  I was hoping to flush out more crud and leave clean oil in the line.  At this point I changed the oil filter, only filling it half way with oil since it's mounted horizontally on the side of the engine and filling it all the way would only make a mess.  I don't think it really matters if you do it now or after adding the fresh oil to the engine because the filter is located above the pan and the oil gets pumped up to it.  I decided not to use the Reverso to transfer fresh oil into the engine and just poured it in at the oil port on top of the valve cover.  I was thinking there's probably still plenty of dirty oil in the hose and I didn't want to pump that back into the engine.

When I first tried to use the pump I ran it for a minute or so, waiting for some sign of oil but got nothing.  The pump had been installed by Hinckley Yachts when they put in the genset.  They did a nice job of installing everything but they didn't prime the pump.  The manual doesn't hint at priming the pump either and in fact says the pump is self-priming.  Sorry but this one needed priming.  I poured clean oil into the end of the transfer hose to get some oil down to the impeller.  This took a while because the oil had trouble getting past the air trapped in the hose.  I finally got maybe half a cup of oil down there and it started pumping oil as soon as I fired it up.  The transfer hose is 3/8" and had a 3/8" male pipe thread fitting with a cap to prevent oil leaking out when it was stored away.  Good idea but the 3/8" fitting won't fit inside the opening of a gallon bottle of oil because of the hose clamp.  I could have just removed the hose clamp but instead changed the fitting to a 3/8" hose barb and added a short length of clear 3/8" tubing so I could better see the oil as it's being transferred.  To the end of this I added a cap (minus the clamp) for when it's not being used.

After changing the oil in the engine I replaced the fuel filters and flushed out the glass bowl for the primary filter.  I still need to flush out and replace the coolant for the engine and then take on servicing the gen-set.  At this point I was out of time though because Cheri had the tequila sunrises and cigars ready to go.  A guy can only play with his toys for so long.  Sooner or later ya gotta get down to serious business.