Have a Day!

In my last entry, Warehouse Creek, I mentioned some prehistoric fish that surrounded our boat Friday night as the sun went down.  We looked them up and are pretty sure they were striped bass and they were spawning.  We were surrounded by these incredible fish that some folks will spend a lot of time and money trying to catch.  We were feeding them wads of bread.  We probably coulda just dipped our net in and snagged a couple without even trying.  It was quite a sight and even better now that we know what they were.  Some of them were that big too, I'm not kidding.  That's my fish story and I'm stickin' to it.

Back in February I came across an ad that was placed by a guy named Vince who has the same model boat as La Vida Dulce, an Island Packet 420. He had ordered some really nice leather cushions to replace the ones he had in the Main Salon.  He was trying to find an owner for the old ones before he got stuck with two sets of cushions.  I wrote to him and asked for pictures and more info.  He didn't have any pictures and the boat was under a layer of snow up in New York state.  He did say they were dark blue and in "like new" condition.  I told him we weren't in a big hurry and could wait until he found time to get down to the boat.  March rolled around and he sent some pictures.  Wow!  They looked really great.  Our cushions are in good shape but they still look worn from service in the charter fleet despite our best efforts to restore them.  Truth is, they look downright shabby next to these.  So we wrote back and made him an offer he couldn't refuse.  I've been waiting 39 years to say that.

Last Friday we loaded up the car and headed out on a five hour roadtrip to Haverstraw Marina on the Hudson River, about 30 minutes up from New York City.  We camped out overnight in a hotel and met Vince bright and early the next morning at the marina.  It was something like 20 degrees out with patches of snow on the ground.  His boat is on the hard until the icebreaker gets that far upstream, probably some time in July.  He welcomed us aboard and we got our first sight of the cushions.  They were just as described and in near perfect condition.  We formed a chain and loaded them all up in our Ford Escape, a pint sized mini-SUV.  He even gave us the mattress from the forward cabin since he had ordered an innerspring mattress to replace it.  We didn't need it but figured we could keep the extra fabric and dump the foam when we got home.  This turned out to be the deal of the century.  I think we cut a fair deal on the price and we all felt pretty pleased.  Vince turned out to be a really nice guy.  We enjoyed meeting him, talking about our boats, and discussed trying to get together some time in the future.  I'm thinking this would be a really nice sail, up through the C+D canal, up the coast to the Hudson River and then up the river to his marina.  Probably be something like a week or 10 days round trip if we really took our time.  Cool!

So, we're driving home with the inside of the car stacked to the roof with cushions.  I missed my turn going into New Jersey and ended up going across the George Washington Bridge into New York.  Cost me $9.00 to make a u-turn!  Driving back through NJ we stopped to pay the toll and the chick in the booth had a mighty nasty attitude, kinda like she had no time for whitey.  After we paid I said "have a good one" and she says "have a day".  Not "have a nice day", couldn't make that much effort.  Great representative for the State of New Jersey.  So now Cheri and my favoritest saying is"have a day".

We got the cushions home and they look great!  The difference is really incredible.  I told Cheri we just added $10,000 in value to the boat.  The darker color really adds some pizzaz, makes the interior look richer, colors deeper.  Really brings out the color in the teak.  Sweet.

So, we thought it was nuts up in New York with snow on the ground when only a week ago we were sailing in 70 degree weather.  Sunday we woke up to an inch of snow on the dock.  Gadzukes!  Never take anything for granted.

Warehouse Creek off Eastern Bay

Chart Showing Warehouse Creek

Pictures From Our Warehouse Creek Trip

Thursday, 3-17-11, was forecast to be excellent weather, continuing on through the weekend.  We used my recent birthday as an excuse to take a four day weekend and spend some time on the hook.  We spent most of the morning taking care of our regular weekend chores and finally headed out past the breakwater around 1100.  We're concentrating on having Cheri experience all parts of sailing first hand so for the next few months she's the skipper and I'm first mate.  She took the helm while I handled the lines leaving the slip.  This chick is a natural.  Won't take long before she's teaching me.

We had three days to blow and wanted to be able to sit at anchor for most of that.  Our primary choices for anchorages were the Choptank River and Eastern Bay.  When we got out into the middle of the Chesapeake the winds were light, 10 to 12 knots, and blowing out of the SE.  We decided to make the most of that and headed up to Eastern Bay.

From Herring Bay it's almost a straight shot on course 075 into Eastern Bay, cutting across the north end of Poplar Island.  With the light winds we were only making about 5 or 6 knots but it was a beautiful day and we were in no hurry.  Once in Eastern Bay we sighted R2A and drove for a spot halfway between it and Long Pt., which is on the south-eastern tip of Kent Island.  There's some shallow water that extends off this point and taking this course kept us in deep water, mostly 30'.  Once past Long Pt. we lined up R2A and the mouth of Cox Creek and headed north, roughly on course 010.

The entrance to Cox Creek is clearly marked by red 2CC and we held that close on our starboard side.  Once inside the creek the channel is centered between shores and about 13' deep.  All along both sides of the creek are large homes with private docks extending way out there to get to deep water.  It's good to keep this in mind because the channel is fairly narrow and the water on either side gets shallow quickly.  The charts show a marker, red nun 4, farther up but it musta been washed out in a storm because we didn't see it.  Just past this spot is the entrance to Warehouse Creek, off to the left.

We're a bare bones operation.  We don't have a chart plotter or GPS or radar or any of the high-dollar high-tech instrumentation.  At least not yet.  For now we have paper charts that are reasonably up to date and a compass that's accurate within about 5 degrees, some really nice binoculars and a depth gauge.  On the south side of Warehouse Creek are a few homes and the channel is about 30' out from the end of their docks.  As we headed in our depth gauge quickly went from 13' to 6'.  We backed down hard and swung to starboard and watched the depth return to 13'.  Remember the game "Operation"?  It's kinda like that.  We took it slow, 3.5 knots all the way in, dodging port and starboard to stay in the deep water.

There's only two houses on Warehouse Creek, both towards the entrance on the south side.  The second one in is called Batts Neck Plantation on the charts.  It's not historical since it has a swimming pool and tennis courts but it's a big ol' dump with lotsa square footage, numerous outbuildings and over 400 acres.  I looked it up on the internet and there may have been a plantation on this site at one time but I think this house was built in the 1980's.  This is the last building on Warehouse Creek and the shoreline beyond and to the North is natural with marshland, tall grasses and forest.  We dropped anchor in the widest part of the creek just out from the "Plantation".  This spot has about 8' depth with a muddy bottom and is pretty well protected from all sides.  We set anchor around 1830 with about 55' of line out.  Later on Friday night the wind got up to 30 knots out of the NW and we stuck like glue.  I know this because I checked on it every two hours and finally went and sat in the cockpit at 0400 and waited for the sun to come up.  What, me worry?

So, we're anchored and got all settled in and had a Bloody Mary to toast the fine day.  For dinner we had home made crab soup and then settled down to watch a movie.  About 5 minutes into the movie our cool-man 37" LED flatscreen went nuts and the picture got all weird looking.  We were concerned about causing damage so we shut it down.  It didn't take long to figure this one out.  When we're away from the dock we have a power inverter that takes 12 volts DC from our bank of "house" batteries and creates 110 volts AC so we can use our coffee pot and TV, among other things.  The problem here is that our inverter (Xantrex Feedom 2000) is "old school" and doesn't provide what's called "pure sine" voltage.  Compared to the picture above, our sine wave would be chopped off at the top and bottom and maybe even kinda ragged on the rise and fall.  This creates havoc with sensitive electronics.  Looks like we'll have to look into a small inverter to provide clean power for things like our computers and home theater.  We'll eventually upgrade our system with more storage (batteries) and increased supply through additional solar panels, wind generator and a diesel generator.  When that happens we'll probably be looking into a new inverter too.

Friday was absolutely gorgeous with temperatures in the mid 70's.  We had blueberry pancakes and cinnamon coffee for breakfast.  Mmm, mmm, good!  I spent part of the afternoon chasing ghosts in our electrical system and Cheri kicked back and enjoyed the peace and quiet. I eventually sat down and buried myself in a good book out in the cockpit.  It got so warm we had to open up the enclosure to let the breeze blow through and considered shorts and T-shirts for the day.  Friday night's dinner was pork chops.  We try to eat well to keep from feeling like we're camping.  Towards sunset we noticed things poking out of the water all around us.  At first we thought they were turtles because they looked kinda rough, almost prehistoric.  Cheri broke out the binoculars and found they were fish, about 1' to 2' long, cruising slowly at the surface and what we were seeing was their dorsal fins.  I have no idea what kind of fish these were.  I'm thinking Jurassic Park.


Like I said earlier, the wind kicked up Friday evening and neither of us got much sleep.  When we first set anchor the wind was out of the SE.  It was now blowing out of the N and WNW at 30 knots.  I was concerned the anchor would pull loose and we'd wind up on the beach.  I kept going up topside to check my bearings and everything was fine.  OK, check my bearings?  When we first anchored I took sightings with the compass to easily identifiable spots all around us and wrote them down for later reference.  If the boat moved more than just swinging on the anchor these readings would change.  This is the old fashioned way of doing things because nowadays all you have to do is set the alarm on your phone's GPS and it'll wake you up from a sound sleep.  In fact I have this feature on my phone.  I just don't use it because just like those fish, I'm a dinosaur.  So at 0400 it was really blowing hard and I finally got up, made some coffee and sat up in the cockpit and waited for the sun to come up.  If anything happened I could fire up the engine and keep us in deep water.  While sitting there I saw gusts over 35 knots but I did notice that the water never got very choppy because this spot is relatively protected.

Saturday morning was windy and chilly, in the 40's.  We decided to pack up early and head back home.  We pulled anchor which was challenging in a 25 knot blow.  It took two tries before I finally got it and it brought with it a huge clump of mud and oyster shells.  While I hosed it off Cheri headed out the creek.  After we made the turn into Cox Creek it was difficult to tell where the channel was.  There was a streak of muddy water coming off Warehouse Creek and it made the water look shallow, like a sandbar.  We veered around it and immediately ran hard aground.  We backed down hard, full throttle, churned up the mud and clawed our way back to deep water.  We then veered back over to the middle of the creek and continued on like it never happened.  Running aground is a time-honored tradition on the Chesapeake Bay.

We continued under power all the way out to R2A before setting our sails because I wanted to check our knot meter for accuracy.  The charts show the distance between CC2 and R2A so I timed it to get a reading.  Turned out to be right on.  We held a steady course from R2A all the way back to Herring Bay with the wind varying between 15 and 25 knots.  Once we got near Herring Bay it kicked up to 30 knots and we had a pleasant sail in under full Main and Staysail at 8.5 knots.  We dropped our sails after rounding R2 and motored back to our slip.  The entire way over from Eastern Bay we never saw another boat until we got into Herring Bay and then it was just one other guy and his two kids.  As we came through the breakwater we looked back and saw them out there heeled way over, rail in the water.  Looked like they were having a ball.

So, I think we found a nice spot to hide away on Eastern Bay.  It had a few drawbacks that are worth noting.  The swampy areas are probably a real source of bugs in warmer weather.  The location is several miles south of Stevensville, which is at the eastern foot of the Bay Bridge on Rte 50.  During our stay we were aware of a low background roar of traffic but you had to listen for it.  We didn't find it intrusive but it might be worse in the Summer, especially at 0200 when sound seems to really carry.  It is a nice spot and we'll add it to our list of places to re-visit during other seasons.

Eastern Bay is big and has lots of potential anchorages for us to try out.  The Miles River branches off at the eastern end with many great looking spots, including the town of St. Michaels.  There's also Shipping Creek, Crab Alley Bay and Prospect Bay to explore.  Considering that this is all within a few hours sail from where we hang out at Herrington Harbour North I'd say we'll be spending a lot of time on Eastern Bay.

Pre-Season Chores

This past Thursday (3-10-11) I got home from work around 1900.  The wind had been blowing fiercely all day out of the SE and we also got around 2" of rain.  The water level at our dock was high, about 3" below the dock, which is about 3.5' higher than normal.  Usually La Vida Dulce's deck is level with the dock.  Look at the second  picture and you'll get a good idea of how much higher it was. The boat was way up there and Cheri was waiting in the cockpit for me with a 5 gallon bucket that I could flip over and use as a step to get aboard.  We tied a leash onto the bucket handle and clipped it to the railing on our boat so it wouldn't try to swim away.  Sit bucket, stay.  Good bucket.

When I got aboard I found that the marina had killed the power for our dock because of the high water.  Cheri had fired up the diesel heater to keep things warm and we kept it going through the night.  I wasn't sure how much power this thing would eat up through the night so we limited the use of lights and went to bed early, around 2130.  I woke up at 0200 and found that the power had been restored and we had both systems running now, the Espar diesel heater and reverse cycle system, so the boat was plenty warm.  I secured the Espar heater and took a look outside, found the water level had dropped about 6", the dock lines were doing OK and everything was as it should be, so I went back to bed.

 Friday morning Cheri had an appointment in DC and while she was out Brian Butler from Conlyn Marine Services came down to the boat to take a look at the engine.  Conlyn is the local Yanmar dealer and they're located right at Herrington Harbour North.  Brian's a real nice guy and spent about an hour going over things, explaining everything  to me and answering my questions as he went.  At $92/hr this was money well spent.  I told him about our fun experience with the prop shaft coming loose so he took a close look at that.  He explained that the shaft has to be installed so there's no run-out or vibration when it's turning.  Oops.  When I did the repair we were floating around outside the breakwater and I neglected to get my dial indicator and check the run-out.  Turns out I got lucky because it was dead on.  Brian also checked the hoses, alternator belt, coolant, oil and filter and the fuel filter, the motor mounts, turbo charger and the tranny.  We fired up the engine and ran it in gear and inspected the exhaust, which looked kinda smokey to me.  He said the smoke is normal when the diesel is cold and it did clear up as the engine warmed up.  He noticed some fuel droplets in the exhaust which indicated the injectors needed attention but said it wasn't a problem just yet and could wait until next season.  He gave me a list of things to do which included changing the oil and oil filter, replacing both primary and secondary fuel filters and replacing the alternator belt.  The belt was still in good condition but needed to be tightened up and he suggested replacing it and using the old one as a spare.  Brian said that over-all, the engine was in really good condition.  It's got 3,600 hours on it, which is high, but he said that Yanmars last forever and take all kinds of punishment.  With basic maintenance it should last a long time.  That's just what I wanted to hear.

That afternoon I changed the oil and oil filter.  On a car's engine you change the oil by pulling the plug at the bottom of the oil pan and drain it into a container.  It's a quick and fairly easy process, takes maybe fifteen minutes and removes almost all the old oil from the engine.    On our boat there is no access to the bottom of the engine and the oil has to be sucked out through the dipstick tube.  I found a spot on-line where they suggested using a hand pump with a hose pushed over the top of the dip-stick tube.  It's really clean and simple but from what I know of engines, the dip-stick tube does not extend all the way to the bottom of the oil pan so there's no way you're going to get all the old oil out.  Not even close.  As soon as you put in your fresh clean oil it gets contaminated with the old oil and will circulate dirt throughout the engine, which is just what we're trying to avoid.  You might as well run that old oil for another season or two and save yourself the time.  I got a pump that uses a skinny little tube that gets stuck down the dip-stick tube and forced down into the bottom of the pan.  This pump is pretty cool because once you've built up suction it continues to pull oil out until it's 8 quart reservoir is full at which point a float switch will break vacuum and stop the process.  Hopefully.  Our little Yanmar engine holds something like 6.3 liters of oil (1 liter = 1.056688 quarts, US, liquid - I had to look that up) so we're not going to fill this baby up even if we get all the oil out.  I hooked it up, made vacuum and watched.  This is a slow process because of that skinny little tube and took forever with just a dribble of oil coming out.  When it started sucking air like it was done there was less than 5.5 quarts in the reservoir.  I pumped it a few times to get better vacuum and really jammed the hose down hard to get more oil.  I went through this about 5 more times before I finally felt confident that I had gotten as much of the old oil as I could.  After replacing the oil filter I added about 6 quarts of 15w-40 oil, ran the engine for a few minutes to circulate the oil, checked the dipstick and found the level to be perfect.  OK, this took way too long and made a mess too.  The technique I saw on-line could be modified to get all the oil out and would be way better than this.  I think I'll try that next time.

Sunday I worked on the fuel system.  Our engine has the primary fuel filter mounted on the engine compartment door in the galley.  This is comprised of a glass bowl with a 30 micron Racor filter inside.  The top has a T handle that screws off for access to the filter and the bottom has a brass plug that can be removed to flush out the bowl.  To the left of the filter is an electric fuel pump with a toggle switch that can be used to prime the system after you change the filter.  You need to prime the system to get any air out of the lines that might cause the engine to stop running.  The previous owner had used 10 micron filters in the primary and when we bought the boat there was a bag of 20 spares.  They must have really bad fuel down in the BVI.  Brian Butler told me not to use the 10 micron filters because it puts too much pressure on the fuel pump and the secondary filter catches the finer stuff anyway.  I asked him if I could trade him my 10's for some 30's but he said he had no use for them.  Bummer.

While I was playing with the engine Cheri was  getting a head start on the Spring cleaning.  We decided we wanted to really go over the boat with a fine toothed comb, really spiff it up before the warm weather got here.  We were originally planning on starting on it around April 1st but guess what?  April Fools!  Something else came up on the schedule and all of a sudden we only had 2 or 3 weekends to get it done.  We had planned to take it on together since it's such a big job but with the change of plans we decided to divide and conquer.  Cheri doesn't fool around with Spring cleaning and tears stuff apart to expose all the hiding places, cleans out the cracks and crevices with a toothbrush, scrubs everything down and then oils all the wood.  She managed to get through the forward head and our stateroom in the time it took me to service the engine.  No, I didn't plan it out that way.  I just work really, really slowly.

Next thing to take care of is the cooling system.   I'm going to pull the heat exchanger and take the core to Conlyn where they'll put it in a chemical bath to remove any build-up inside.  I'll replace the hoses connected to that and also replace the impeller that pumps the water through the heat exchanger. The plan is to get this done this coming weekend.  Of course the weatherman says it's going to be really nice this weekend with temperatures in the 70's and ten knot winds.  Figures.  Might just have to go sailing instead.

Good Times, Bad Times

Led Zepp fan?  Click this.

 This weekend was fairly mild and with sailing season right around the corner there was quite a crowd in the marina.  Most people were working on their boats but there was also a number of people just walking around with their kids and dogs.  Kinda like going to the park for the day.  Then there was the usual power squadron crowd on the next dock over, started drinking at 1000, yelling and screaming by noon, totally obnoxious by 1400.  We suddenly realized how pleasant it's been this Winter having the place all to ourselves.

Saturday we splurged and bought a Blu-Ray player for our home theater.  We'd been copying our DVD's onto the hard drive and found that we couldn't do the B-R movies.  Some of our favorites are in B-R and we figured it was cheaper to buy the Blu-Ray drive than to replace the movies with regular DVD's.  So we picked up a nice Samsung model that up-converts so we can get 1080p on regular DVD's too.  Also has a lot of other nice features which we'll probably never use.  What's really nice is it does a handshake with our Samsung 37" flatscreen and controls that too.  When we sat down to watch our movies we were blown away by the quality of the picture.  OK, now we have a pretty nice system.  And all we need is enough power to run it when we're out on the hook.  That's another project for the list.

The weather report for Sunday (2-27) was calling for temperatures in the high 50's, winds out of the SSW at 10 kts. and overcast skies turning to rain in the early evening.  It sounded like it might be a good day for getting out on the Bay but we had some chores to take care of first.  Cheri is working on a quilt for a niece's new baby which is due some time in March so she wanted to finish it up this weekend.  I took on the laundry so she could finish her sewing.  We both finished up by 1100, had the boat secured for sea by 1130 and were on our way.

We cruised out of the marina at a nice 6.2 knots.  As we approached the breakwater I gave it a little more throttle to give our little Yanmar diesel a chance to stretch her legs at 2500 rpm's.  As engine speed went over 2000 rpm's the boat began to vibrate.  I mean visibly shake.  What?  I'm thinking broken motor mount, maybe something trapped in the prop.  Who knows?  I reduced throttle and the vibration stopped.  I handed over the helm to Cheri and went below to investigate.  Easiest access to the engine is through the galley.  When I opened the door to the engine I shined my flashlight around but didn't see anything suspicious.  I did a full look-see beginning at the front and worked my way back.  As the light hit the transmission I noticed the propeller shaft swinging in a wide arc at 1500 rpm's.  Uhm, it's not supposed to do that.  I called up to Cheri to drop it into neutral and swing the boat around to head back to the marina.

Access to the rear of the engine is in the aft cabin under the bunk.  It's also under about 1200 pounds of junk that we've stashed back there.  That was planned out well.  Took me about 5 minutes to get access to the engine and when I raised the panel I could clearly see what the problem was.  The propeller shaft is connected to the transmission through a flange with four bolts.  Three of the bolts were scattered around the trough under the engine.  The fourth bolt was hanging on for dear life, but just barely.  Yikes!  I guess it's about time to do some maintenance on the engine!

I don't think we've put more than 40 hours on the engine since we bought the boat.  I had been putting off maintenance until March, thinking I'd have her freshened up for the upcoming sailing season.  Since March begins tomorrow I'll be getting started on that right away.  I had been planning to do things like change the oil and fuel filters, replace the impeller and all the hoses, maybe clean the heat exchanger and adjust the valves.  Now I think I'll go over this baby with a fine toothed comb.  Maybe start with the propeller shaft and work my way forward.

OK, so back to the story.  We're sitting dead in the water, with the engine off to save my ears.  We're slowly drifting back towards the entrance to the harbor just outside the breakwater.  We have plenty of room to drift for a while and there's not a single other boat in sight.  I scrounged around under the engine and located all the bolts and lock washers and bolted the shaft back in place.  Getting up from the bunk I notice this huge red stain on the cushion and realize I've shredded my arm on a hose clamp or something.  Cheri's still manning (womaning?) the helm and asks if we're ready to head out.  I take a minute to wash off my arm and find it's not as bad as it looked.  OK Baby!  Let's go sailing!

We fired up the engine and ran it up to 2500 rpm's.  Sounded good, nice and smooth.  We headed down towards red #2, raised the sails and killed the engine.  That instant when you stop the engine and all you hear is wind and water is one of the most awesome moments in sailing.

We sailed out into the Bay on a course of 90 degrees magnetic.  As soon as we got out there the wind died down and we just ghosted in an Easterly direction at about 3 knots until 1500.  I had been watching a tanker coming up the Bay for quite a while.  He was apparently moving pretty slow as our courses were converging and we were only going about 5 knots.  As we came up to the edge of the deep water channel I luffed our sails a bit and waited for him to pass.  It took forever.  As he finally went by I decided we'd better head for home and we came about to course 270.

The temperature in our cockpit enclosure was 70 degrees up to this point but as we sailed home it dropped like a rock.  Clouds had blocked out the sun and the temperature plummeted to 55 degrees.  We were making pretty good time heading back to Herring Bay, 6.5 knots and heeled over at 8 degrees.  Cheri went below and fired up the diesel heater which quickly restored the cockpit temperature to a comfortable 65 degrees.  While she was down there she cooked up a batch of peanut butter cookies.  We sailed back close hauled, steady on our course with flat seas and a constant breeze.  I'm talking perfection here.  I barely had to touch the wheel!  And we had peanut butter cookies!  Life is good!  As we rounded red #2 for the return run home we dropped the genoa and staysail and let the main out on the port side, running before the wind at 3.2 knots all the way back to the harbor entrance.

We were back at the dock by 1630 and celebrated our "perfect" sail with a cup of hot chocolate mixed with peppermint Schnapps.  We earned it.  Despite our little mishap the day turned out to be very relaxing.  Aside from that one tanker we were the only boat out there.  With the light winds, glassy water and the occasional flock of Canadian geese overhead it was very mellow.  Cheri suggested we should go out beyond the fish traps some time and just drop the anchor and hang out for the day, enjoy the peacefulness of having the entire Chesapeake Bay to ourselves.

This is Wintertime in Maryland and I'm thinking it's pretty nice.

Dreams Do Come True

Thursday night (2-17) we finished getting the boat ready for sailing.  I got home from work at 1900 and when I stepped through the companionway I found that Cheri had already done 90% of the work.  All that was left to do was install the footman loops and 1" webbing straps for the two flatscreens (home theater and computer) and 2" straps and loops for the ottoman.  Job done.

Friday morning we got off to a late start due to sleeping in late, goofing off, drinking coffee and waiting for the morning air to warm up a bit.  Unfortunately we were on a timeline here because of a commitment to be at our dancing lesson at 1900.  The plan was to be back in our slip by 1600 so we'd have plenty of time to get dressed, go out to dinner and still have time for an hour drive to our destination.  Good plan.

We headed out at 1100, following one other boat out past the breakwater.  We motored down to R2 in Herring Bay because the wind was right on our nose, coming out of the SSW at about 15 knots.  We raised the sails as we rounded the marker, shut off the engine and enjoyed the silence.  Cheri was at the wheel while I played with the sails, very pleasant start to our day.  The outside temperature was 60 degrees (F) but with our brand new cool-man cockpit enclosure we were toasty enough that I was wearing just jeans and a T-shirt and seriously considering taking off my shoes.  I'm talking about total success here with the enclosure.  Throughout the day it kept us comfortable, even in the afternoon when things got a little nasty.

Here's a link to a chart of where we went (Earth NC).  It might help to see where some of the markers are.

After passing G1 we entered the Chesapeake Bay on course 120 degrees magnetic and headed for the mouth of the Choptank River.  Visibility was restricted because of a heavy haze and we couldn't see the Eastern shore at all and had difficulty picking up distant markers.  We held to our compass heading, adding about 5 degrees to compensate for current, and came up dead on at each marker.  The wind picked up a bit once we were out in the Bay, increasing to 20 knots steady and gusting to 25.  As we approached R82 about half way across we were really moving, averaging over 9 knots with a top speed of 10.3 knots.  With the wind off our starboard side we were heeled over about 10 degrees and makin' like a bakery truck - haulin' buns.  Nice!  When we broke through 10 knots (check it out) Cheri made up some Bloody Marys to celebrate our first sail of the year.  Mmm, mmm, mmmmm.  This is, indeed, the sweet life.

The wind died down to about 15 knots as we entered the Choptank.  We picked up G7 just below Tilghman Island at 1300 and decided we had better head back home to get in by 1600.  I'll tell ya, it was pretty tempting to just keep on going and blow off our plans for the evening but we're all growed up and responsible so we came about and headed home on course 330 degrees magnetic.

The haze burned off and the sky turned from grey to a brilliant dark blue but the going was slow, about 6 knots in a 14 knot breeze.  Around 1500 we were halfway across the Bay and I knew we weren't gonna make it back by 1600.  So much for being responsible, huh?  The surface of the water was pretty glassy and the breeze was variable.  Looking off to the West I could see the water was textured and darker due to some wind so we came about to 220 degrees magnetic to try to pick it up.  As we sailed into this fresh breeze it quickly increased to 35 knots.  We were sailing close hauled and heeling over about 20 degrees but we were really moving now.  After passing a tug/barge coming up the Bay we came about and headed North.  We reduced sail by furling the genoa and proceeded under full Main and Staysail averaging 8.5 knots.

As we sailed past Chesapeake Beach the winds were gusting over 40 knots, blowing out of Herring Bay.  We decided to sail further North to GC 83A before turning into the Bay as this would give us a good angle for our next tack.  The plan was to make one tack and sail in towards Herrington Harbor South.  Of course with the wind blowing off the shore at a steady 35 to 40 knots we got pushed back out into the Chesapeake on our first tack and had to come about again and head North once more.  We did this two more times before finally getting in as far as HHS (aka Rose Haven Harbor) at G 1A where we dropped the sails and motored in the rest of the way to HHN.

I'd like to point out here that we were sailing hard, heeled over at 15 to 20 degrees and making about 8 to 8.5 knots throughout all this.  Cheri and Bella were taking a nap in the cockpit through most of it.  We tacked a number of times in rough conditions and it was all completely effortless.  This is because we were sailing without the Genoa, just the Main and Staysail.  Our Staysail is attached to a Hoyt self tending boom (more info here) so there's no line handling required once the sail is set.  Coming about is just a matter of turning the wheel, pretty much like driving a car.  Well, except that the car is leaning over and crashing through the waves.  I'd also like to note here that our cockpit enclosure kept us very cozy throughout all of this.  Excellent!

So, as we motored back to HHN Cheri went down below and made some homemade chicken vegetable soup because we weren't gonna have time to go out to dinner.  It was 1700 as we backed into our slip with 30 knot winds blowing across our port side.  Took us a while to get in but we handled it pretty well, if I do say so myself.  I stayed at the helm, goosed the engine in forward and reverse, bumped the bow-thruster side to side and spun the wheel like a madman while Cheri handled the lines.  It actually looked like we knew what we were doing!

We made it to our dance lesson with two minutes to spare.

Are You Ready?

Monday night (2-13) the wind was really howling.  The radio reported gusts of 50 kts and I believe it.  Every now and then the boat would just lay over and it sounded like a freight train was coming through.  Really something.  The wind was blowing out of the West and it took all the water in the creek with it.  We've been through this several times this Winter already but this was the best one so far.  The water receded all the way to the first slip on the dock, just two slips down from ours.  We were definitely sitting in the mud by the next morning because the wind was still blowing but the boat had stopped rocking.  All that wind had two direct effects on us.  It kept us awake all night with the noise and in the morning it made it really tough getting on and off the boat.  If you ever had a tree fort when you were a kid you can picture what we had to go through to get onto the dock.  Well, maybe I tend to exaggerate a bit but it was a climb none the less.

The weather report is calling for this Friday to have temperatures in the high 60's with 16 knot winds out of the SW.  Cheri suggested that we should go sailing.  I love that woman!  This is one of those heat waves I've been praying for.  Just a short blob of warm weather so we can go out on the Bay for a day, give us a taste of it to help us get through the rest of the Winter.  Everybody else has their boat on the hard and wrapped up in plastic so we'll probably have the entire Bay to ourselves.

This being our first time out since last October (yikes!) we're going to have to spend some time getting the boat ready to go.  We've been living aboard just like we were in a house and there's stuff that's been set down or hung up without a thought as to how it would behave heeled over at 20 degrees or crashing through 15 foot seas.  As if......

So, we've got a few projects to take care of, things to be nailed down or put away.  The aft head has become a walk-in closet / storage unit.  We've got all of Cheri's ankle length skirts and coats hanging in there.  There's also all the high priority appliances that won't fit anywhere else, such as the coffee maker, hot-air popcorn popper, crockpot and pressure cooker.  That list is in order of priority by the way.  If we can get this area under control then we still have to work on the forward stateroom.  In there we have our new home theater which isn't quite finished, meaning that it's not even close to being ready to go to sea.  I think we're gonna need some duct tape or something.

Aside from all the little stuff that needs to be stashed we have three or four major pieces that would create havoc if they started bouncing around the interior.  We brought in an ottoman to the Main Salon that's made a big difference in the comfort level out there and has also given us a great place to store Cheri's sewing machine.  By itself it probably weighs 20 or 30 pounds, not exactly a lightweight.  With the sewing machine and a few other things jammed inside I'm sure it weighs more than fifty pounds.  I plan to add two footman loops to the base of the starboard side settee and we'll strap it snugly up against that using 2" webbed strapping.  Our cool-man 37" flat screen also needs to be secured for sea.  Originally I was planning to make up some nice teak blocks with brass hold downs but for now I think I'll use the footman loops and web strapping here too, only 1" webbing for this one.  This'll probably become one of those projects that never gets completed because it got a "temporary" fix.  I guess that's OK as long as it looks good and does the job.  Another spot that needs securing is the 23" flat screen monitor for our Mac-mini at the Nav Station.  This is mounted on an arm that has tension adjustments on each joint so you could really lock it down if you wanted.  I just recently got it adjusted the way I like so it's easy to swing out of the way to get to the power panel behind it.  I had originally planned to use a hook and eye to secure the arm against the cabinet but now I'm thinking this would be a great spot for some more footman loops and webbed strapping.

OK, so aside from 300 pounds of small stuff scattered around the boat I think we have it all under control.  We have a regular routine of putting stuff in designated places each time we go out sailing.  I say "we" but it's really Cheri who has this all organized.  Anyway, during the sailing season we have it all down to a science and can be ready to go in about 20 minutes.  This time it'll take a bit longer so we're working on it ahead of time so we can get an early start.

Woohoooo!  We're gonna go sailing!

Ice Ice Baby

Living aboard La Vida Dulce has certainly been a learning experience.  The first part wasn't too bad because the weather was still nice and we had weekends of sailing to look forward to.  In my inexperienced mind I thought that the winter wasn't going to be all that different and even planned on some weekend sailing during those heat waves in January.  Uh-huh, dream on dude.  Life on board in the wintertime is a whole different game.  First and foremost, it's just too cold to go sailing.  There have been days when I thought to myself "we should be out there" but the reality is that my crew has no interest in getting frostbite and I haven't tried sailing solo yet.  To be completely honest, I'd probably get out there and be miserable.

Of course going sailing is pretty much a pipe-dream anyway because since mid December we've been iced in for all but two days.  OK, so I'm exaggerating, but not by much.  According to the National Weather Service for December and January we had 10 days with the high below 32 degrees (F) and 60 days with the low below 32.  I'm talking frozen creek here.  So sailing has been pretty much out of the question unless you have a boat with 1/2" steel plate in the bow.  Being iced in has been interesting in it's own way.  I started out being overly concerned about ice building up around the hull and would run the engine at 1500 rpm's in reverse for an hour or so twice a day.  This served to stir up the warmer water below the surface and break away the ice for a pretty good distance around the boat.  The dock lines held us in place at our slip and the water just flowed forward across the hull.  It worked great but it was noisy and used up precious fuel which now has to be carried in by hand.  I eventually stopped doing this and settled on using the boat hook to break up the ice about a foot or so out from the hull all the way around.  Even when the ice on the creek was 4" thick it stayed thin around the boat due to my boat hook and the natural motion of the boat.  We do have to keep an eye on it though.

OK, so ice is pretty much the main theme here (I would also like to mention that we've been making ice cubes in our freezer, one tray at a time, and it's been working out very nicely.  Just gotta have those Bloody Mary's!)  Since we've been iced in so much it's created a problem that we didn't foresee.  With our new handy-dandy gold plated ($$$ cha-ching) 60 gallon holding tank we can last about 2 weeks between pumping out.  I'm a pretty simple guy, don't mind making the trek up to the showers on most occasions.  Cheri on the other hand is a total "Princess" and demands the comforts of home.  I don't blame her at all here, in fact I think she deserves it.  Way back in the beginning I promised her this wouldn't be "camping" so we've made every effort to make life on board as comfortable as possible.  And why not?  It's our home, not a pup tent!

Herrington Harbour North makes a big deal about being "green".  They have tidal marshes and nature walks and recycling stations and lotsa rules about working on your boat in a "green" manner.  The owners are very active in "Save the Bay" kinda stuff.  The owners, by the way, are a father/son team, not some faceless corporation, and they operate things on a personal level.  They also preach customer service.

So here's the rub.  Since we've been iced in for most of the time this winter we hired a company, Safe Harbor Sanitation, to come to the boat and pump out our holding tank.  These guys were supposed to have some kind of agreement with HHN for this service.  Some companies provide this service using a boat and come right up to your slip and do the dirty deed.  These guys have a system mounted on a cart and they can come out onto the dock which is what's needed when the creek is frozen over.  So we called these guys and arranged to have them come out every two weeks and take care of things.  They came out at the end of December, once, and then we never saw them again.  Two and a half weeks went by and we called them a number of times, left messages, and never heard from them.  After three weeks we were feeling rather desperate and asked HHN to launch a boat to break the ice so we could get over to the pump-out station.  We explained our situation and they grudgingly helped us out.  While they were breaking the ice for us I walked out the dock to the pump-out station and found they had "winterized" the system and there was no way for us to get pumped out.  Uhm, we seem to be having a breakdown in communication here.  I talked to the folks at the office and they made phone calls and finally we got a hose hooked up and pumped out our tank.  The folks at the front office said they'd be happy to help us out next time as long as we gave them enough notice to get things set up.  OK, sounds good.  Great customer service.

Two weeks go by, it's time to pump out again.  Still no word from Safe Harbor so on Tuesday I call the office and ask to have arrangements made to pump out on Friday.  "No problem" they say.  Friday comes and the station is all set up but we're iced in.  The entire creek is iced in all the way out to the breakwater.  I walk over to the office and on the way there I run into the yard manager who is the dude in charge of all operations, including setting up the pump-out station and having the ice problem taken care of.  I asked him about getting the boat out to clear a path for us and he said no-way, it's too expensive.  He suggested we hire this company, Safe Harbor, to do it and I told him my sob-story.  No tears from this dude.  He said we should do like everyone else at the marina and use the facilities over by the pool.  Huh?  There's ten other boats at HHN who are live-aboards during the winter and supposedly we're the only ones asking for pump-out service.  The marina thinks all these people are using the "facilities".  Right.  I know the owners of two other boats and both of them are pumping their tanks into the harbor.  This is illegal by the way.  It's also pretty disgusting when you figure that one of them is also using a water maker.  Gag me with a spoon.  That's like putting your well right down the hill from your septic tank.  So I ask the guy what happened to customer service and what about the extra $100/ month we pay to be live-aboards..  He says that covers the extra toilet paper we use.  Wow, what a deal!  I walked up to the office and asked for some pump out tokens and they made sure I understood that we were the only ones using this system.  Grrr.  They really need to think about what they're doing here.  We're trying to "do the right thing", the legal thing, and they're trying to make us feel bad about it.  So now we're starting to realize that live-aboards are just a pain in the ass to this marina.  Why let us stay here in the first place?

I returned to the boat and told Cheri we were gonna start looking for another marina.  I explained what happened and she picked up the phone and called the owners of the marina and relayed our story.  Half an hour later the ice was broken up and the "son" half of the father/son team was sitting on our boat discussing our problem and promising a solution.  Wow!  That's fast action!  This guy explained about their interest in the environment and how their goal was to be the "greenest" marina on the East coast and at the same time to be known everywhere for their customer service.  OK, that's great but the staff has a bit of re-training to go through.  He said he was going to reinforce the company goals at the next staff meeting.  I picture everybody getting chewed out after being told about some unnamed boat owner who's been having problems getting pumped out.  Hmmm, I wonder who that could be?  I'm pretty sure the staff will soon have a new nick-name for the owners of La Vida Dulce.  But maybe not.  Maybe this'll all turn out for the best.  Maybe HHN will truly become Super-Green and be the Shining Star of all marinas on the East Coast.  Maybe they'll even provide dock-side pump-out service in the winter.  And just maybe I'll wake up tomorrow morning and be twenty years younger.

So, yikes!  I've really gone on and on about this.  I started out to say how different life on-board is in the winter.  Ya don't go sailing after all.  You eat, sleep and work during the week and then on weekends you eat, sleep and work on the boat.  Plus you get to haul 25 gallons of fuel down from the parking lot every weekend.  And break ice away from the hull.  I'm sure there's more.  Maybe the biggest challenge is being cooped up inside because of the weather.  It's kinda like spending every weekend being locked up with your wife inside a walk-in closet.  It's only gonna be as good as you make it.  People keep saying that we're "Living The Dream".  I just hope that when I wake up we can go sailing.

Note:  This is an update from almost three years later.  As it turns out Herrington Harbour Marina is now considered one of the top marinas on the East coast.  It's the top "green" marina on the Chesapeake Bay.  Within a year the owner invested in a pump-out boat and completely rebuilt the pump-out system on the dock.  They provide year-round service at a fair rate, $20 per month.  So they did become "Super Green" and they did become a "Shining Star".  I'm sure it sounded like I was being sarcastic a few paragraphs back there but it was simply me being prophetic.  Unfortunately I did not wake up 20 years younger.