by Kay Muir
September 2010
Hi everyone, Don and Kay here. We finally arrived in a hot and humid Washington. Our journey from Oz was long and exhausting and thanks to the Ozzie weather, we were delayed from the Sunshine Coast. Fortunately, the flight from Sydney was also delayed, otherwise we would have missed it. We only caught it with minutes to spare.
Due to the delay we were late into LA and it took forever to get through customs and immigration. It was like a movie scene, running from one terminal to another. You know the one where someone is desperate to get to a flight to either catch someone or stop them getting on the plane. The only difference was I was running—or trying to—wearing my heavy walking boots, a t-shirt, jumper, a fleecy around my waist and carrying a rucksack with my Musto jacket attached. Meanwhile, Don is running, pushing a trolley with suitcases etc. Pity I didn't have time to video. Needless to say when we got on the plane we were dripping and bedraggled.
Washington was an hour’s drive to were we are staying with friends in the country. I saw the boat for first time on Friday. It seems huge in comparison to Sequel and because it has been in the boat yard for 6 months, is very dusty and dirty. Never mind, the bleach queen has arrived! Just hope they have enough supply in Annapolis. There's a fair bit of work to do before we go in the water.
3rd August: Now working on the boat, pulling things apart and discovering lots of things, installing new equipment. We are staying close by in old town Annapolis, and hope to have the boat in the water in about 1 week.
21st August: Weather has been hot and humid, 40°C and 80%+ humidity. Great conditions for working in the boat, getting into all those small, ungetatable corners! We are now in the water, which is a dark murky and uninviting colour, with the addition of stinging jelly fish.
The natives are friendly and helpful, most of whom are ‘comfortably’ built. Not surprising when you see the portions of food. We stayed in down town Annapolis for a week at a B&B with a ‘diner’ where we had brekky. No toast and Vegemite in sight but lots of pancakes, waffles, eggs with fried potatoes and endless coffee. I checked the rest of the menu and it was hard to find something not fried, with processed meat/cheese and covered in a
dressing. So I looked at the healthy options bit – here’s one for the dietitians – first on the menu - baked potato with butter and sour cream and then add toppings!
I’ve managed to get myself a job as a temporary fill in sailing instructor at the sailing school here at the marina. Don’t know what I get paid, but if someone wants to pay me to sail and have fun, then I’m not going to refuse. Have also joined in one of the Thursday night races.
As yet, have not sailed our boat but the engine works and we have put the sails on. All is going well, if not slowly, as it does on a boat. The boat as you can imagine is somewhat of a mess. Ceiling off, floor up, tools everywhere and cupboards emptied to see what is in them, but not yet put back. Don’t think we’ll be moving for a bit. Surprisingly, the engine is still in tact and in the engine ‘room’. The joy of it decorating the saloon is yet anticipated.
I’ve been dragged around several electronic stores looking for monitors, cables, connectors and other exciting stuff. I’ve threatened to take Don to a craft and fabric shop and look around for an hour. Lots of everything you can buy here that you never knew you wanted or needed or would ever be likely to use but nice all the same.
30th August: The inevitable has happened. Well, it was only a matter of time before the engine or parts of it at least ended up not in the engine room. The turbo charger was not well, so it was dissected and the offending part identified, attended to and checked. Meanwhile, parts of the engine were distributed sort of equally between the saloon and the cockpit. After the op and parts were reassembled, it was declared that all was as well as
expected under the circumstances. However, a complete recovery could not be guaranteed within 48 hours and further tests may be required. It has been decided that the repairs may only be temporary and in order to ensure a complete recovery, a transplant would be needed. The part has been ordered and we are awaiting delivery. I believe that the transplant will only take place when absolutely essential. Watch this space!
2nd September: The boat is coming together and at one stage looked very presentable inside, until the next project happened: cleaning the front cabin. Everything got moved out of there and eventually back again. ‘We’ had to put a new antenna on top of the main mast. There was wiring for the antenna but no antenna. Who knows where that went. Anyway, this involved Don climbing the mast with a recently found new (still in its wrapping) self mast climbing device, while I looked on (just to ensure that all was safe, of course). Apparently, the view was quite good from up there.
4th September: I polished up the handles so carefully that now I am the ruler of the Queen’s Navy. HMS Pinafore look out! And not just the brass, but the stainless steel, aluminium, vinyl, teak and anything else that gets in the way of my cleaning cloth and multi-purpose cleaning stuff. It’s not that I have an OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), but there is something satisfying in seeing the results of all that cleaning and polishing of a boat that has been standing on the hard for a year or more. I feel a bit like that fish in ‘Finding Nemo’; the one who gets Nemo to Sydney and has Alzheimer’s and sings – ‘Just keep on swimming’ (cleaning, cleaning, cleaning!). Maybe that explains why some parts are much shinier than others.
Meanwhile down below, Don is chasing wires, of which there are apparently several, some of which lead to useful devices like antennas and others which lead to nowhere. I’m sure he’ll figure it all out. I’m having trouble with what electrical stuff can be plugged into what. It’s very confusing (for me). The boat is European built, but the American electrical system is different. I’m surprised I haven’t burnt something out yet, but we won’t mention the week old fan that was trying to keep us cool!
12th September: What happened to summer? It seems that today someone decided to turn a switch from heating to cooling. It has gone from hot and humid to a little bit of a chill in the morning and at night. Today it even rained. This meant that the 3 times repaired leak has defied repair and is still leaking a little. We think water is trickling down some screw holes. Very annoying. More slightly damp clothes.
Yesterday, while it was sunny, I made 2 bicycle trips to the supermarket and loaded up with tinned stuff. The boat’s water line is slowly sinking. I should be fitter with the walking and cycling. It is a 600 step return trip to the toilets and showers and to collect the bikes. I make 10,000 steps a day easily. On the mention of provisions, I feel I should be given shares in Giant’s supermarket tinned section. I now have an intimate working knowledge of the section, what the specials are and how to calculate if the specials are really special. But can you get a tin of good ol’ Heinz or HP baked beans? There’s beans with pork, original Boston baked beans, Grandma’s original recipe beans with bacon, Aunt Flo’s tastiest beans but no BBs as I know them. What is the world coming to when you can’t get just ordinary BBs. There’s too much choice, but then we are in America. (Did I mention that food portions here are LARGE?)
We now have the stove working (shame). Prior to this we would occasionally get a Chinese take-away. This would do both of us for one meal with enough left over supplemented by a few more veggies for another meal. The meal is supposed to be for one.
15th September: The Dinghy: The rubber dinghy was unfurled from its bag and allowed to escape. The rubbing strip needed to be glued back on. Duly done, the dinghy was left on the foredeck (where else could we put it?). Instructions on glue said not to get wet for 48 hours. It had been a glorious day, as had the ones before that, but you guessed it. That night, it rained. So much for not getting the dinghy wet. The dinghy escaped with only a tiny part of
the strip coming loose.
The dinghy outboard engine: The dinghy came with a Johnson OB of unknown vintage which worked with a bit of encouragement but the throttle cable was broken and there was the possibility that something else could fail and not in the most convenient place. To the rescue! A relatively new OB was for sale at a good price. Bought without testing. When we got fuel and ‘filled’ the tanks, we didn’t. The fuel tank was broken. The person we bought it from had just gone away for a couple of days.
19th September: We have moved again! We are now at anchor. Almost like proper cruising now! Almost, except that we moved about 200m from the marina berth we were in. The boat was moved and I wasn’t even there to play with the new anchor, a Manson Supreme. I was out with the Sailing School having fun sailing around Chesapeake Bay. There are marinas on either side of the creek with about 300m between the outer berths of each, plus moorings and yet we are still allowed to anchor – for free. So, now we are at anchor with a dinghy, no outboard engine but we do have oars. Good job there is not much tide here and I had been Dragon Boat paddling prior to this.
21st September: Back to the OB. The fuel tank was replaced by the person from whom we bought the OB but it still wouldn’t start. OB was returned to purchase place by previous owner to be fixed. By late afternoon we had motorized propulsion. Turns out it was ‘dirty’ fuel.
22nd September: An endangered species on board. The species is only endangered because once we find it, it will become Extinct! The species is an amp eater. There is something eating the amps. It doesn’t have a huge appetite but each day some amps go missing. After following tracks for a while, the culprit was finally sprung. It was the generator.
It was feeding on amps from the starter battery and then feeding amps to the house batteries. To compound the issue the alternator was not well. So once again, another surgical procedure was required to remove the sick part. It was transported by bicycle to a specialist across town who confirmed a serious illness. However, he was also able to report that life-saving surgery could be performed, so it was left in his capable hands. In the meantime, a new one was purchased so that the old one would become the spare. How many spare alternators does a girl need? Well you can’t be too careful. The new alternator came home (by bicycle) and was given its resting spot only to discover that once embedded in, there was no room to move. It was too big and we needed a smaller one.
Now the belts, well there’s another story! Pick a size, any size and guess which one fits. It’s a bit like Cinderella! We have the foot just need the belt that fits.
24th September: We have definitely moved! Yesterday morning was another cycle trip to the alternator place to pick up a smaller alternator and a repaired one, plus different belts to fit. At nearly 90°F and no wind, I believe it was a real joy to have head and most of body stuck in an engine space for the third day running.
Finally, early afternoon we upped anchors and were away. I have now discovered why people choose not to anchor in the bay. There was sufficient mud on the anchor and chain to build a mud-brick house. It took about 20 minutes to slowly wash it all off.
At last we finally get to sail! The wind however, had other ideas. It decided to hide. I believe it was sucking instead of blowing. 0 – 5 knots from the southeast. Where were we heading? SE, of course to a gathering of the Seven Seas Cruising Association (SSCA) at Camp Letts about 10 miles south of Annapolis. The water was glassed out. Turned out to be an advantage as it happened.
Crab ‘fishing’ is an occupation in the bay and there is a minefield of crab pots, some have marker flags while others have only a small black or white buoy, hard to distinguish from a resting seagull. is it a buoy, is it is seagull? Oh this time it’s a duck.
Having carefully navigated crab pot alley, we arrived at our destination after an ‘exhausting’ 2 hour motor with sails carefully furled or tucked in their sail covers. There was quite a gathering of about 50-60 boats in a picture perfect setting of very still water, a rising full amber moon and a slight autumnal tint to some of the surrounding trees. The human content of all these boats along with associated dinghies collected on a very small beach on a very small island. More than enough people to sink the island!
30th September: Watch out - there’s a thief about! Check the date. Who stole September? Not to mention August. It’s hard to believe that it is October tomorrow. We had a good time at the SSCA and met lots of people who will be travelling south, some to Florida, some to the Bahamas and others to the British Virgin Islands, known around here as the BVIs. Haven’t met anyone going through the canal yet. From Camp Letts we mainly motored across to a lovely place called St Michael’s (not the home of M & S), once again dodging around in crab pot alley.
St Michael’s was once a thriving place during the oyster boom. It is now mainly a tourist spot with lots of B&Bs, restaurants – particularly crab ones and arty/crafty shops full of stuff that is useless, not needed, probably over-priced but nevertheless quite nice and tempting to buy. I managed to resist temptation – reluctantly. In the harbour both American and British flags were flying. The reason, according to legend, was that in 1813, the Brits planned to attack the town, but forewarned locals tricked the Brits by hoisting lanterns to ships masts and
treetops so that cannon overshot the town. Come to think of it, still doesn’t explain why they fly British flags.
We had a fair bit of wind and rain and I was promised a fair easterly wind for Wednesday’s sail back to Annapolis, NE of St Michael’s. You guessed it. Wind was northerly and very light. We did get the mainsail up for a little way whilst doing the crab pot jig.
Today, I am supposed to be out with the sailing school with some corporate team building thing while the corporate team race each other. Could have been entertaining, given that most are first time sailors. However, we are sat at anchor with a hurricane and flood watch current. There’s heavy rain and gusty winds. Needless to say, sailing is off. The dinghy, hanging off the back, is almost full of rainwater. When the sun reappears and warms the water, I could have a bath! The wind has gusted to 30 knots and there are boats bobbing about all over the place with masts rocking through 90 from side to side. Haven’t left the boat all day and must have gone through all the radio stations, all 100 plus of them and finally found two reasonable ones without ads every other minute.
All for now.
Cheers, Don and Kay.