Davits!
14 October 2008 | Annapolis
83, Sunny
Clang, clang, clang, clang. The gates to stop traffic from crossing the bridge are coming down. 7 am and the sky is still twilight. The exodus of the sailboats in our anchorage and mooring field on Spa Creek begins. The show is over and the migration of southbound boats begins except for a few stragglers - our selves included. Our migration will continue soon enough, once we have our davits on, shopping done, and boat back in order.
After coffee and orange rolls, we decided to see how Sapphire had their davits set up and to invite them for breakfast tomorrow. They had had a busy schedule of visitors so we waited. But oops to late they were gone. Drats! Sapphire is the other Bayfield from Michigan .We were going to start out the same time as them last year, but it was not to be, and danged if they didn't beat us again. Hopefully we'll meet up again! So we cruised around looking at everyone else's dingy davits that were left in the marina, then came back and tried to put it all together. Once we had it figured out in our mind, (this was a process too) we started drilling the holes and discovered that it wasn't going to work correctly. Part of the stern railing was cockeyed so while our careful measurements to center it on the transom went superbly, but the davits didn't work out as planned. Sooo, back to the drawing board, it was a most difficult time but we think we got it figured out. With a few modifications we managed to get them up, minus 2 set screws overboard,oops, a rubber mallet overboard, oops, and a locking nut in the lazaret somewhere- oops. So we've now lost overboard, the above mentioned, some glasses, the end of a boat hook, a whole boat hook minus the rubber handle, a ballpean hammer, a screw driver, and we're still counting. So for those wanting to track us, follow the tools. Wayne has a new theory that there's a magnetic attraction between tools, boat parts and water.
We managed to get the davits up minus the crossbar before dark. The crossbar needs to be cut to whatever dimensions we have it set up for so that will be tomorrow. We hope to eventually mount our solar panels on that crossbar - it's an inch and a quarter stainless tube -Much bigger than our other stainless tubing on the boat.
Chicken legs for dinner tonight mmmmmmm.....