Mike
10/02/2009, Annapolis, MD

September 27th, 2009 Annapolis, MD
It rained most of the night and was still cloudy in the morning. The forecast called for clearing so we were hoping that we'd see the sun eventually. After some coffee I ordered a cockpit shower that we've been talking about for a few months even though we don't have the money.
Then I made a pot of chile to heat up the cabin a little. Mornings are cool here but as soon as the sun comes out it warms up nicely.
With the chile simmering I attacked the manual bilge pump that hasn't worked since I rebuilt it last year. First I had to empty the gararge to get to the hatch at the foot of the berth that leads to the lazarette. Then I had to empty the Lazarette enouth to crawl in behind the pump mounting. With Kathy in the cockpit with a screwdriver on the other end, I used my new ratchating end wrenches to remove the nuts.
With the pump assembly out I looked it over and could find nothing amiss. I opened the ends and sprayed the diaphram with WD -40 but could see nothing at all out of place. After an hour we lowered the dinghy and I took it over to "Simpatico" to see it Greg could see anything wrong. It is really a simple machine. On the up-stroke water enters the chamber though a flapper valve, and on the down-stroke it is pushed out a joker valve as the back presure forces the flapper shut.
The problem, which Greg discovered, was that the flapper valves were installed backwards so that they didn't ever close all the way. It would pump water when the lift was 3 feet but couldn't create enouth vacuum to lift water from the bottom of our bilge. It took about 30 minutes to open the chambers, switch the valves around and screw the the thing back together. One more project off the list.
I had a bowl of chile and then Greg and I went over to visit Dave and check out his wiring porject. Dave and Peg are going to travel south as soon as the boat is ready... they are shooting for sometime in November. Greg had promised to show him how to clean his winches but before they started, I returned to Sapphire to reinstall the bilge pump and put the boat back together.
The sun peeked through occasionally in the afteroon and it was pleasant. We took a dinghy ride up Spa Creek at dusk to check out the boats. Our end of the creek is about full with anchored and moored boats, although as the boat show nears the number will probably double again.
On our way back we found Scott at the dock and stopped to talk. He is going fishing up north this week and offered us his car in his absence. It will work out great.
Being exceptionally lazy... we had chile for the second time today. In the cool night air, it was just as good as it was in the morning.

September 26th, 2009 Annapolis, MD
We continue to make steady progress toward putting things in crusing order. This morning I put a patch on the dinghy where it had rubbed on our davits. The rubbing problem has been solved with some closed cell foam pads covered in fabric, lashed to the uprights. There is another small rubbing spot that I will deal with another day.
There has been some interest expressed by a few of our new friends that they would like to have a boat tour of Sapphire so we invited Greg, Jo, David, Peg and Stan over for snacks at 4:30. Having done so... we had some cleaning to do.
I deployed a secondary anchor which will limit our swing a little and will hopefully prevent dragging in this soft mud as the cold front passes in the next couple days and brings some wind. It was rainy in the afternoon as we listened to MSU lose again. At half time I went to town to check for packages, pick up some gasoline and grab a bag of ice.
We read a little before our guests arrived and I made some salsa.
Everyone had a good time and professed to "love the boat".
The Tigers were on at 8 pm so we listened to them awhile and then watched some video before bed. It rained steadily most of the night but we were warm and dry ...


September 25th, 2009 Annapolis, MD
It was rainy early in the day but began to clear by 9am. After some great French toast, I dug out a piece of starboard and some tools to make a mounting bracket for our new strobe. After sawing and sanding it into shape I drilled two holes to mount between the two stern rails on the starboard side. With a couple of small bungies for safety, it looks professional.
After cleaning up and vacuuming, I glued up the a cutting board that we use as a spacer between the stove and it's top.
By then we decided to head to town to stop at Fawcetts and CVS. We also walked through the Market at the end of Ego Alley which we hadn't done this year. Walking up Main Street, we had a late lunch and a beer at the Acme before heading back to the boat.
We read for a while in the afternoon and listened to the Tigers in the evening.

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Mike
09/26/2009, Annapolis, MD

September 22nd, 2009 Annapolis, MD
After coffee and a shower, Christy came by to transport me to the dock at Truxton Park, a trip of about 50 yards. I started my walk to West Marine and had gone about 2 blocks when Bill stopped to pick me up in his work truck. He was on his way to the same destination and knew I'd be walking. I picked up some l.e.d mast lights and a few other parts and then walked to a hardware store for some U bolts to rebuild out dinghy lift. Then it was down the street to the Dinghy Store. After paying our bill, I rode back with our fixed dinghy to Truxton Park with Freddie who converses primarily in Spanish.
Back at the boat Kathy had finished a few of the little sewing projects while the machine was still out, but still had to repair some bad stitching in the dodger.
I installed and checked our new bulbs in our mast lights and then climbed back up to the top. The light installed easily but I wanted to look at the wiring for the wind meter as well. After an hour I repaired one bad wire but it wasn't enough to make the thing work. By that time my feet were numb and it was time have Kathy lower me back down.
It took both of us to sew the dodger. Kathy driving the sewing machine, with me managing all the material and stratoglass. In an hour or so we had another necessary project finished.
Kathy packed up a load of laundry and we walked up to Skip and Gerry's condo to throw in a load. I left her there and took the dinghy to town to check for packages, stopping at "Simpatico" to tell them that they would have new neighbors tomorrow. I picked up the mail and returned to the condo just in time for snacks and a drink.
Back at the boat Kathy had one more sewing repair that we had just noticed and I added some grommets to the items that she made this morning.
We were full of snacks and skipped supper but had peanuts as we listened to the Tigers game.

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Mike
09/26/2009, Annapolis, MD

September 21st, 2009 Annapolis, MD
After coffee we lowered the dinghy and removed the motor. Then I retrieved Amy's kayak from the rack and her paddle from Scott's boat. After launching and cleaning it up enough to sit in, I paddled it over to the launch at Truxton Park to meet the dinghy repairman.
I paddled back to the boat and had some breakfast. Then we dug out our mast ladder, removed the main sail and hauled it up. I loaded up with tools, tied on a safety line and headed up with Kathy taking out the slack in the safety line with every step.
I removed our tricolor, covered up the connection and climbed down.
I'll take it to one of the shops around here to get the correct bulbs.
Then we got the sewing machine out and set it up on the deck just forward of the companionway and lowered our staysail. We have noticed that the stitching of the sacrificial fabric was falling apart in spots and needed to be re-stitched.

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