July 7th... Annapolis

When things dried off a little I put another coat of finish on the bow pulpit and then went to work on putting the boat back in order. Breakfast consisted of eggs with really good bread from the farmers market. Next on the agenda was finishing up the measuring for our Sailrite order. There are only three Sailrite stores in the country and since one of them is less that a block away it makes sense to make some purchases.

Sailrite began as a company who manufactured sewing machines for sailors. They're heavy duty enough sew multiple layers of canvas and punch needles through plastic. What was once primarily a mail order business for sewing machines has expanded to a retail outlet for fabric, foam, plastic, and all the hardware necessary to make sails, dodgers, cushions and about anything that is needed on a sailboat.

Sapphire has a good dodger and a bimini with a roof section that zips in to connect the two. Kathy has sewn zip in sides that gives us shade but still lets some air through. What we need are two side panels that zip to the dodger to allow us to be outside when it rains. As it is we stay dry only if we are directly under the dodger. The side panels will allow us to sit and read in the cockpit without getting wet.

Having avoided cockpit cushions for 5 years we have found that on this trip we do enough entertaining that they might be nice for company. So that's another project.

We spent about an hour in the store (for the second day in a row) talking to Dan while he put together our order. Then it was back to the boat to get to work.

I cleaned three quarters of the water line while Kathy got the sewing machine set up and figured out how to start our side panels. The tension on the sewing machine that she thought was fixed ended up still being messed up. She got the top put together somehow. When it came time to sew in the plastic, I came in to help and what we found was that the old Kenmore just wasn't up to the task of four layers of Sunbrella with a section of plastic sandwiched in the middle.

We quit for the day and I was on the phone with Dan ordering a nice new sewing machine.

Later we dinghied ashore and had dinner at a place called the Boat Yard where we had a great meal.


July 8th... Annapolis to Galesville

Our plan today was to leave around noon and go back to West River to have dinner with friends. Before that was going to happen the anchor rollers needed to be replaced on the bow pulpit. I got everything in place and with Kathy wrenching from above and me from below in the dinghy, it only took us about 30 minutes.

With the dinghy up, ( to avoid duck poop in the night) the anchor on the port and Kathy reading on the port I noticed that Sapphire was listing in that direction just enough for me to finish cleaning the starboard waterline. I moved the generator to the port beam and in an hour or so had the hull looking much better.

Then it was in to shore to fetch some water. I picked up 20 gallons on the first trip and then Kathy rode in the next time to run a couple of errands before we left town. I loaded up another 20 gallons while she was busy. I made a third trip for another 10 gallons to top off the thank and then had some lunch.

We left the mooring field at about noon with a nice south breeze. After clearing the harbor with the wind on our nose we tightened the foresail and main and cheated into the wind as close as Sapphire could handle, giving up a knot and a half for a little southerly angle. We sailed across the Chesapeake to the Eastern Shore in a little more than an hour and then tacked toward the lighthouse that we had to clear to get into the West River. We had a much better angle on this tack and had a great 2 hour sail hitting 7 knots twice up the West River.

After anchoring in our normal spot and getting everything stowed and covered it was time to take a shower and get ready for dinner.

At 6:30 we dinghied ashore and met the crews of "Solitare", "Far Niente", "Veranda" and later "Molly Brown." It was nice to finally meet Jay and Di from "Far Niente" after following them to Georgetown and back. We had a great time and returned just at dusk.

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On water consumption. ... When we started this trip a year ago a full tank of water (100 gallons) lasted us about a week. Today the tank was full after adding 48 gallons and it has been 8 days since the last time we filled. We take about as many showers as we always have but are much more Spartan in usage. Dishes are washed once a day instead of after every meal. There have been no conscious cut-backs, but by simply being aware we've halved our water consumption.