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.

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July 6th... Annapolis, MD

After coffee today it was time to do something about our mounting pile of dirty clothes. The Laundromat is about a half mile walk near the State House and although the place was busy, there was little waiting for machines. I walked back to the boat to get an hours worth of work accomplished, but soon found that I needed some electrical fittings so it was back to shore and over to Fawcetts.

In the parking lot next to the Fawcetts there was a farmers market in full swing but I didn't have enough cash to buy much. By the time I got back to the Laundromat, Kathy was just finishing up and we made our way back to the boat where we dropped off the clothes and headed back to hit an ATM and then the farmers market.

We had some lunch onboard and measured for cockpit cushions and side panels before heading out to Sailrite on the other side of the Creek in Eastport. After talking to Dan the man we were back to the drawing board and left empty handed to rethink our plan and return tomorrow.

Kathy spent some time in the afternoon working on trying to adjust the tension on the sewing machine while I finished up wiring and testing the Link 1000 that we installed yesterday. Although there will be some fine tuning to do, everything seems to operating as it should.

I got an email from Jim about rebuilding our starter and followed it up with a call. It sounds like it should be done by the time we get to Michigan.

Although it was overcast all day with thunderstorms in the distance, we only got about 10 drops of rain.

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July 5th... Annapolis, MD

Our task today was to install the Link 1000 that was purchased a few days ago. Its purpose is replace the remote controller that came with our Freedom Inverter/Charger and to allow us to monitor the state of charge in both our battery bank and our starting battery.

(Sam...you should probably stop reading here)

Since there was not good place to mount the controller in our nav station, my first job was to manufacture an "L" shaped teak bracket about ten inches to mount to one of the side panels. I dug out the saw, drill, sander and dremel and went to work as soon as the rain let up enough to be a little dry. Our clean cockpit was no more.

After lunch we began in earnest. The sole (floor) had to all come up to get to the wiring. Since no negative wires can be attached directly to the battery bank, I had to first disconnect and rewire lines from the windless and solar panels which is a whole lot easier said than done. Next we mounted a shunt on one of the cross braces. Then we had to snake a wire from the nav station, behind a circuit breaker panel, behind three drawers, through a tiny hole already filled with too many wires and finally to the bus bar located under the floor. We had to disconnect one of the existing wires, tie a string to it and then pull it out. Then the new wire was attached to the existing wire and both were pulled back through with the string. It took about 3 tries but in20 minutes al the wires were in the right places.

The new wire to the nav station was actually 4 twisted pair of 18 gauge wire 6 of which are wired into the control panel which was the next challenge. The tiny wires stripped twisted and fed using needle nose pliers into holes that were way too small and then tightened in place with a tiny screw driver. (six wires = one hour)

Next I had to make a cable to attach the negative bus with the load side of the shunt which entailed cutting the heavy battery cable with a hacksaw and attaching cable ends. (without a crimper ...which is now on the list of things to be purchased.)

With the new cable installed we began the process of attaching the opposite ends of the 6 tiny wires as per instructions.

By this time the day was done so we left the rest for tomorrow. The sole went back and we picked up the mess. While Kathy was making dinner I put a coat of finish on the bracket that took me all morning to make.

As all boat people are painfully aware, working on a boat is a little different that working on a house. On a boat even the smallest task means tearing everything apart to the point that it us unlivable. Simply getting the tools out is enough for total destruction. In a house you can always escape to another room, or go sit in the yard. In a boat there are no "other rooms" and yards are hard to come by in an anchorage.

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