Mike
09/16/2008, Solomons, MD

Septemper 15th... Solomons, MD


With a leaky hot water heater we have to keep the pressure water off most of the time. We still have a foot pump but our filtered water is plumbed into the pressure line. After our coffee this morning we turned it on for a few minutes to take showers and then headed to West Marine to see what they had in stock in the way of utility pumps.

It was a slow walk with my bad foot but we made it eventually to find that they had a pump that was almost an exact copy of the old one.

Back at the boat and after some lunch...(did I mention that it was a slow walk) we got to work. Kathy set up the sewing machine to finish some cockpit cushions for the seats over our propane lockers while I installed the new wash down pump and repaired the leak in the hot water heater.

By about 4 pm my jobs were finished and Kathy had sewn about as much as she could for the day so we quit and sat in the cockpit for a while before frying some fish and chips for supper

It was another beautiful day with temps in the high 80's and a nice breeze.


September 16... Solomons, MD


The wind blew from the north during the night and it was considerably cooler in the morning. We wasted an hour or two drinking coffee and reading the news on line before getting fired up for some work. I put the sink back in ... it has to be removed when I work on the water-heater.. and Kathy plugged in the sewing machine to finish the second jump seat.

It was cloudy and spit rain for most of the morning. We did take notice when our friends Rick and Linda on Sojourner pulled in and anchored behind us. They are on their way to Deltaville for a haul out to check some bottom work done last spring. We'll see them again at the boat show if not tomorrow morning before we leave.

After lunch we put stapled the cushion to the seat base for the second jump seat and finished up the helm seat cover.

The rain had stopped so I took Kathy to shore for a walk to the grocery and a return trip to West Marine. While she was gone I washed dishes and got a big surprise when I drained the sink... the drains were not attached properly and most of the water was on the floor. It took about 10 minutes to fix the problem but probably more to clean up the water.

Kathy radioed me about 3pm that she was ready to be picked up at the dock... and when we were back aboard I spent quite a bit of time attaching the new jump seats so that they wouldn't interfere with our lazarette door like the old ones.

The sewing machine was still in operation as Kathy finished up the cover for the helm seat. Unfortunately, when it was finished we couldn't fit the foam into the cover so it's back to the drawing board... and the store. The only solution is a larger zipper.

The sun should return tomorrow and we'll head north to the Rhode River which is just south of Annapolis.

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Mike
09/16/2008, Solomons, MD

September 14th... Solomons, MD

As I hobbled to the cockpit this morning with my coffee there was a splash close by which turned out to be a porpoise... with about 10 friends. They played around for a few minutes before heading up-stream.

We left our anchorage at about 7:30 and on our way out the Wicomico, were entertained by our porpoise friends for a mile or so before they tired of our company. We had great wind for a while but were forced to turn to a down-wind heading in an hour. ... or end up in the wrong place. We poled out the jib and prevented in the main in the opposite direction and for a couple of hours were looking good wing on wing.

NOAA promised 10 to 15 all day but by about 11am the wind calmed and when we fell below 4 knots... started the engine. Rounding Smith Point (southern side of the mouth of the Potomac) we changed course, reset the sails on a port tack, and turned off the engine. This was to become the pattern for the day... good wind for a while and then nothing. The last two hours were great with about 18 knots just abaft of beam.

The area that we like to anchor in the Solomons was quite full but we found a spot just behind friends on Fawkes, and settled in for what looks like a couple of days. They stopped over on their way to dinner and wanted us to join them but we're saving our pennies. (Since its last repair work, I am just about at the point where I think that our dinghy might last another season but Kathy says no... so were saving our pennies for the dinghy fund.)

It was 85 and sunny on the water today... a wonderful day to be out there. Up stream here in our anchorage it has been over 90 until about 7:30pm. With the breeze, it's been comfortable.

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Miike
09/16/2008, Great Wicomico River

September 13... Wicomoco River


We started the engine at about 7:40 to leave Deltaville. Neither of us had slept very well and were up early. As I began the process of retrieving the anchor, and turned on the wash-down pump there was nothing. I could hear the pump running but it wasn't pumping. Without the time to spend fixing or replacing it, I got out our bucket on a rope and 30 minutes later had the rode up and somewhat free of mud.

For about 2 hours we had a wonderful sail with 10 knots of wind from the north-west. Then it was calm. We motored sailed for a while but when there was little hope, furled all sails and motored into the Wicomoco River at about 12:30. Our first attempt at anchoring was a failure... the bottom was hard and the Bruce just bounced along. We found some deeper water with the hope of better holding and on our second try made the thing stick.

Our anchorage is a cove on the south side of the Wicomoco, a little up-stream from Reedville. It's a very pretty anchorage. We didn't really need to go to town and thought this might be a place to repair the wash-down pump.

I had removed the pump while under way and it looked older than the hills. I took the end off the pump and applied some electricity and everything seem to work alright.. After lunch I attacked it in earnest. First replacing everything and tightening all hose clamps and then testing with Kathy on the foredeck activating the switch. As it turned out the problem seem to be that the pump which is supposed to be self-priming ... isn't. It only has to lift water a few inches but... just can't seem to do it anymore.

Rather that try to resurrect the dead, we'll just get a new one in Solomons.

The other problem that we noticed on the way north was that our hot water heater ... which I had repaired a while ago, seems to be have the same problem as last time. I'll have to grind my failed repairs away and try again when we stop for a day or two.

It was a beautiful day here with temps in the 80's. It clouded up in the evening and there were thunderstorms in the vicinity .. but for us the night was quiet.

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