Mike
09/23/2008, Annapolis, MD

September 22... Annapolis

I spent the morning working on our engine log... basically making sure that all our maintenance for the year was entered properly. It took some cross referencing between our Blog and the Ship's Log but after an hour or so was confident that the Engine log was current. Then we headed to the Harbormaster's office to check in and fill out the paperwork. We will be here about 3 weeks and moorings can be rented by the day, week or month. Last year we made the mistake of renting weekly and wasted some money. It saves us about $75 to rent for a month.

On our way to town we found "Morning Glory" in the mooring field and stopped to say Hi to Doug and Helen. We had a nice chat and ended up with a dinner invitation.

Besides our stop at the Harbormaster's office we also needed to find an ATM, stop at the AB Store (Dinghy), visit Dan at Sailrite, get some batteries for the camera, stop at Fawcetts and... find a place for lunch. We decided on The Acme Bar and had their special of Rockfish, slaw and fries which was great.

Back at the boat we wasted what remained of the afternoon and whipped up some pesto pizza to take to dinner.

On our way to dinner we stopped at "Nauti Nauti" and said hi...we had ended up anchoring near them quite a few times in the Bahamas.

Doug and Helen were originally from Michigan. Helen went to State and Doug to Michigan Tech. After a few years of boating they want to live ashore and do some other things. Helen wants to go back to being a school counselor... Doug's a little iffy about the work thing. But... they think they have a buyer and hope to find out soon.

We had a very nice evening with them and ate way too much and motored back to Sapphire in a rising wind.




September 21st... Rhode River, MD

Our plan for the day was to head up to Annapolis. It is only about a 2 hour sail east to the light house, north a little and then back into the City. We had a nice brunch on board and waited until about noon, hoping for the wind to pick up enough to sail. It didn't happen.

There was very little wind in the Bay but enough boat traffic to make for a moderate chop. It was Sunday and a gorgeous day so everyone was on the water: sailing, fishing, sunning.

We arrived almost in time for the 2 pm bridge opening on Spa Creek and had to spend 30 minutes motoring around the Navy Yard, Ego Alley, and the mooring field before making the next bridge and heading up Spa Creek. We knew the area that we wanted to stay in and luckily there was an empty mooring. We got settled in and took a dinghy ride up Spa Creek and around the area before heading back for some supper.


September 20th... Rhode River, MD


The alarm was set so to that we could make it to breakfast (doughnuts and coffee) at 7:30. Camp Letts, where the Gam was held, has a boat house and dock.
Registration and breakfast were held in the second story of the boathouse overlooking the River. We ran into Jim and Nancy of "Solitaire", had a couple of doughnuts and wandered around the camp prior to the first speaker. We also took this opportunity to motor back to the boat to fetch our yard sale items and returned in time to set up. All of the items that were to sell that day were gone in the first fifteen minutes. In fact everything sold except our printer, a zinc that won't fit our propshaft and a hunk of closed cell foam that we thought someone might want.

The speakers were excellent, and the company was even better. There was a seminar entitled "Advanced Diesel Engines" that was really good and another by a lady by the name of Pam Wall who gave a presentation on "Outfitting for Blue Water." I attended a demonstration on electricity while Kathy to one called "Provisioning and Cooking." We spent the better part of the day with Jim, Nancy, of "Solitaire", Jay and Diana of "Far Niente" and Kate who was a kindred spirit and friend of Jay and Diana.

We ran into folks whom we've met during the last year and met a few that we hope to run into again in the future.

At about four there was a cocktail hour followed by dinner. We had not signed up for dinner so said our good byes and headed back to "Sapphire"

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Mike
09/23/2008, Edgewater, MD

There were 3 islands where we anchored in the Rhode River. This is a picture of High Island, which has nearly washed away.


September 19th... Rhode River, MD


I worked on the wind bugger all day while Kathy dealt with computer/ printer/ driver/ installation... problems.

We got cleaned up in the afternoon and headed to shore for the first of the SSCA GAM activites which entailed ... mostly drinking wine. We met Mark and Julie of "Rachel" whom we saw in the Bahamas but never really met.

The wind bugger is working great but no electricity is getting to our batteries. There is an ancient controller (basically just a diode) that must be bad. I will probably just buy a controller and see if it works ... before taking it back to the store.




September 18th... Rhode River, MD

After coffee... I removed everything from both of our anchor lockers. There is enough stuff stashed in these lockers to outfit a third world navy... and it was time to get rid of some of it. One of our reasons for attending the SSCA Gam is to attempt to sell or give away some of our unwanted items: Kathy's old sewing machine, a printer that is in good working order, at least one anchor and some other small things. The anchor lockers however, gave up mostly junk.

After sorting, I had a good sized garbage bag to show for my efforts and moved on, without pause, to the WindBugger. We had hoped to add a wind generator this season but it's not going to happen. So...it was time to repair and use the old one or get rid of it.

Tearing it apart was not too big a deal... I'd done it before, and the electrical components looked fine. There were some magnets that needed to be re positioned and epoxied to the casing but after a good cleaning ... there might be hope. I cleaned everything and put the magnets back where they belonged and hoped for the best. We'll see tomorrow if the thing works.

We worked another crossword puzzle and then lowered the dinghy and took a ride around the anchorage before supper. The anchorage here is large there is easily enough room for 100 boats...currently there are about 25, none of whom we know.






September 17th.... Rhode River, MD


We left the anchorage about 8:30, saying good bye to Rick and Linda as we passed. The weather was great but the wind was on the nose for the whole trip north to the West River. We had some good sailing, but in truth, most of the time the motor was running. It was quite a hike from the Solomons to the West River and we didn't want to deal with this place in the dark... hence the motor.

In the Rhode River we found lots of room to anchor among the 15 boats that we found. It seems like a very nice place to spend a few days. Mostly trees... not too many "starter mansions."

We spent a pleasant evening working out a Times crossword puzzle and watching our chili simmer.

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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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