Kaimusailing

I kept following the Boat Angel auctions on eBay, interested in the 4 boats I had selected. I won the first boat, a Catalina 30, with a bid of $4,850. My limit was $5051, mainly because I intended to use PayPal and thus am restricted by my cash back credit card limit. I would have used the same limit on the 3 following boats. The next boat up, a C&C 30, went today for $5,100, I would not have won that auction. This boat is on the West Coast of Florida and in its description it says, “engine does not run”. It has a nice sail inventory, though, and would probably be a fun boat to sail to the boatyard for repairs. Next up will be a Lancer 36 in a few days.
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The few days are almost up. I battened down the hatches in the boatyard and fled the gulag in a rental car from Hertz, the providers of the Bankruptcy Buggy, a 2019 Nissan that the agent said was a higher mileage car from the fleet. He also said Hertz is on a campaign to sell a bunch of cars, so if you are looking for a second hand rental car, they are in a selling mood.
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I dread these long drives, but this time things went well, until the end of the road.
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I have a cheap MP3 player that I pump through a SONY boombox on pizza nights. In the rental car with the player plugged into the USB connector for power and the AUX connector for audio, I found I could control the player from the dashboard touchscreen. Astounding. It worked so well I was reluctant to change out the USB to power the cell phone and its Google Maps app.
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I crept into Maryland via a Nice bridge, that is, the Gov. Nice bridge over the Potomac. Traffic was less than what I remember and I worked my way up to my favorite wine shop, Christo’s in Ferndale, MD. I get no rewards for plugging something but hope they will continue in business.
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When the Maps directed me to the motel I checked in and said I would only need 1 night, not the 4 I had already booked via Priceline. The motel said they couldn’t change my reservation, plus I had already paid for it to Priceline, I had to have them reduce the fee.
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Priceline would not change my booking. They pocketed my payment for 5 nights and refused to do anything to help me. I had not used Priceline in a long time and this situation reminded me of why I had stopped using them. They offer a very special great deal, but it is contingent on them not revealing the name of the business that is offering the deal, in this case it was a no refund no changes contingency. I will not use them again, not after this one.
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The main thing I see up here in Maryland is the use of facemasks by almost everyone. The road traffic seems less but the driving style is the same. I found myself up to my old tricks on the DC Beltway. Everything looks greener here than down South in the boatyard.
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I stopped at a Walmart and wasted most of an hour of my trip to buy 3 things: a can of denatured alcohol, a roll of paper towels, and a package of Zip Lock bags. You put some towels in one of the bags, add some denatured alcohol, enough to saturate, and presto, you have a package of sanitizing alcohol wipes. While trying to find something to open the alcohol can I found a leftover zip lock bag with a few old wipes in it. I swabbed everything in that rental car that anyone may have touched.
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After a night at the awful motel I went to my doctor to get a lab slip to do my annual physical blood tests. The lab was in the same building and I was out of there quickly minus three vials of blood.
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At the Boat Angel, the Lancer 36 winning bid was $7,300. I would have lost that auction for sure.
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After the lab I stopped at Harbor Freight to purchase their padlock sets with matching keys. I intended to use them on the new Catalina. I went to the Bodkin to Cornelia Marie’s boat. We would drive to Annapolis to pick up a registration form from Department of Natural Resources, DNR who are now located in the DMV. Both were closed due to corona virus, I kind of expected that, I would have to download and print the necessary form and mail it in. All the while we were calling the previous owners and our story would change each time we called, we were stopping for lunch, we were not stopping for lunch, we had to go to the DMV to go to the DNR, oops they aren’t open So we had time to kill while the previous owner’s wife struggled to get a canoe to canoe out to see the boat.
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We drove around the neighborhood and it was beautiful and we were looking out on the Bay with lots of sailboats milling about. We returned to the address on the bill of sale and were told to wait another 15 minutes. Cornelia Marie took her puppy, Nori, for a doggy walk. I kept sitting in the rental car with the engine running to keep the air conditioning going. By phone I learned that the canoe was ready. We were told the address we had been sitting at with the engine running for quite some time was not the correct address. Gather up the dog and vacate.
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We followed the previous owners to their little marina. It was a private marina with direct access to the Bay. I went out in the canoe with previous owner Husband, and we went over the boat and I was glad it was as clean and unmolested as its photos in the advertising. The engine seems shot and of no use. Also the bottom of the boat hasn’t been cleaned. A diver could fix that. Overall I was impressed with the condition of the boat and it looked like we could sail her around with a little help from our towing pals, Sea Tow and BoatUs Tow Boat. I could have sailed her off her mooring and out the channel and out into the Bay right then and there. We made arrangements to maybe move her after the weekend. Beneficial South winds are forecast for that time.
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We left and were not yet hungry for lunch. The Boatyard Bar and Grill came up in conversations with the previous owners. We were stuck in a traffic jam. Boatyard Bar and Grill was only moments away, if we turned around. Of course I would not turn around, I’ve learned from turning around too much that you have to stay the course. We sat in traffic. It was only a small local traffic jam, we were off again and onto the big road, RT50E, to take us over the bridge to the Eastern Shore. Over the bridge and into another, bigger, traffic jam.
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There were about 4 wrecks on the way South to Cambridge, MD. It was confusing when fire trucks and emergency vehicles arrived from several different directions and sped off. Traffic sat for a long time, then sped up, sat again, speed, sit, more wrecks. One was the baddest of them all. Two ambulances. Cars concertinaed in a group of 3 concertinaed cars. Like 3 cars crushed into the space of 1. All this made us late for lunch and we were hungry. The decision not to go to the Boatyard Bar and Grill loomed in our minds. Not plugging that eatery, not one bit, please don’t go there, especially on Wednesday nights.
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Cornelia Marie wanted to eat at Don Choy, a very good Mexican restaurant, in Cambridge. We finally got there, all the while she being afraid of my driving and telling me about it. We had passed several wrecks that made her more nervous. We stopped at the Mexican restaurant and I gave her the keys and had two margaritas. I needed them for her driving.
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Into Crisfield we crept behind a car and through the nearly empty streets to Cornelia Marie’s house. We unpacked and let Nori run around the yard. I got out Fabio’s drone and tried to fly it. CM wanted to try. I showed her how and she flew it into the mud. She said we should go to the beach for sunset. I got my camera and a glass of wine, she drove. There were few people there. Sunset was just getting ready. I stood by with the camera and drank the glass of wine. Nori endlessly ran into the water to retrieve a small stick, then would race about, teasing us with the stick, then lamely so that we could get it, then begin the game all over again. The sunset was a sort of dud, but after all that driving, peaceful. I thought about the dust from the Sahara that was supposed to enlighten out sunsets.
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The photo is of the sunset looking at Jane's Island from the beach at Crisfield.