Kaimusailing

We've turned the corner in July and are now headed into August, the hottest month on the Chesapeake. It's already too hot some days to do anything productive, and so we feel bad, depressed that we can't get our stuff done. Last year I didn't get to Crisfield until the second week of September and then left Election Day in November. Just about 2 months. I got a lot of work done then. I've been here now almost 3 months and have little to show for it, but I'm not going to feel too badly. There are other things than boat projects, I say, unbelievably.
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My mind is constantly contrasting the situation in the boatyard in Georgia with the situation in the marina in Crisfield. I had some good friends in Georgia and I hope they are doing well, hope to see them again. I know some will move on from the boatyard. Wish them well. Crisfield is different, I am challenged. I can bike around town and take care of a lot of things I couldn't take care of in Georgia without a vehicle. As a result I am physically in better shape. My doctor tells me so, recently, at my annual physical, which he says was not a physical, it was a Telemed meeting by phone. I am greeted sometimes by name while I'm riding by people I don't recall ever meeting. I also have to avoid sudden vehicles as I ride past the memorial to a recumbent biker, in my age group, that was run down by an old lady.
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I received a text asking if I had bought Cornelia Marie's painting in the gallery down by the City Dock. There are lots of really good works there, some for sale, and her painting of a New England boat sold, the only work that has sold so far. There is an anomaly in the painting. I thought, if that painting gets sold, it's because of that anomaly. It's not a photograph. It's a carefully crafted object. The artists' time and materials usually aren't covered by the price of the painting. If you come to Crisfield and visit the gallery, and if you can afford a work of art, buy one. It will help the artist, the community, and I will give you a free look at my blog. Another work of art.
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A cool front came through with a little rain, some wind, and some cool air from up North. Even I got off my butt and attacked a couple things. The main sliding hatch looked dingy so I sprayed it with Awesome cleaner, scrubbed with a little brush, then sponged off the grime. It was dirtier than I had imagined. The section of bulkhead aft of the galley also was looking grimy so I did that area too. I guess cooking oils or smoke wafts up and fouls everything. The other side of the companionway hatch has the depth sounder and the GPS speedometer that I physically installed, but never wired up to the boat's electrical system.
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My idea was to tap into the depth sounder's 12 VDC and add a switch to turn the GPS on and off. I took one of the switches that came with the Sea Ray instrument panel and a plastic cover that must have been mounted over whatever instrument was in the place where the GPS was now mounted. It will screw right over the back of the GPS, the screw holes line up with the holes in the cover. I drilled a hole in the back of the cover and mounted the switch there. The depth sounder had a cover also and I removed it. It was a plastic lid from a Folger's coffee can. Inside the depth sounder the wiring was wrapped with plastic electrician's tape. This is the stuff that kind of falls apart and oozes adhesive when it gets hot. I took the tape off and soldered the black negative lead from the GPS onto the black wire for the depth sounder which had a soldered splice, I just soldered the GPS wire onto the splice. The depth sounder switch had live 12 VDC on it, metered to identify which lug had unswitched DC, then took the GPS' red wire and screwed that down on the switch. The GPS speedometer came to life. I cut the red wire close to the back of the GPS and used my new crimper to put a couple of female spade connectors on the ends of the red wires. The spade connectors fit perfectly onto the Sea Ray switch. The covers were replaced and a couple of cable ties neatened the wiring.
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The next day I continued with scrubbing the overhead. I went along the starboard side and scrubbed the overhead and the handrail that was there. After thoroughly cleaning and wiping down the area I let it dry and began making masking tape pieces to mask off the handrail from the overhead. I was going to wipe the handrail with tung oil. The handrail contacts the overhead in six places and the shape of the contact is like an oval, it has round ends and flat sections in between. I measured the width of the round ends and it looked like 1 1/8 inches. I found that the inside of the neck of an old medicine bottle was the right size. I cut off the neck and used it to mark a circle on a pair of masking tape strips, centering it on the adjoining edges of the tapes. Then I cut out the circle part and put one strip of tape on each end of a contact point. Then short straight pieces of tape were added to mask the straight portion of the contact point. Then I could go wild with the tung oil. Later I would add a second coating.
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Cornelia Marie called about putting the skiff in the water for the weekend. I had just returned from 2 errands on the bike and was just about to take a break. I put the second coat on the handrail, it only takes about 5 minutes, and bicycled to the house. We went to her mom's house where the boat and trailer were, hooked them up, drove to the launch ramp, not that far away, and CM delivered the boat and trailer on the ramp perfectly. The boat came off and I tied up. The plan was for me to bring the skiff over to the dock at the house while CM brought the vehicle and trailer to the house.
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My technique for starting the 25 HP Suzuki, rope start, is to not try to pull start it with my arms and shoulders, just lean fore and aft, pull till you feel compression, then pull by leaning back. The engine will turn over about 1 rev. Unfortunately this technique didn't start the engine, but allowed me to make many attempts to start the engine and it finally started. I had flooded it for many pulls. It started when I opened the throttle fully with it unchoked. I was surprised and now I know this engine does not need much choke in warm weather.
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I motored over to the dock at the house. No one was on shore. Then CM came out and I circled around. She seemed to indicate to dock here, not at the floating dock. The floating dock is further away from the house, but it is where Nori the wonder dog can board the skiff. We would have to go there eventually. With the boat tied up we went inside to the air conditioner and some cold drinks. CM wanted to have a picnic on the beach and watch the sunset. This required a lot of planning and agreement by all parties. I suggested going out to dinner, thus not having to buy, make, or bring food out on the boat. They discussed where to go in Crisfield. I ended up letting them decide. They wanted to go to the Fisherman's Grille. This is a very popular restaurant and we got there early enough not to have wait. The wait staff were slow.
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We had a great view overlooking the marina. Crab boats were coming in and going out. Fishermen. Pontoon boats, all waved at the restaurant, someone must be very popular here. The cold devastating Orange Crush drinks arrived. We ordered food. Last time I had trouble with a steak and one of the appetizers was lethal with cheese. I was thinking crab cake sandwich, but the wait staff described a Rockfish sandwich that was a special on the menu and we all ordered that. Very strange, we all had deliberated and come up with a choice for the meal, all different, and we all ended up ordering the same thing,
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These Orange Crushes were real crushers. I had two and thought that might be enough. The others put me to shame, ordering a third. The fish sandwiches were good. Time was running out to see that sunset.
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CM jumped in the skiff and started the engine. First she had to release the engine to swivel it down. It is heavy and she handles it better than me. The engine was still warm from before and started right away. As I walked down the dock to the floating dock Nori the wonder dog was frozen on the dock watching CM move the skiff. She then followed along on the dock at the skiff's speed until something clicked in her doggy mind and she bolted down the dock and onto the floating dock. CM circled around and came to the floating dock. She directed me where to tie up and how to do it. She hates it if someone directs her like that. How do I know.
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CM's mom came along after a bit, just a few minutes. We helped her get on board, untied mooring lines, I got on board, CM motioned to the dock, push us off more, I guess, she turned the skiff 180 and we headed out to the daymark at the end of the channel. It's called Brick Kiln Channel, but maybe I'm wrong.
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The water was mostly flat, wind coming from NW and W, we were heading into a moderate chop. CM swerved us left to follow the main channel out of Crisfield. She was going at a fast speed but backed off when there was a wake from another boat. We passed a Tangier or Smith Island charter boat loaded with what we thought was a church group. We came up on a beach that on weekends had lots of Trump supporter boats. Not this weekend. We didn't land. Last time we found land and packed up the lower unit with sand. We drifted and the sun went down. It was spectacular, a sunset without much clouds, the sun dropping like a red orb, slowly into Tangier Sound. We sped back, no legal lights after dark. We arrived at the floating dock with enough late dusk light to tie up the boat and go inside, A/C, cold drinks, listen to stories.
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I tried to get back to the marina before 10PM when they shut the main gates, I failed. I had to enter a code in the pedestrian gate to get in. This has worked well these many times, except the time I fell off my bike. On my way into the marina on the bike I thought I had had a remarkable evening, photos to prove it, knowledge that such evenings don't always happen.
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The image is of the setting orb of the sun.