Heat Wave!

Boy, it's been a hot late June and early July, with record-breaking heat all over the map! The last six days we've been on Options, mostly in Baltimore except for a 2-day out and back to Annapolis for boat repairs. There were over 3 million customers with no electricity when we arrived. Those few who had boats with air conditioners relocated to their boats. The number of customers (households and businesses) without power is now under 1 million, but it has been a miserable week for so many.

It's been a good opportunity to test how well our boat's air conditioning works. What I've learned is the best we can do is about a 15 degree differential between inside and outside temperatures. If R-22 is normal insulation, this boat has about R-0. When the sun is shining, we get the greenhouse effect in spades due to Options' thin skin and copious windows. With air conditioners on max and full sun, the temperature differential drops to as little as 3 degrees. While underway a couple of days ago with no air conditioning running, it was 94 inside and 91 outside! Ah, this reminds me of a fine whine, so time to move on.

John, Sandy, Chris, Terri, Melissa and Edi joined us for a 4th of July extravaganza yesterday. We started with some hors d'oeuvres, then motored out past Ft. McHenry and raised the code zero sail. As we slowly drifted downwind, John, who was sitting next to me at the helm, actually read one of the many weather warnings that annoyingly kept popping up on the chartplotter. I'd seen the part about 1.5 inch hail and 70 mph winds, but I figured that was somewhere in Kansas or Alabama.

John pointed out that the storm in question was racing towards us and apt to beat us back to harbor! We immediately panicked, put on our life jackets, jumped overboard and swam to shore. Just kidding. We took even more drastic action: I passed on that second beer, we doused the code zero, reversed course and motored back to harbor at full speed, watching the dark, billowing storm clouds approaching. The wind got steadily stronger as we doubled Ft. McHenry. Then it eased as buildings and huge ships seemed to block the wind. By the time we got back to our slip, the wind was light and the sky was clearing! And it was very hot!

The early return worked out quite well. Once we were securely tied to the dock, we drank copious volumes of all sorts of liquid refreshments. The evening was so hot, the liquid seemed to evaporate as soon as it entered our systems. The alcohol content, if there was any, served as simply another kind of evaporant, so no medicinal value there.

After an All-American dinner of burgers, hot dogs, baked beans, potato salad, chips and chocolate-chip cookies in 90+ degree interior heat, we stepped outside to enjoy the fireworks shows. The main show was about 2000 ft. to the east of us, with a side show about 300 ft. to the north. There was a lot of neck twisting going on, looking back and forth between the two shows to try not to miss anything. The main show was fabulous, right up there with the Naval Academy show we caught two years ago. The side show was OK, but if the main show were a symphony, the side show would have been rap.

We've got a "charitable weekend" starting tomorrow. The lucky auction winners will get an all-expense paid tour of Baltimore, Annapolis and St. Michaels, with some nice sailing in between. I hope they love heat!

On Sunday, my daughter arrives to help take Options north to NYC. With Brooke heading back to St. Louis for a few days, we should have a nice father/daughter outing. Brooke will rejoin us in NYC in time for an evening on the water with nephew Bob and family (and his parents Sandy and John). We'll be docked almost next door to the Statue of Liberty, so will sail close to the tall lady at least a few times.

The pictures are of the three siblings (Sandy, Brooke and Chris) with their spouses (John, me and Terri) by their sides and the "side show" fireworks.