On to Baltimore

We finished our work in Galesville on Monday with the connection of the solar panels into our electrical system. By the time we got finished and everything wrapped up afternoon storms blew-up with the passage of a cold front that lasted into the evening. So we spent one last night in the slip at Hartge's Yacht Harbor in Galesville before heading out.

Tuesday turned out to be a beautiful day but with not much wind. So after pumping out we took off to anchor in the Magothy River. There was little wind so we had to motor the 2+ hours out of the West River, past Annapolis and on to Sillery Bay behind Gibson Island. Forecasts were for continued settled weather after the passage of the front the night before so we anchored out away from the islands so we could get some breeze.

Galesville in the rear view mirror.

On the way we passed through a pod of dolphins leisurely swimming and occasionally came by to check us out. Other folks have reported seeing dolphins in the Bay but we never have and nobody has ever reported seeing them this far up the Bay. Don't know if it's the water clarity, the temperature or fish but there they were and a good omen for us.

Dolphins off Thomas Point.

After dinner we saw the full moon rise and then watched a movie. Near the end we began seeing flashes outside and went out to find a storm with lots of lightening just to our south. We quickly put all our electronics into the oven and turned on the TV to find the local news talking about severe storms. For the next 2 hours we watched the light show as the boat clocked around twice in the winds shifting in strength and direction as we hoped the storm would slide by. Fortunately with all the lightning there was little thunder so the storm was too far we really couldn't measure the distance. The lightning continued for several hours but we dodged the bullet.

Iconic Thomas Point Light.

Annapolis off to port.

A ship at anchorage off Annapolis waiting for clearance to go to Baltimore.

Coming up to and passing under the Bay Bridge.

Sandy Point Light with scaffolding for renovations.

The scene by or anchorage in the Magothy.

A beautiful full moon rising.


Wednesday into Baltimore. The winds from the night before continued to blow and we were able to sail part of the way but as we got up the Patapsco the wind died and we motored under the Francis Scott Key Bridge and past Fort McHenry and into our slip.

Sailing up the Patapsco.

What's left of Sparrow's Point.

Fort Carroll. A civil war protection for the port of Baltimore.

The Francis Scott Key Bridge.

The little marker in front of the ship marks the spot where the ship carrying Francis Scott Key was anchored when he wrote the Star Spangled Banner.

Fort McHenry and the Star Spangled Banner.

We checked into the Anchorage Marina (kind of an oxymoron) for a week. We could have stayed in Galesville but we had several objectives in Baltimore. So we were able to get a weekly rate that would enable us to drive to Virginia for follow-up medical appointments, meet up with some HHSA friends Friday and Saturday and drive to PA to meet with friends Hayden and Radeen Cochran to discuss winter plans.

Enjoying happy hour at the Boathouse in Canton.

Views from near the top of the mast when I went up to affix the radar reflector (Pic below).

We took some time and visited the Baltimore Museum of Art after which we had lunch at a little place called "the Diz" where they had memorabilia on the walls.

The view inside the cockpit after my first work on the sunshade.

The marina is conveniently located to a Safeway where we can provision, a West Marine for a few supplies we need and plenty of great restaurants and bars.

But of course there was work to do. In the steamy heat of Friday morning I ascended the mast again but this time to attach the radar reflector. I had hung it twice before on a flag halyard and both times it broke the line. This time I affixed it to a shroud with a wire clamp underneath it to which it was connected with seizing wire. I tied shut all the ends with wire and then connected it with wire to another shroud to avoid any spinning. Now it should stay in place even though I really doubt the need for a radar reflector on a boat of our size.

As always there was other maintenance things to do. I finally put some grommets in the sunshade cloth we bought and hung it around the cockpit. Makes a huge difference. But, I need to redo it by doubling over the material to make a hem to give the grommets added strength. Another project I need to finish is to clean the contacts on the leads to the tachometer.

But for now we're ready to discuss what's next and plan. But for right now we're enjoying Baltimore and traveling to meet our friends. So our next report will be on our future plans.

  

Down to Work

We got into Galesville on the 4th of July hoping that maybe we would get out in a week but knowing that things rarely go as dreamed. We also had plans to meet some friends in the area while we stayed here doing the needed work.

Let me first talk about the opportunities we've had while here to catch up with friends. We've had the opportunity to get together with our friends Skipp Maiden and Maryanne Ulrich on 3 occasions. Almost the first night here we dinghied across the West River to their slip in the Chesapeake Yacht Club at Shadyside, MD to share a grill and meet Maryanne's son Dave. They also came over for Happy Hour on Saturday night the 9th and then again for a team prepared dinner on Monday night. In addition to swapping sailing stories Skipp shared his adventure in Spain which sounded just fascinating.

On Friday night the 8th we had the chance to spend the evening with our friend Jeff Schumack. We hadn't seen Jeff in several years. It was great catching up with him. We had planned to dinghy over to his boat in CYC but with our dinghy challenge (explained later) he was good enough to come by to see the boat and drive us. We were excited to hear about Jeff's first offshore adventure and maybe he'll come crew with us someplace.

Backing up a bit we were lucky enough to catch Marty and Susie Diamond for dinner in Annapolis at Carroll Creek. It's been awhile since we saw them after being regulars for many years.

On Sunday evening our friends Matt Schramm and Sahalia came by and after happy hour went to Chevy's for dinner out. Matt was the previous owner of the Beneteau 50 we saw on the mooring next to us in Block Island after having had a slip just down the dock from us several years ago. Ironically the people who bought his boat and the people who bought our 380 both changed the name of the boats to Papagayo. What a small world.

Saturday night the 16th we had happy hour on the boat and dinner at the Thai Kitchen in Edgewater with Gary and Toby Schwartz who Linda formerly worked with before her retirement.

Dinner at the Thai Kitchen with Gary and Toby Schwartz.

But like our time in Oxford we continue to make improvements on the boat. I have used the time to accomplish many boat tasks I've had on my list for months like rebedding the chainplates and replacing the head pumps and rebuilding them.  I now have new pumps on both heads and 2 newly rebuilt ones as spares. These are tasks that should not have to be repeated for years.

The reason we are in Galesville is to have a contractor, Eastport Spar & Rigging do some custom metal fabrication needed to complete several projects. The first and most straight forward is installing 2 new solar panels to replace the 1 that we've had on the hard top. We've always thought it was a 130 watt panel but we'e not sure since it was on the boat when we bought it. While doing all the re-engineering of the hard top we were able to solve other annoying challenges as well.

Our hatch bar installation.

By adding the extra solar we are expanding our solar capacity to 650 watts which will be capable of producing a maximum of about 40 amp hours of solar energy. But given our experience we will be lucky to get anything close to that because of interference from clouds. But when we are closer to the sun we should be able increase our solar output of course augmented by our wind energy. Hopefully with this addition we'll become more self-sufficient without running an engine.

Our new solar panels.

The next improvements are security enhancements. We have installed bars in the hatches to keep intruders from climbing in through them and a new companionway insert that we can use to lock the boat and still allow air passage or lock ourselves inside at night to prevent intrusion. While these won't stop a determined criminal it will hopefully slow them down enough to make them want to go elsewhere or wake us up so we can chase them away. Hearing them trying to get in at night we can turn on lights and call for help on the radio that will hopefully scare the off avoiding the need for lethal force.

Finally, we've added an external antenna for our Iridium Go so we can keep the router down below while we use our phones and devices from the cockpit. This permanent installation will enhance our worldwide communications capability with weather, email, phone and data access. We still need to get everything setup so we can use all our devices on the satellite network.

We always enjoy getting together with our friends. It's really what makes our time in these ports fun.  Hopefully many will come visit us in the islands so we can have fun together in the land of no Mondays.  As we work through our task list we hopefully avoid issues as we move forward by resolving them on our terms.

Enjoying summer heat and making progress

We left Oxford on Tuesday 28 June after completing our work their and headed for a brief interlude in Annapolis.

Oxford in the rearview mirror.

In Oxford during the second stay we were able to replace our vinyl coated lifelines with stainless steel that look great and had the hole in the cockpit covered where the sonar was. I was able to remove much of the old wiring for the sonar and paint the lazarettes with Bilgekote. The boat is looking better and getting ready for our extended offshore voyage. But still many tasks to complete.

A selfie at the bow.

We left for Annapolis with little wind although we were able to sail down the Tred Avon and Choptank the wind soon died as we turned into the Bay and we motored on the rest of the way. Typical summer day on the Bay with little wind. We motored up to the Annapolis City Marina where we added fuel before our stay in Naptown. After waiting for the bridge over Spa Creek we found a mooring in Wells Cove. In the week before the 4th of July we found a convenient mooring as most of the mooring balls were available.

Sailing a little cool and wet.

We had several objectives while in Annapolis. We had a rental car reserved for Tuesday afternoon that we needed to get for medical appointments on Wednesday and Thursday of that week. We called our friends Al and Trish Del Negro who live and have a dock on Spa Creek and we arranged with them to be able to dock our dinghy at their dock and park our rental car in their driveway. A safe and convenient spot to leave our dink and rental car. We've gotten quite used to renting cars as needed for appointments and provisioning.

Passing Thomas Point Light.

We used the opportunity in Annapolis to catch up with old friends and visit some of our old haunts. We previously took the opportunity to dine at the Boatyard so this time we went to Pusser's Dock Bar for a Painkiller. It used to be one of our favorite spots but we haven't been there in a couple years so after getting our car we stopped downtown for a quick painkiller before heading back to the boat. Pusser's dock bar in Annapolis is an icon of water culture and is a great place to people watch.

Our visit to Pussers.

The next 2 days we did our medical follow-ups and provisioned. But we really enjoyed the opportunity to catch-up with old friends. On Wednesday night we met our weather gurus Dane and Jenifer Clarke. We've used the Clarke's for years after first meeting them at an SSCA Gam in 2011. We do most of our weather planning using online data and now reports from OCENS through our Iridium Go. We always count on Dane and Jenifer's insight on the Gulfstream.

Dinner with Dane and Jenifer.

Thursday night we enjoyed a nice dinner with our friends Trish and Al at their home. We used to get together frequently so it was nice to have the opportunity to enjoy a quiet evening together.

Us at Trish and Al's.

After having been in Annapolis for several days Friday was the first day we actually got to walk around the town and shop. We did lunch at McGarvey's which was another favorite of ours. We returned to the boat and got the dink up in ample time before storms raged through. The Friday night storms were severe and we watched lightning strike on what we later learned was the Maryland Statehouse.

We stayed in Annapolis through Saturday morning and gave up our mooring on Saturday and headed to the Rhode River for the holiday weekend where we met our friends Trish and Al for Saturday night. We spent Sunday in the Rhode River grilling the last of our Bahamian conch.

During a break in the rain and storms on Monday we motored the short distance to Hartge's Yacht Harbor in Galesville for what hopefully will be our last round of work.

Scenes from our anchorage at Rhode River.

Our dock Monday after our arrival.