Back On Board!

We're finally back on-board effective last weekend!  We're not sailing yet... the sails will only get installed tomorrow, but at least Seas The Day is in the water and we're back.

One problem with the bigger boat is that opening weekend is more like moving day!  There's no furniture to deal with, but all the boxes of little things you need (OK, want) in your daily life have to be transported back... first they must be gathered.

This year, there are some weird additions... masks and gloves and extra bleach!

With the car finally packed, we made the first of two trips down.  It was great to see Seas The Day in her berth at Osprey Point Marina.  She still needs to have the Bimini set up (and the sails bended on and the 50 hr engine service), but we could move in for the season.

After moving in, it looked like a typical move-in day.

I should note that before we could actually get in, we had to deal with the hatch again.  Yes, the same hatch that had me trapped the first day I stayed aboard during orientation.  This time the rope connecting the lower hatch door with the counterweight had jumped the pulley, binding the door in the closed position.  You should have seen me trying to lift my bum knees high enough to climb in.  I was NOT elegant.

I did a quick check of the propane system (pressurize it with everything "On", then wait 15 minutes to see if the pressure drops after the tank is closed) before we started cooking.  Although there is no photo, I noticed that there was water standing in the propane locker.  Aiming a hose into the drain port had it running out below, but there must be a low point in the hose.  I'll need to figure out how to dry it out and keep it dry so the propane can escape safely if it leaks.

I also set up the refrigerator and freezer and made sure the temps were set safely.

Since I'm working in software now, I made sure to update the software on the boat.

We cooked a few meals on our two days there.

Every surface becomes a staging area for cooking a meal.

Vicky seemed to like my breakfast... maybe it was the homemade oat bread.

So it was a nice weekend.  I can't begin to describe how great it was to get out of the house - even if it meant a lot of work schlepping stuff out to the car and back to the boat.

Final commissioning work is being done by the staff at Gratitude Marina this week while We're back at home.  With luck, we should get the boat back just in time for our vacation week next week.

Armchair Sailing During COVID-19

I'll admit it... the post in early March about "If You Come Sailing With Us" was optimistic at best - perhaps delusional.  COVID-19 had been in the news since early January (we followed it in China all through our Chinese New Year trip at the end of January), and I had already spent two weeks upon return in "self-isolation" because my workplace wasn't comfortable with me being on-site after travel to China.

In mid-March, within 10 days of the previous post, our workplace had closed, leaving us to work from home, and soon afterwards, states started shutting down.  Maryland declared recreational boating illegal and just as we were approaching mid-April (when we had hoped to launch in the warmer Chesapeake Bay region), the boat yard at Gratitude Marina was shut down.

So much for all the social isolation on the boat and working from the boat I had been dreaming about...  the only sailing I was going to be doing was armchair sailing.

So, I read... I read the Chesapeake Bay Waterway Guide, below, which is an excellent guide to the whole region (and has many photos).  It was really neat to be able to preview the region and think about possible destinations.

We could envision a two week tour of the upper bay or even a whole series of weekend trips.  We made plans for trips if we just wanted to get away from society and find some nice coves to hang out in (though learning that the ground tackle in the "safety package" that came with Seas The Day was alarmingly underrated gave us reason to pause on that plan).

I also read a lot on my Kindle... and I'm letting you see deep into my soul by sharing a bit of my Kindle library, but you can see it was a combination of cruising material, boat manuals and of course baking information (everyone was baking during the COVID shutdown) so we could have good things to eat during isolation.

Throughout this period we watched as the entire town of Rock Hall seemed to declare boaters a vile pestilence.  The Mayor's posts were amusing... all the "Amen!" comments from the townspeople were perhaps alarming.  This all seemed surreal given the obvious dependence of the town's economy on the boating community.

Throughout this, we got updates from Osprey Point and finally - towards the end of May - things began opening up.  The governor of MD allowed recreational boating, the marina opened up and i'm told that once the constipation of boats in front of Seas The Day releases, I hope to be back in the water next week in time for Memorial Day... hopefully.

Now it's time for us to be a little nervous... can a town like this get their act together and protect both the boaters and the town?  I think we will be more observers than participants in the town for the first few visits.

So now the house gets messed up for a week as I wander around pulling out all the boat crap that Vicky so successfully hid from view.  The piles are growing!

And finally... about the "If you come sailing with us" topic... that won't be happening for a while.  As part of the governor opening up recreational sailing, he declared that "all boat mates must be housemates", so you'll have to move in with me before you can come sailing.  Luckily, Vicky remains stuck here in the US for the time being since all sane travel options back to Guangzhou have disappeared.  So for now I have good crew... or maybe she does!