Remnants of Hurricane Laura and a Clean Anchor Locker

 

The plans for this weekend started out a lot bigger than it ended up.  Originally, I was clearing my Friday schedule with the intent of heading down and maybe trying an overnight to Baltimore, but as the week progressed and it began to look like I could do that, we noticed predictions that the remnants of Hurricane Laura were heading right over the Chesapeake on Saturday.  

Friday, what started out as "I'll take the day off", ended up with Vicky needing to work Friday morning, then needing to sleep Friday afternoon.  I didn't complain because a neat project at work caught my attention and next thing you know, it was Friday evening.  Friday night had storms moving through both Newark and Rock Hall areas and the reports for Saturday morning was lots of rain from the hurricane, so on to plan B...

Which was to watch Tiffany Poon's piano concert.  (She's a rising pianist who has been working hard to keep some form of classical music alive during this COVID Summer.  So we got a ticket and settled in to watch over lunch.)  

After the concert, the weather predicted there would be a lull in the rain later in the afternoon, so we hung out a bit and then headed south late in the afternoon.

In the evening once aboard Seas The Day, I noticed that the wind had picked up and that the floor was leaning a bit as Seas The Day strained on her dock lines.  Later in the evening there was a rhythmic slapping sound of the waves hitting our stern, but that only lasted for part of the night.

Sunday morning I started some boat chores - mostly putting up the flags we had removed for the storms, and some general cleaning, but also finally putting the anchor markers on the rode.  These are little tabs that get inserted in the rope so you know how much rode has been let out.  (This is important to know as it affects the holding ability of the anchor... we have been anchoring blind so far.)

To get this done properly, I had to bring all the rode up out of the anchor locker and at that moment, she struck!  Boatus Cleanus in her natural habitat saw the empty anchor locker and pounced!  A fury of buckets, brushes and spray bottles suddenly appeared beside her and she was at it!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the cleanest, brightest, most sparkly anchor locker in Rock Hall, no make that Maryland... maybe even the East Coast!

Once released, boatus cleanus was unable to stop and proceeded to show how she was able to scrub the sides of the hull (and that I should NEVER pay someone to wash the hull again - I'll leave that story out for now).

I was finally able to release boatus cleanus from possessing my wife by aiming the hose I was assigned to rinse with closer and closer to her until she fled.

We were able to go sailing mid-morning.  Winds were a bit stronger than recently so I had to modify my departure plans, but with a last minute help from a dock mate, we were off.

WHAT A DAY!

We had really nice wind... 10 knots steady but with frequent gusts up to 15 to 18 knots.  Perfect to keep the sailing fun and exciting.  We had no guests today to worry about sea sickness, so we just let Seas The Day play in the wind.  We had a nice 15 to 20 degree lean going for a while and there was enough of a swell on the bay to give us some great splashes.  It was the most fun sailing day this season.

There were so many sailboats out on the upper bay that it almost looked like we were off Annapolis!  (Annapolis - just south of the bridge - usually is filled with sailboats while the northern part only has a few.  There were easily 20 out today... you can see a few in most of the photos in today's post.)

On a typical less exciting day, we'll set up Seas The Day to sail and then let Otto take over but on a day like today, you WANT to be at the helm and we took turns.  While Seas The Day has two helms and I have noticed that I usually capture Vicky at the port helm and she gets me at the Starboard one, we really don't have "his and hers" helm positions.

Vicky sailing just off the Baltimore Light

We sailed for several hours before heading back.  

As we returned to the dock, it was time once again to clean the AC sea strainer, which meant cleaning out the bilge from all the gunk that drains out when we do that.  Boatus Cleanus arose again, but this time just briefly.

A Really Nice Late August Weekend

This weekend we tried to squeeze some sailing in and amongst Vickys work duties.  She worked all night Thursday and most of the day on Friday, so when she fell asleep around 4:00 PM (just as I was finished working), I opted to let her sleep.  

(She woke up around 10:00 PM and then asked for "some alcohol" to help her sleep more.  I gave her what I was having - a double of Widow Jane bourbon, 58 proof, which ensured she slept the night.  I'm sorry for your hangover, my dear.)

We drove down Saturday morning and had a wonderful day on the water.  Winds were 7 to 10 kts and Seas The Day sailed beautifully.  There was a bit of a swell, which I guess was leftover from the previous days winds, so I was glad we had no seasick-prone guests.

The photos tell most of the story.  I've added a few captions below some photos.

Blogger is still having trouble with iPhone videos, so you'll have to click here and here to see ours.

She's upset because I said I couldn't buy this one for her - it's a 197ft yacht.

The modern lights lack the charm of the old ones.

I practiced different points of sail and even got "wing on wing" for a bit, but with a self tacking jib, holding it is difficult.

This preying mantis was our guest for most of the day.  He got a miffed when I gybed and flew off.

We slowly made our way around the bay.  After the first hour or so, Vicky went below to sleep.  She had a big training session Saturday evening.  As I got back to the #3 buoy, I decided to spend some time just tacking back and forth.  I love sailing with the self tacking jib... you just press two buttons on the autopilot and Seas The Day handles the rest... no lines to switch, etc.  It just steers to the new course and the jib follows along.  See this video for a quick demo.

After we returned, I swabbed the deck and Vicky made some dumplings for dinner.

After dinner, I filled the water tanks.  While filling the tanks, I became aware of an incredible quality of light all around me, after turning around I saw this scene and ran around the corner of the dock to capture this photo.

Vicky had her training session Saturday night which spawned a whole bunch of follow-up activity through all of Sunday morning.  As she finished, we decided to just do a quick pump-out run so Seas The Day was fully ready for us next weekend, and then we headed back.

My view Sunday morning

Batteries & Pirates!

The photo above is of my main house battery bank which sits just at the base of the companionway stairs. Knowledgeable readers will notice that all the water filling ports (shown in this post) have disappeared!  

I'll try not to make this too long.  It relates to the CO detector issue... the CO detectors on Seas The Day have been alarming almost weekly since we started the season.  As I explained in other posts, we KNOW there is no CO on board, but during the weeks I have learned that they also alarm to hydrogen.  Hydrogen can be the result of a bad battery being charged - the water gets hydrolyzed into H2 and O2.

Anyway, it took a bit of deductive reasoning over the weeks (I never said I was fast), but with some specific gravity testing and a volt meter, I realized that the back battery had a bad cell.  The front battery (at the bottom above) was fine and the battery in the forward cabin was fine as well.  That all translates to it can't be the battery charger.  It must be a bad battery.  

I let the dealer know, fully expecting a "sure we'll replace that" since the boat was only a few months old when this issue started.  I got back a text... "Batteries don't really have a warranty unless the are bad right out of the box."

Really...

I was reading the battery warranty info on the web as that text came through.  I won't go into the specifics on the brand or their warranty but deep cycle batteries typically have a one-year warranty.

I immediately translated the dealer's statement to "I used up your battery's warranty powering the lights in the showroom and on the dock during the year I had your boat before selling it to you as new."

I could fight this... maybe even win and get a new battery for free (you might think that would be a given considering the price of the boat and the profit involved - not to mention future profit from selling a bigger boat.)  But with this dealer, and this time around we have been waiting months for simple things to get replaced when it's agreed that they are warranty items, and I was getting weekly calls from friends in nearby boats about the CO detectors.

So to make an even longer story short, I switched to researching AGM batteries which are a step up from the flooded lead acid batteries we had.  I dealt with Gratitude Marina and their service department which came up with a nice price to do the upgrade.  I had to replace all three because you should only have one type of battery on a boat and our charger could handle either (but not both).  They even re-programmed the battery charger for the new battery type.  So the time on my knees in prayer (praying that the blessed batteries behave themselves) on Sunday mornings just got a bit shorter.

 

Saturday

The batteries having been replaced Friday morning, and it being COVID summer, we decided to let the air clear for a bit and went down to Rock Hall Saturday morning.  Vicky, in her never ending quest for crabs, had found a seafood place a bit south of town that would sell her 3 steamed crabs (much better pricing than any of the restaurants in town).  So we located Chester River Seafood... picked up 3 crabs to take to the boat, and at last she was happy with the freshness.

(You know you're enjoying a meal when you begin to wear it.)

While we were eating, we encountered a group of pirates.  Rock Hall traditionally has a "Pirates and Wenches" party weekend which has been scaled back quite a bit due to COVID.  Still, we had a few dock mates taking part and I believe one of the boats at the far end of B-Dock won the decorating contest.

After eating, we headed out for a day of sailing.  The heat had finally died down and the wind picked up.  On our way out we encountered a pirate vessel heading into Swan Creek.

It was a nice relaxing day on the water.  Vicky mostly lounged on the cockpit bench while fielding the occasional email and texting with her goddaughter.  I practiced some "points of sail" to see how the self tacking jib handled on broad reaches (not very well, but not too bad either).  I was also able to take her through a couple of controlled jibes for the first time.  We were able to raise the sails on the way down to the #3 buoy and stayed mostly in that section - the far eastern part of the bay just off the wildlife refuge.

After several hours on the water, we headed back and it was my turn to cook.  It was getting late and we were both hungry.  We had packed light for the simple overnight trip and my task was to pull something together from the provisions on-board.  So since we had pulled pork and a big bag of mixed veggies in the freezer, I paired it with some Mac & Cheese (my former company used to make the cheese powder).

Armchair critics aside, it was a nice end to the day - especially when paired with a nice merlot.

Sunday

Two photos tell the story of Sunday morning.  Throughout the night we had been waking up to some sort of slapping noise - sort of a knock followed by 3 quick echos.  It was raining all morning, but once it got light out, I went above deck and couldn't find anything amiss.  I did see a huge bird across the way... I'm guessing it's an Osprey.  (Sorry... a friend from the slip-holders group said it was a Great Blue Heron.)

After a bit more lounging and reading in the bunk the noise returned... this time Vicky went above to look.  I heard the noise again and pulled back the shade on the hatch to let her know, but she had already moved on.  I found her with the boat hook fully extended trying to snag a line that had been in the rigging for quite a while.

I figured there was no way she was going to get it with that hook, but she was tenacious... and eventually she got it!

She came back below and was going to tell me she climbed up to get it, but I let her know I was watching.  As I showed her my vantage point I saw the Spinnaker Halyard rattling on the bowsprit at the same time we heard the noise - a simple tug on the line in the cockpit silenced it.

We ate lunch (she had the leftover pulled pork mac & cheese and I found a microwavable cheeseburger), took a nap then headed home.  We stopped back at the seafood place just in time to get some crabs to take to a friend's place for dinner Sunday evening.

Just the Two of Us

 

We decided a couple of weeks ago that we would start alternating weekends with guests with weekends with just the two of us alone.  That decision was partly COVID-related (we'd hate to be a vector for someone else catching it) and part selfishness... it's a whole different experience to just go out and relax on your boat without having to be a host.

It still shocked me that we had to fill the car just for a simple one night stay.  Both of us are quite skilled at packing light - being able just a few months ago to pack for a 4 or 5 day business trip in just a piece of carry-on luggage.  Oh, well.

We arrived late Saturday morning (bad storms Friday night caused us to wait a bit this weekend).  I saw that the bow thruster joystick has been permanently installed and was now right-side-up.  The solenoid for the forward head was also working finally.

After a quick stop at Gratitude Marina for our biweekly pump-out, we were out on the bay.

The photos tell the main story.  It was a day of light winds.  We were able to get the sails out and sailed along at about 3 knots from a similar amount of wind.  It was a nice relaxing day.

We saw a lot boats out with Spinnakers... we had saved the spinnaker from the 315 which we will try another weekend.

After a couple of hours, we headed back in.  I surprised Vicky by making reservations to dock and dine (well, dock and take out) at Waterman's Crab House.  Vicky was so shocked that she snapped a photo of me.

This meant going into Rock Hall Harbor... this being my first time, it was a bit tricky until I learned what to look for.

We backed in OK only to discover that they wouldn't sell crabs as take-out.  Last time we were there we weren't comfortable with their COVID-related practices so Vicky opted to get crab cakes take out rather than dine in.

(Note for future reference, things were VERY relaxed in terms of the mask requirements... most people wore masks while coming in, but many were moving around inside - including staff at times - without wearing them.  I also saw multiple employees opening take out containers to check and double check.  We are going to stay away from restaurants - especially dining in - for a while.)

We were hungry enough that we went ahead and ate at the dock... eating on Seas The Day kept us 10 to 12 feet from anyone passing on the dock.

We then took a brief tour of Rock Hall Harbor.  From a map, it looks like this nice harbor that's about a quarter mile across, but when you look at the chart you quickly realize that it is mostly shallow with defined channels.  Since Swan Creek had some of the buoys blown around during the recent hurricane, I was a bit worried.  However, the harbor is marked by day-marks (permanent pilings that define the channels... you can see the bright orange "4-E" day-mark behind me in the photo a few above).

So we toured and viewed some of the marinas and also saw Harbor Shack restaurant from the water.

Later that evening after getting back and tying up, we rested for a while.  The internet was a bit sketchy but finally seemed to reset around 8:00 PM.  We watched some YouTube then had some wine outside at sunset.

I had not actually been to the Rock Hall Liquors for lunch in a while (guests have been picking up the sandwiches) so we were down to a last couple of swallows of scotch.  I'll get in trouble for posting this photo, but it's too cute to resist.

On Sunday morning it was oppressively humid.  I was soaked just standing outside filling water tanks.  

I've sort of made Sunday mornings my "boat chore" day since I spend so much time on my knees.  Today I filled the batteries again... the forward battery is clearly bad as it is boiling when the charger is only at 13.2 volts... I'm working with Gratitude to get a replacement.  We also had to clean out the AC seawater filter and hose down the bilge again.

After the chores were finished, we headed home.  On the drive we stopped at Arby's for fish sandwiches and large drinks (it was hot outside) and in the final stretch towards home we began arguing who got to use the first floor bathroom first.  

It became one of those INTENSE competitions that only married couples can pull off.  

As an explanation to the neighbors, Vicky pulled out her phone while we were in the final stretch on our road, and pre-unlocked the front door.  I countered with this preemptive path-blocking parking maneuver.  As she sprinted for the front door (she gets extra points for leaping the garden like a track-and-field competitor), I added in an expertly-timed command to lock the door as she approached (I have a phone too) as I sprinted through the garage, and surprised the fish by running past them in the living room.

I got to pee first!  

(I'm CERTAIN I'll pay for that, but all's fair in love and war and this is love.)