Practicing Our New Skills on the Water & Removing Birds Nest from Boom

For a few weeks we have been taking classes on Navigation/Piloting and Engine Maintenance with the US Power Squadron.  These classes are held on weeknights via zoom meetings where we dial in from our office or dining room.  This weekend we had a couple of days with very little wind and we decided to use the weekend to "study up" so to speak.

We left right after work on Friday and were a bit surprised to hear that the restaurant at Osprey Point was suddenly closed.  That turned out to be fortunate as a friend recommended Cafe Sado which we had been passing but never stopped at before.  It turns out this is a very nice place for Thai food and sushi.

I resumed my early morning walks on Saturday morning just after sunrise.  Osprey Point is beautiful at this time of day.

First thing after breakfast, we set about invading all the mechanical spaces on Seas The Day to identify the parts we have been learning about in the Engine Maintenance course.  Let's be honest, while I want to learn about engine maintenance, I have zero interest in actually doing engine maintenance.  

The 425 has a "filter locker" which houses the sea strainers (at the bottom), the primary fuel filters for the generator and engine and the coolant reservoir for the main engine.

Filter locker

Primary fuel filter and sea strainer for the generator

Coolant reservoir, primary fuel filter and sea strainer for main engine

Secondary fuel filter is mounted on the engine

Coolant reservoir for the generator is mounted inside the engine room.

Transmission, stuffing box and seacocks in the rear engine room

Generator oil dipstick is behind an access panel.

Main engine side access... emergency shutdown at top, oil dipstick at bottom right (silver ring)

I did check in with Wade (Gratitude Marina's manager) to find out what gets done as part of winterization and de-winterization processes at that yard.  Here's what I found out.

Mr. Reiner,

Engine oil and filter are changed in the winter, Coolant concentration is check and adjusted if needed, the raw water system is the winterized with -50 antifreeze. In the spring engines are looked over for obvious issue’s, fluids and belts are checked. Fuel filters and impellers are changed and engines are started. We let them come up to temp and check for any issues. After this if we are ask we will take her out on a short sea trail and deliver to her slip. Impellers should be changed yearly. We like to change oil in the fall this way if there is an issue it can be handled over the winter and also leaves the engine sitting with fresh clean oil. Belts normally get changed when they show wear.

 

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to call.

 

Wade Hague

Service Manager

Gratitude Marina

Moving on to navigation class, while stilled tied up at the dock, I double-checked that all the compasses are reading the same.  The main magnetic compass and the autopilot display both aligned (and both matched our hand bearing compass).

With all that established, we departed.  I had made some copies of the selected page in my northern Chesapeake chart booklet and we practiced taking bearings, 2 and 3 point fixes, some 60D=ST calculations

The water was like glass, so the relatively slow drift with the current allowed us to take our time... our movement wouldn't show up on the small scale chart on which we were working.

After a while we headed over to the spot on the bay where the Ever Forward was stuck last week.  I wanted to see if there was any "evidence" and there was!  You could find places well off the channel where the depth sounder was reading much deeper than the mid-20s expected outside of the channel.  These locations seemed to match the position where she was aground.

Curiosity sated, we headed back across the bay to return home.  As we were heading north to enter Swan Creek, I noticed a familiar shadow way across the bay near the stacks by the entrance to Baltimore.  Checking my chart plotter, it was indeed the Ever Forward!  She had her hull inspection outside of Annapolis and must have returned to Baltimore for the cargo that was off-loaded.  Here she's departing from Baltimore and nearing the same turn where she ran aground.  She was taking the turn slower (10 kts instead of the 13 kts she took it last time).

I kind of wished I had hung around the East side of the bay a bit longer to see that.

As we returned to Osprey Point, we noticed the huge amount of yellow pollen floating in the water.  It was really visible on the rocks at low tide where it made interesting patterns.

After a wine tasting party on Steve and Abbey's Tranquility (a Beneteau 50), we set about trying to clean as much of the pollen off Seas The Day as possible until we lost light at day's end.

 Sunday morning was just a lazy day.  I did my early morning walk, then I puttered around some odd boat jobs and wrote this blog post while Vicky took a few calls from Chinese colleagues.

Osprey Point was very tranquil on Sunday morning.

That was up until I went out to fill the water....  

Suddenly I was startled by the sounds of rattling inside our boom and the swish of a bird taking off in flight.  I looked up just in time to see the bird rush out of our boom to safety.  Clearly there was a nest.

I poked around the end of the boom a bit and pulled out a few twigs.  Vicky came up to help and was able to get out some more.  But here is where I met the determined Vicky I've heard so many people talk about.  She kept at this for several hours.  Many times I thought "OK, we have it", only to hear her tell me that there is more in there.  I looked around and found her walking up and down B-dock asking for advice and collecting hangers and borrowing part retrievers to try and snag the nest materials.

Later (Vicky's operation was still going on) I was sent to Village Hardware to procure a small hose nozzle and some stiff wire.

It took a hose in the tail end of the boom going full blast, Vicky ramming 18 ft of stiff wire into the mast and pulling it back out as I tilted the boom down (to fill with water) and then up to dump it towards the mast repeatedly.  

We eventually pulled out enough nesting material to fill a bucket along with 3 eggs (2 cracked, one OK).  We apologize to the birds for destroying their home, but this was a safety issue from our point of view (we didn't want a jammed outhaul keeping us from bringing in the sails).

This shows the size of the entry hole

My head is too fat to be able to see down the boom, but 
Vicky could easily see the nest inside.

You can see the bucket is already full and she's STILL pulling out nesting material.

Look at all the nesting material on the deck that never made it to the bucket.

After the operation Joe, our dock dockmate, coached me on how to use rigging tape to close off the entry holes.

I treated Vicky to ice cream in Rock Hall and another stop for sushi at Cafe Sado on the way home.

Oh... we both got significant sunburns... can't forget to stop an operation like this and apply sunscreen!

The Start of the 2022 Season & the Ever Forward Aground

The best benefit of storing Seas The Day in the water during the winter is that spring commissioning happened as soon as the water was turned on at our marina.  Thus for the first time since coming down to Rock Hall, we were able to start using Seas The Day on April 15... the official start of the "season" for our marina.

Friday was pretty much dedicated to loading everything and getting it stowed below.  It's just like moving in to your college dorm... a disorganized mess for at least the first few hours.

We had to stop first for some pulled pork sandwiches from Rock Hall Liquors.

Amongst the typical chores like setting up the fridge and freezer and checking the bilge, we discovered that there was some water condensation under the forward berth.  Vicky was able to crawl into the space and clean it with the wet/dry vac.

After that excitement, I headed outside to swab the deck for the first time.  The wind had picked up to about 15 kts, and it felt quite cold.

With everything inside and outside looking good, we headed to Osprey Point Restaurant for our first dinner of the season.  This is our favorite restaurant in Rock Hall, and super convenient, being only 200 yards from our slip.

Once back from dinner, we had to double check the forward bilge to ensure it remained dry.  It has been ever since.

As evening approached, I went outside and began updating the Raymarine firmware by the light of the full moon.  It was a beautiful evening.

On Saturday morning I had to do a quick safety check of the propane system before cooking breakfast.  (Open the solenoid, pressurize the system with all the burners off, then close the tank... two photos 15 min apart confirm no leaks.)

I also confirmed that all the fire extinguishers were good.

Following breakfast, it was time to get underway.  We checked the oil (yes, both of us - we're both taking Engine Maintenance from the US Power Squadron) and got the engine ready.  After starting up (I wanted to run the engine for at least 5 min. before departing), I realized that one of the costs of storing in the water was some serious wear on dock lines from the winter storms.  Lucky for us, we had some spares all ready.

We departed a little after 9:00 AM.  As we exited out of Swan Creek the full force of sailing this early hit us.  Air temps were in the low 60s and as you can see below, winds were in the low 20s.  We proceeded south through some 2.5 to 3ft waves and it was quite a ride.  It wasn't necessarily pleasant, but not horrible.  I mentally decided to stick it out until we reached the #3 buoy before deciding to return or proceed.

I really wanted to check out the Ever Forward, a container ship that had run aground a month earlier.  It had somehow missed a turn coming out of Baltimore and was pretty well stuck.  They were still removing some containers before Sunday morning's high tide when the 3rd refloating attempt would take place.

We decided to proceed across the bay.  That turned out to be a great decision as conditions improved once the wind from the south was no longer hitting us in the face.

There was a 1000 yard (roughly 0.5 NM) security zone around the Ever Forward which showed up nicely on the AIS layer of my chart plotter.  Here you can see how she missed the turn from Baltimore (to the upper right) and plowed into the side of the channel.  You can also see quite a number of tugboats, barges and law enforcement vessels all around her.

Here you can see me about a half a mile in front measuring 25 feet on my depth sounder.
Except for the channel all the seabed around her is in the mid-20s.

We had the chance to watch them remove a container or two

Lots of law enforcement vessels in the area.
This one would shortly chase down two jet skiers.

We were not the only recreational vessel visiting the site.

(Note:  As I write this, the Ever Forward was freed from its grounding at the 6:00 AM high tide on Easter Sunday.  It was towed south of the Bay Bridge to the anchoring grounds off of Annapolis.  My understanding is that they will do a hull inspection with some divers before allowing her to proceed back to Baltimore to pick up the remaining cargo that was off-loaded before resuming her trip to Newport, then on to NYC and Boston.)

Having seen the Ever Forward, we headed back east across the bay.  The winds had died down a bit and we pulled out the sails for a perfect hour of sailing on a nice beam reach back to the #3 buoy to turn into Swan Creek.

Vicky made some dumplings for dinner Saturday evening which we had with some white wine and blueberries for dessert.  We relaxed in the cockpit for a few moments before I realized I needed to fill the water tanks before the storm came.

Shortly after taking these photos, the downpour started and I quickly put away the water filling kit.

It was quite rocky again on Sunday morning.  Temps had dropped to the mid-50s with a strong mid-20s winds.  We stayed inside for breakfast (and all morning).

I explained to Vicky that even though we are on a boat, the baby Jesus knows where we are and he could still get in his sleigh and deliver the chocolate peanut butter Easter eggs to us just like he gave them to his disciples that first Easter (as commemorated in da Vinci's "The Last Supper").

I'm not sure she believed me....

We finished the weekend with a nice Easter dinner at Osprey Point before heading north to Newark.