Back Out on the Water!

After a few weeks of getting ready, I'm finally back out on the water!

It's been two weeks... last weekend I thought I was going out in the water, but a combination of boat repair and (mostly) weather, kept me ashore.

I went down to Osprey Point last weekend, leaving after work on Friday and arriving just after sunset Friday night.  Once on board, my practice is to do a quick check on the various boat systems.  On checking the water, I received a surprise.  I had just filled the water last week before heading home, and I noticed that only one of the tanks had water in it.

Tank 3 is Empty???

Just a little context is in order.  For a couple of weeks, Captain Joe from Sol Searcher has been telling me that my bilge pump had been going off every few hours, but only spitting out maybe a cup full of water each time.  I had checked... couldn't see any point of water entry, and since it was a little fresh water in the bilge (not salt water) I just chalked it up to maybe some condensation from the cold weather.

But now with the fresh water drained, I looked closer and saw some water leaking out of the manifold that controls which tank is sending water to the main house water pump.  A relatively quick repair - just cut off an inch from the one hose that had been overtightened & deformed, and once everything was reattached all seemed well.

No more leaks!

I spent the night on-board to watch and ensure there was no more water leaking.  While there, I noticed that the weather had changed for the weekend and what might have been a pleasant Saturday turned to a cold and damp day.

So I abandoned ship... deciding that hitting the theater organ concert Saturday evening and going to see the Little One on Sunday was a better use of my time.

Simon Gledhill at DTOS

1 week old

Which brings us to this weekend.  Knowing that everything was all ready to go, I headed down to Osprey Point on Saturday morning, did a quick wash of Seas The Day and an oil check and I was off and sailing shortly after lunch.

It was a relatively clear (slowly turning to mostly cloudy as the afternoon progressed - there were storms forming over Baltimore) day with no real wind and temps in the mid 60s.

It's weird to look over towards Baltimore and NOT see the Key Bridge.

This pound net seems new... it's kind of in the way.
(Right by the green #3 buoy where everyone turns.)

I did get the sails out, but there wasn't any wind to speak of.

It was a nice day!

After getting back to the marina, I had time to rinse things off, clean up a little and enjoy a nice dinner at the Osprey Point Inn.

Sunday morning was some lazy time before cleaning Seas The Day for a showing (She's still For Sale) later Sunday afternoon.

No Sailing - The Little One Has Arrived

 

I don't typically put family events on this blog, but this one warrants an exception.  There was no sailing this weekend.  It was supposed to be a relatively nice weekend (and it turned out to be beautiful), but as the week wore on, I realized that Levi here was going to steal the show - arriving late Friday night - and I had to take Saturday to make a beeline to NJ.  It was great to see that everyone was healthy and excited if more than a little exhausted.  

I took Sunday to get groceries and get some chores finished.  I can go sailing next weekend.

Moving Aboard for the Start of the Season

 

Most important to note is the fact that Seas The Day remains up for sale.  (Here's the link if it is still for sale.)  We just reduced the price to hopefully bring about Mr. & Mrs. Buyer, but in the meantime, well, let's make some lemonade.

With that in mind, I packed up just enough to get the season started.  Last year, I removed 4 dock carts worth of stuff, leaving only that equipment we wanted to pass onto new owners.  This spring, I moved 2 dock carts worth of items (basic bedding, galley items, etc.) back aboard.

That left a big mess in the salon, and a large list of boat-chores to get through.

While it was a beautiful day, it was not to be a sailing day... too many items to check off before we start sailing.

It was finally calm enough to replace the fraying dock line.

Each time we wintered in the water, we ended up with some water in the space under the forward v-berth.  This is not a leak... it is fresh water (not salt water... not necessarily "fresh" though).  Our best guess is it comes from condensation against the cold walls of the hull and it can't flow to the bilge due to the bow thruster tunnel (at the lower left above).  Dealing with this means wrestling the mattress to the salon and using the small wet vac to pick it up, then washing everything down with a mild bleach solution to kill the mold  ring that forms.

Eventually, everything is clean and dry and mold free.  Somehow I was able to replace the piston that raises the bead for reading.

Next, I swabbed the deck, evicting a spider-squatter in the process.

By then, everything was ready for a first night on-board.

Sunday morning was spent updating the boat's firmware and navigation data and then making sure everything was spic 'n span ready to show.

Later Sunday night (while writing this blog), I received this photo of a nice and clean Seas The Day at sunset from Captain Joe of Sol Searcher.

Checking in During Winter Storage

 Not much to say here.  

Throughout the winter, I stopped by Rock Hall to check in on Seas The Day on most weeks.  These visits are basically a quick trip down and a brief check on-board to be sure everything is OK.  It usually was.  

Here are a few of the photos.

Checking to ensure the switches are still set the same way, the battery charger is on and the bilge is OK.

On the one weekend where there was snow, I opted not to go aboard... just checked the dock lines and used a current sensor to ensure the battery charger was still on.

I noticed that the winter storms were beginning to take their toll on the dock line, but she was double-tied, so I just made a note to get a new one ready.

Still holding... but blowing too strongly to attempt a replacement this visit.

Also noted some pitting on the plate supporting this cleat.

Finally on the last visit of the off-season, I noticed the canvas was reinstalled by the yard.  Tomorrow is April 15!  That is tax day, but also the official start of the season (and when water gets turned back on).

Costs of Owning a Boat - "Seas The Day" (Catalina 425) 5th Season Costs

  

Photo Credit:  Wealth Management

First, for reference see last year's post for 4th season costs of owning a Catalina 425.

Second, a citation... we did this experiment with our Catalina 315.  Additional links to the costs over our ownership of that vessel are found on that page.

If you click on the 315 link above and go back to the first-year costs, I spoke about how we didn't approach buying a boat lightly and how we carefully researched costs and couldn't find specifics so I decided to share mine so others could understand the total picture about boat ownership.  Purchasing the 425 was less researched, but still the total costs figured large in our brief discussions.  For that reason, and to be able to project from year to year, we are continuing this tally.

As in the other cost-related posts, we'll group the costs into three categories.

ONE-TIME COSTS - costs of major equipment that we don't expect to have regularly.

RECURRING COSTS - Those costs that we expect to see yearly as owners.

EXCURSION COSTS - We we did more multi-day excursions this year and we'll address those specifically below.  The rest were just days sailing on the Chesapeake Bay.

Once again please understand that I'm rounding excessively.   If you're a CPA type, you're going to rapidly realize that things don't cross-check, etc.  The goal here is to share approximate costs to other potential boat owners, not to give an exact accounting.

ONE-TIME COSTS:

We had two different one-time costs this year.  

We installed a new anchor wash down pump and sprayer at the beginning of our season.  This cost $1600 and allows us to wash down the mud when we are raising the anchor.

Our 2nd one-time cost was to replace the bilge pump at the end of the year.  I noticed after a big cold rainstorm while Seas The Day was in wet winter storage, that the bilge pump was activated, but not pumping (always do weekly checks with wet storage).  A new pump was $680.

Thus we had a total of $2280 in one-time costs this year. 

RECURRING COSTS:

Recurring costs are the costs for running the boat for the year assuming we never did anything other than take day trips and anchoring out in the northern Chesapeake area (e.g., no additional marina costs).

Our total recurring costs round to $45,000 (remember, everything is rounded).

The mortgage is $2500/month or $30,000.

Insurance for the year was $2300.

The marina clocked in at $6300 (including electric & pumpout tokens).

Wet winter storage was $900.

Commissioning, winterization and maintenance came to $5300.

Safety items (Navionics renewal) total was $25.

Finally the excursion costs are summarized below.

EXCURSION COSTS:

We did one main excursion during this year, a vacation in June that lasted 9 days, but I must confess that I did not track the costs this time.  (My best guess is it was around $1500 including food, marinas, etc.)

We don't normally include food on land in our yearly cost summary.  This year, our restaurant expenditures were probably lower since we tried to cook in the galley most weekends.  I did try to eat weekly at the Osprey Point Inn to support them. and occasional breakfasts at Java Rock and Muskrat Alley.  Oh... we can't forget the regular sandwiches from Rock Hall Liquors.  

Finally, I'm guessing a total of about $100 in pump out costs (I'm including tips here, but not counting the tokens at the marina), and approximately $300 for fuel.  (Neither fuel or pump out is included in the recurring costs above.)

SUMMARY: 

This was an abbreviated season for us this year.  When I look at my weekend log, I see a lot of "No Sailing -..." entries.  My son got married and weekends were lost for showers, planning and the big event and a niece got married as well.  We also lost time in May while in China visiting with Vicky's family.  Finally, we also lost some weekends to "Boatominium Weekends" (it was too hot to go out sailing, so we stayed in the AC cabin and watched TV).  So although the April 15 to November 15 "season" had 32 weekends and although we sailed as early as the beginning of May and as late as the end of October, we also had two months without sailing late in the season.  All told, we were on the boat for 11 weekends plus the 9 day vacation in June (which included 2 weekends) for a total of 13 weekends.

So then $45,000 divided by 13 weekends means each weekend have cost us $3462.  That figure could have been as low as $1400 if we hadn't missed all those weekends.  The difference in those numbers is significant as you'll see below.

What did we get for all that money?

We spent 28 days interacting with Seas The Day - anywhere from a watching movies from the salon without going out to a vacation out on the water.

We had 22 days of active sailing.  Most of these were day trips.  We spent 28 overnights (some with as many as 5 guests) on board.  And finally, we shared her with 31 other people... mostly repeats from last year but a handful of new faces as well.

Clearly this is a drastic drop in use relative to last year, which was a drop from previous years.  Realizing this was one of the reasons that led to our decision to sell Seas The Day.  We clearly have moved to usage that makes the Charter/Owner scale tip towards chartering.  With the news that grandchildren are on the way and other life decisions ahead of us, our usage will only drop.

She has not yet sold... we'll keep using her until she does.