SailNet Raft Up

Marilyn and I have been hanging around an internet sailing forum. We have been talking to a number of people on the site that are in the Chesapeake Bay area. We have met a few people and they have been fun to talk to. This weekend we got together and rafted up at the Magothy River we a bunch. We wanted to sail Saturday from Rock Hall. The weather was a bit iffy. So we stayed at the dock for a few hours. Ann had the inflatable kayak in the cove this time. She and Marilyn and Barbra were paddling away in out into the open water. The weather opened a window and we headed out. No wind so we had to motor. Halfway across we hit a debris field. Logs, grass, branches and all manner of garbage. We went slowly thru it only to hit a denser field in the entrance to the Magothy. We had to take the engine out of gear and float thru the field. We rafted up with Chris and Eileen, Dan and Jaye and Dave. We talked and then it rained.. Just splashed us pretty good.  It was short enough for Marilyn to see a rainbow. Snacks were prepared and brought over the Cinderella ( Dan and Jaye's Boat ) and we talked and ate thru the evening.  Sunday we all had coffee and the conversations started again. We then did boat tours. Looking at each others boats and admiring how all the owners had made themselves a home. We broke anchor and had to brave the debris field again. The debris field is caused by the opening of gates on the Conowingo Dam. The flood water from Irene and Lee mixed with all this junk and is washing it down the Bay. Luckily it did not cause any damage and we got back to the slip a bit slowly

Rain Rain and more rain......

When we left the boat this weekend, actually Tuesday it was in a torrential rain storm. Got drenched loading the car in a lull. Yesterday morning it was still raining. It let up in the afternoon, but last night ho-boy! With the flooding the trains are not running and the Turnpike entrances are closed. Quite a mess.

Measured 7.53 inches of rain in this storm. That's more that hurricane Irene.

But so far the basement is dry. :)

Lazy Labor Day Weekend.

Woke up in Swan Creek. Which is good because that is where we anchored! Would be more exciting if we anchored some where else. Spent a lazy morning having coffee and watching the time go by there. Motored back to the slip and we jumped into the pool. You have to jump in the pool Memorial Day, July 4th and Labor day. No more till next year. Found the backup battery in the boat was dry, almost dead. Added water to it. See if it will revive at least till next spring.

We had 50th wedding anniversary here on Friday. Al and Ann celebrated 50 years married. The porch was filled with well wishers.

Marilyn and I met another Sailnet couple. Dave and Janet stopped in Rock Hall as part of there bay tour and we vistied their boat at Rock Hall Landing. They seemed like an nice pair and we did not keep them long as they were eager to continue the trip north on the spinnakar. We may raft up with a bunch of SailNet people next week if the weather holds out.

In Swan Creek

Spent most of Saturday cleaning up and putting things away that we
tied the boat down with for the storm.

We then went out for a day sail. It was a nice wind from the south
about 8 kts. We dropped the hook in Swan Creek for the night.
--Rico
I was all thumbs typing this in!
Sent from my iPhone.

Boat Ok!

Went to Spring Cove on Thursday. Check up on the boat and it was ok. No damage. None. Perfect. Started to put the canvas on the boat for the weekend while I was down there. Got the Bimini up and the Dodger and the Jib sail. Need to move cushions and other stuff that we had stored. It still will take us a few hours to get back into shape. Now we have to check our weather windows.

Boat may be Ok

A friend emailed that he had stayed over the weekend during the storm. He reports that the boat may have had no damage. Others were not so lucky. One boat had smashed against a piling repeatedly during the storm. A few jib sails unfurled and blew out and shredded. I'm going down on Thursday to check it all out.

Hurricane is over.

Now we have to get back from vacation and go back to work tomorrow. This vacation is not one I want to repeat soon. Struggling to get the boat working, bad weather, flooding rain, earthquakes, hurricanes. Next time I'm just going to stay in bed.

Maybe not out of the woods yet.

The wind is still blowing pretty hard yet. Gusts as bad as we had during Irene. The ground is just mud soup and not draining yet. A neighbor's tree just went down. We may have a power outage yet.

Morning is we are Ok

The storm is winding down and things are alright. Inside all is ok. We'll go outside later to see the condition of things. Now I have to see how to put 6 gallons of gas from the generator into Marilyn's car without making a mess.

During the storm.

Last night during the storm the rain was being blown thru the back door. We taped the back door with metal tape and it slowed it to a drip.  The basement was running like crazy but the sump pump kept up with the water. If we would have lost power I figured that we had about 10 minutes to get the pump running before we had makings of a basement swimming pool.

Rain Begining

We we are all snug today.  Marilyn is working in the sewing room, I'm making wine poached figs.  Checking the weather at Thomas Point Lighthouse the wind is at 33kts and Rock Hall is about 5kts and 4mph here. It's making its way up the bay. Suprisingly there is no expected storm surge in Rock Hall. Very excellent, one less thing that we have to deal with. The figs have been simmering for 20 min and I have to reduce the liquid... and get some vanilla ice cream!

All tied up

On Saturday we tied the good ship Imagination down as best we could.  Fortified her with fenders in case she rubs a dock or a piling. Gave her tripple lines in the direction of the wind.  She'll be fine I think she was better held down than most of the boats. But against 70mph winds and 5 foot storm surge.
We did the best we could do.

We left her in the afternoon. Traffic was one big parking lot took us nearly 5 hours to get home. But we stopped a the store for water and extension cords for the generator and flash lights and batteries.. And I have a two day supply of gas in the generator. I may get the bigger gas can this morning. The stores looed like they were stripped by locusts. We have supplies for french toast in the morning.

Sunday the storm......

Lull before the storm

All double lined and tied down.

Thursday... Prep day

T -2 days.... We got the head sail down this evenning as the winds died down. ( lull before the storm? ) Also, you see Marilyn showing you the latest in fenderboards that we installed. The bimimi top and dodger will be down tomorrow and the double dock lines will be installed.  Honda Generator is now in the car. We'll then empty the boat of non essentials and anything that will go bad in the fridge. We'll lend a had to anyone else and be gone on Saturday.  As a last act we will film the boat if we need it for insurance purposes.

The forecast is now for 70mph gusts. The forecast is getting worse as the storm gets closer. We will be long gone but the good ship Imagination will be here to weather the storm without us.

I was second guessing if we should have hauled the boat.

Fenderboards

Fenderboards

Rainy Day

This is just a normal rainy day....some say an appetizer for the hurricane but not anything related to Irene. We spent the day prepping and relaxing before the main event. We went to West Marine yesterday to get extra dock lines. I went again to West Marine and the hardware store to get the makings of fenderboards. I made one and the rains came. I'll finish making the other one later.  Donna, a friend from a neighboring marina come over. She had her boat hauled ( taken out of the water and put on land ) for the storm, They are in a much more exposed marina. We talked about the storm for a while and about the upcoming get together.
Marilyn is planning on reading for the rest of the afternoon and I'll finish that other fenderboard if the rain slows down!

Kent Narrows

Kent Narrows has a draw bridge that opens on the top of the hour and we were lucky enough to time our trip so we caught the bridge opening -- no waiting. In fact, when we hailed the bridge tender told us: You can make it if you "speed it up." (Sailboats, even when motoring, are not built for speed.)

We powered up and because we had the right of way (based on the current) we entered first with just a working boat meeting us on the other side. (Traffic on summer weekends is very hectic.) But it gets tricky - not just the current - but the water levels here can be very low here and we don't want to hit bottom. We entered at high tide and that worked to our advantage and then carefully navigated the channel. Whew! 

And we traversed two bridges today, the first was Knapps Narrows bridge, which is an open on-demand bridge. It is also known for its challenging channel that has low water and drop-offs. We saw a sailboat get stuck here last year - and we even cautioned the Captain about the markers. It is all part of the fun ?  of sailing.

Back in Rock Hall

We left the anchorage after a rocky night. The wind was blowing all night which kept things cool and nice. But it was from our only unprotected side so we were getting waves from the Choptank. But it was nice sleeping when the rocking was gentle. Sunrise was just as beautiful as sunset. The working boats were out crabbing. We had our tea and coffee watching them. We left before 8am and went thru the Narrows again. the Bay was not too bad bu the wind was right on our tail so we motored the whole way. At Kent Narrows we fueled up and continued north. Nearing Rock Hall we were in a following sea and the boat was surfing and hard to control. Before you knew it we were tied up at the slip. A jump into the showers and we went to West Marine to get extra dock lines to double up the lines for the hurricane. Irene looks like its going out to sea but we may get a North wind at tropical storm strength. We wento out to have a nice dinner as we both were too beat to make dinner and clean up. Our reward was a big ball of a sunset........

Crab boat at dawn

Rocky night in the anchorage

Wind has picked up and the boat is rocking tonight. Clear starry
night. Lots of star gazing. We even spotted satellites earlier in the
evening. Now sitting anchor watch. Wind is shifting south should be
more protection after the full wind shift.

--Rico
I was all thumbs typing this in!
Sent from my iPhone.

Cruising for 20 years! Could that be us?

I was stepping onto the cockpit when I saw this big ole friendly dog at the bow of a motorboat. Rocket, we  was his name, and he was nearly as big as this 12 foot boat. I waved and the real Captain of this vessel stopped and introduced himself.   He said he and his wife had a custom built 50-foot motorboat that would support them for 2 or 3,000 miles off shore with the fuel tanks, storage and creature features. They had traveled much further than the Chesapeake and had ventured to the Bahamas and even navigated the Mississippi River among the 300-foot barges. (The Mississippi has always been a busy waterway from when Huck Finn's was dodging steamboats on his raft until today. Its strong currents, big bends and heavy traffic prove difficult.) They sold their boat last year but it is still in the Chesapeake to serve out its time. By the way, 20 years is still young for a boat. Remember "Beautiful Star" was 30 years old when we bought her.

Should be a clear night and good for stargazing. Signing off for now.

Dun Cove

We got a vist from the unoffical harbor master and his dog rocket. Nice fellow his family owned the farm that surrounds the cove. He was telling us some great crusing stories. He said that he had 100,000 miles under the keel! He was telling about crusing the Mississippi River Wow! We exchanged cards and felt that we made a new friend. 
Now back to chopping veggies for dinner. Sunset on the deck later!

Earthquake?

We were at Knapps Narrows Marina for a shower. When it felt that a
boat ran into the floating dock. But we were on land. Wow! Earthquake!
The trees were swaying and the building alarms were sounding. Crazy!

We got an email from a sailing friend to check the weather. Hurricane
Irene is coming up the cheasapeake on Saturday. So tomorrow we are
going to make a run for home.

Floods,earthquake, hurricanes!

Currently we are anchored safely in Dun Cove.

--Rico
I was all thumbs typing this in!
Sent from my iPhone.

Sunset

Sunset

Wish you were here!

We are sitting on the coach roof waiting for sunset. I made crab cakes
for dinner. They were just a little too soft. I used egg beaters( we
use them because they just close up and we don't have to worry about
breakage) but I think real eggs would be better.

Having trouble reading info from NOAA. Weather was for 11 to 16 kts
winds and the small craft advisory was for to 33 kts. The forecast was
correct.

Flies were biting me all day long...Rat Bastards!

Rhode River

We day sailed a bit in the west river. The winds were gusting to 20.Anchoring in the Rhode river was what we wanted to do. Nice sunny and breezy best describes our anchorage. It is near the YMCA camp I hope we do not get woke up by a bugle! 

 

 --Rico

Day two

We may stay and explore the Rhode river today. Small change of plans but we are here to relax. Cross the bay tomorrow.  May have to keep an eye on Hurricane Irene. It may hit Atlantic Coast on Sunday and we'll have to get back before then.

Storm Passed!

After torrential rain and some scary lightning we were still anchored firmley where we started! After the rain it was a beautuful afternoon nice cool brezzes and puffy clouds. sitting here planning our move tomorrow to Dunns Cove.

Anchored in the West River

Outside Hartsel boatyard. About to be stormed on.

In the West River...

We took off this morning to beat the thunderstorm. Met no storms in the bay but lots of wnd and waves. I was soaked by the spray. Now we are anchored in the West River with thunderboomers surrounding us.

Well the advernture began.....

... not for us.  A boat came into the marina looking for the gas dock.... "Is this Spring Cove"   Yes we told him.  He went asking someone else for the gas dock saying he can't see it into the phone..... Them it hit me "Which Spring Cove are you looking for" ... He was looking for a slip for Spring cove in the Solomons.  He asked how do I get there..... South about 6 or 7 hours I told him.  We put him in an empty slip for the night and let him get his navigation worked out in the morning/

Day One.....

Got the pressure gauge installed. Going out for a sea trial....... Chartplotter does not power up. Get the voltmeter... darn battery in the voltmeter dead!   ok get the cover off  the helm wiring... darn stripped the screws!   Drill out the screws...get a shower of wd40 and hot metal shavings. Out to West Marine for new screws. Now at 4pm all is working. Take the sea trial.  No Problems !! YEA!  Pumpout the tanks and take all the canned goods from the car to the boat. Ready to go......    But tonight showers to get the shavings out of my hair and dinner at Yarmoth.

Tomorrow after breakfast the adventure begins.......

Oil Pressure gauge

We installed the new oil pressure gauge! It works and the oil pressure
of the engine is good! Now we have to clean up do a sea trial and
provision the boat. Then we are out of here!

A Little Background

We are starting vacation again WoHooo! But let me take you back a few months to update you on what is been happening to the good ship Imagination....

First we had to move our solar panels. The winter winds almost tore them off the Bimini structure.
Then we had to fix the autopilot. When we would set a course the boat would wander.
Also, I wanted to update the electronics. I had bought a chart plotter with the boat and never put it in.
But, we had a breakdown of sorts. The riser pipe, part of the exhaust system of the boat had corroded and was leaking both water and exhaust.

The solar panels were put on an arch on the back of the boat. The arch took about 8 weeks to fabricate and can be used for davits, to haul up a dinghy, and to support a radar system in the future. The arch people were great to work with. The guy who installed the solar panels, not so much.

The auto pilot and electronics upgrade was a bit of a pain as the chart plotter that I had bought had problems talking to other equipment. The guy who ran the wires was great Terry Willis is a wizard and understood what I wanted and how I wanted to do it.  We now have a functioning autopilot, chart plotter at the help and navigation station, that has AIS, ship anti collision software, and weather.

The riser pipe had us sitting for 6 weeks waiting for the part. Swan Creek installed it. The wait caused a build up of marine life on our prop. Last weekend we took the boat out and the engine overheated. Lee came over and hauled the boat to scrape the bottom eject the barnacles.

Also, this summer we have been chasing a problem with the oil pressure light. The light would come but  we would have oil. After a shut down and restart the light would stay off. I need to change the oil switch and put in a oil pressure gauge to see if there really is a problem.  This I am doing today the first day of our vacation so that I have confidence in the boat for a week! This should only take an hour. ( Famous last words! ) We also need to sea trail the boat to see if everything is working correctly. 

Now on to work!!!

Ok Where Have I Been......

Well I gues not in the state of mind to write the blog. But soon I get off my butt and write something, maybe even something interesting!