New Blog Look.

I was getting tired of the old blog look. This one has some new features. Like a map of where I am or where I wish I were! Click on it it may have current pictures. Also, I may have a poll question from time to time. So look around and see how you like it.

Clean out

For the past two day I've been cleaning out Mom's house. It's been a real nasty business as a lot of stuff has to given, donated or thrown away. Mom and Dad kept EVERYTHING! I found stuff that was brand new just 60 years old. Mom was on the Catholic religious soft touch list. She had all the junk mail sent to her for all those fund raisers. A lot of those envelopes has cheap medals that were just all over the floor. Also, I'm trying not to bring everything I see home. We have no room as it is. I don't need a museum of Mom and Dad to sit in the basement for another 60 years. Well it's coming to an end just one more truckload and it'll be done. I'm glad as it is hard work and an emotionally draining experience.

Busy Week Sort of....

Well been busy all week but I don't know where all the time has gone.

One thing is that I'm FINALY going to the gym. I'm haunting the Y after work on Tues and Thurs. I'll Park down at Ft Washington to take the train so I have to pass the Y to go home. That's a pretty good reminder.

Last night Marilyn and Meg had a girls night out and went to dinner and the Ballet. I visted Mom and went to a diner for dinner.

Tomorrow is the day from hell. I have the junk guy and the plumber at Mom's first thing in the morning and I have a contractor coming to our house at 5pm.

Now if I can just get thru today......

New engine on the way.

Ordered the new engine this morning. It will be in the boatyard on Wednesday. The cost ... Well let just say it in the OUCH range. It be worth it.

Gym this morning

Going to head out to the gym this morning. See if I can get back into the habit. Well I've been paying for it mind as well go! Today I think it will be better to workout inside in the air conditioning that outside in the humidity.

Sailboat out of the water

I went to Rock Hall to see the boat. It's now out of the water in the Swan Creek boat yard.

The boat was parked next to a bone yard boat that was due to be crushed up soon. I was hoping that it was not an omen for our boat. BTW, if you know someone who may want a Ericson 34t as a project boat let me know, maybe we can save it from the crusher.

I talked to the yard owner and the engine will be out of the boat this week. I'll order a engine from Moyer and I think that this engine business will be finished in short order.

I bet I'll be talking about this engine swap all winter and it may just be finished by spring!

Is anybody out there?

Last night Marilyn, Meg and I went to see the 1812 production of "In Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe" First we had dinner at the Caribou Cafe it's a nice bistro type of restaurant. Good food great service a good pre-theater stop. The play was in a small third floor theater in the Walnut. Its a one woman play that Lilly Tomlin won a Tony award for in the 80's. The actress, Jennifer Childs, does a great job with all of the characters. The play revolves around a bag lady who can "look in" other peoples lives. Mostly those lives are completely dysfunctional and somewhat interconnected. It has some laughs but some sections were just too long. But on the whole a pretty good night out.

Robert Ballard

Last night we saw Dr Robert Ballard at the Kimmel Center. They have a lecture series of interesting people. Dr Ballard was fun! I could listen to him all night long. I was just captivated by his adventures at the bottom of the sea. Dr Ballard is best known for locating the Titanic but he has changed thinking in the field of biology, astrobiology, geology, and cartography with his discoveries in the Mid Atlantic trench. Today he is creating remotely piloted deep submersibles that can be commanded from control centers in any location in the world. He is beaming that information and experience not only into universities but into middle schools around the country to help foster and develop the next generation of researchers, scientist, engineers and dreamers.

Titanic Night Ahead

Tonight we are going to the Kimmel Center. They are having a lecture series and tonight's speaker is Dr. Robert Ballard. He is the oceanographer who directed the team that located the RMS Titanic, battleship Bismark, and the carrier USS Yorktown. This should be an interesting evening.

FallFest!

Fall Fest at Rock Hall is always a super time. Just to give you a taste how good this was we spent 5 hours doing different things in just a two block festival. We saw the Catonsville High School Steel Drum Band. Ate crab cake sandwiches. Looked at craft vendors. Cheered on a crab picking contest. Toured Skipjacks. Boogie Woogied to dueling pianos. Smelled soap. And listened to a Jazz band.
We were worn out. But we had to get back for the Spring Cove picnic. We talked with a bunch of dock neighbors while fill ourselves with picnic noshes.

Roy, Marj, Marilyn and I went back to the boat to play a rousing game of Whad' Ya Know. There was a few time play was suspended as we laughed ourselves silly.

This morning we took all the canvas off the boat and made it ready to be taken out of the water. To be ready to fix the engine. I'll miss going to the boat.

Fun and Games

We ordered games from a company called Out of the Box Games. We got a game called Shipwrecked and the game from the show "Whad Ya Know". The games are compact and they look like fun. We'll let you know as we are bringing them down to the boat this weekend.

Moyer Marine

Found a place that will overhaul the engine for the sailboat.

Moyer Marine is expert with these engines. So next season we'll have a reliable engine.

Next Weekend Already.

Well not yet but some notes. Called Swan Creek to pull the boat so I have to go down next weekend to take the sails off. When it's out of the water Lee from Swan Creek will look at it.

Fall Fest is next weekend and looks like Marj and Roy are going to come down and have fun at Fall Fest and the Spring Cove Picnic. We'll end the season with a bang.

On an other note the LED lights that I've been working on for the boat have been wildly successful. The lights use about one tenth the power and are much more bright. They are also rechargeable, plug into solar panels and the battery pack is able to run fans on hot days. This will allow us to get rid of the Coleman battery lanterns. They used batteries quickly and did not give much light.

Rock Hall Weekend.

We went down to Rock Hall this weekend. We wanted to finish up the electrical fix and take the boat out for a trial run. The electrical problems are finished. The accessories are running --the lights, light and the motor purrs. I rigged a line to allow us to drops the main sail quickly and trying it today it worked perfectly. We took the boat out Sunday for a test sail. The motor worked well. And we had lots of wind for sailing. The new rigging is working well and the method we learned for reducing weather helm is working just right. We sailed along for about an hour and Marilyn went below for something to drink. Then she asked the question I never want to hear. What's this water on the deck? Whaaaa? Oh boy. Run below. Bildge pump not working. Oh Shoot!.... Get Aux bildge pump handle. Ok only a couple of gallons of water..... Well, we turned around and got back to the slip OK. Turns out that the side plate of the engine rusted thru. It was dumping a couple of gallons an hour of cooling water into the engine compartment while it was running. Looks like out season is done. The engine has to come out to fix this and I'm going to leave this one to the professionals. I will have the engine overhauled while it's out of the boat.
So we'll go to Rock Hall Fall Fest next weekend, take the sails off, and put the boat up for the season.

Stowe XC Ski Trip

I've been talking to Linda Repsher, JoAnne and Mike and looks like we are going to run a Stowe bus trip this year. It's going to be Feb 22 thru 25 and it will be $395 per person double. If you are interested in going let me know I'll tell you where to send the $150 deposit.

Post Vacation Blues....

Well you haven't heard from me for a few days, I've been busy. The downstairs toilet flush handle broke.

No problem, Run to Lowes for parts. Fixed the toilet handle.

That's great.....Hey what's this leak??? The bolts that hold the tank are now leaking.

No problem. Run to Lowes for parts. Hmmm these don't fit!

No problem. Run to Lowes for more parts.

Hmmm, they don't have smaller bolts.

No problem. Run to Home Depot for parts.

Hmmmm, they don't have smaller bolts either. They don't make the tank bolts smaller.

Hmmm. Ok run back home. One bolts fits one dosen't. Ok now the moment of truth make the hole bigger.

Get the drill and try to drill the ceramic tank. ( Drilling....Sweating...Drilling... Sweating..... )

Great! The hole is bigger and the tank did not break!

Fix it up, put it together, fill it up.....DARN IT LEAKS!!!

Take it apart....Tighten bolts.....

and..

and...

and IT"S FIXED !!! ( Exhale ! )

No problem .... It just took all day!

We went on vacation and saved the planet.

Well we're back home.

Ok here is the vacation by the numbers.....


Total Miles Driven 1496.8 miles

Average gas mileage 40 mpg

Lobster dinners 4

Carriage Road Miles walked 26

Baskets of fried clams 3

Wild Blueberry pie slices ???

Popovers at Jordan Pond House 0

Trips thru customs in one day 2

Trips to the bathroom to upchuck on wildly rocking ship 2

Lighthouses walked to 2

Lighthouses seen by boat 2

Trips on the Acadia shuttle 6

Trips by car to the top of Cadillac Mt 1

Hikes to top of Cadillac Mt Ummmm None!

Deer seen 2

Pictures taken..... We'll have them posted later.

Do Lobstermen always park their boats in the same direction?

Sure, and every few hours they park them in the other direction!

Here is a shot of Bubble Pond. We walked from Bubble Pond to Day Mountain along the carriage roads today. Not many stone bridges today be great vistas. Nice views of Seal Harbor and the rest of the park. Nice and sunny when we were at the top of Day Mountain. Fog rolled in as we strode into Seal Harbor. Weather can change very fast here.

Jordan Pond

Went to Jordan Pond area to walk the carriage roads. We saw numerous stone bridges and some great vistas.














Then we drove to the top of Caddlilac Mt. We just took in the sights

Postcard from Nova Scotia