Spring cruise 2021 part 2

Troubleshooting of the auto pilot continues. Results are totally inconclusive at this time. It works sometimes. It seems when the batteries are being charged fully by the solar panel and the alternator and the batteries are fully charged it might be causing interference with the auto helm’s internal compass. Or else the thing is fried. Who can say? We stayed late at smith creek then made for point lookout marina for a diesel fill up- the first of the year- and some ice. Had a nice short trip to saint Mary’s city. We tried to anchor by the dock with the historic ship and dinghy to the beach but we were shooed away immediately. I guess we weren’t colonial enough. 

The dove: 

Then we went around the corner to big bend and spent the night there. Very still and protected. There is a little colonial “village” thing surrounding the original capitol building of Maryland and a nice hilltop graveyard. 

The next day we sailed/ motored up the Potomac to shark tooth island.  The charts showed no way to approach the westward shore of the island.  We tried multiple approaches but ran aground each time.  When Sugaree arrived, she announced she was heading for a line of crab pots and got through right away on the first attempt so we hauled anchor and followed her trail in.  It was a truly lovely anchorage on a week night out of the season but I could definitely imagine it as a mega power boat hangout. 

Allegedly the property owner wanders around extorting 150 bucks from people for a “season pass” to his itty bitty island but he did not make an appearance. 

Spring cruise 2021

I installed the one working solar panel on the Bimini although installation was not without its trials.  The mass of the Bimini resisted the walking foot, while the solar panel lapels went through normal speed resulting in messy stitches, and the fabric pieces not being sewn correctly at all. I pulled out the stitches four times before eventually it came together in a way that would work.  None of it looked good but the panel hasn’t blown away so what more can I ask for.   

But right after we left ospreys started building a nest on it so when we got back on Friday night it was horrible. All the new canvas was covered in sticks and shit and blood and guts. I knew it would happen but it still sucked to see it. 

Anyway we cleaned up as best we could, packed away all our provisions and set out Saturday at 7 am. The first night we made the magothy where we almost ran over some drunk idiots being towed on a float by some other drunk idiots. We spent the night on cornfield creek. 

We set out early and made solomons the next day. The auto helm crapped out on the way there. It would turn indefinitely at random. Super bummer. 

We also saw huge schools of cow nosed rays all around the boat. 

Everyone had dinner together at kingfishers. The food was fine. Nothing to write home about. 

Then we left kinda late and motored out the mouth of the patuxent. It was blowing like stink and the swells were right on the nose. 

Then we turned south with a fully reefed main and made excellent time down and around point lookout and up to smith creek. We are at anchor in this nice little hidey hole waiting out some rain. 

Christmas in may and all I got was coal

I ordered a 200 watt renogy flexible solar panel kit. It was back ordered for a while. It finally came yesterday and one box was broken and the panel appears damaged. I was so excited to put them on this weekend. :( 

2021 shakedown shaken up

Well it has been another spring season of fiendish boat work. We:

Rewired the panel and sorted out years of kludges 

Stripped and varnished all the exterior wood with Jamestown distributors marine wood finish 

Patched gel coat again

Applied poli glow

Had a Bimini and dodger made 

Installed a new sink faucet in the galley

I replaced the beta marine impeller, pencil anode, and the air filter (lost the old impeller into the bilge)

Replaced the foam in the pilot berth with an rv mattress (cannot recommend this enough) 

Installed fans in the cabin

Installed usb  chargers around the cabin

Wired in a real switch for the auto helm (previously was just stuck loosely to the battery terminal) 

Anyway we had some big stresses in all these. The wiring was a huge nightmare. I had the canvas maker come out and look at the boat in the winter so I had to guess the appropriate boom height with the sail up. I didn’t even have frames for such things before so he had to design the whole job from nothing. 

It has a zip on connector panel. Very fancy!!

We also put down Jamestown distributors danish teak seal on the decking. 

Launched this Friday on an evening high tide. Saturday we finally raised the main to confirm that all was well. The boom is quite a bit higher than the Bimini. Phew. I thought I was going to be in trouble. 

Since the main was up we went out for a shakedown. We sailed a little ways up the river towards a race. We didn’t approach the course. The sky westward was turning black and clearly weather was rolling in. We dropped the sails and hauled ass back to the mooring, which had the dinghy tied to it. The wind piped up to about 35. We were blown away from the mooring as lightning started to strike across the sky.    We made several failed approaches to different moorings and finally caught one. Meanwhile the racers were scrambling to get sails under control and find open space to hold position. Now we are waiting it out on someone else’s mooring.  Hopefully it’s big enough to hold us. 

2019 Spring Cruise — Late update

While on Swan Creek we received a call that my mother in law had died unexpectedly and horribly.  This set off a chain of events that I won’t detail too greatly here, but even though it was late afternoon we returned to Hobo and made our way home immediately.  It was a six hour trip into the wee hours of the night, filled with uncertainty and anguish.  

To top off the experience, we motored past Aberdeen Proving grounds where they were doing tracer round firing exercises that were highly visible for miles and very threatening in appearance.  We made it safely past and back to the club at about 1 AM.  We drove home with the dogs and our leftover cold food.  Several difficult and dark weeks ensued.  My mother in law lived in Virginia Beach, and we live in New Jersey so we stayed in Virginia Beach and made many trips up and down the coast by car before realizing the situation was not tenable between arranging dog sitters and trying to balance all of the issues going on in Virginia.  We packed up the dogs and on a very hot very still weekend we took a 27 hour motor from Northeast Maryland to Hampton, Virginia.  

I had always wanted to take Hobo to the area where I grew up, and would have liked to do it under different circumstances.  We arranged to work remotely and found a marina in Hampton that would let us live aboard and had good WiFi on the docks.  There was a small shallow pool for swimming, and the bathhouses and laundry were very nice.  The marina was located on the point of land where Blackbeard’s head was displayed after his execution.  It was, at this point, July.  The average daytime temperatures were around 100, and stinging nettles were abundant.  We set up a small portable room air conditioner and jury rigged electrical with extension cords.  Temperatures inside the boat were rarely more than ten degrees cooler than outside.

The seating arrangements for an 8 hour work day were less than ideal and I often arranged all the available pillows into a “chair” and was still pretty cranky most of the time.  

It became clear that living and working aboard without some serious modifications is not comfortable.  Living aboard would have been totally fine if we had not needed to spend so many hours inside working on computers.  At times I worked with an ice pack on my head. 

After about a month in Hampton, we headed back north through the hottest, stillest, most humid days of the year.  Near Baltimore we skirted the outer bands of a bad storm, watching cloud to cloud lightning that spread for miles.  It was a relief to get home.