On Tuesday morning, I stopped by "Darling" to see our friends, Buck, and Haldine, to see if they needed any help taking their boat over to the boatyard and have the bottom cleaned. We ended up jumping on board with them...just for the ride. In this picture we are getting close to the travel lift (which will pick the boat up to clean the bottom). You can see how close we are to the ship on the left of the picture.
These ships sit right outside the marina where we are getting the bottom cleaned.
When the boat was pulled, we noticed 2 issues. First of all, the protective paint on the large rudder had come off, and Buck wanted to repaint it. Secondly...you might notice the white specs on the black stripe. These specs are actually "critters" that have attached themselves to the side of the boat (see the picture below this one). They should not be there, but the boat has been riding so low in the water (issue #2) that the water line has risen above the bottom paint.
This is a close up shot at the blue stipe you see above...and what is left of the critters. AFTER they have been scraped off...and power washed.
So...Buck decides that, while the boat is out of the water, he need to paint the rudder, and fix the problem with the water line paint. This is James...one of the marina workers...setting up the boat on land.
This is Darling...still in the travel lift...in the process of being blocked up. Buck and Haldine will stay on the boat (out of the water) until it is fixed. This boat weighs about 55, 000 lbs, and will rest on it's bottom, with only a few stantions to keep it from tipping over.
Even with the issues...Buck continues to smile
Later that evening...we were joined by Jim and Sandy (on Footloose) and went to Little Italy and Chiapparelli's...a famous Italian restuarant in the area
Haldine and Buck also went...actually it was their idea
Deb said the food was so good, she could not stop eating it...and she wanted to get a straw to "suck up the juice" from the pasta
Log 155Day 427
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
7:00 AM EDT
Location: Anchorage Marina, Baltimore, MD
Weather: 71 degrees with calm winds...heading for the mid 80’s
Sitting on the back deck this morning, and looking toward downtown Baltimore, it’s a little foggy, and there is no wind to blow the fog away. It’s also fairly cloudy, so it may take some time to burn the fog off this morning.
This is day 3 of our time here at Anchorage Marina. There are some who complain about this marina, but I’m not sure why. All marina’s have there bad points (as does this one), but, it has floating docks; a beautiful walking or bike riding path that goes on forever; a grocery store, and a West Marine within 1 block; and more restaurants in walking distance than you can imagine. For someone like us (without a car) it’s perfect.
As I write this log this morning, we are 18 days away from having to be in NYC to meet Jeanie and Terry. I am already checking the weather as far out as I can, to see any patterns developing, and looking for some weather window that we should not pass up. Getting to NYC from here is about 250 miles, and the majority of that in open water, which requires a lot more concentration on the weather. Particularly the winds and tides. The first 50 miles is straight forward, heading up the Chesapeake, and joining the C&D canal (a 12 mile man made canal), which connects the Chesapeake to the Delaware Bay. Once you hit the Delaware Bay, if you turn left (north) you would head to Philadelphia. We will be turning right (Southeast) and it will take us 50 miles to the Atlantic Ocean, and Cape May NJ (the very southern tip of New Jersey). The Delaware Bay is notorious for a choppy ride, because the currents are swift, and many times the wind against the current, can make for a “not fun” ride to Cape May. So we need to monitor the direction of the wind, and the direction of the current (which changes about every 6 hours) to look for a good ride. From Cape May, NJ, to NYC is 150 miles, and is either 1 long day, or 3 short days. All of which is out in the Atlantic. Again, winds, wave direction, and tides are very important to enjoying the ride to New York. And we are all about wanting to enjoy the ride, so that is why I am now starting to pay close attention to the weather. On one hand, we have a lot of time to get there, but if we find a great weather window, we’ll probably go early.
Yesterday (Tuesday) was a fun day. I was planning to take a walk over to West Marine first thing in the morning, but decided to stop on my way and say good morning to friends of ours, Buck, and Haldine, on their boat, Darling. They were going to take their boat over to Tide Water Yachts, and have the boat pulled, and the bottom cleaned. One thing lead to another, and Deb and I ended up jumping on the boat with them, to go and clean the bottom. The boat was pulled about 10:30, and was going fine, until Buck and I started looking at the boat bottom. To make a long story short, Buck ended up having the marina block the boat on land, and hired them to paint the rudder, and also paint the bottom. He and Haldine also decided to stay on the boat (while it was sitting on land in the boat lot) rather than get a hotel, or stay on the boat with us. So, a little after noon, we ended up getting a ride back to Anchorage Marina. The 4 of us had lunch at a Tex-Mex place across from the marina, and then Buck and Haldine got a rental car and drove back to their boat. At 6pm, Buck and Haldine came back to Headquarters for a cocktail, along with Jim and Sandy, from “Footloose”. After a cocktail on the back deck, the 6 of us went to Little Italy...an Italian section of Baltimore, for an authentic Italian dinner. We had a great time, and the food was awesome. A great day.
Today...I plan to head over to West Marine, and buy 2 new ”house” batteries for Headquarters. It has seemed to me that these batteries do not keep a charge for any length of time (once the charger is shut off), and it also seems like the charger is running more than “normal”. It’s one of those maintenance items that you never know if it is necessary, but you certainly do not want to have to deal with the issues it could cause when you are in a remote area. Deb is planning to start to do the shopping to provision the boat for our trip to New York, and also get the supplies Jeannie and Terry will need when they arrive. This is the best place to do all of this, because everything is so close. Not anything major today...just another great day on the boat.
I’ll keep you posted.
Bob
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