September 29, 2008.

We still haven’t made it to an auto parts store yet, but it’s on our itinerary.

Yesterday was Christy’s birthday and she decided she’d like to go to the zoo. So we walked up to the Metro station and headed out to the Smithsonian National Zoo.

The zoo is laid out real nicely with wide meandering trails guiding you from one animal exhibit to another. The Panda exhibit is an indoor / outdoor pavilion. We found 2 of the 3 Giant Pandas lounging about in their outdoor enclosures.

The elephant house is laid out so that the elephants can come and go as they please. The only catch is that the

elephants have to walk through a section of cage work that is actually a giant scale. This photo is of the “baby” weighing in at a svelte 4700 pounds.

My favorite exhibit was the Gorilla house.
There are several huge indoor enclosures each housing some gorillas. The cages have interconnecting doors and the gorillas are free to amble from room to room.

There’s a separate enclosure for the orangutans. The people were lined up 6 deep to peer into the huge cage. Orangutans are known to be pretty disgusting sometimes; at times even flinging their poo at people. This crowd was drawn by a slightly different sight.

The orangutans were doin’ it. The orangutans weren’t the least bit bashful as the crowd watched them procreating their brains out. They moved from one position to another and at one time the male was still engaged while hanging from a tree branch. I saw several people taking notes and making favorable comments about the males technique. We only glanced into the cage, when we realized what was going on we moved along, but somewhere we lost an hour.

The zoo was a pretty cool way to spend the day and around 1700 hours the phone rang with an invite for cocktails at 1900 on a friend’s boat. We had just reached the far end of the zoo so we turned around to backtrack. That’s when we realized that we had been walking downhill the entire day. It was a rather spirited hike back up a steeper than we had realized hill. We were both working a light sweat by the time we were back to the zoo’s entrance. After a quick ride back to the boat we had just enough time to freshen up, grab a quick bite and head on over to Steve & Gloria’s.

There ended up being 7 of us there and a good time was had by all.

Today we decided to head back over to the Museum of Natural History. There was a new exhibit that opened up on Saturday. It was entitled The Oceans.

The exhibit encompassed so much more than we had expected. There was a great “floating” spherical screen to display the worlds movement. First it showed the movement of the Teutonic plates. Then it morphed into the prevailing winds followed by Gulf streams flow around the earth.

The display included life forms that were minuscule up to the largest of whales. The display also covered ground from millions of years ago up through today. The waters depths were covered from the 200 meter ocean “shallows” down to the pitch black deepest recesses of the sea.

On the way home there was an art display on the mall. An artist took dozens of huge canvases to Beijing for the Olympics. He had random people paint their impressions of the sea. He clumped artists together on the same canvas by geographic location. There was a European canvas, a Caribbean,

etc. There were dozens of completed panels. The American panel even included Sponge Bob Square Pants and his under the sea friends.


Another great day…….

September 25, 2008.

The weather forecast for today was for big wind accompanied by rain. We decided to spend the day on the boat doing chores.

First up was dealing with the generator once again. Yesterday morning while making hot water for showering it started to run in an overspeed condition so we had to shut it down.

The generator is comprised of a small diesel engine which drives a small electrical generator. The engine runs at a constant speed and this speed determines how much voltage the generator churns out. Unless of course it’s a Fischer Panda. When the generator goes faster than designed, the voltage spikes way up and could damage the boats electrical system. Since I’ve had to make this adjustment several times before I’m actually getting good at it. The governor that controls the speed of the generator really is a bullshit design and just a giant pain in the ass in general.

I had to disassemble a good bit of the engine room enclosure to work on the generator. So when I finished up with the generator I decided to see about the starting gremlin that had once again appeared when we left Herrington Harbour.

I ended up installing our spare starter. Of course when I tightened the large power lead to the solenoid the entire Bakelite end cap shattered. It was brand new but must have been cracked and when I tightened down on the connection it just failed. I ended up being able to use the old solenoid on the new starter so the boat runs again but I will have to find an auto parts store to get a replacement. If its not one thing……

September 23, 2008.

Yesterday the day started early for me as I had to get Allyson to the train station by 0430. Big Al was taking the train back to New York so she could be at work by 0900. I accompanied her to Union Station and was back in my bunk by 0500 with my mission accomplished.

We took the Metro up to Catholic University and met Ashlee after her last class of the day. We wanted to see the campus and especially wanted to see the Basilica. I’m not really sure, but I’d be very surprised to find out that it wasn’t the largest church in North America.


We got there in time to take a walking tour with a very knowledgeable tour guide. He had been an altar boy at the second mass served in the building and his love affair with the building actually bordered on being creepy. Yeah, he was a little weird.

Evidently the building was started in the twenties. Construction was halted because of the Great Depression and World War II. Once it was finished in the fifties it seems to have received some really great gifts from various Catholic Orders around the world. For example the tall bell tower was a gift of the Knights of Columbus. The smallest bell weighs 21 pounds while the largest weighs in at over 7000 pounds.

There are dozens of altars, shrines and alcoves which have all been donated to the church by various religious orders. There are some of the finest mosaics in the world in this building. The two most striking features of the building for me were wall treatments at either end of the main room.

Over the doors at the rear was a one piece hand carved scene. The piece of stone was 17 feet tall by over 60 feet wide and after being carved it still weighed in at 38 tons.

Dominating the front of the church over the altar is a mosaic of Jesus. The thing is freaking massive. Jesus’s face, not counting his hair is over 7 feet across. It’s a different type of Jesus as well. Jesus’s face always looks blank to me whenever I see an artists rendering. This one looks pissed. Impressive just doesn’t cover it.

There was one mosaic that they call a polished mosaic. As each individual piece of colored stone is put into place its polished until its completely flush with it neighbor. The dust removed in the polishing process is saved and mixed into the grout for that tile. Using this technique the tiles seem to blend seamlessly and look more like a painting than a mosaic. The artwork in this building rivals any museum we’ve seen anywhere.

Today, Christy and I decided to take the bikes out and do a little riding around the mall. We ended up at the Museum of Natural History, where they have a butterfly conservatory inside the building.

It was a fiberglass pod like structure with pressurized airlocks at either end.

Once inside there were over 1000 butterflies, everywhere. They were on the floor, walls, vegetation and the ceiling. They were even on the visitors. It was pretty cool. The tiny circle in this picture is the butterflies tongue, curled up waiting to dip into a flower for some nectar.

After the butterfly room we decided to take a guided tour of the museum. We’ve taken several of the tours at the Museum of Art but never here at the Museum of Natural History. It turned out to be yet another really great tour. Even though we had been to this building on several occasions we found ourselves being guided through one new experience after another.

To finish off the day we rode our bikes up to the capitol Building to set ourselves up to take the Capitol tour on Thursday.

When we got back to the boat we were treated to an example of yuppie calisthenics gone wild. It’s the new “stay in Shape” rage; Hawaiian war canoes. We’ve seen them in several cities along the way but here in DC it seems to be a little bit over the top. Anywhere from 12 to 20 paddlers stroke their brains out while some “motivator” stands in the stern and screams at them like a lunatic.

One final picture for the day. Is it modern art? It could be. In reality it was just the men’s room door at a Mexican restaurant that we had lunch in.

September 22, 2008.

Since our medical examinations were behind us (pun) we were looking forward to exploring more of DC.

This past weekend, Allyson, the oldest girlchild was due to arrive in DC for the weekend. Since Ashlee now lives in DC and Al was to be here it turned into jam packed tourist weekend.

We walked as much as we could on Saturday taking in all the sights of downtown Washington. We walked the monuments including the memorials to WWII, Korea, Vietnam and Lincoln to name a few.


After several hours of hoofing it we decided to hop on the Circulator Bus and take a side trip out to Georgetown.

Downtown Georgetown has several blocks of shops and eateries. We saw a few sections of the barge lock system that has survived for close to 200 years. There was also an original stone house from 1751. The historical sites were pretty much just background noise when compared with the sights of sidewalks packed with shoulder to shoulder crowds. It was a bizarre mix of the uber wealthy and college kids just shopping and being seen. As usual there were some tragic fashion blunders to be seen strutting their stuff up and down the boulevard.

After Georgetown we walked over to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. It was a pretty ritzy place and we were tragically underdressed as we walked around while suit and gown adorned couples milled about waiting for an opera to begin. Since we had stopped and eaten lunch so late in the day we decided to retire to the boat for an evening meal of appetizers.

Sunday looked to be another day of more forced marches but the girls had a plan up their collective sleeves. Christy’s birthday is later this week so they packed a picnic brunch complete with cake to celebrate.

We were just finished

with walking the Botanical Gardens when Ashlee produced an impromptu party from her shoulder bag. They even had candles for the cake. Afterwards we walked down the mall to the Smithsonian Metro stop so Christy and the girls could take the Metro for surprise manicure and pedicure appointments for the three of them.

I walked back towards the boat alone and was forced to watch Sunday afternoon football at the yacht club. I’m not sure who had the most enjoyable afternoon but I know that my feet appreciated the time off.

September 14, 2008.

Today we attended the Arts on Foot Street Festival. Ashlee and Mark met us downtown at an awesome street festival. It was a pretty good mix of tents featuring artist’s wares and various local eateries temptations. There was also live music happening at 2 or 3 venues simultaneously along with some street performers. It would have been a great day but the temperature was up around ninety six, so it was a bit much.


We did walk about for a few hours before heading over to wander about in a Barnes & Noble. We like books a lot, but we were really there for the air conditioning.

EDITORS WARNING: If you are under 50 yrs old, you may not want to read the rest of this entry. On the other hand, if you are over 50, read on and we do expect your sympathy.

It’s been a couple of days since the street festival and I wanted to go and do something fun today but Christy had her heart set on “His & Hers” colonoscopies. Man, the things I do to make her happy.

Actually, it was kind of my fault, I went and turned 50. It seems that our society has deemed it necessary to stick things in your ass when you turn 50. Since Christy is only a few months behind me we decided to get them done at the same time.

For those unfamiliar I’ll lay it out for you. It’s a two part procedure. The first part entails you going down to the pharmacy and filling your prescription for magic beans and a gallon of misery.

Our appointments were for late Wednesday afternoon so that meant no food after midnight on Monday. On Tuesday we consumed the four magic beans. These magic pills are a mild laxative and once you’ve have had a bowel movement you can start drinking the gallon of misery. We had to gulp down a glassful of Satan’s own sweat every 15 minutes until the gallon was gone. It turned out that it is a not so mild laxative. They actually burn this stuff in those big booster rockets to get the space shuttle off the ground.

The 1 gallon jug comes from the pharmacy with some powder in the bottom. You mix in a gallon of water and they supply you with several taste enhancing flavors. I chose cherry, but much to my disappointment, once it was all mixed together, it tasted a lot like shit. Its gonna be a while before I can trust a cherry again.

Once you’re about a quart into it, the non stop fun begins. Incredible cramping followed by the rocket shits. Actually, I think that the cramping is all of your other internal organs trying to hold onto each other so they don’t get sucked out through your rectum. With the two of us in the same state of distress and using one toilet, let’s just say that the seat never had the chance to get cold.

The only thing we were allowed to eat was Jell-O. A couple of Dixie cups of Jell-O all day, although once the severe abdominal cramps set in, the hunger pains didn’t seem to matter any more. By the time bedtime came we were both "almost" empty.

On Wednesday morning we had, that’s right, Jell-O for breakfast and watched the clock until our good friend Nancy came to drive us to the doctors office. The patient information packet the doctor’s office had supplied us with said we had to have a driver as we would be loopy from the anesthetic and unable to drive. You know that you have REALLY good friends when they are happy to take you for colonoscopies. Thanks for a great day, Nancy!

When we walked in and the receptionist realized that we were both getting colonoscopies back to back she was amazed. She asked how we had been able to get two appointments together as that just never happens. I told her that when we called we told them that we were conjoined twins and had to come in together. She just kind of looked at me with a furrowed brow.

As we filled out our paperwork the receptionist remarked that the stuff they knock you out with will give you the best 20 minute nap you’ve ever had. Fine with me; bring it on, maybe I’ll dream that I’m not here. What I got instead was an intravenous drip that dulled my senses but didn’t knock me out. So I didn’t feel any pain when the doctor stuffed the Hubble telescope into my rectum. It was bizarre to be awake and chatting with the doctor as he and his nurse enjoyed a walking tour of my ass.

As soon as I was done, Christy was next and her experience was pretty much the same as mine except they talked about sailing during her procedure.

So after 30 minutes of recovery time we walked out hand in hand, happy in the knowledge that our intestines are in fabulous shape. They gave us a written report complete with pictures but they came out kinda crappy ;) so Christy said that I couldn’t post them. I’m even considering a career as a prostate model as soon as I can figure out what catalog that would be in.

Let’s eat………

September 13, 2008.

Yesterday we took the Circulator bus uptown to the museum area. The bus runs several different intersecting routes and you can transfer from one to another as often as you like all for the initial purchase price of a buck. Bargain.

It was threatening to rain so we ducked inside the Museum of Natural History. Once inside we decided to take in a movie at the IMAX theater. It was a forty minute flick dealing with the life cycle of some amphibious reptiles from back in the age of dinosaurs. It was really interesting and very entertaining as well.

After that the skies had cleared so we went for an outdoor walk through one of Washington’s sculpture gardens. Modern art in the wild. I was allowed to take plenty of pictures so I’ve posted some for you to enjoy as well. This one was a simple pile of cinder blocks, that’s art?
What amazed me more was that on the other side of the pile there was a guy with a video camera taking video of this pile of cement.

This one had us both a little confused is it a construction site, is it performance art, is it modern art, can you feel the sense of hope that the artist is trying to convey? Was it just time for lunch? WTH?

After our walk it was time for a quick lunch and then a stroll down the mall. We arrived in front of the Freer Gallery and decided to head inside. This gallery houses a huge collection of Middle Eastern and Asian art. It held no real appeal for us until we walked in. There was one room after another of beautiful scrolls, statues, pottery, metalwork, paintings and glass.

Most of the items on display were part of the personal collection of Charles Freer. He donated over 26,000 pieces to the museum and this large building can only display about 8 percent of his collection at one time.

It was hard to grasp just how old some of these pieces were. There were pieces that dated back more than a thousand years BC. The colors on some of these pieces were as vivid as if they had been created yesterday, it was an amazing display.

There was the only known surviving example of a certain type of canteen. It was made in Afghanistan when that country was predominately a Christian land. It featured the likeness of the Virgin Mary with her child. The thing once hung from a camel’s saddle and was almost 2 feet in diameter. The workmanship was amazing.

The one common denominator in most of these works of art was the detail involved. It was hard to imagine an artisan living 500 or 3000 years ago creating things that were still so beautiful.

After retiring to the boat for dinner we decided to rendezvous with some other crews from the anchorage up at the yacht club bar. It was a great evening spent listening and telling some funny stories.

September 11, 2008.

We’ve started our assault on the museums again. Last year when we were here we really put a good dent in the list of places too see, but it’s still a pretty long list.

Today we hit the National Gallery of Art, both West and East buildings. We had been to the West building several times last year so it only took us 2 hours to see what we had missed. After lunch we headed over to the East building which houses their “modern art”. If you were a reader back on September 21, 2007 then you have a grasp for my lack of appreciation of modern art.

We had been to the exhibit at the Hirschorn and I found it to be a painful experience. I figured different museum, different experience. Wrong. Once again we were subjected to room after room of ridiculous crap. I noticed a disturbing coincidence. Most of the worst pieces were “created in 1951 through 1953. So if you were old enough to do any drawing back then you probably sucked at it. If you’re still at it, don’t show anyone else and certainly don’t go around hanging that crap on the wall.

You’re not supposed to photograph the “art” so as not to risk damaging it. I ran into an artist who evidently was trying to emulate Morris, the guy who was my least favorite artist from last year. So I waited for the guard to look away and I snapped a quick picture without any flash to try and convey to you what passes for modern art. This guy had a whole room of basically blank canvases, WTH?

After the modern art debacle we headed down the block to the National Museum of the American Indian. Being an average, narrow minded American I figured we’d be seeing some Apache, Sioux, Lenni Lenape type stuff. Wrong again, Tonto.

By American Indians they were talking both North and South America. That’s right, all the Indians. Eskimos, Incas, Mayans, everybody except Cleveland.

The building was beautifully landscaped outside. When we first walked in it was a little anticlimactic.
Kind of a dull foyer with a few native canoes, a gift shop and café. So, undaunted we headed up to the second floor and again were disappointed to find most of the floor dominated by yet another gift shop. So still hopeful we hopped in an elevator and headed for the fourth floor. Eureka, the promised land, we spent 2 hours on the fourth floor alone. There were small alcoves that lead from one to another, each one representing a different tribe. They were really nicely done and very informative displays.

The display of gold artifacts made by the Aztecs was impressive. The sad thing was that almost all the gold Aztec artifacts are in museums. The sad part is that there are so few artifacts because the conquering Spanish melted down into ingots most of what they looted before sailing back to Spain. So there are comparatively very few examples of their workmanship. An interesting tidbit that I learned was that gold was so common that until the white man showed up it was only used for decorative purposes, never as currency.

By the time Christy and I got down to the third floor we were pretty much spent from our long day. After a cursory look around we headed home to the boat for dinner and then a well deserved rest.

September 9, 2008.

First off Hanna is gone, the water has receded and things are great here.

On Sunday morning we undid all our storm precautions and left the dock headed for the anchorage. It was only a trip of a few hundred yards and we were soon swinging comfortably at anchor.

Ten minutes after dropping the hook dinghies from two neighboring boats swung past to say hello and welcome us to the neighborhood. Shortly after that a third dink stopped by and the owner, Bill, invited us over for dinner. This is my kind of neighborhood.

Dinner on Bills boat, Puddlejumper, was loads of fun. There were the crews from 2 other boats there as well. We laughed like simpletons and really had a great time. It also came to light that Bill had built his boat from scratch. He had spent 7000 hours spread over 5 years to complete his 45 foot catamaran. The boat was incredible and if not for the pictures I wouldn’t have believed one man could have created it.

Today we decided to ride the bus around the city. Washington has a great mass transit system. There are 2 different types of bus lines to compliment the Metro rail system. We ended up in Chinatown for lunch before hitting a large supermarket on the way home to the boat.

This evening, our friends the Evasons were performing at Howard University here in Washington. Christy and I decided to take the bus up to the campus and see their show. Holy crap, what a show. Their show incorporates magic, illusion, mind reading and humor.

The audience of young collegians was raucous and the mindset that so many of them walked in with was “I’m not falling for any of that hocus pocus crap”. Jeff & Tessa sent them home with sprained brains and their tails between their legs. It was really cool to watch two people that we know as regular folks become energized on stage and completely manipulate and bewilder a room full of young adults.

During one portion of the show several of the audience were so freaked out that they got up and left rather than to try and rationalize what they had just seen. After the show several kids packed the stage front while Tessa answered the questions that they asked her. She had blown them away with her abilities as a mind reader during the show. She was so good at connecting with them that they had some very personal questions about themselves that they trusted her to answer.

At the other end of the stage Jeff had his hands full with a few dozen kids who needed more proof of what they had just seen. He gave them a private show that blew them away. They were the “non believers” that swore there was a trick or they knew the way “it” was done. He patiently interacted with them in small groups and cleverly manipulated them until their suspicions were dashed. He sent them away bewildered, not knowing what was or was not possible, it was a real treat to watch.

After the show Jeff & Tessa drove us back to our boat where they joined us for a quick nightcap. It was fun to sit with them and watch as they decompressed and relaxed back into the folks we know rather than the onstage personalities that we had just watched.

What a great evening, I hope Washington has something else in store for us besides helicopters to compete with tonight.

September 6, 2008.

We woke Friday to a beautiful morning. Hanna has been a little slower to arrive than previously expected. We were not complaining though, there was even a favorable breeze to go with the sunshine.

We hauled the anchor and headed due west for 12 miles with the wind moving us along at 7 1/2 knots. Part of this speed was also due to us just catching the end of the flood tide.

It was to be a 50 mile day of motoring and motor sailing. To say the wind was fickle is an understatement. Zero wind for miles and then 15 knots for 5 minutes then back to 3 knots. We finally ran out of the flood tide, ran through the slack tide and had to buck the falling tide for the last 8 miles. All in all not too bad a day, especially since there was no planning involved.

The newest forecasts were for conditions to deteriorate as the day went on. The sunny skies did yield to cloud cover and the wind started to steadily increase just as we were approaching the marina. Since the harbor patrol had forced George & Jackie to evacuate and leave their anchored boat unattended during hurricane Isabelle we decided to get into a marina and tie up in a slip. Usually Christy and I prefer to anchor out but found this to be the best compromise. Neither of us would be able to leave Veranda unattended. Then there would be a shootout, a siege, hostages, all during a hurricane…..totally unacceptable.

We were fortunate to be able to reserve the last slip available in the Gangplank Marina. We’re 4 slips away from a 3 story motel which should give us excellent protection from the worst of the winds. We’re also surrounded by larger power boats and houseboats.

The winds are supposed to be less that 50 MPH so instead of stripping the sails off I just added to their security. The mainsail lives inside a Doyle Stack Pac and should be fine but I opted to wrap an extra line around it barber pole style for added security. I wrapped the spinnaker halyard around the genoa so it is unable to self deploy. We removed all the crapola from the decks that might take flight during the blow. I wrapped a line around the solar panels to help keep them where they belong. We also tied off the blades on the wind generator to prevent it from attaining warp speeds.

So we’re sitting in a slip, tied to a floating dock, secure with our dock lines doubled. We’d still rather be out hanging from the anchor but it is what it is.

The youngest girl child who just graduated from Penn State is here in DC to continue her education. Last night Ashlee and her boyfriend Mark came down to meet us for dinner. A fine drizzle had started so all the indoor waterfront eateries were pretty much packed. We opted for Philips Flagship Restaurant and we were all glad that we did. The food was excellent while the service was only so-so. Our waitress was super personable and probably walks around thinking that she’s really good at her job but the truth is that she pretty much sucked. A trip to the bar for drinks was literally 15 minutes, clearing plates was such a chore that I thought they might be ours to keep. She stopped by the table several times to tell us she’d be right back. She just seemed kind of unfocused as she ran from table to table not accomplishing anything at any table.

So now it’s Saturday morning and the rains have started to fall in earnest. We haven’t seen winds over 15 knots so things are good. Hanna’s speed over ground has been building so while she was slow in getting here it looks as if she will be gone fairly quickly.

UPDATED at 1730 hours. The sun is out, the rain is gone and the breeze is just that….a breeze. Tomorrow we’ll go out into the anchorage and start to enjoy all that Washington has to offer, except the hookers and crack.

September 4, 2008.

We headed down to Solomon’s Island and after an uneventful 35 miles we were 1 of only 3 boats in the anchorage. Our first plan was to arrive on Wednesday, take care of provisioning and propane on Thursday and to head out to Washington on Friday.

Hanna is messing with the plan. The forecast is calling for Friday and Saturday to be shit days to be traveling with Saturday being the actual day of Hanna’s arrival. It’s a 2 day trip to DC and Saturday seems to be out of the question.

So we went our separate ways, while Christy hit the liquor store, the Post Office and then food shopped I walked 2 miles down to the propane filling station with our 2 empty tanks. I got back just in time to help her carry the groceries back to the dinghy. So now we had all our chores done on Wednesday and would be able to leave on Thursday morning.

Fate attempted to intervene. When Christy was checking in with the dock master when we landed the dink she was invited to a social that evening. We were pleased to see George & Jackie whom we’ve crossed trails with several times in the last 2 years. They did their best to try and dissuade us from anchoring in Washington during Hanna’s visit. The holding isn’t the greatest and the anchorage can get pretty crowded so it’s the other guy that we really have to worry about. It seems that they had the misfortune to be in Washington for hurricane Isabelle. The Harbor Patrol in DC forced them to evacuate their boat and leave their boat to fend for itself while they sat in a motel room.

So now we have the good fortune to be in a position to be in DC by Friday evening. But we’re not really sure if it’s the prudent thing to do. The winds are forecast to be anywhere from 25 to 60 knots. At this point its all just a bunch of educated guesses.

So after checking every weather source we could we decided to head for DC this morning. There is one anchorage on the way up the Potomac that I would consider an adequate hurricane hole. Christy’s brother called just before we got that far up the river. He said most of the weather models are now saying that Hanna may be a little slower in arriving. I don’t want to have to sit in a tiny anchorage for 3 days waiting for Hanna so we decided to keep going.

As a compromise Christy called ahead to a marina that has floating docks and reserved us a slip for 2 nights. So when we get there Friday we’ll tie up and deal with whatever weather finally shows up.

We made it as far as the Tobacco River. We’ve stayed here before and we should have good protection if the winds pipe up early tomorrow. Then its on to DC in the morning.

September 2, 2008.

Today’s the day we were supposed to get back in the water and things didn’t really get off to a quick start.

The other day when we signed up to go back into the water nobody asked for payment and we never thought about it. This morning rolled around and we realized that they’re probably not going to put us back in the water until they’ve been paid. So Christy walked over to the office at 0800 only to discover that the office doesn’t open until 0900. When 0900 finally rolled around Christy paid the bill and the woman told her that the yard guys were busy after the long weekend and we might not be going in until tomorrow. Crap.

That’s the problem with a big marina like this one, sometimes one hand doesn’t know what the other hand is doing. From our boat top perch we could see that the while the yard was hauling a few boats they weren’t really all that busy. So we kinda just hung around and waited until we finally saw the big lift headed in our direction.

The lift was straight forward and we were back in the water in ten minutes. While the boat was still in the slings I jumped on board to check for leaks. It’s pretty much standard procedure when you put your boat in the water but we had the added incentive in that I had just repacked the rudder and prop shaft packing’s. I also did some plumbing under the waterline while installing the watermaker. It all looked good and the slings were dropped and we were pulled from the lifting well and tied to the wall.

Actually, it all went well until I turned the key, nothing. Damn it, damn it, damn it. It was only a slight inconvenience though as I just went below and arked the starter and had Veranda running once again.

After letting the engine warm up Christy slowly backed us off the wall while I fended. Once clear of the huge steel sailboat behind us, we switched spots and I backed us down the fairway, and spun the boat neatly around so we could tie to the dock. Due to the combination of a 3 knot breeze, ineptitude, severe misjudgment, witnesses and the sun in my eyes, I screwed it all up. We came to a perfect stop, parallel to the dock, just not near the dock. Damn. It took an extra couple of minutes of maneuvering and buffoonery but we ended up safely tied to the dock without injury to anything but my pride.

Right after a quick lunch I set about troubleshooting the “turn key, no vroom” problem. I’ve had a lot of experience with starter problems in the past and I’ve finally learned that it’s important to find and fix the problem before the starter “fries”. In the past it was corrosion creeping into the starting circuit that’s been the culprit. Since the boat has been sitting for a month it seems to be a reasonable assumption. So I disassembled and cleaned the system one connection at time. Fortunately, that seemed to do the trick and the engine started easily when I was done.

So, as they say, tomorrows another day. We’ll head over to the pumpout and then its south to Solomon’s.

September 1, 2008.

Happy Labor Day everyone. We’ve spent the last 2 days finishing up our “to do” list. One item that had needed “doing” for almost a year was the permanent securing of our solar panels.

We had ordered them at the boat show in Annapolis last year and had them shipped to Christy’s cousin Cindy in Georgetown, SC. We picked them up on our way south and once we had the panels we set aside a few days in Ladies Island, SC to install them. It was a difficult job (see November 1, 2007) as the panels are set so far back on the boat that I wasn’t able to bolt down the trailing edge. The only thing I could do was bolt the front and get a few zip ties into some of the pre-existing holes in the rear of the panels frames in an effort to secure them. It worked well enough, but was a pretty rinky dink way to do things. We just haven’t had the chance to be backed up to a dock so I could stand out on the dock and drill the required holes before bolting everything together.

Since we’re on the hard I figured I could do it from the ladder but the only problem was that our ladder was too short. In the spirit of the Olympics, I tried to figure out how the ancient Manchurians would have handled it. Of course! Find another ladder and tie them together. This is when Christy reminded me that all the ancient Manchurians are now dead. But I doubt that it was due to falling from ladders, so I pressed on.


I used a fifty foot piece of line and tied the ever loving shit outta the two ladders. I proudly stood my creation up to the back of the boat and realized that my guesstamation was a little off and the damn thing was an inch too short. So I had to completely untie it and stretch it a foot before re-tying them back together. So with my new giant ladder I was able to finally secure the panels as they should be.

On Saturday night we and the Solitaires were invited to Gail & Matthew’s house for dinner. The crew of Alisios were the best hosts, they served a truly gourmet meal, and it goes without saying that we enjoyed the evening immensely. Matthew and Gail take cooking to the next level. We had a soup to start with that had the words cold, yogurt and cucumber all in the description. I admit that I was apprehensive until the first spoonful, it was delicious. Cold soup, who knew. The rest of the meal was wonderful as well; then there was dessert too. Woo hoo. We all left fat and happy. Getting to see Gail & Matt one more time before we left was great, getting fed was a huge bonus.

Yesterday was finally the day to paint Verandas bottom. First I had to scuff the entire bottom and did a pretty good job of covering myself in fine blue dust. After showering twice I set about applying the first coat of paint.

Actually I first applied a 1 foot wide coat of paint at the waterline. Then I applied two complete coats over the entire bottom. This way we ended up with three coats at the waterline where the paint seems to wear the most. As soon as this was done I had to yet again jump in the shower in an effort to get ready for the biggest marina party of the season.

Herrington Harbour Marina held a party for all their slip holders. Our old marina in NJ used to hold parties like this during the summer so I kind of had an inkling of what to expect. The parties in Jersey were well done and loads of fun but I just wasn’t prepared for the scope of this party.

First off there were over 800 people in attendance and were all seated under 2 huge tents. There were hot dogs and hamburgers, corn on the cob, local tomatoes that rivaled those that New Jersey is famous for. I ended up eating 3 cheeseburgers, a hot dog, corn on the cob and some chocolate chip cookies, oh, and beer. There was free beer and wine and what cookout in the Chesapeake would be complete without crabs. They had a truckload of crabs brought in. There was a truck sized crab steamer that cooked crabs fresh all afternoon. As one truck ran out of crabs the backup truck pulled in with another supply.

People were lined up to get crabs. The only way you could get them was by the dozen. It wasn’t unusual to see people carrying off 2 or 3 dozen fresh hot crabs. The official estimate was that they were going to be preparing 10,000 crabs.

There was live music, things to keep the kids busy and the weather was beautiful. It really was a nice function.

So now today we’re doing a lot of last minute little bullshit things like painting the prop and shaft, vacuuming the interior, filling the water tank, washing the topsides etc.

We’re scheduled to be back in the water tomorrow.