We are sitting here in Yorktown waiting for a cold front to go through.  The marina is so nice.  Clean heads and showers, nice laundry room and a courtesy car.  Gotta love a car with the keys in in, 200+k miles and gets 7-8 mpg.  It carried groceries just fine.

Have seen many cruisers heading south.  It seems there are more foreign flaged boats heading south that American flagged vessels.  We have seen boats from New Zealand, Australia, Canada and Switzerland.  We asked the gas dock worker in Solomons if she had noticed that trend.  She said yes and that some of the Canadians bought two gallons of diesel and then asked to use their water.  They proceeded to wash their boat for 45 minutes and then fill their tanks.  She was less than pleased.

The weather is rainy and cold.  Wind comes in tomorrow with more cold rain.  At least it won't snow here like it will in Northern VA.  Making barley soup and 10 grain bread.  

Waxing and cleaning

One of the reasons we chose to buy our boat was the fact that there was only three pieces of outside teak.  When we owned the Westsail 32, we removed the teak decks and fixed the decks.  we got a bit soured on cleaning and treating wood.  Mostly because we weren't expert woodworkers.  We have had the boat for five years, so it was time to wax.

Matt cleaned and waxed the deck and all the stainless steel.  Yes, cleaning the stainless was as hard as cleaning the wood.  But the stainless is shinny!  We have been walking in and out and bringing the wax in on the bottom of our shoes.  Now the cabin sole is waxed too!  Have brought in rugs from the storage room, otherwise it would be slippity slide on bare feet.  Love learning all these new things.

We love our new cockpit enclosure.  It is like having a sunroom/back porch.  With all the rain we have had it is nice to be able to keep things dry, but not take up space in the boat. 

We filled up our new propane tank.  Now both propane lockers actually have propane tanks stowed away. 

Today is sewing project day.  I need to finish our tethers, and make 'weather cloths' for the inside cabins.  Time to get to work.  Looking forward to being creative. 

Post Irene- getting ready to go

The boat was put on the hard for the storm.  All is well.  We have started to provision the boat for the trip.  All the books/forums tell you not to over provision.   I know that everyone has to buy food, but I hate going to the store and carting the stuff back and putting it away.   I have the staples on board, all I need is the perishables.  Bought lots of Cliff Bars, fruit and cereal, flour/bread mix, and freeze dried veggies. 

The dingy motor has been fixed.  The ethanol in the fuel gums up the carburetor.  The mechanic said to run airplane fuel, non-ethanol fuel in the outboard engine.  Since it is hard to get both, we decided to just let the fuel completely run dry before we put the engine away each time.  Hopefully, that will solve the fuel problem.

I'm finishing my inboard sewing projects.  Will post pictures when I'm done.   

August weather

We that is  have been spared the horrible heat and humidity that usually effects the Chesapeake Bay in August.  July was very hot and humid. 

We need to get the final parts for the water maker.  We are just clamps and wiring away from completion.

Today is laundry.  We go to a great laundry that has double and triple washers and dryers.  Two weeks worth of laundry can be completed in an hour and a half. 

Death in the water

This summer at the marina has been less boring than in other years.  In May, Tom Allen, died of a heart attack.  Tom was a fixture in the marina.  He owned many slips and lived on his boat.  He had captained boats around the world and helped start the Annapolis Sailing Academy.  In June a boat burned from an electrical fire.  The owner was away from the boat at the time, but his dog was lost in the fire.  July 4th weekend someone committed suicide on a boat at the marina next door, Pirates Cove.  Kylie and Tom were here for dinner.  I tried to turn on the stove, but we had run out of propane.  As we were walking down the dock, we saw the haz mat team.  In August a man was visiting the engine shop.  He got into his van and had a heart attack as he was leaving the parking lot.  His van ran into three boats and a building.  One of the boats was totalled.  Two had a hole punched into their hull.  The building lost a few boards.  The man is still in the hospital.  Yesterday, helicopters were circling tent house creek.  A man from Harwood was crabbing and hadn't been heard from since 11:30 am  His boat was found without him aboard.  The search continues.

We have had a slip at this marina for over 10 years.  We always enjoyed the same old, same old of Galesville.  Hopefully we will have no new events. 

They found the  man's body.  Prayers go out to his family.

Toilet/Head maintenance

Today is the day we fix the head.  We were putting in the watermaker and broke a piece off of the head.  We emailed Raritan and the next day they called us back!  Such good service.  We ordered the part and received it on Monday.  We have used the head for 5 years and never serviced it or rebuilt it.  Time to rebuild the pump.  Instead of taking the pump apart and replacing all the gaskets, we bought a complete new pump assembly.  Much less mess to replace. 

Taking care of a marine head is a delicate process.  We have always used an enzyme based treatment system.  The use of harsh chemicals can wear out the gaskets and working parts of the head.  Chlorine treatments are harmful to the water creatures and grasses.  We tried KO and CP sold by Raritan, but they are soooo expensive.  We found Biogreen Clean on the Ed Shultz show.  It is all organic plant enzymes.  Cleans the head.  Can be used on the outside of the boat because it will not pollute the water.  I put it in a spray bottle and use it to pretreat clothing stains when I put the clothes into the laundry bag.  The stuff cleans the drains and we used it to clean the bilge.  It doesn't have a fragrance, but everything smells clean when you finish what ever chore you are doing.

The weather today has stopped raining and is sunny and warm with out being too hot.  Humidity hasn't rolled in yet.  Nice to have the boat open. 

rain and rain

We need to get a few parts to finish the installations we are currently working on.  We seem to leave the few 'last minute' things undone be cause we have to buy a part.  Rainy days seem to be good for shopping.

One thing about shopping and living on a boat, if you buy anything, you have to know where it will be stored.  If you don't know where to store it, DON'T buy it.  I wish I would have started this questioning of stuff before we moved onto the boat.  I probably wouldn't had to give so much stuff away. 

Since we have some stall time here, I'll start telling you what it is like to live on a boat.  I have also learned some time saving, space saving, money saving tips.  If you want to know anything about boat living, ask.