Well, we’re off again. But before we write about our trip
around the northern part of the Chesapeake, we wanted to talk about all the
maintenance we have had done while the boat was sitting near Deale, Maryland in
Herrington Harbor North (HHN) Marina. So, for those of you who like to read
about our travels, you will have to wait until next time where we will write
about our trip to Baltimore, Kent Island, St. Michaels and Cambridge. I know,
however, that there are some of you who are more interested in how our systems
are operating. This Blog is for you!
The Captain Mike
is up and is almost as good as ever. The operation was clearly a success, the
antibiotics worked, the scar is looking good (I am hopeful that what one of my
grandson’s once told me is true: “Chick’s dig scars.”) and I am captaining our
boat, walking, swimming and riding a bicycle – everything but running. I have
to wait another three-and-a-half months for that. As you will see below, I like
to remind myself who the repairmen are and how well they did on any piece of
boat equipment. In my case, the first set of repair people were members of the
team at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, headed by my orthopedic
surgeon, Dr. Scott Shawen. The other team, which stuck with me both before and
after the hospital, was the Traveling
Soul Team, which took care of me on the boat. That was headed by my wife Ann,
who changed my dressings and did all those other things that can be a bit yucky
until I was fully healed.
Reupholster
Anyone who saw our sofa and chairs before this summer can tell you that we
either needed to get new ones or reupholster the old ones. We chose to
reupholster. The initial estimate from a person in the marine reupholster
business was over 6 Boat Units. You heard that right; six BU’s for
reupholstering a sofa. We could buy a brand new leather one for that. In fact,
we could probably buy two! Needless to say we got another estimate that was a
little more reasonable and chose to go with that one.
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| Our newly upholstered sofa. Less that SIX Boat Units! |
I suspect Ann will want to tell you more, but when they
delivered the sofa back to us, the reupholster-er(say that 5 times fast!) had
a little surprise for us. He put in some panels and gave us storage room! I
would guess somewhere around 25 to 30 cubic feet. As soon as Ann saw the
additional storage room I think she fell in love with the reupholster guy.
Engines While on
our way up the ICW, a day or two before we arrived at Herrington Harbor, our
Synchronizer failed. A synchronizer is a fairly simple mechanical device for
keeping both engines at the same RPM. (Keep in mind, however, that “simplicity”
of mechanical devices at is a relative term). It is important to keep the
engines at the same RPM for several reasons, two of which are particularly
important to me. The first is steering. When one engine is running faster than
the other, the boat is essentially “pushed” away from the center line by the
faster running engine making it difficult to control. Second, you consume extra
fuel when engine speed is out of alignment. You are basically “wasting” the
fuel used by the faster running engine. And most of you know how I feel about
wasting money.
It is certainly possible to adjust engine speed manually.
But my tachometers are hardly finely-tuned instruments; they are “off” by 50
RPM or so. This isn’t critical – unless you are trying to keep the two engines
at the same speed. The bottom line is that when I first bought the boat I
thought the synchronizer was modestly useful. I now consider it to be very
important. Since I was going to have engine people on the boat, I decided to
also ask them to change my fuel filters, too.
It took them a while, but they figured out what was wrong
and made the appropriate repairs. We have yet to receive the bill. My guess? A
BU or so. Oh, but there is more – that, I will discuss in my next entry!
Air Conditioning. We have four separate air conditioners on
board. One of them – the one that cools the guest staterooms – went south. We
asked Nate Horton, of Horton Marine Services, to fix it. The reason I like Nate
so much is that last year – as some of you might recall – after we had paid
several people to make our watermaker work (to no avail), Nate took the filter
and the tubing going to the watermaker, and raised it above the waterline.
Somewhere along the line we had lost the prime to the watermaker pump. That was
all. Thirty minutes of labor and he fixed the whole thing. At that point Nate
became one of my best friends and I decided that I was going to give him all
our watermaker and air conditioning business.
I called and Nate came out to fix the broken air conditioner
and help us “summer-ize” the watermaker. When he left, everything worked.
Literally the next day, another air conditioner (the one that cools the galley)
failed, and before he returned the original problem (with the guest room a/c
system) had returned. Since our son and his family were going to spend a couple
of nights on the boat, we needed to have the repairs done immediately. He was
out the next day at 7:30 AM and fixed both of those problems, but determined
that the reason the guest room air conditioning had failed was that there was a
leak in the system. He would need to come out and fix that later.
I know, I know, you re beginning to wonder how good Nate
really is. Well, frankly, so am I. We’ll see when he sends me the invoice for
the extra work he is doing. If he bills me for everything, then maybe I will
have repaid him for his work on the watermaker and our relationship needs to
come to an end. But if he gives me a break on the price – well, then, maybe I
will continue to use Nate and his services some more.
Electrical Some
of you may remember the problems we have had with our inverter and our battery
monitor. In fact, I have accumulated acres of spreadsheets and done hundreds of
calculations trying to figure out what was going on with the system. Well, I
finally hired a guy from Marine Technical Services (MTS) to help me figure out
what was happening. It took him a little bit, but after he figured out that the
folks at Zimmerman’s in Deltaville had hooked up my battery monitor incorrectly we could at last figure out
what was going on. In addition to the fact that the folks at Zimmerman’s had
incorrectly hooked up my battery monitor (oh, had I already mentioned that?)
the automatic charging relay (ACR) was acting up. Well, since I really didn’t
need an ACR, (I have enough battery chargers without it) I just had them
disconnect it. Although we haven’t yet anchored out, we have experimented with
the modified system and it (knock on wood) appears to work.
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| Here is a picture of the Chart plotter with the AIS overlaid. You can see some other AIS boats in the lower left corner. In act, the pone near the word "Rocky" could be the one in the photo below. And you wonder why I want to know all about them! |
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| A ship we would have seen on the AIS! |
Visitors I would
be remiss if I didn’t mention the visitors we had while at HHN.
·
Our son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren
(Tim, Carrie, Caylin and Gavin) visited twice – and one time they stayed over
for two nights. Caylin and Gavin are turning into real swimmers and
boating-life lovers.
·
Our friends Dave and Joan Wolf also keep their
boat Sans Souci at HHN. They were
frequent visitors and helped us in innumerable ways while we were at the
marina.
·
Jerry and Lee Ann Hyatt from the Sailing Vessel Bella visited along with the newest
member of their crew DiDi – a dog). Jerry, you might recall, was my “consulting
orthopedist” (the orthopedic surgeon who gave me some very good advice) that we
met in Spanish wells. Lee Ann was a former hospice nurse. Luckily, I didn’t
need her advice, but she and Ann hit if off very well.
·
Bill and Regina who we had met in Nassau on
their boat Meant 2 Be. They were
visiting in the area and brought their newest granddaughter to visit.
·
Karin Cash is a long time friend of Ann’s who used
to work with Ann in hospice came to visit and spent two nights with us.
·
Our friends, Jim and Jane Hawkins also visited.
We are hopeful that this is the first of many visits!
ANN’S NOTES: As you
have already read we have had a pretty busy summer. My main job was to keep
track of on-going doctor’s
appointments…keep the social calendar updated… make sure we were up on
time for the repairmen ( they seem to like the 7:30/8:00 AM time frame)… check
the pantry and fridge so we had plenty of
food and drinks…and know where the pool
passes were at any given time.
I did get a chance to reconnect with some of my girlfriends
and meet them for lunch. I do miss them very much when we are away from the
VA/MD area but our friendships are strong and we just pick up where we left
off. A true sign of a strong and lasting friend.
Michael is correct about the brief love affair I had with
Ray the sofa man . When they were taking the sofa apart in about ten pieces ,
so they could take it to the shop and reupholster it, both Michael and I made a
comment about ALL THAT SPACE under the sofa that was not being used. I wanted
to call and ask them if they could make storage for us but I have learned that
once you ask for `extra` things it can
cost more money…SO…I let that request and phone call go. A week later when the
sofa was delivered back to the boat, all pretty and looking new… Ray (I was not
in love at this point) said he had a surprise for us. He reupholstered the sofa
AND MADE STORAGE. That was the point that I feel in love with Ray. He asked me
if it was ok that he made all that extra space for us…if we did not like it he
could change it back…are you KIDDING ME?
I am pleased to announce that all the space is NOT filled up and we
still have room for items if we need it. I also went thru the two guest cabins
and removed what was extra in there and now have empty space for our guests to
stow their gear. By the way, when you visit remember to bring a duffel bag, not
a suitcase, as they are harder to fold in half and stow.
I had all my usual doctors and dental appointments and
passed with flying colors. I did have my annual eye check up with my ophthalmologist
and talked to her about not wearing glasses. They are really a pain. I only
need them for reading, so I have to switch between my reading glasses and my
sun glasses many times during the day. The solution was an old one. I once wore
only one contact lens – in my left eye – to help me with up close distance. I
even had Lasik done on my left eye and it worked for many years. Age, however,
is catching up and I had to wear glasses…but not any more…one contact lens in
my left eye and the glasses are a thing of the past. I am loving it.
This wildlife count is going to just an all around count…not
broken up into days…
It has been a busy month…no dolphins but a lot of land and
some air based animals…
·
It was an excellent year for the Monarch
butterfly, as they were everywhere. There were also a few Swallowtails
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| A monarch |
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Many red-winged black birds
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| A swallowtail -- or so Ann tells me. |
Thanks for reading our blog.
Traveling Soul…OUT
