Seems the closer we get to leaving, the more we have to get done, the less time that is available and consequently the stress increases. In reality, we could hop on our boat right now and leave and we would be just fine, but our ‘to do’ list is quite long and getting longer! And we are ping-ponging back and forth between the house and the boat and though we are making progress, it is sometimes difficult to see the progress while you are in the middle of the mess! It was a messy, glorious week! Continue reading “Week 7: The Terror!!”
We are going to start a post that captures lessons that the learn as we move along our trip.
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Do not have anything in your pocket while working on the boat that you don’t want to lose.
This is not a new lesson. I learned this when my glasses were contributed to Neptune last summer while taking Lucky to shore one morning. But we continue to learn and this time someone had their keys on them while we were stringing up the dinghy. I won’t mention names, but it wasn’t me and it wasn’t AJ. And Lucky don’t drive. Anyhooo, this person was standing on the port side stern stairs and bent over to pull on the dinghy and saw (her) keys jump up out of her sweat shirt pocket, bounce off the middle step, double flip with a half twist and stuck the landing on the bottom step, and then in a surprise move, moved immediately into a front hand spring and back somersault into the water. NAILED IT! She who dropped the key slurred out the MOAPs (Mother of All Profanities) and just about threw herself in the water in an effort to stop the keys from hitting the water.
So we are in seven feet of water. It is spring. The outside temperature is in the low sixties. The water temperature is not warm and the Chesapeake bay is murky on a good day. We don’t have goggles. For some reason, Jan decides that she is going to jump in and try to find the keys that someone dropped. She changes to her swimsuit and plunges in the water and jumps straight back out. It was, she reported, impossible to get all the way down to the bottom and, furthermore, it was COLD! I gave it the college try, made it to the bottom and put my hand down into 2 feet of soft sludge at the bottom. It was not looking good, so I called it a day. We have more keys.
Ironically, Jan has a basket already in place on the boat for our keys, wallet and cell phone. We did go to West Marine (and we really need to buy stock in that store) and purchase floats for our keys. Just in case.
Update: We got a powerful magnet from our neighbors and attached it to a pole and spent some time dragging the bottom trying to find the keys. As expected, we got nada…
Turn off the water when you are done using it.
This would seem to be self evident. If you are brushing your teeth in the morning, make sure you turn off the water when you are done. Or doing the dishes. Or cleaning the bathroom. We have a seventy gallon tank of water on the boat and over the past three days we have had to fill it three times. We are not taking showers on the boat (we are at a dock) nor are we drinking an excessive amount or even using that much for dishes. Nope. What has happened is a series of morning when someone (male, 12 years old) leaves the water on and then we depart the boat. To come back to an empty tank. The first time we thought we had sprung a leak and pulled up all our boards and looked in all our lockers for the seventy gallons of water. Nothing. Second time, he who did the deed fessed up to the action. Third time was she who must be obeyed after cleaning the bathroom. No more!
We targeted 12-15 April as our shakedown cruise window. Four solid days of getting out in the boat and putting all the systems through their paces while replicating a schedule that we would expect on the Great Loop. Then we can see what works, what doesn’t, and have a couple of weeks to adjust in case there is something catastrophically wrong. Four days seems like the minimum we want to have to get a good shakedown. This fall right in AJ’s spring break, so perfect—he has the whole week off plus the Monday after. Unfortunately I had already signed up for a marine electronics class on Sat-Tues, so we couldn’t head out earlier than Wednesday, but Jan would load up the boat and we would be ready to go out on Tuesday night after my class. Wednesday at the latest!!
Editors note: We are really backlogged on getting information out. This is a review of activities from 2-9 April. More to follow…
The focus now is shifting, quite dramatically, from the house to the boat. Our main effort is to get the boat ready for the trip and when we have a chance, or weather doesn’t cooperate, we work on the house. We have had a huge load lifted off of us with the offer on the house and other than a couple of small things that need to be addressed we can now work on our next home.
We are opening up our boat to everyone in the local area who are interested in taking a look at where we will be living for the next year. Saturday, April 22nd from 12-4pm. The boat is located at Herrington Harbor North in Deale MD. The address is 389 Deale Road
Tracey’s Landing, Maryland 20779
When you turn in the entrance of the marina, follow the paved road all the way to the marina office. You will see the rows marked on signed. We are at Dock G which is close to the marina office.
The boat is at the end (T-head) of Dock G. Walk all the way to the end of the dock and our boat will be the last thing you get to before you fall into the water
Apologize for the long time between posts, but we have been prepping for and now are out on our shakedown cruse. Matter of fact, Im’ writing this as we move through the water from Herrington Harbor North to St Michaels. Loving hot spots!!!
We make progress, but it seems like there is a whole bunch of work to get done and time is ticking. We are 30 days out from closing on our house and leaving on our boat and our boat just got put in the water this week! To review: Continue reading “Week four of Prep: We Launch and we Purge”
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