August 1-4, 2000 -- Annapolis and Baltimore On August 1, we decided that it was time to leave. We spent the day getting the boat ready to get underway. In the morning, we went into town to get our mail. Since we were there, we also decided to have lunch. On our way back to the boat, we stopped by Mutual Fun to say good bye, and to find out what their plans are for the rest of the summer. Finally, we put the dinghy up on deck and spent the afternoon recovering from that! On August 2, we headed out of Annapolis around 1100 GMT. It was a fast trip! We made it to Baltimore in less than 4 hours! We dropped anchor between the Baltimore Marine Center and the Anchorage Marina in the area known as the "Canadian Anchorage". On August 3, we dropped the dinghy in the water. We noticed that the bilge pump was not working and the battery was dead. We jumped the battery and dropped me (Bryan) off at the dinghy dock so I could run to Safeway. After I got back, we completed the wiring run for the hoistable anchor light. We can now stop running our mast head anchor light. This is a good thing, since we don't want to have to go to the top of the mast just to change a light bulb! After that, we finished dressing in the new wiring we pulled. In the afternoon, Honga called us on the VHF. We have not seen them since Deltaville last year before we both headed south. They are at Anchorage Marina, a few hundred yards from where we are anchored, they invited us to a pot luck over at the marina, told us several folks we know would be there. After scrounging for something to fix for the potluck, we hopped in the dinghy, and discovered that the battery was dead again! We jumped the battery and headed in for an enjoyable evening with other cruisers. When it was time to head home, we jumped in our dinghy and the battery was dead again, so we rowed back to the boat. It was not that far, and gave us a chance to see if we could actualy row the dinky. Yes we can, but not too well! On August 4, we investigated the problem with the dinghy. It turns out that the bilge pump float switch is stuck in the on position, and causing a drain on the battery. This isn't a problem, we just turn off the accessory switch. Unfortunately, there is a second problem. The bilge pump and switch are unserviceable because of the way zodiac installed them. They are through bolted to a piece of fiberglass which is then epoxied to the hull of the boat. We called Inflatable Experts, and they will fix the installation and install a new float switch for us. In order to charge the battery on the dinghy, we needed to turn a generator on, so we fired up Tinky. We discovered that he has somehow lost a phase of power. We shut him off and fired up Ling-Ling instead. After completely charging the dinghy battery, we headed to the grocery store for round 2 of our purchases. We spent the rest of the day quietly

August 5-7, 2000 -- Baltimore Continued On August 5, we decided to check out the inner harbor. After all, you definitely get a different spin on things approaching from the water. So, we headed off for the 40 minute ride at no wake speed. We got there and I have to say, we were both sorely disappointed. It was like walking in any of the hundreds of malls that dot the country! It seems like all of the life, vitality and individuality has been sucked out, and replaced with a thin veneer of glitz! We quickly headed back to the boat. Infact, it took us longer to make the trip than it did for us to decide to leave the inner harbor. After we arrived back at the boat, we started work on the Tink problem. We discovered a malfunctioning AC power breaker had caused the power disruption. This is not a problem since we are heading back to Annapolis to get the dinghy fixed. At 5:00 PM we went over to the Anchorage Marina to hang out with Ron and Karen on Sea Dancer. They had mentioned that the Anchorage Marina has live music Saturday evenings, and usually has some kind of cook out as well. We hung out with folks from about 8 or 9 other boats. It was a lot of fun. This time, heading back to the boat, we motored instead of rowing. On August 6, we secured down Tink's exhaust hose. It had somehow come loose and was knocking against a bulkhead when he was first fired up. While we had access, we also pulled out the disconnected wires that ran in the same area as Tink's hose. We followed those up and also removed several disconnected wires from the electrical panels as well. Finally, our C40 regulator for our solar panels has been acting goofy since our last wiring change. I decided to test it and switch the wiring back. It worked as expected all day long, including while we were charging the batteries. The link panel also worked properly, so maybe now things are working as they should. We will see. On August 7, Mike sent me off to do some faxing and to find out the cost of fuel at the Baltimore Marine Center. After I got back from that, we went to the store. After putting everything away, we put the dinghy up on deck since we are getting ready to leave. After that, I called Stay Side Marine and ordered 4 new 8D batteries, 5 air filters, 10 belts and 2 cases of 2 micron filters for when we get to Washington, DC. Finally, I had our mail sent. Through the heat of the day, we stayed pretty quiet, Mike napped and I wrote logs. In the afternoon, we got the boat in "ship shape" so we can leave tomorrow for Annapolis. During the evening, thunderstorms hit with winds starting at 30 knots. We started dragging anchor towards the Baltimore Marine Center Fuel Dock. We put our stern into the wind since our stren was closer to the wind it was easier to bring that into the wind then spin the boat around. Mike dropped the other anchor. Then after the storm was over, we pulled up the second anchor. It snagged our first anchor's anchor chain! We finally got that untangled and the anchor seated just in time for a second thunderstorm! Mike thinks we dragged anchor again; however, I don't think so. We powered the engines and turned nose into the wind. I gave it a little to much throttle and we went forward. On our way back, Mike deployed the second anchor again; we rode out the rest of the storm comfortably at that point. This time pulling our anchor back up was no problem, except we pulled up a lot of trash with it! We moved downstairs and just finished smoking a cigarette when the generator cut out. I thought that our raw water intake had been clogged, Mike thought we had blown the water pump belt again since this a regular thing with the engine turning 3600 RPM non-stop. We checked the sea strainer and saw that it still had water in it. So, Mike thought we had blown the water pump belt again, and we don't have any spares on board right now. We made the plan to head back to annapolis and pick up a belt there. We did not have a spare on board, we picked up several in Florida but apperently we got these mixed with the other belt on the generator and now have a lot for the one that seems to hold up. Worst case scenario, we will have to ride out 1 day without a stand alone generator, as we can always use the gererator that runs off of the port engine

August 8-9, 2000 -- Generator Woes to Dinner and a Movie We left bright and early to head back to Annapolis from Baltimore. It was a good, fast and windless trip. On the way, I made several phone calls to try and find a replacement belt. We thought we hit pay dirt at Viking Boat Supply. They said that carried an appropriately sized belt in stock! After we dropped anchor, I went into town to get a new belt for our generator. Viking boat supply, who claimed they had them, didn't. They recommended going to Bay Shore Marine. On my way there, I called Fisher Panda and ordered 3 belts. I had them overnighted just in case I couldn't get one from Bay Shore. While Bay Shore Marine did not have any belts, they were kind enough to have NAPA deliver a belt. While I waited, I called Mike on the radio. He told me that the generator had not blown a belt as he had thought, but had a blocked sea water intake as I had thought. The generator was working, and cooling the boat (thank god!) The moral of this story is simple: Verify your problem before assuming. We both said that we should test fire the generator in the morning after it cooled down. A quick test fire would tell us if water was flowing out the exhust, without removing the sound shield. In fact, we repeated that several times. Unfortunately, I was in such a rush to get the replacement belt that I rushed off the boat without testing it. I headed back to the boat and we relaxed for the rest of the day. In the evening, in preparation for tomorrow, we dropped the dinghy since it was somewhat cooler out and the probability of thunderstorms was minimal. On August 9, we dropped the dinghy off to get it serviced since the bilge pump float switch had been installed improperly and was not serviceable. While we could have corrected this, the dinghy is less than 6 months old and we felt strongly that the bilge pump and float switch should be installed to be serviceable. Inflatable Experts agreed, and also agreed to fix the problem under warranty. After we dropped the dinghy off, we returned to the boat and spent a quiet day waiting for thunderstorms that never materialized. In the evening, we had Bob and Mona from Mutual Fun over for dinner. They brought along a movie. It was an enjoyable evening and the movie "Something about Mary" had us in stiches

Today was a busy day for us. We had a list of places to go and things to do. Just as we were about to leave, we received the message that our dinghy was ready. So, we diverted to Inflatable Experts to get the dinghy. We checked out the work they did and it looked pretty good. They moved the float switch and the bilge pump to make them both serviceable and removed the through bolts that had been a problem. However, they also wanted to charge us a pickup and delivery fee. Mike discussed this with the manager. It looked rather a bit like a rabid bear mauling a defenseless deer. The manager acquiesced and reversed the fee. The repair was covered totally under warranty. On our way to splash the dinghy, we stopped by Bay Shore Marine to pick up the new circuit breaker for Tink, then on to the public boat ramp. The splash went perfectly, though the bilge was full and needed to be pumped. The bilge pump worked and so did the float switch. Mike was ravenous by this time, so we took the dinghy to the dinghy dock and found breakfast. We then headed to the Harbor Master's office to get our mail. It wasn't there. Then, instead of going to a grocery store, we stopped by the Market House to see if they had anything we could buy. They did, so we didn't have to head to a grocery store. Having accomplished everything we could, we headed back to the boat and installed the new breaker for tink. In the afternoon, I went in to get our mail and fuel up the dinghy. I pumped the bilge when I left, when I stopped to talk to Bob and Mona on Mutual Fun and again at the fuel dock. There was definitely a problem with our dinghy! I picked up our mail and headed back to the boat. We called Inflatable Experts, mostly to complain, but also to make them aware that our dinghy now had a hole in it from the old screws because of what they did! Immediately, we hauled the dinghy on deck. Two of the screws that were originally used had punctured the fiberglass hull of the dinghy! We performed a temporary repair with life caulk since we couldn't find the underwater epoxy and the Marine Tex would take 24 hours to cure. Around 7:30 PM, Tom, a friend of ours, arrived to visit for the weekend

August 11, we headed to the Eastern Shore and Granary Creek. It was a relatively quick trip, though very windless! The Eastern Shore is a really beautiful place. Unfortunately, it is also a long trip to get to the anchorages. It was an hour across the Chesapeake Bay, then three and a half hours to the anchorage! We dropped anchor around noon and enjoyed the rest of the day at anchor. On August 12, the rest of the members of the Open Seas Yacht Club started arriving. First was Skiboze with Ray and Jimmy. We dinked over and chatted with them for a bit before returning to the boat for an afternoon nap! Everyone else arrived late in the afternoon, and some of them rafted up to us for the night. We had 5 boats rafted to us. After everyone was securely rafted to us, we all headed to shore for a picnic. It was a lot of fun. Everything broke up around 9:00 PM or so. More to the point, the party moved back to the raft up where the party continued until the wee hours of the morning. On August 13, we were rudely awakened by our anchor alarm at 6:00 AM. Mike and I sprinted up to check things out. It appeared that with the additional wind, our anchor chain had stretched out fully and we moved outside the alarm zone. This happens to us a lot, as I sometimes set it too low when we first arrive somewhere. We stayed up for a bit to make sure we weren't dragging, then went back to bed... for a whopping 30 minutes. Our secondary anchor alarm went off, and as soon as we got up there, we discovered it was raining! We flew through the boat closing hatches before returning to bed. We finally gave up on sleep around 8:00 AM. People started moving out around 10:00 AM, and we were finally ready to go around 11:30 AM or so. The wind was blowing out of the north between 15 and 20 knots. It was actually a pretty comfortable trip, surprisingly enough. We never saw waves above 3 feet though the winds hit a maximum of 25 knots. We were able to take the waves on the forward quarter and get a boost from our main sail, though we had to head to close into the wind to be able to sail. We arrived back in Annapolis around 4:00 PM or so. All of us were exhausted from a very active weekend. Tom headed home around 6:30 PM or so, and Mike and I were soundly asleep by 9:30 PM

We didn't plan to stay in Annapolis for the week. We had every intention of heading to Baltimore on Tuesday to get fuel, water and provisions. Unfortunately, that didn't pan out. On August 14, we headed in to town to see if we could get in on a business order for Coke Syrup since we were down to our last gallon. After checking 3 different places, we finally found someone willing to do it. Well more to the point, someone who was there who could commit to doing something. We exchanged numbers and she promised to place our order with her next one. She planned to place the order Tuesday and the order should be in Wednesday. After that, we headed back to the boat to continue recovering from the weekend. We also discussed whether we would be heading to Baltimore. Finally, we decided to stay in Annapolis since we wanted to make sure we are here Wednesday when our coke syrup comes in. On August 15, our first job was to patch the holes in the dinghy. That way, the fiberglass would have the opportunity to cure before we needed it to get the coke syrup. After completing the repair, we headed off to do a little grocery shopping. We learned that the Eastport Market had closed, so we had to catch a cab to Graul's Market. It actually turned out to be a surprisingly nice market with excellent produce. We remembered to bring a cooler with us to keep the meat cool that we were buying. We got back to the boat, put away the groceries and spent the rest of the day being lazy (we do that really well). On August 16, we splashed the dinghy. It stayed floating, and the bilge pump didn't come on, so it appears to be patched. Since we are on water conservation right now, we gathered all of our laundry together and dropped it off at a wash and fold place, then headed to Chic and Ruth's for breakfast. As we were walking over for breakfast, we noted that the Coke delivery truck was sitting outside the place we were buying our syrup from, so we made sure to stop by on our way back to the dinghy. Our syrup was indeed in, so we lugged it back to the boat. We got back to the boat and turned on the generator because it was very hot, and there was no wind. In the afternoon, Mike was calling around to find out what the best price was for a replacement C40. The electronics company he talked to told him of a recall on the C40 unit and advised us to call Trace about it. Mike tossed me the phone, and I called. After making my inquiry, I found out that it wasn't for the C40 but for the DVM module (display). One of the techs gave me an RMA number so we could ship it back to Trace to diagnose and repair. On August 17, we, again, headed into town so that we could mail off our C40. On the way back from that, Mike headed into Steven's Hardware while I went in search of a water spicket. We planned to jug out some water for the weekend since we are having guests again. We met back at the dinghy. I was successful, but had to walk almost the entire length of Ego Alley, which isn't easy with 12 gallons of water! Needless to say, this would not work. Since it was supposed to rain tonight, we rigged up our rain catching tarp (since it's filtered with on-board filters) to help fill our aft tank. We then headed back into town to pick up our laundry. On the way back out, we checked the various dinghy docks for water. Eric and Susan on Ellysia had jugged water along with just about everyone else we know, so we knew there had to be some somewhere conveniently close by. Unfortunately, we didn't see any. This is a problem for everyone when not out in the ocean, as you need to be in the ocean for the waterwater to work. On August 18, while Mike headed into town to drop off some trash and pick up some last minute provisions, I stayed aboard to clean the boat. We also had another battery getting ready to die, so we tried to save it by equalizing it. By the time Mike got back, I had completely cleaned the pilot house, and was working in the main saloon. Mike also arrived with good news. He had found a relatively easy place to jug water from! As Mike started puttering in the galley, I continued my cleaning rampage through the entire forward part of the boat. By the time I reemerged, Mike had finished working in the galley and was doing some work in the main saloon. After some discussions, we headed out in the dinghy and made 4 trips jugging water. Then we headed into town to grab some lunch. On the way back to the boat, we jugged another set (two 6 gallon jugs) of water. I continued cleaning and finished up the main saloon and galley before running out of steam. We took it easy for the rest of the day, then met Maggie and Lou at the dinghy dock around 10:00 PM. We stayed up late shooting the breeze and catching up on things from the last year

On August 19, we got up early and headed to the Magothy river. Well, relatively speaking we got up early, considering that we went to bed around 2:00 AM! After we cleared the mouth of the Severn River, we went under sail completely and even shut the engines off after clearing the Bay Bridge. Unfortunately, the wind shifted, as we were about to tack, so we turned the engines back on and headed into the Magothy river. Once we got there, we pulled out our towing stuff and went tubing. Lou had never been tubing before, so she was first to test out our new steerable tube. It was a lot of fun, but very tiring so in the space of an hour, everyone had had a turn. We got back to the boat, and discovered we were ravenous. After eating, everyone was tuckered out, so we all took a nap. Once we got up, we were moving much slower. Everyone was sore! We fixed dinner, then played cards until the wee hours of the morning. On August 20, we got up late, again. After a big breakfast of waffles, bacon and eggs, we got ready to head back to Annapolis. This included putting the dinghy up on deck. The wind had been blowing a steady 15 knots since last night, and we were concerned about wave heights. We like it calm when towing the dinky behind us. While the dinghy went up faster than we have ever done it previously, it was mildly painful to say the least since we were all still sore! We headed out of the Magothy shortly after the wind died. There would be no sailing today! It was a quick easy trip back to Annapolis. Along the way, we heard Sea Dancer trying to call Shamaal, so we gave them a call to say hey. We anchored in our usual spot, and spent the next hour trying to figure out what was going on at the Naval Academy. A little bit later, Ron and Karen from Sea Dancer stopped by to visit, and then later, Bob on Baboo stopped by. Finally, John from Goody Two Shoes stopped by. Cruising on a boat full time is a bit like living in a very small town, just about everyone knows everyone else (or at least the boat name) out here full time and watches out for each other and you are kind of glad they do. Since the Coast Guard is so under funded, they have a hard time handling the emergencies and saving the idiots that should not be out here in the first place. Maggie and Lou headed home around 7:00 PM, we were sorry to see them go; it had been a very enjoyable weekend with them. We spent the rest of the weekend quietly, and I spent some time catching up on writing logs

I had been planning to call John Duffy, the rigger from Florida, to talk to him about the mast hoist system we had made. Finally, all the pieces came together and we got in touch with him and resolved the issue we had been having with it. It was a combination of being strung incorrectly, as well as being used incorrectly! Next, we called Oxford Boat Yard to find out the status on our stanchions. Kato Marine is a week behind delivering our stanchions, so we will go to DC before going to Oxford. Having exhausted our phone calls, we headed into town to get a new light switch and some pipe insulation stuff for the bow rail of the dinghy. After we got back, Mike replaced the switch that controls the exhaust fan while I checked the bad capacitor on Ling Ling. I found the problem with the capacitor on Ling ling. I replaced it, put a new connector on the wire that had overheated and checked 2 other questionable looking capacitors before we were done for the day. And we hadn't planned to do anything! On August 22, we tested our mast hoist system. It worked! Then I remembered that we needed to send our emergency water maker in for its yearly maintenance. I called Leslie at West Marine, then went to visit her, on her boat, and dropped off the water maker. Because of the wind, Mike stayed on the boat. He also stayed dry, but that is another story. That evening, I didn't want to cook and declared we would be going out to dinner. On the way in, we met up with Bob and Mona on Mutual Fun. They were headed to dinner for their anniversary. After we parted company, Mike and I wandered around looking for good Italian. It is nonexistent in downtown Annapolis. So, we headed back to the boat and had chicken instead. On August 23, we didn't do much. However, we did go out for 'Jilato' (no accounting for spelling), which turned out to be Italian for ice cream with the folks on six other boats. It turned out to be a fun evening. On August 24, we worked on the fly bridge compass light. It turns out that if a light isn't hooked to a power source, it doesn't work! We traced the wiring, reconnected the compass light and voila, we can see the compass at night without using a flash light! Finally, we hauled out 40 gallons of water since our fresh water was getting low. We decided to haul water out rather than raise the anchor (which we knew was VERY well set), motor into the harbor, deploy lines and fenders, pull up to the dock, take on 700 gallons of water and 50 gallons of fuel, then head back out to anchor again. It was simpler to jerry jug water since we didn't need that much to get us through! On August 25, I went to the Amish market with Diana on Goody Two Shoes and the Filthy Beast, Mona from Mutual Fun, and one other boat. It was pretty cool! While I was out playing, Mike cleaned up the boat and napped. After I returned, we headed out to pick up pictures and laundry. Finally, we went out for $2.00 coronas, free tacos and mac and cheese with Mutual Fun, Shamaal, and Bill from Britican

The long awaited event finally occurred! Ruth arrived. Ruth is one of the people that helped us bring the boat to Washington, DC on our first trip up from West Palm Beach. After getting Ruth settled on the boat, we headed out to lunch at the Acme Grille with Bob from Shamaal. We headed back to the boat and spent a quiet relaxing day. Also, I equalized one of the 2 older batteries left on our port bank. It reacted exactly like it should at first but stopped equalizing after 7 hours; it should run for 8. Finally, we sat out on the aft deck and had evening cocktails. On August 27, we fired up tinky and got a reverse polarity indicator on our inverter sub panel. We immediately shut tink down and checked the breaker. It's fine. We brought everything up and checked different configurations, and could not cause the reverse polarity light again until we brought up some 240 volt stuff. We shut tink down again, and headed into town to get some ammeters. Mike is convinced it is because we are overloading tink. I don't think so, because we are only pulling down around 70 amps! Ruth stayed on the boat and showered. We were a bit early for Fawcetts, so we stopped at the market house to get donuts for breakfast. Then we ran into Sea Amigo and chatted with them for a few minutes before heading to Fawcetts. We found ammeters, and headed back to the boat. We installed the new ammeters, then brought everything up that we were running before, and low and behold... we are only at 70 amps out of a possible 104. (tinky is a 12.5 kw generator that produces 104 amps at 120 v.) We were also not able to duplicate the reverse polarity problem again. We, again brought tinky back up and started equalizing the other old battery (then we only have 1 more to equalize, but are 88.25% sure that that one will not be a problem). On August 28, We went to Baltimore. On the way in, we saw Honga headed out. We chatted with them on VHF for a few minutes and tentatively agreed to cocktails that evening. As we were about to pull into the fuel dock at the Baltimore Marine Center, Sea Dancer hailed us. We invited them to cocktails that evening before we docked to take on fuel and water. We pulled off the fuel dock and anchored in the "Canadian Anchorage" for the evening. We dropped the dinghy and Mike sent Ruth and me to Safeway. On the way, we found Honga (they had turned off their radio), to pass on to them that Sea Dancer was also coming to cocktails. After we got back to the boat, we stood an anchor watch due to a storm. It wasn't bad, and there were no problems, but you can never be to careful. As soon as the storm passed, Tom and Becky on Honga, and Ron and Karen on Sea Dancer and Steve (don't know the name of his boat) came for cocktails. As always, it was a lot of fun. On August 29, Mike and I headed in to Safeway to pick up a few things as well as doughnuts for breakfast. After breakfast, Mike and I headed to West Marine to check out the dinghy they have on sale. We decided not to get it. However, we took advantage of being there to pick up a bunch of other stuff. We got back to the boat and decided to head to the Magothy since everyone (NOAA weather and TV stations) was reporting that winds would not exceed 10 knots! We headed out and found winds of 15-25 knots of wind, though we had mild seas. About 15 minutes after we passed the Key Bridge, we heard that someone had jumped! Had we been 15 minutes slower, we would not have been able to transit the area. The ride was wet, but fairly comfortable. We arrived at the Magothy, dropped anchor, had lunch and promptly napped for a while (atleast Ruth and I did). We spent a quiet evening with icky weather. On August 30, We decided not to go anywhere today since everyone was forecasting weather similar to yesterday. Instead, we cleaned 2 of our sea strainers for the forward heads, and attempted to move the link panel from the utility room to the electrical panel in the pilot house. Unfortunately, we do not have enough twisted pair cable to complete the run, so we backed out of that. We spent the rest of the afternoon playing cards. On August 31, we left the Magothy and headed to Oxford. Actually, we weren't sure where we were going to stop when we headed out, we were thinking either Oxford or Solomon's. As we left the mouth of the Magothy, a squall hit that sent the winds climbing to around 30 knots. I was down below getting something when this happened, otherwise we would have turned around and headed back into the Magothy. Anyway, we continued along and I suggested that we may think about just going to Annapolis since the winds were strong (between 20 and 25). Well, as soon as we turned toward the Bay Bridge, the winds dropped to between 15 and 20 and we both felt that this would not be a problem, but we would check the anchorage at Annapolis just in case. The wind would not have made the anchorage too uncomfortable, but we decided to press on since the winds had abated further. After we passed Annapolis, and were committed, the wind picked up again and blew between 20 and 25 for the rest of the day. Still this was not a problem since we were running down the Eastern side of the Bay and that was the direction the wind was coming from. Once we passed the Eastern Bay, we did decide to call it a day and made the firm decision to head to Oxford! Believe it or not, it was actually a nice trip. Once we got on the Choptank, the winds dropped down to below 15, and there were no waves to speak of really. We dropped anchor, and spent a peaceful rest of the day