August 01-04, 2000 -- Annapolis and Baltimore

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