August 05-07, 2000 -- Baltimore Continued

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