August 14- 18, 2000 -- A week in Annapolis

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