August 21-25, 2000 -- Yet Another Week in Annapolis

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