June 24-29, 2000 -- A week in Annapolis

On June 24, we had a number of things we wanted to accomplish. We called the water taxi in the morning, and headed into Annapolis. Our first stop was to drop film off. Next we headed to Bay Shore Marine. We picked up a new fuel lift pump for Tinky (our Northern Lights generator). We thought that was the problem. Next we made an unplanned stop at Inflatable Experts. We talked with them about the problems we had been having with our dinghy. Of course, these were installed problems done by Inflatable Experts in Ft. Lauderdale! They asked us to bring the boat in Monday so they could make repairs. Next we stopped to visit with Bob and Sherri on Shamaal. They are up on the hard at a boat yard here. After the visit, we headed to Fawcetts, then to get our film. On June 25, we went back in to town to pick up the remainder of our film. We made extra copies for Britican (whose boat we were on) and Second Line who were also with us for the tall ships. When we got back to the boat, we found that the anchor was slowly 'plowing' its way towards the channel. We were slowly dragging at the rate of 60 feet per 24 hours. We decided to reanchor the boat. On June 26, we dropped the dinghy off to get fixed. I also stopped by Bay Shore Marine to discuss the problems with Tink. Mike claims I was also supposed to get some relays, though I don't remember that. When I got back to the boat, we futzed with it for a while, identified the problem and got Tink working again. One of the connections on one of the relay blocks had vibrated loose. It is supposed to "clip in" to the relay box so this doesn't happen. I then called Northern Lights to complain about the problem, since we have been having this problem for the last year! On June 27, Mike wanted to replace the flag halyard that had worn through. He started to go up the mast, then stopped because the wind kicked up. After that, Mike made some phone calls to various suppliers to get information on a couple of nifty things for the boat. In the afternoon, Britican stopped by for a few minutes to drop off home made cookies (they were tasty) and pick up the pictures we wanted to give them. On June 28, Tink again had a wire come loose. In fact, it was the same one as before! After that, we headed in to pick up light bulbs and milk. The dinghy was supposed to be ready today. Unfortunately, there was some corrosion that needed to be dealt with so it took longer than expected. That evening, Bob on Shamaal (Sherri is home visiting family), Frank and Dee on Vagabond Tiger, Bill and Janet on Britican, Eric and Susan on Ellysia, and Pat and Mike on Impulse all came over for cocktails. It was a great evening with all type of food & drink brought by everyone. On June 29, The dingy was supposed to be ready. As of 5:00 PM EDT, it still wasn't. I headed over to check out what was wrong with it. Of course, if they had done what we wanted, it would have been completed since most of the corrosion was in the shift box! Can someone please explain why service places are doing what they want to do to fix things instead of just doing what the owner wants and just replacing the part? We think our Zodiac is a great dink and a hell of a deal compared to the others out there. But Inflatable Experts, at three different stores have done everything in their power to make replacing the dinghy a pain in the ass!