September 08-15, 2000 -- Busy Time in Washington, DC

September 8-15, 2000 -- Busy Time in Washington, DC On September 8, we had the alarm set for 7:00 AM. We were expecting the appliance repairman sometime after 8:00 AM, and we wanted to make sure that we were conscious enough to deal with him. True to their word, Harrison Appliance showed up promptly at 8:00 AM to fix the burners on our stove. It was weird to be coming home, but not really, since we travel with our home. I must say that the more things change, the more they stay the same, especially at the club. It was almost like we had never left; it was that easy to fall back in with everyone. After waiting for our car to be delivered, we called Enterprise Rent a Car, and found that our reservation had been totally screwed up. After arguing with them for an hour over this, we decided to tell them to screw off! We picked up the packages that we had had shipped to the club and moved them to the boat. After that, I split to pick up the car we rented through Thrifty, while Mike received our delivery of soda syrup for the soda machine. We then went to Hechts to buy clothes for Liz's wedding. We were successful! We each have a pair of dockers and a button down collar shirt. After all, we were supposed to be in Trinidad now, and not headed to a wedding in the "BRRRRR Chill 65 degree weather we were in". We dropped everything off at the boat, then went back to the club for dinner and a drink, and wound up staying up there until 3:30 AM talking with friends and such! We headed back to the boat, and as we were getting ready for bed, Mike noticed that the wall in the aft stateroom was getting damp. We thought it was the freezer compressor, flipped it off and went to bed. On September 9, After we had clawed our way back to consciousness, we noticed that the wall in the aft stateroom was completely soaked! We investigated the problem and it turned out to be the hose clamps on the aft deck shower had vibrated loose. We tightened up the hose clamps, which took care of the problem. We worked hard to not do anything so we wouldn't be late for Liz's wedding. We arrived at the church with plenty of time to spare, and wound up helping to decorate the "get away" car. It was definitely a wedding, the bride was blushing and beautiful and the groom looked like he was going to pass out before the wedding completed. Fortunately, he didn't. Seriously though, we wouldn't have missed it for the world! The reception was also fun, we were greeted more often with "You must be Mike and Bryan, you are the only ones here with boat shoes!" It was nice to put faces with the many names we have heard Liz talk about! On September 10, we went around and got a bunch of stuff since we had access to a car. Then we pulled out the dead batteries, all seven of them. Then we laid around with bad sinus headaches. After not experiencing these headaches this bad for almost a year, we had almost forgotten about them. On September 11, the new batteries arrived and we put them in. We started a test to see how long the inverter would run. On September 12, our inverter ran for 28 hours and could have gone on longer! We only used 400 amp hours, and had a lot of stuff on that we don't normally leave on. So we should be able to go at least 2 days without having to charge the batteries! Will came over and fixed the AC that failed in West Palm Beach. It was replaced under warranty. On September 13, Had lunch on Andante with Don and Becky. It was a great great time. They are good people. We spent the rest of the day low key, since we are leaving tomorrow and we still have our head aches! On September 14, We decided not to leave since there is supposed to be a front going through around the time that we would have to go through the bridge. We spent the day working on getting the boat ready to move again, and stowing stuff that we have received. It paid off, lightening started around 10:30 PM, and the wind picked up. We were certainly happy to not be going through the bridge. On September 15, We pulled off the dock. We went to anchor around the other side of Hains Point. DC Harbor police came by to inform us that we were in the channel, and the only designated anchorage was above the police docks in the Washington Channel. We informed them that we were only anchored here waiting the bridge opening tonight, and pointed out to them that the green buoy, indicating the side of the channel closest to us, was well off our stern, so we were indeed out of the channel. The grumbled a bit, then said that we could stay, but to make sure to be well lit tonight before the bridge opening. Around 4:30 PM, the winds kicked up to 40 knots and stayed that way for about 20 minutes. Our anchor held fine. In the Washington Channel, we heard about 2 boats dragging. We were certainly glad to not be there! Don and Becky on Andante called to check in with us to make sure that we were OK, since we were out in the river where winds were 10 to 15 knots higher than in the Washington Channel. We stayed until 1230 GMT (10:45) when we raised anchor and headed for the WW bridge. We passed through the bridge, then dropped anchor at 1630 GMT (12:30)