A Whirlwind Visit

It's truly amazing how quickly you can fall back in to the real world. The novelty of being back at our old marina and driving our car around Annapolis wore off after the first couple of days. As some of our cruising folks we met in New England made they way to Annapolis, we were able to meet and help them run errands with our car. But it almost seemed that they belonged to another world, one that began to seem distant and remote to us as we are tied up at a dock and freely mobile. Were we really one of them?

But our whirlwind visit continues. In between our 5 page project list, we tried to catch up with friends and family, and shared sailing stories with our friends at our marina. We met Joyce's brother Mike at BWI Airport for a brief visit on his way back to Jacksonville. We visited with friends Skip and Harriet, Ed and Betsy, Jeff and Diane, and John (the night before he left for New Zealand). Joyce visited her old workplace, the National Agricultural Library, for lunch with friends. We attended the annual Land and Sea dinner with our Chesapeake Bay Sabre sailing group for a wonderful dinner and evening. And last but not least, we had a family picnic with Jim's brothers Bob, Rick and sister Jane and their families.

As Annapolis has been a good meeting ground, we managed to be in town six days out of seven. Our waist line has begun to suffer from our indulgence. In this lifestyle, the real hard work is in trying not to spend money. This last week we've failed miserably. And, we've have stocked with up supplies and groceries to the point where we can't hold much more stuff in the boat.

The weather has been gorgeous, picture perfect early fall weather which has helped speed progress. Aside from the normal maintenance such as changing the oil in the main engine and dinghy, changing the antifreeze, waxing and cleaning, sail repairs, we've undertaken a few larger projects in anticipation of our trip down the Intracoastal Waterway. I've replaced and relocated the fuel filter for one with a higher capacity in the hopes that it will take longer to clog. And I've relocated the filter for quick and easy access for when it does clog. As many know, we seemed to pick up some bad fuel in Cape May which has clogged a half dozen filters and shut down our engine at the most inconvenient times (recently the Atlantic City Inlet). We cleaned and waxed the hull as in our travels we grew an ugly brown smile on the bow and stern. We've also struggled to seal a few water leaks, mostly around the mast. We had to pull up the aluminum collar around the mast to re-bed it which has been a chronic source of water leakage and attempted to waterproof the area where the mast goes through the deck.

We have taken to desperate measures in order to seal this mast leakage. What follows is not my idea but it's one in which cruising sailors, well known for frugalness, can appreciate. I pass it along for anyone suffering the same problem and to show the lengths one will go to. Credit goes to Diane Leitner who further credits Dan at her marina. So far, it has worked better than anything else I've tried. Here it goes: I took an ace bandage and wrapped it around the mast where the mast penetrates the deck to form a smooth transition from mast to mast collar. Then using plastic dip, such as is used for creating rubber handle covers on hand tools, I coated the ace bandage until the fabric of the ace bandage is completely encapsulated. It takes about 6 or seven coats to build up a sufficiently thick coating, but the plastic dip drys pretty quick. When finished, the new mast boot takes on the appearance of a wax sculpture so a finished cover made of canvas pretties up the job.

Joyce has a new toy. It's called PocketMail and it's a new device for sending a receiving email from just about any phone. Tracy on Oasis showed us this gadget and we were impressed by the convenience of sending email from regular phones via the system's 800 number. So now, we have our email being forwarded to our PocketMail account. Don't worry about learning a new email address; please continue to use our normal email address (jbbolton@yahoo.com). Please discontinue using the old Juno address. We hope that this will lead to more timely responses to your messages.

All the while, the cats have been lounging around, getting fatter by the day. They now seem rather at ease with the boat, hardly opening an eyelid during the daily half hour runs of the engine to charge the refrigeration system. They sun themselves in the cockpit until they get too warm after which they retreat to their favorite spots. Atlas even managed to make a long leap off the boat one evening for a little carousing. The difference from their first few weeks on the boat is remarkable.

For us, a few more days at the dock and we are off again. It's down the Chesapeake Bay and then into the Intracoastal Waterway, which begins at mile zero in Norfolk and ends for us at around mile 1065 somewhere near Ft. Lauderdale (or Ft. La-de-da as cruiser Tom Neale calls it). From there, we hope to cross the gulf stream over to the Bahamas and spend the better part of the winter snorkeling and diving in the clear turquoise waters of the Bahamian banks.