Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Summer in Baltimore - 2017

Jul 1 thru Jul 4

--Blogpost written by Bob



Since we have come back to Baltimore from the Bahamas we have been "on the go" fixing things that broke on our trip, as we'll as working on things that we thought we needed to improve for our next trip to the Bahamas.  It actually started to seem too much like work.  Consequently, we decided that Saturday (well, maybe not the entire day on Saturday) and Sunday would NOT be used for boat projects.  I am my own worst enemy when it comes to work ethic--it seems like I'm always working on something.  So, this is the first Saturday (July 1) that we are deliberately (or shall I say mostly) NOT working on boat projects.

The sky was overcast early in the morning on Saturday, July 1.  There is an 80% chance of rain today and 100% chance that it will be hot and very humid.


A little duck family takes a mid-morning rest on
a neighboring boat transom.

I picked out two photo images from our recent Bahamas trip to put in frames on our salon's bulkhead.  I ordered 4x6 prints to fit the frames we already mounted.  (Picture frames on a boat must be screwed to the bulkhead--not merely hung buy wires like in a house.)


This image is of a lone palm tree on the beach
on the oceanside of Elbow Cay.  This image
will be placed in a natural wood frame.


This image was taken in Little Harbor and it is
titled "Lunch at Pete's Pub."  This colorful
image will be placed in a white frame.


Maggie ordered all the materials we need to redesign and remake our dinghy seat bag and I ordered materials to make some cockpit seat extensions so that we can sleep comfortably outside in the cockpit when we with to.  These are two of our upcoming projects.

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On Sunday, July 2, we cleaned all the raw water filters (except the one for the engine). It was unbelievable how clogged they were but the fridge and the A/C kept working, though I'm sure not very efficiently.  From now on, we will be cleaning them every two weeks unless we find later that we have to do it weekly.  I have been putting chlorine tablets in the baskets of the raw water strainers (when we clean them) so that it kills any growth as it circulates through the coils of the A/C and the fridge.  The marine growth that we found in the strainers was mainly plant growth.  In Annapolis, the primary concern was always sea nettles blocking the strainers.

I refined the template for the cockpit seat extensions today.  I made a bill of materials and ordered the 4" x 1/4" aluminum bar that I need for the supports.


The refined full-size template for the cockpit seat extension is 
shown above.  The forward edge is on the left side of this 
image while the aft edge is on the right side.


Maggie polished the stainless steel stanchions on the starboard side, as well as the bow pulpit.  Now, they really shine!  Shortly after lunch the outside temperature was near 95 degrees F and it was very humid.  We chose to stay indoors until it got cooler.


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On Monday, July 3, we drove to Annapolis to do a lot of errands, doctor visits, etc.  We spent the entire day in Annapolis.  I stopped in and checked on the progress of the warranty repair on our Yamaha outboard engine.  By doing an air leak down test, they determined that the problem was a stuck intake valve and the cause is typically water, whether in the fuel or salt water introduced through the exhaust system.  It was unclear to me how this could have happened and I will have to find out more about it later.  The mechanic recommended that I install a small fuel/water separator between the fuel tank and the engine (which would only address water in the fuel).  The outboard engine had a couple issues where it wouldn't start and this could have been a symptom of water in the fuel too.



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I took full advantage of the cool weather this morning, Tuesday, July 4, by making an aluminum angle mount for the new fan for the fridge and mounting it.  The new fan is about 4 inches in diameter and circulates a lot more air that the widget fan supplied by SeaFrost and it is much quieter while drawing about the same amount of electrical current.  I purchased the new (Corsair-brand) fan on Amazon.  (All of the drawers in the ice box have several 1-1/2-inch diameter holes for ventilation and there is ample space around the drawers for air to circulate as well.)  I noticed an almost immediate improvement in the temperature at the end of the fridge that is furtherest from the cold plate.  Incidentally, the fan is blowing away from the cold plate, pushing warmer area in the area around the fridge drawers back toward the cold plate.


The new fan is approximately 4 inches in diameter and 
made by Corsair--it was made as a cooling
fan for a large electronic chassis.

I realize that summer in Baltimore is not nearly as interesting as the time we spent in the Bahamas but I hope, through this blog, to describe our life aboard, living in a marina for those who never get the chance to do so.

We ended our July Fourth by watching the fireworks in Baltimore's Inner Harbor from our boat's cockpit.  What a show!  Hope everyone had a great Independence Day!


Thanks for following our blog!

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