Early Fall in Baltimore - 2017

Sep 21 thru Sep 27

--Blogpost written by Bob

Last season, our Bahamas trip was shorter than planned because of the time we spent re-powering near Charleston SC.  We spent 3 months in the Abacos, in the northern Bahamas--this is in the area of Grand Bahama and Great Abaco on the following map.  This year, we will be sailing to Freeport, the Berry Islands, Nassau, the Exumas, Long Island, and Cat Island.

Our destination for our upcoming trip is the the Exumas,
Long Island, and Cat Island (on the lower 
right side of this image).

We have three more projects to complete before we start provisioning for our upcoming trip to the Exumas:

     (1) make shoe rack for under dining table
     (2) refinish teak toe rail

     (3) RAINMAKER: get it running & buy spare filters

I've been trying to get as many hours on our dinghy engine as possible before we leave so that I can get the engine's 20-hour service done in Annapolis.  This means that we have taken dinghy rides all around Baltimore Harbor.

This tug remained tied to its barge after docking in Baltimore
Harbor.  It was unloading oil into large tanks on land.

We also did some troubleshooting of a problem we had with our forward fresh water tank.  After only two days of usage, the pump would run dry.  When refilling the tank, the water would gurgle out of the inlet hose every few minutes.  We narrowed down the problem to the tank vent hose--it was restricted.  We blew on the hose from the inside of the boat and were able to free the restriction, even though we still don't know what it was but some water drained out of a loop in the hose.  We believe that water collected in a low point in the vent hose and prevented proper venting.  All is working fine now...

A pretty typical view toward the setting sun
in our marina in Baltimore.

Under Dining Table Shoe Rack

Last season, we simply did not have enough storage space for our shoes and they tended to accumulate under the dining table in the main salon.  

Our shoes tend to accumulate under the
dining table in the salon.

We had a hanging shoe rack like this 
in the closet in our house.  I think 
it was made by IKEA.

Rather than fight a bad habit, I decided to build a shoe rack under the dining table to hold some of our shoes.  My inspiration came from the vertical shoe racks that are usually hung in a closet.

The only difference now is that our shoe rack has to be horizontal and hang from the bottom of the dining table.  Rather than buy a vertical one, cut it down, and convert it to being used horizontally, we decided to make one from scratch.

Maggie made the shoe-holding sections as four individual fabric bins that were 6 inches wide x 5-1/2 inches high and 13 inches deep with the bottom of each bin being constructed from black mesh fabric.  Each of these bins were designed to hold one pair of shoes or two pairs of sandals.

One end of the bin was closed with Sunbrella fabric while the other end was open.  I purchased 1/16-inch diameter stainless steel rods to bend into shape to support the open end.  

We are currently waiting for the stainless steel rods to arrive before we can complete this project.  More on this project in our next blogpost...

Refinish Teak Toe Rail

This is a very long and laborious process.  It started by removing some unused rub rail strakes--these are stainless steel strips on the top of the toe rail that are used to prevent abrasion of the toe rail finish.  I drilled out the old holes using a brad point drill bit (typically used with dowels) and then I filled the old holes with 3/8-inch diameter teak plugs (and a little epoxy to make sure they stay in place).

One of the many teak plugs installed in our boat's teak
toe rail after removing some unneeded
stainless steel rub strakes.  The teak 
plugs were later chiseled off 
and sanded smooth.

I chiseled off the excess plug on top and then sanded them flat.  The next step in refinishing the teak toe rail was scraping off the spots where the old finish was loose and peeling--I used a paint scraper to do this.  This project is being completed in sections: starboard bow, port bow, port stern, and starboard stern.  More on this project in our next blogpost...

Conclusion

To those who have paid attention to the news this week, there was more Presidential attention paid to a few players kneeling for the national anthem to bring attention to the killing of black men by white policemen. Of course, it is not like the President didn't have other things to do since America was hit by three major hurricanes this year plus we have a nuclear crisis with North Korea.

Since I don't have a platform to protest like the NFL players do, I'm kneeling (on both knees) to show my protest along with all the NFL players.

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