s/v Rainy Days

Marsh Harbour

Jan 5 thru Jan 7

--Blogpost written by Bob

It's been cool here (high 50's and low 60's) in Marsh Harbour the last couple of days--I had to wear jeans and a sweatshirt yesterday. Thankfully, we don't have to deal with freezing temperatures and snow!

This is a (color) photo of the area between A and B docks
at Hartge's Yacht Harbor in Galesville MD,
one of the places we consider home.

Friday, January 5

Finally, a day without 20 to 30 knots of wind! After a cloudy sunrise, the sun shone brightly throughout the day. I took two (of the three) onboard propane tanks (the 6-lb tank for the grill and one of the two 10-lb tanks) in to Corner Hardware on Queen Elizabeth Drive to get them refilled.

While on shore, I had breakfast at the Golden Grouper, where the locals eat. I almost walked past the restaurant because their sign was removed from the window. It turns out that someone lost control of their car and plowed through the front window. The window and part of the wall was already replaced, but not the sign.

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Shortly after I got back to Rainy Days, from below, I heard a lot of shouting nearby. A large (new, dark blue-hulled) Beneteau, named C’est Bon, (maybe 50 feet long) lost its electrical power, which controls nearly everything on the boat. They were drifting toward Rainy Days! We managed to get fenders in place and we temporarily tied them to Rainy Days until a workboat could come out and tow them into a slip. My biggest concern at the time was that they drifted over my anchor line. The workboat operator was able to pull them in a direction which allowed their rudder to clear my anchor chain and bridle. So, even new, larger, boats occasionally have mechanical or electrical problems. I was glad everything worked out OK.

"Cats have it all--admiration, an endless sleep, and company
only when they want it." --Rod McKuen

Sunset in Marsh Harbour on January 5.

Saturday, January 6

On Tuesday (yes, I realize this is four days later!) I ran out of fresh water in our 40-gallon forward tank—we used 40 gallons of fresh water in 7 days (and Maggie wasn’t here 2 of those 7 days)! Our consumption rate calculates to be 3.33 gallons per person per day. During this this past week we purchased showers at Conch Inn Marina for $5.38 each (incidentally, the same price as an 8-lb bag of ice cubes) which reduced our water consumption. On the way to Marsh Harbour, I purchased fresh water in Man-O-War for $0.18 per gallon.

We haven’t used our RAINMAN water maker yet. I have been putting off using it because it is one more thing I have to maintain and feed with fuel. I used the RAINMAN for the first time today and filled our forward water tank. My first impression is that the unit is noisy, is slow, and uses a lot of real estate while in operation.

This is our RAINMAN desalinator in operation. I temporarily set
it up in our cockpit with hoses running everywhere.

It took nearly three hours to fill our 40-gallon forward fresh water tank--this turned out to be all afternoon. While it is in operation, you can't do much of anything else in the cockpit.

The RAINMAN ran all afternoon filling up
our 40-gallon forward tank.

While I was setting the RAINMAN up for operation for the first time, I checked the TDS of the fresh water coming out of the desalinator and it was 273 ppm. Thinking that this was high, I then checked the TDS of the water in our starboard tank and it was a marginal-quality 479 ppm! So, I feel like besides making fresh water less expensive than I can purchase ($0.04 versus $0.18 per gallon purchasing it) I am making water with higher purity.

When I setup the RAINMAN I didn't consider the potential heat
damage from the exhaust. I must now replace the
coaming box during the summer!

As I’m running our noisy water maker, I’m having a hot (decaf) coffee with Rum Chata-it is a cream liquor like Bailey’s only made with rum. I’ve decided to start happy hour a little early today and drown some of my sorrow about the heat damage to the coaming box--it was such a stupid mistake on my part! The cats are below (indoors) and upset because of the noise.

I still have to top off the starboard fresh water tank but that will have to wait for another day.

Sunday, January 7

It is a beautiful day! The forecast is for a good chance of rain (60%) and a high of 70 degrees. However, there is not a cloud in the sky at the moment.

Today Maggie returns from Florida! I went grocery shopping this morning so that I am prepared for Maggie's return and she doesn't have to turn right around and go grocery shopping with me. She finally arrived by taxi at the Union Jack dock shortly after 2 PM.