More Repairs in Baltimore

May 27 thru June 1

—Blogpost written by Bob

Sunday, May 27

Today started out sunny but turned stormy by mid-afternoon.  We did a lot of relaxing things today, particularly cooking.  I cooked pork and sauerkraut in the crockpot (for tonight’s dinner) while Maggie baked low-carb blueberry muffins and a low-carb blueberry pie in our new oven.  We also read a lot during the day and got caught up with some of our internet activities.  Maggie even went to the pool in the early afternoon.

"How could all these things 
have gone wrong with all 
the preventative mainten-
ance that I normally do?"

Things that went wrong last season:

(1) Lizzie, our Maine Coon, passed away due to congestive heart failure.

(2) Our trusty autopilot failed in North Carolina on our return trip.

(3) Our windlass stopped working on the way back north.

(4) We started taking on water & lost propulsion in the Chesapeake Bay.

(5) The transmission control cable failed TWICE.

(6) A (Rule-brand) bilge pump float switch failed prematurely.

(7) We went hard aground just north of Charleston (in the ICW channel).

(8) Our RAINMAN water maker failed and proved unworkable for us.

(9) We burned up a cockpit coaming box (hot exhaust from RAINMAN).

(10) Our fresh water heater started leaking (corrosion) and we stopped using it.

(11) The companionway drawer unit loosened from the facing (& rubbed on the tranny cable causing it to fail).

(12) Our VHF radio in the navigation station stopped working (bad antenna connection).
(13) The curved stem on our (2-year old) galley sink broke off (due to corrosion).

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The rain continued from mid-afternoon into the evening hours. It seems like it always rains on Memorial Day weekend on the Chesapeake Bay.

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Last month, as we were coming back into the Chesapeake Bay after last season in the Bahamas we were thinking about taking a break from the extensive seasonal travel by spending the winter in New Bern, NC.  We would still take a full month to get to (and to the return from) New Bern by more fully exploring areas along the way.  No more 50, 60, or 70-mile days!  They would be replaced by 25 or 30-mile days.  We would miss out on all that the Bahamas has to offer but we would have a more relaxing, stress-free (but colder) winter.  In addition, it would be a break for our 35-year old sailboat.  We expect to return to the Bahamas the following season, probably to the Exumas.  We are still leaning toward this option for next season and planning our boat needs accordingly.

Monday, May 28 (Memorial Day)

We woke to overcast skies (and hungry cats) this morning. Captain Jack jumped up onto the v-berth (where we sleep) twice this morning trying to wake us. Captain Jack (who is 14 years old) recently suffered a bout of complete loss of appetite—it lasted four days. We took him to the vet because I thought he was going to die. The vet gave him a shot of something that we were told might make him a little crazy but would restore his appetite. She took some of Captain Jack’s blood for analysis because “loss of appetite” is a symptom for many different ailments. (His blood work came back fine the following day.)  So, at this point, we are at a loss to explain Jack’s temporary loss of appetite but we are glad to see it’s return.

We're gad to see Captain Jack's
appetite come back to life!
(This photo was taken with
my new little mirrorless
Nikon 1 camera.)

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Before lunch, Maggie went downtown to meet with her daughter and her daughter’s friend who was visiting from Indiana. While downtown, a pan handler lifted Maggie’s wallet and quickly passed it off to “her man.” She was caught on the spot while “her man” escaped. Maggie lost her wallet and about $70 in cash. Of course, we had to immediately put a hold on all her credit cards. The positive in all of this were the many individuals (white and black) in the area who helped identify the perpetrators.

Tuesday, May 29

We had appointments in Annapolis for dental cleaning this morning—so, we took advantage of being in Annapolis and accomplished other chores: stopping by our storage unit, picking up teak trim for our new doorway project, getting groceries and cat food, etc. We got back to the boat at 4 PM (just in time for happy hour)—which will involve strawberry daiquiris today. We didn’t make any progress on our boat repairs today but I have given a lot of thought to our doorway project and how to attack it. (You may recall, we had to cut off the lower part of the doorway frame to get our new oven into the galley—the new doorway project involves ripping out all of the original doorway frame and permanently making a new wider doorway frame.)

Wednesday, May 30

After a light breakfast on board this morning, I prepared "overstuffed peppers" for cooking in the crockpot.  I used four different color of peppers (and very large ones).  For the stuffing I used hamburger, cauliflower rice (because we are on a low-carb diet), chopped shallots, some chopped pepper tops, some tomato sauce, hot sauce, and grated (Mexican blend) cheese. The four peppers are sitting in about 3/4 inch deep pool of tomato sauce.

Over-stuffed peppers sitting in the
crockpot before cooking all day.

I worked on removing the old door frame for several hours today. I was held up by the fact that my tape measure was in the car and Maggie used our car to go to Annapolis for most of the day. I used my Fein saw to cut off the remainder of the old doorway molding—this was a bit slower than my jigsaw but allowed me to make a very thin cut just outside the old door jamb.

The old door jamb is being removed.  In
this image, the top of the door jamb
has not been removed yet.

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I called our vet today to discuss Captain Jack’s medical condition.  (He’s eating a little better but vomits almost everything he eats.)  Our veterinarian feels that there is a good chance that he has lymphoma, a type of cancer, or irritable bowel disease.  She thought that (which ever it was) the disease could be “managed” but that Captain Jack would suffer some side effects from the medication.  Today, we made the very difficult decision to put Jack to sleep to end his pain and suffering.  His (fatal) appointment is late Friday afternoon (and really I hope we see enough improvement in a couple days that we can cancel it).  

Captain Jack was a rescue—at the rescue he was called “Just Jack.”  He has 10% vision in one eye and 50% in the other but you would never know he had impaired vision.  Until recently, we could always count on Jack to wake us up early in the morning.  Captain Jack was always “second” cat, first to Bunky, then to Lizzie (both dominated him but he didn’t seem to mind).  He loves his “outside time” on the boat.  He would come running to me whenever I clapped my hands and called him in Spanish—this must have been funny to watch.  We will miss Jack if he doesn't make it.

Thursday, May 31

I decided to hit the doorway project hard today (partly to make up for lost time and partly to distract me from Captain Jack’s situation). The first thing I did today was to get a good straight edge on the starboard side of the new doorway—I could measure from the longitudinal bulkhead forming the head enclosure.  Then I measured from the starboard side to the port side, taking off as little material as possible.  After getting both sides straight and parallel, I cut the overhead part of the doorway including the 2-7/16-inch radii at the upper corners (to match the teak inside corner molding).

I drove to Annapolis again today for several reasons: to stop at our storage unit to pick up my epoxy filler, a doctor’s appointment, to stop at Home Depot for TSP, and, of course for lunch at Italian Market.  When I got back to the boat around 4 PM, Caption Jack met me at the companionway (which was a great sign!) and Lola was just climbing out of the v-berth.

This is the first time Lola was able to get into
the v-berth without our assistance.

Friday, June 1

Captain Jack is showing more signs of improvement this morning!  We cancelled his (fatal) appointment with our vet tonight.  I really hope he keeps making progress and that we can save him!

I began working on the new doorway trim this morning: cutting and fitting each piece. I really wish I still had my old miter box saw—it would make this job a lot easier than cutting each piece of molding by hand.  After cutting and fitting, I glued them in place.  It is now epoxied in place—I used finishing nails to temporarily hold the pieces of teak molding in place until the epoxy cures (later tonight).

I used finishing nails to temporarily hold the
pieces of teak molding in place until the
epoxy cures.  Once the epoxy fully
cures, I'll pull out the finishing nails.

My next step is to sand the joints smooth and apply stain to the entire frame.  After that, five to seven coats of varnish will be applied, lightly sanding between coats.  The finishing will take most of next week.  Time to start another project...

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