2018 Haulout in Galesville

July 19 thru July 25

--Blogpost written by Bob

Thursday, July 19

Our boat was moved early in the morning from the work slip to the area where masts are stepped.  Preparations were progressing on the mast and in the boat when we checked in at about 8:30ish on our way out for breakfast.  We had an 11 AM appointment in Stevensville (on Kent Island) with our tax accountant and had to make a couple stops along the way. 

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Because we have been in the Bahamas when tax returns are due, we have been filing for an extension for each of the past two years.  So, our annual visits with our tax accountant in the middle of the summer always involve submitting our tax returns for the past year and making a payment on next year's taxes.  I was astounded that the recent tax cut only amounts to a savings of about $20 per week.  So, this started me thinking about how I could spend this new windfall: (1) I could buy one small Starbuck's Caffe Americano each day but Maggie and I would have to share it, OR (2) I could buy two slices of pizza and side salads each week, OR (3) I could be used to pay for our cats' food as long as they didn't grow much bigger.  I could go on and on with this but I don't want to seem ungrateful.  I understand that millionaires and billionaires made out much better--we all know they need more money...

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We stopped by the boat on our way back to the cottage.  The mast was stepped!  They were able to reuse all the old turnbuckles, except for one that had stripped threads and they had a used one in the shop that could be used in its place.  The gel coat repairs were underway.  The autopilot's computer arrived today but the bad news is that it probably won't be able to be completely installed until Tuesday or Wednesday.

Our mast was stepped today!

Areas were masked off (plastic sheets held
in place with bright green masking tape)
for five small gel coat repairs.

For the past couple evenings we have been taking the dinghy out for a ride on the West River after dinner.  We have really come to appreciate the solitude and cleanliness of the West River after spending time in Baltimore Harbor.

m/v Marlin revisited in 2018.

A forest of masts at
Hartge Yacht Harbor

An osprey nest along
the West River.

Friday, July 20

The morning began at the boatyard by us putting on the dodger windows and cleaning them.  They are so clean that you don't even know they are there!  We then drove to Annapolis to pick up a few things we needed to continue our day, 16-gauge heat shrink butt connectors and 24-inch long cable ties.  We came back to the boat and worked all afternoon on finishing up the mast re-wiring, making the connections at the base of the mast to the internal wires previously run to the electrical panel.  We used the long cable ties to neatly bundle them and hold them against the sides of the bilge.  We were careful to tape the antenna connector at the base of the mast to the floor support cross members so that the connector would never be in the bilge water.  I also hooked up the OGM selector switch that controls the masthead light.  It was a very busy day and I have no photographs to show for it.

I went to the boatyard in near darkness to test the foredeck flood light, steaming light and the masthead OGM light in all three modes: anchor light, strobe light, and tri-color light (red, green, and white for use offshore).  Everything worked fine except for the OGM masthead light which didn't function at all.

Saturday, July 21

Rain was in the forecast for almost the entire day, except for early in the morning. We got up early and drove to our boat to put the self-furling 130% jib back on forestay—it took us about one hour because it is such a heavy sail. We finished up and drove back to the marina just in time for the light breakfast served by the marina at 8 AM.  Before we finished breakfast, the rain started—it was light at first was rained heavier as the day progressed.

s/v Rainy Days during the rain
in the early afternoon.

Later in the morning, we went back to the boat and put the floor panels back into place, remounted the dining table, and thoroughly cleaned the floors.

While at the boat, I pulled the electrical panel off that contains the OGM light selector switch to check my wiring since it didn’t function at all last night in the dark.  One of the problems is that the color code on the back of the selector switch doesn’t match the instructions for the selector switch.

As you can see on the right side of this image, there are
terminals are for green, black, and red wires but
the wires connecting to the OGM masthead
light are brown, black, and blue. 

We took a carload of things from the cottage to the boat, mostly clothing and but some foodstuffs as well.  Then we came back and loaded the mainsail into the car for tomorrow morning.

Sunday, July 22

We drove over to the boatyard at 6 AM to put on the mainsail during what we believed to be a brief weather window. The sun was out and the blue sky replaced the overcast sky of yesterday.  We laid out the mainsail on the dock to install the longest batten that I had removed for ease of getting it into its sail bag. Neither of our brains worked very well this early in the morning. I started to put the main sail on backwards which I quickly realized was wrong. Once we got the sail on its proper tracks, we had a hell of a time hooking up the flaking guide lines and, in one case, a cap screw and nut were missing so that I couldn’t fasten one of the line clamps at the time. (Later in the day, I picked up a matching 8-32 cap screw and nylon-inserted nut plus some spares at West Marine in Edgewater.)

We made good time cleaning our stuff out of the cottage—we were out by 10 AM. We were in the middle of putting our stuff away on the boat when we went out for lunch at noon. By the time we had all of stuff back where it belongs it seemed like we had worked a whole day—it was slightly before 3 PM. Well, it was a 9-hour day!

It rained very hard during the
2:30 PM thunderstorm.

Visibility really closed in
during the heavy rain.

A thunder storm blew through the boatyard at 2:30 PM—it lasted about 1-1/2 hours.  More storms came through later in the day.  We are very lucky that we go the good weather in the morning!  We are expecting rain during the next three days.

As nice as it was to spend two weeks in a quaint cottage, it is even nicer to be back on our sailboat.  Our living space is much smaller but it is cozier and quieter.  We will be in “Camp Hartge” for at least the next couple days.

Monday, July 23

Monday started out with sunshine and a clear sky but scattered showers soon took over. They were with us all day, even raining heavily during the sunshine at times.

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Ritchie and I worked on the installation of the new autopilot all day, starting at about 7:30 AM. In order to get the new cable from the autopilot to the computer through the pedestal we had to disconnect and remove four other cables and then reinstall them after the new cable (with the plug intact) was installed—this took about three or four hours. It was a very frustrating exercise for me but Ritchie seemed to like the challenge.

Maggie and I removed all the stuff from the quarter berth (again) and removed the plywood panels so that the cable could be installed under the quarter berth. As we finished each area, we put the plywood panels back in place. At one point, there were so many things removed that we could barely walk through the boat. Then, it came time to run the new cable to the new fluxgate compass which is located under the v-berth. Ritchie left for the day and Maggie and I continued to remove floor panels, including the dining table (which we recently removed and reinstalled for the mast re-wiring) and finally finished up around 6 PM. It was a long and tiring day!

However, by the end of the day all instruments were working, the OGM masthead light was functioning correctly in all three modes, and the autopilot was working correctly with the fluxgate compass temporarily connected. Tomorrow, we make the final connections, install a bigger (40-amp) circuit breaker and then go for a sea trial to calibrate the fluxgate compass.

Tuesday, July 24

The heavy rain continued yet another day.  I fully expected to see an old timer nearby building an ark and start collecting pairs of animals to fill it.

The most common question we get about our liveaboard
lifestyle is "What do you do on rainy days?"  Our
answer is that we do what everyone else
does, except go to work of course.

Ritchie mounted and connected the new flux gate compass and installed the new 40-amp circuit breaker, all while we were out for breakfast this morning. 

Our new autopilot control head mounted in the
instrument pod on the steering pedestal.

We took both cats with us in the car to breakfast so that we didn’t have to worry about them while we were away.  (We’re trying to get Lola more accustomed to car rides—this was only her fifth time in the car, including the time we brought her home with us from Pennsylvania.) We had one of our quarter berth cushions on top of some things that were destined to our storage unit in the back of our car.  She sat on top of the quarter berth cushion and looked out the windows for the entire car ride—this was a very good sign!

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Last night was my first occasion to use our new spreader light.  The tide was very high and the wind picked up from the east and our fenders had shifted so that we weren't protected from rubbing on the docks.  I got out of our berth and flipped on the new spreader light and went outside and adjusted the fenders.  The new spreader light lit up the area like a street lamp!

Our new Jabsco-brand 50-watt
Tungsten Halogen spreader light.

Wednesday, July 25

I woke up to a little bit of sunshine shortly after 6 AM but it was extinguished by cloud cover by 6:30 AM. A rain shower loomed shortly after the cloud cover came in—scattered showers are predicted to continue throughout the day, like yesterday.

One of the projects which remains undone is the hookup of the water temperature gauge to the new engine. Bunky was able to work up a solution for this morning. He ordered the necessary parts and we will be stopping here on our way south this fall for their installation.

This should be our last day in “Camp Hartge.” We drove to Annapolis today to send back the unused TV antenna mount and the refurbished Multi Function Display that we can’t really use as intended because we simply can’t fit another cable (for a network connection) through the pedestal.

We had a very tasty lunch at the Caliente Grill near Fawcetts—they had the best salsa in town and the guacamole was made to order and was outstanding. Despite several Mexican restaurants located in Annapolis, this locally owned and operated restaurant had the best Mexican food of any of them.

On the way back from Annapolis we shopped for some groceries for the next several days. We are planning on leaving Galesville on Thursday morning and heading to Annapolis for a couple days.  Stay tuned for our trip to Annapolis and then Baltimore...

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