Summer Life in Baltimore

Sep 10 thru Sep 14

—Blogpost written by Bob

Monday, September 10

Today was another day with overcast skies and an occasional drizzle. In the morning I managed to get the second coat of CETOL on the exterior surfaces of our companionway frame and the first coat on the teak base of our fireplace stack.

The round teak base of fireplace stack
requires some creative taping to
cover the fiberglass deck.

Even though it is not required, I like to sand the surfaces between coats when using Cetol because it makes the surfaces nice and smooth.  I usually add 3 to 5 coats of Cetol over the existing finish, even though the common practice is two coats.  Taping off the surfaces around the area to be coated takes a lot more time than the actual sanding and coating.

At 3:30 in the afternoon, I applied another coat of Cetol to the companionway frame and the fireplace stack base, after lightly sanding the previous coat. However, five hours between coats was not quite enough with today’s poor drying conditions. About two more coats are needed on each area—I should be able to apply both coats tomorrow.

----------

The high temperature for today was only 71 degrees and that was only late in the afternoon. The last couple days have been dreary and relatively non-productive. I can’t wait until the weather improves a little but rain is in the forecast for the next nine days or so, with Hurricane Florence predicted to be stalling this coming weekend.

Tuesday, September 11

Today’s was another overcast and rainy day in the 70’s. Hurricane Florence is barreling toward the Carolinas and is expected to make landfall Thursday night or Friday morning. We don’t expect more than a flood event here in Baltimore, unless it takes an unexpected turn to the north. We plan on riding out the oncoming weather onboard.

Hurricane Florence's projected
path as of 2PM today.

As preparation for the hurricane, we bought 220 feet of 1/2” diameter black double-braid nylon rope ($330) to tie off to additional points on the dock. We also stocked up on groceries and cat food, even though it is well ahead of landfall--we wanted to avoid the crazy last minute shoppers.

Wednesday, September 12

Today started out overcast and it looked like it was going to rain all day again but it cleared up about mid-day and the sun came out.  However later in the afternoon a thunderstorm lingered in the area.  The latest information on Hurricane Florence is that it is expected to make a slow left turn (southward) after making landfall.  That is good news for us on the Chesapeake Bay.  Our weather forecast is slightly better than it was previously with clearing expected tomorrow and rain again on Friday, Monday, and Tuesday.

We went to our storage unit in the morning and took along all the things in our dock box plus some more things from the boat.  We brought back the cockpit enclosure and some items we need on our trip south.  With Hurricane Florence expected to make landfall near New Bern NC where we expect to spend the winter, we are thinking about alternatives--the most attractive one is to spend another winter in the Bahamas.  We have about one month before we leave for the winter.

Raindrops fall on the water
at sunset.

Looking the opposite direction
from the setting sun.

The above photos were taken with my good Nikon D700--they are a lot better than my little (mirrorless) Nikon 1 V1 camera!

Thursday, September 13

We drove to Annapolis today shuttling things between our boat and our storage unit.  We stopped and checked on the progress of our car repairs--they are still disassembling and evaluating.

Today's weather included overcast skies and some light rain in the afternoon.  I applied another coat one Cetol on the fireplace chimney base early in the morning.  After we returned from Annapolis, I waxed and buffed the fiberglass surfaces in the boat's cockpit--I still have more to do though because the aft portion of the cockpit was wet.

Friday, September 14

Hurricane Florence made landfall very early this morning at Wilmington NC, only a dozen or so miles from New Bern where we planned to spend this winter.  At this point our winter plan is uncertain.

We are very familiar with the areas being blasted by Hurricane Florence today since we have passed through the area several times over the past few years.  Our thoughts are with the local residents.

This photo was taken in Wrightsville Beach NC when
we came through in the spring.  This area
experienced an 11-foot storm surge
after Hurricane Florence
made landfall.

The sky is overcast again today and rain is in the day’s forecast.  While it wasn’t yet raining, I applied another coat of Cetol on the fireplace chimney base.  Slowly, I’m building up some UV protection on the teak base.

Today we learned that the damages on our car were grossly underestimated by the insurance company--the damage cost is now over $11,000 (increased from the previous estimate of under $5,000).  We are now thinking that the car will be totaled...we'll see in the next blogpost.

Thanks for following our blog