Getting Ready to Head South

Oct 8 thru Oct 12

—Blogpost written by Bob

Monday, October 8

Today was an easy-going day with no real goals nor accomplishments—it’s funny how they are linked. Today was one of those secondary holidays in the U.S. that not many people celebrate. We have exactly 9 days remaining before we head south for the winter.

It was quite warm today—in the mid 80’s. The day began overcast like many other recent days but turned warm and humid and the sun came out in the afternoon. (The forecast is for much cooler weather after Hurricane Michael blows through the area far south of us late-Thursday through Friday.  If it follows it's predicted path, the eye will stay about 170 miles away from us.)

The projected path of Hurricane Michael is
currently far south of our current 
location in Baltimore.

Lola is resting her head on a little pillow
that Maggie made for her.

Tuesday, October 9

The sky was overcast and a light drizzle was falling from the gray clouds until mid-morning. Later, the sky cleared, the sun came out, and it turned into a beautiful warm fall day!

We drove to Annapolis for our dentist appointments (just cleaning) this morning—it’s nice making only one trip for both of us.  One of the things I learned today from my dental hygienist is that as we age we have less saliva, lose our sense of taste, and, consequently, use more salt in our diet.  I've noticed this in myself--I don't go overboard with salt but I do with cayenne sometimes.

We always try to combine tasks when we are in Annapolis. Today, we went to Bacon’s and checked out some used bikes that we can carry onboard but they didn’t suit us. We’ll probably buy used bikes in Charleston and sell them before we leave in the spring.

I remember way back when you didn't
need brightly colored lightweight
clothes and a helmet 
to ride a bike! 

This afternoon, I worked on our detailed travel plan heading south for the winter.  We will be going from Baltimore to Galesville (10/18) , then to St. Michaels where we will stay a couple days.  Then, we will be heading back north to Annapolis for one week, where we will be attending the 2018 Mid-Atlantic C&C Rendezvous (October 26, 27, & 28).  (C&C was the Canadian manufacturer of our sailboat.  C&C has been out of business since about 1989.)  From Annapolis, we head south again but remain in the Chesapeake Bay until November 8 when we enter the ICW.  This season, our average day’s travel is only about 25 miles (in the past it has been >40 miles), with the longest day being 41 miles.  I have also planned several multi-day stops in marinas, including one over the Thanksgiving holidays.

Wednesday, October 10

Today, again, started out overcast but the sky eventually cleared. The atmosphere was warm and muggy all day.

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Several large schooners are berthed at our marina (P Dock) prior to the start of the Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race. (Schooners are typically two-masted sailing vessels with the forward mast being the shorter of the two masts—it is an old design typical of the 1600’s and 1700's but most of the vessels in the race are relatively new.)

Several large schooners are
lined up on P Dock
in the morning..

One of the schooners up close.

The schooners will race from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to Portsmouth VA. The race starts Friday afternoon at 1 PM.  Later in the evening the schooners paraded through the Inner Harbor.

A schooner under sail in the evening.

Same schooner--different view.

Thursday, October 11

It rained during the night and into the day--it was the remnants of Hurricane Michael.  I'm grateful that a little bit of rain is all we experienced.  I am still surprised at how accurately the weather service can predict the path of a hurricane, after all it is guided by areas of high pressure and low pressure in the atmosphere.  (If a full-fledged hurricane hit Baltimore, our old floating docks would break apart--I'm glad we are getting new docks over the winter!)

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We have exactly one week left in Baltimore--we leave on Thursday, October 18.

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It was raining lightly during our cats' "outdoor time" this morning.  When Lola came back into the cockpit from being on the bow, she shook the rainwater off herself like a dog might.  She is quite a character!

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Every once in a while I like to review my most popular blogposts.  Today, the following are the most popular of all time:

My all-time most popular
blogposts as of today.

Installing flexible solar panels and my composting toilet installation are by far the most popular subjects.

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One of those little things that you never would think it would fail is a simple freshwater strainer--it protects the fresh water pump from debris.  Well, I noticed that ours was dripping fresh water into the bilge from a tiny crack in the plastic bowl.  Our fresh water pump was running a little too frequently during the night as well.

The new fresh water
strainer in place.

So, late this morning, I replaced it with a new one.  If the leak had worsened, we may have lost an entire tank of fresh water into the bilge.

Friday, October 12

We experienced quite a change in the weather this morning—it is cool (60’s) and windy (25 knots) but sunny. We decided to drive to Annapolis to get as many tasks done as possible today, rather than postponing them until next week.

Our first stop was at our storage unit to drop some things off and pick up a few other things. After several other stops, we stopped for lunch at Italian Market, our favorite pizza restaurant in Annapolis—I’m sure we’ll be stopping here again next week before we leave.  Our last stop was to pick up a spider plant to accompany us to Charleston.

Our new spider plant hanging in the
cockpit.  We'll put it inside when
we are underway.

We still have no settlement on our car or other damage done during Maggie's recent accident.  More on that next blogpost...


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