Summer in Baltimore

May 12 thru May 17

—Blogpost written by Bob

Sunday, May 12

The rain continued through the night and into today--it was mostly light but relentless.  The dodger and bimini have been removed for repairs and/or imminent replacement but, fortunately, we have not noticed any topside leakage.  Most of my boat projects are on hold because of the rain.  I have had enough rain now for a while!  I'm beginning to rethink my fondness for rainy days.

The rain has been falling onto the overhead
hatch at the companionway.

The rain has reminded me that one of the first questions people ask us when learning that we live on a sailboat is "What do you fo when it rains?"  They must think that we live in a small open boat like a daysailer.  If we did, there are a lot of questions that come to mind, let alone the one about rain.  So, we came up with some crazy answers to the crazy question. 

What do we do when it rains?

(1) We read books.
(2) We work on indoor projects/hobbies.
(3) We wear foul weather gear (sometimes even use an umbrella) and go outside.
(4) We dance on the dock, trying to avoid rain drops.
(5) We avoid stepping in puddles.
(6) We tried singing in the rain but my singing voice is terrible.
(7) As an engineer I like to measure things--so, I measure the rain.
(8) Lastly, we take showers on the foredeck until our boat neighbors complain too much about our nudity.

Monday, May 13

It was raining from the get go this morning. As a result, we drove to Annapolis to do some errands. We had lunch at Davis’ Pub in Annapolis before coming back to the boat in Baltimore.

Davis' Pub on a rainy Monday.

It was still raining when we got back to Baltimore. So, Maggie started working on our new cockpit cushions (in the boater's lounge) and I started making eBay ads for several things that we don’t need anymore. (One of the excess things was a 120-300mm f2.8 lens that I purchased for a trip to Africa that never came about.)  We worked in the boater's lounge all afternoon--the clearing sky that was supposed to occur at 4 PM never materialized.

Tuesday, May 14

The sky was overcast and it was cool in the morning when I started sanding the previously painted underside of the dodger.  I used 320-grit wet/dry sandpaper in a circular motion just to roughen the painted surface slightly to help the next coat adhere well.

I used 320-grit wet/dry sandpaper in a circular
motion to slightly roughen the surface
between coats of paint on the
underside of the hard
dodger.

The sandpaper caked up with light blue paint pretty quickly but I know the paint has cured--it was painted three days ago.  (I am allowing 24 hours or more between coats.)

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Several days ago, I ordered bimini hardware (hinged attachments for 1” tubing) from MarinePartDepot.com at a very good price. When they arrived I quickly found out that they were too tight for the 1-inch tubes used on our bimini—I ruined one of the hinged attachments by trying to force it to fit. We came up with two ideas to solve the problem: (1) enlarge the holes in the stainless steel fittings, or (2) order next size larger fittings (1-1/4”) and fill the void with 1/8-inch thick silicone rubber sheet. We ordered the larger fittings because it seemed like a simpler modification.

However, today I tried to enlarge the holes in the fittings using some heavy-duty sanding tubes I ordered over the past winter for making knife handles. Using the sanding tube in my portable drill, the holes were able to be enlarged just enough to work after about 15 minutes of sanding.

This operation for enlarging the holes in the stainless
steel bimini fittings may not be pretty or
efficient but it was very effective.

I applied Lanocote to the threads of the stainless steel cap screw at assembly to help avoid galling and crevice corrosion. (I’m hoping that I can return the unneeded 1-1/4” fittings I ordered.)

One of the successfully modified
hinged attachments.

Near the end of the day I removed the dorade vents, lightly sanded the internal surfaces, and applied the first coat of light blue paint.

The dorade vents being painted.  We think the light
blue paint freshens up the appearance
of the dorade vents.

The dorade vents will require at least one more coat of paint, maybe two.

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Maggie finished the first cockpit cushion today and made a lot of progress on the second one.

Wednesday, May 15

Maggie had a doctor’s appointment in Annapolis in mid-morning—so, I applied the third and final coat of light blue paint to the underside of the dodger early this morning before we left.

I started to assemble the struts I’m adding to our bimini. Before I removed the canvas, I made measurements for the overhead struts but as I got into the project I realized that it would be better if kept the aft bimini frame a little further forward and away from the antennas and the dinghy’s outboard motor mounted on the stern. I also came up with the idea of adding a single vertical strut at the stern to replace two canvas straps.

Progress on the boat projects was elusive today...

Thursday, May 16

Today was absolutely beautiful spring weather—sunny and in the 70’s! We took full advantage of the nice weather and started our day by re-mounting the hard top for our dodger. We rigged rope slings around the dodger and lifted it into position using our main halyard and the winch. This made the roughly 70-pound lift much easier.

Rope slings were used along with the main sheet
halyard to lift the 70-pound hard
top back into place.

The hard top for the dodger is back in place.

We had been working on the hard top up until today using a dock cart for a work table. After we lifted the hard top into place on the boat we took the dock cart back and began assembling a new portable work bench that I ordered about a week ago. It took at least two hours for Maggie and I to assemble it. It was like assembling a piece of IKEA furniture! Before we knew it was lunchtime—so, we went out for lunch at the nearby On The Border (Mexican) restaurant.

My lunch at On the Border Mexican Grill.

After lunch I started shaping an appendage on top of the hard dodger on which a GPS unit will mount. I made the appendage using a 2-inch PVC pipe coupling and cutting and sanding it to match the curved surface of the dodger. Then, I used 5-minute epoxy to glue it in position. After the 5-minute epoxy cured, I filled the coupling with thickened epoxy (using #407 Low Density Filler) and then applied the same thickened epoxy to the inside corners between the shaped coupling and the curved dodger surface. Later, after it hardened, I sanded the corners nice and smooth and topped off the inside of the coupling with thinner epoxy that I allowed to float to its own level.

The appendage to the top of the hard dodger 
where the GPS unit will mount.

While the last epoxy addition was curing I worked on making and installing the vertical strut at the aft section of the bimini frame. Regardless of the calculations I made on the length, it had to be cut to length as result of trial and error. (Now that the vertical strut is in position, the other horizontal struts can be measured, cut to length, and installed (maybe tomorrow). (More on this later.)

Friday, May 17

First thing this morning, I sanded and applied a coat of primer to the appendage on the dodger’s hard top for mounting the GPS unit. Afterward, we drove to Annapolis for many different purposes including picking up a prescription refill, getting a propane tank filled, buying some stainless steel fasteners, and stopping by our storage unit. We got back to our boat in Baltimore at about 2 PM.

When we returned to the boat, we worked on installing the starboard strut for the bimini. As I leveled the frames and pushed the middle frame about 1 inch above the others, the strut fell right into place. We secured it and then measured for the forward center strut. So, I have two struts to cut to length and install yet but I’m waiting for more hinged attachments to arrive. (I returned all the 1-1/4” fittings that I ordered.)

Stay tuned for more of our progress on our boat projects, particularly the cockpit cushions that are just about complete...

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