Summer in Baltimore

August 12 thru August 16

—Blogpost written by Bob

Monday, August 12

It is a Monday morning and the weather is beautiful. I just had a nice hot shower here at the marina and I’m now spending some time with Lola while she’s having her (supervised) outdoor time. She doesn’t need much supervision. She never runs away. Jack, on the other hand, occasionally jumps off the boat and goes for a long walk on the pier.

In the distant background I hear the hum of cars and trucks (and the occasional honking of their horns) as they transport people and things around the city. However, everything is very still and quiet in the marina. I like this quiet time in the morning, particularly on a Monday morning after the weekenders have gone home.

Well, my tea cup is almost empty and it is approaching 9 AM. I have to drive to Annapolis this morning now that the morning rush hour is over.

Forty-five minutes later, I’m having a light breakfast at Naval Bagels in Annapolis.  The restaurant is packed.  The silence of the morning is over.  Afterward I drive to Edgewater to pick up my little plastic labels for the water maker control panel.

The new yellow labels on the water maker control
panel turned out pretty nice!  Even though 
difficult to see in this image, there 
are 3-way valves just beneath 
the white panel on 
both sides.

In the afternoon we checked for leakage around the port water tank (one of our scheduled projects) since we have noticed that the bilge pump goes on when the tank is nearly full and it continues to run afterward more than normal.  We had to pull off all the settee cushions and then remove the platform under the cushions--this one is particularly difficult to remove!  (Next year I intend to cut this platform so that it can be removed easier.)  After we finally got the platform removed, Maggie went topside and filled the water tank.  Shortly after she started filling the tank (it was almost full before she started) I found the issue as water started to pour out of the tank's vent connection and (rather circuitously) into the bilge.

The crack in the tank's vent fitting (upper right side
of image) will have to wait until next week for
repair.  At that time, I will cut the platform
for easier removal and replace
the vent hose.

So, this will be repaired next week (when the weather improves) by removing the tank, cutting out the old fitting, and spin welding a new one in place.  (I'm going to replace the vent hose t the same time.)

Tuesday, August 13

The sky was overcast and it rained lightly throughout the day.  It was a nice day to do inside boat projects.  We started by pulling off the old carpet on the companionway stairs.

We pulled the old carpet off the companionway
stairs.  It served us well but it was
old and dirty looking.  These
steps look pretty bad.

I cut the three new treads from a white synthetic material with a diamond tread pattern.  This project was placed on hold because I couldn't do any more work on it inside the boat without making a big dusty mess.

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Next up was replacing the faulty electrical outlet in the head--yes, I finally got around to doing it!  This job took 3 hours!  In a normal house it may have taken all of 10 minutes.

The subject outlet is located behind sliding
doors in a cabinet in the head.

The replacement involved cutting a new hole in the plywood bulkhead with my Fein saw and fitting a new plastic outlet box that fastens from inside the cabinet--not behind the bulkhead like the old one.  Behind this outlet is a wet locker where we hang our foul weather gear.  (It was clear that the old outlet was severely rusted throughout.  The moisture was probably caused by condensation during the many winters I spent in the cold weather.)

This is Maggie working in the wet locker,
removing the old electrical box
while I worked in the head.

At 5 PM we called an end to our day and had Happy Hour.  The rain was expected to get heavier after midnight.

Wednesday, August 14

It was still overcast and rainy in the morning, even though the forecast was only a 40% probability of rain during the day.  Today is the day for our Santana concert--it's being held at Jiffy Lube Live Arena in Bristow, VA, about an hour and a half from Baltimore (driving under normal conditions).  I have liked Carlos Santana's music most of my life and he has to be one of my all-time favorite musicians.  More on this later in this blogpost...

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Since there wasn't enough time to do much of anything on my numerous ongoing boat projects, I decided to clean up the navigation station and the nearby companionway area.

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We left Baltimore at 1 PM and drove to Bristow, VA (which is near Manassas, VA) on the other side of Washington DC.  We stopped for a late lunch/early dinner at Olive Garden in Manassas around 2:30 PM.  We had a lot of time to kill before we could enter Jiffy Lube Live (it opened at 6 PM which we did not know at the time) so we went shopping (Maggie's idea of course) at a nearby shopping center.  We then made the short remaining drive to the arena and we had to wait there for at least another hour until opening time.

This concert was my first experience with electronic tickets downloaded on my iPhone--it went flawlessly though.  (Jiffy Lube Live, previously known as Nissan Pavillion, is an outdoor amphitheater that holds 25,262 people, 10,444 in reserved seats under roof and 14,818 on the lawn.)  It was packed full!

The Doobie Brothers were the opening act for Santana and in my opinion they were terrible.  I kept checking my watch wondering when their performance would be over.  At the start of the second hour, Santana came on stage and his group showed a whole different level of professionalism, using a lot of video and live actions of various musicians.

One of the singers in Santana on stage (and two
large screens) singing reference to "all
you sinners turn your lights on."

The crowd responded by turning on the
lights on their cell phones.  It was a
touching interaction between the
performer and his audience.

I was surprised by Santana's energy (he's now 72 years old!).  The group played non-stop, right from one song into another. 

Overall, I was disappointed in the arena's acoustics--I expected much better.  We got back to the boat in Baltimore after midnight--a late night for us!

Thursday, August 15

The sky was overcast in the morning and the forecast was for a 40% chance of rain occurring later in the day.  We slept in until nearly 10 AM which was very unusual for us.

We drove to Stevensville on the eastern shore for a brief meeting with our tax accountant and then came back to Annapolis to run a couple errands.  All in all, today was not very productive in any sense of the word but some days are like that.

A colorful sunset through
the rain clouds.

Friday, August 16

With a good weather forecast for the day, I decided to start refinishing the companionway stairs and some of the teak trim in the companionway.

The old glue on the companionway stair treads was very difficult to remove.  At first I tried to simply sand it off using my orbital sander and an 80-grit sandpaper disc but all that happened was that the sandpaper got gummed up quickly.  Next, I tried adhesive remover and this did a good job of softening the glue so that I could scrape it off with a wide wood chisel. It still took a couple hours just to get the old glue off.

After I removed the glue, I sanded all the surfaces with a vibrating pad sander.  Although time consuming, it did a great job. Just before lunch I applied the first coat of stain (WATCO Cherry) and wiped it down.  When I got back from lunch I wiped it down again and applied the second coat. Fifteen minutes later I wiped down the second coat and moved the stairs out of the direct sun and into the cockpit for the best drying conditions. (It must dry for three days before applying varnish—so, I can’t apply varnish until Tuesday.  It will be a week-long job varnishing the stairs.)

The companionway stairs drying after
the second coat of stain.

I had lots of other things planned for the day but I didn’t plan on the work on the companionway stairs taking so long.  Consequently, I had to reschedule most of the other work that I had planned for today.

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We now have about two months before we head south for the winter.  My project list is getting shorter and soon the weather will be cooler.  Stay tuned for repairs to our port fresh water tank next week...

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