Summer in Baltimore
—Blogpost written by Bob
Monday, July 20
Another Monday was here again already and it was time for another drive to Annapolis but before leaving this morning I sawed off the biggest part of the lifeline stanchion, leaving just a short length of tubing in the stanchion base. I placed the stanchion base into a bath of vinegar (where it will stay for 24 hours or so). I also sanded the teak toe rail outboard of the stanchion base and applied Cetol since this area never gets covered adequately.
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| I wasn’t sure what Lola was looking at on the ceiling this morning but she was really focused. |
In Annapolis, we bought some bagels at Naval Bagels, stopped at Jo-Anne’s for elastic for making more of Maggie’s hand sewn face masks, and had pizza at Italian Market for lunch. After lunch we stopped at Home Depot for some items, a local roadside stand for some fresh veggies, the liquor store for some more rum, Annapolis Seafood for two salmon fillets, and (the Gucci) Giant (the one just off Riva Road) for groceries, and finally our storage unit.
My High-Tech Ukulele Arrived!
When we got back to the boat, my new high-tech ukulele arrived along with a songbook I ordered. (The little electronic tuner I ordered at the same time should arrive by Friday.)
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| My new ukulele was constructed completely from carbon fiber which is impervious to the humidity and water involved in our boating environment. |
I don’t know how long it will take me to learn to play the ukulele (I will have all winter) because the chords are completely different than guitar chords. The ukulele takes up very little of our valuable onboard space, which is why I opted for it over a guitar.
Tuesday, July 21
We were awoken at 6:45 AM by the fan in the v-berth suddenly developing a loud screeching noise. Maggie turned off the fan and tried to get back to sleep but the damage had been done, so they say. Our morning routine is pretty set--I have a cup of tea and Maggie has her first cup of coffee before anything else. I usually read the news on my iPad while she plays a computer game intended to keep her brain sharp.
We woke to an overcast sky, but it seemed cleansed by the thunderstorm last night. The outside temperature was 76 degrees but it is expected to rise into the mid-90's again today.
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I recently got a tip (from Beau and Brandy’s sailing vlog) about using a vinegar bath to remove rust. I placed some old stainless nuts and washers from the stanchion base into the ongoing vinegar bath for this purpose.
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While we were defrosting the fridge today, Maggie got a little aggressive with her ice removal technique and pulled one of the control wires loose at its crimped connector. After I put a new crimp connector on the failed junction, I moved the wires away from the cold plate—I hope this prevents a reoccurrence.
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| I just love jobs like this--crimping skinny 22 gauge wires while reaching down down into the ice box. |
I've been inside our boat most of the day--outside it's 92 degrees but it feels like 96 degrees because of the humidity. The heat wave should begin to break after tomorrow--then I can do some outdoor projects again.
Wednesday, July 22
I woke up early and dried off the teak around where the stanchion base was mounted (it rained lightly last night), sanded it lightly, and applied the second coat of Cetol. Then I tried to hammer the stub of tubing out of the old stanchion base--I couldn't budge it in either direction. Knowing that it would probably take me an entire day to chisel out the remaining stub of tubing, I decided to simply order a new stanchion base. (Including shipping, the cost was about $125 from South Shore Yachts. It is coming from Canada and will arrive in about 5 days.) Now, I can spend my day on something more productive.
With the pandemic in full swing, we haven't been able to find Fresca (one of our favorite diet soft drinks) anywhere in our area. It turns out that the aluminum cans are in short supply and the bottler has directed that the aluminum cans be used in their most popular soft drinks (like Coke and Diet Coke).
A reseller on Amazon is currently selling a twelve pack of Fresca for $21! Normally, a 12-pack sells for under $5 in a grocery store--so, someone is making over 420% profit on the situation. (I have also noticed a similar shortage of Minute Maid Light.)
Just before the pandemic, Fresca introduced several new flavors like black cherry citrus, peach citrus, strawberry citrus, and blackberry citrus but, in my opinion, none are nearly as good as the original flavor, grapefruit citrus.
Our second project after lunch was replacing the last of the gray plastic hoses on the boat. They were located beneath the head sink, one of the most difficult areas of the boat to work within.
Why Can't we Find Fresca?
With the pandemic in full swing, we haven't been able to find Fresca (one of our favorite diet soft drinks) anywhere in our area. It turns out that the aluminum cans are in short supply and the bottler has directed that the aluminum cans be used in their most popular soft drinks (like Coke and Diet Coke).
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| Fresca is one of our favorite diet soft drinks. |
A reseller on Amazon is currently selling a twelve pack of Fresca for $21! Normally, a 12-pack sells for under $5 in a grocery store--so, someone is making over 420% profit on the situation. (I have also noticed a similar shortage of Minute Maid Light.)
Just before the pandemic, Fresca introduced several new flavors like black cherry citrus, peach citrus, strawberry citrus, and blackberry citrus but, in my opinion, none are nearly as good as the original flavor, grapefruit citrus.
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One of the items on my agenda for the day was doing system updates and backups for our Apple devices—we have a total of six of them! This little task took an unexpected two hours!
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After lunch (salmon and corn-on-the-cob), Maggie and I worked on fixing our (sticking) silverware drawer. Of course we had to disassemble the galley guard rail (there's probably a better term for this) in order to get the drawer out—this took more time than fixing the drawer (which just needed some PTFE gel on the drawer runners).
Changing out Some Old Water Hoses
Our second project after lunch was replacing the last of the gray plastic hoses on the boat. They were located beneath the head sink, one of the most difficult areas of the boat to work within.
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| The old gray plastic hoses before the changeout. |
I first identified which of the two lines was the hot water—I changed this one first and then I changed out the cold water line so I wouldn’t get them mixed up. Since I prepared one end of each hose in advance, this task was competed very quickly. In addition to removing the old gray plastic hoses, we eliminated one junction (under the floorboard) which was very prone to leaks.
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| The new reinforced vinyl hoses installed under the head sink |
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| A thunderstorm rumbled through Baltimore's Harbor at 5 PM. |
Thursday, July 23
We woke to an overcast sky, but it seemed cleansed by the thunderstorm last night. The outside temperature was 76 degrees but it is expected to rise into the mid-90's again today.
Is there a House Boat in our Future?
Maggie and I have occasionally talked about moving from our sailboat to a houseboat as we get older. (We both agree that we couldn’t be land dwellers ever again.) But our “sense of getting older” keeps moving further into the future, not that either one of us don’t feel older. In my case, it is difficult to face the idea of selling s/v Rainy Days—I have been with her for 34 years, constantly maintaining and improving her. Neither of us like to address our inevitable decline in health as we age but we are both now of the mind that it doesn’t hurt to look at houseboats.
We decided to create a list of houseboats for sale, looking first in the Baltimore area, and not limiting ourselves to only those we can easily afford. However, the idea of fixing one up appeals to us. We could rent a nearby slip for it while we work on it so we wouldn’t have to live in a construction zone. For now, we decided to look at a houseboat every other week (or once every two weeks) and keep notes on what we like and what we don’t like about each one—this could be a good resource for eventually renovating one.
In the meantime, we will keep working on our summer boat projects on s/v Rainy Days.
We decided to create a list of houseboats for sale, looking first in the Baltimore area, and not limiting ourselves to only those we can easily afford. However, the idea of fixing one up appeals to us. We could rent a nearby slip for it while we work on it so we wouldn’t have to live in a construction zone. For now, we decided to look at a houseboat every other week (or once every two weeks) and keep notes on what we like and what we don’t like about each one—this could be a good resource for eventually renovating one.
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In the meantime, we will keep working on our summer boat projects on s/v Rainy Days.
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| The area of the teak toe rail outboard of the stanchion base which I'm currently coating with Cetol. |
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