Summer in Baltimore

—Blogpost written by Bob 

Friday, August 28

In the morning I lightly sanded the teak companionway frame (again) and applied the third coat of Cetol.  (I expect to apply six coats of Cetol in this area because of the high wear—we use it daily.)

In September I’m planning on refinishing our teak toe rail.  I last refinished it in the early fall of 2017, 3 years ago!  (The quart can of Cetol I’m using was purchased in Marsh Harbour for $75!)  The finish is showing serious signs of wear and is peeling in many areas, particularly on the forward port section.  Refinishing the entire toe rail is a big job—it will probably take 3 or 4 weeks (allowing for weather delays typical of this time of year).

The worst area of deterioration of 
the finish on our toe rail was
on the forward port section.

I’m trying to get back to planning my daily tasks again since I’ve fallen off the wagon lately due to my recent health concerns.  This daily plan is even more important now during the pandemic because I usually need to order materials so that they can be delivered in time for each project.

The bail I recently ordered came in today and I used a 5/16-inch diameter x 6-inch long bolt to jack it apart another an additional 7/16 inch so that it will fit over the bow casting.  (The original gap was 3-1/8 inches.)  I did a test fit-up and it was perfect.  I planned to install the bail on Sunday morning.

Creating a 3-9/16" gap in the bail so that
it fits over the bow casting. I used 
a 6-inch long bolt with two nuts
to create the exact gap.

In the late afternoon, just before another thunderstorm rumbled through the harbor, we visited James, a boat neighbor who lives on a house boat a couple slips away from us, for a tour of his boat.  His house boat is 38 feet long--the same length as s/v Rainy Days and he probably has twice as much living space as we do!  We were quite impressed with his house boat and we could see ourselves buying one and fixing it up.  In fact, we could do a major renovation on a house boat simply by keeping it in a nearby slip and working on it while we are still living on our sailboat.  What we can't envision is selling our sailboat--it may take a major health crisis (or a great opportunity on a house boat) for us to get to that point but we are not there yet.

Saturday, August 29

Today the remnants of Hurricane Laura was expected to come through the mid-Atlantic area as a downgraded tropical storm.   From the get go, the sky was overcast.

We immediately started working on our fridge.  Maggie disassembled the quarter berth area for access to the fridge compressor.  Maggie cleaned the surfaces of the evaporator coil and the innards of the compressor box of cat hair.  While she was cleaning the compressor area I was replacing the seal on the ice box lid.  I removed the old seal on the lid--it was too hard to really make a good seal.  The new seal (purchased on Amazon) is only 1/16" thick but is constructed from closed cell EPDM foam--it is very compressible.  I hope it provides a much better seal!

The new white seal material is very compressible
even though it is only 1/16-inch thick. If it
were any thicker it would cause the
 ice box lid to sit higher than the
surrounding counter top.

The heavy rain associated with Hurricane Laura (now downgraded to a tropical storm as it traveled toward the east) started at 2 PM.  The wind picked up as well but it was no where near as strong as when it made landfall a little over two days ago in Cameron, LA.

When the rain cleared up I drilled the holes through the bow casting for mounting the new bail.  I made a small cardboard template to make sure that the two holes were aligned when I drilled from the outboard hole into the inboard hole.  Using a slightly oversized drill bit, I opened up both holes to more easily accommodate the 5/16” bolts.  (During this task, we pulled the boat to port and close to the main pier.  We also pulled the anchor off the bow of the boat and onto the dock.  

I was able to do all the work from the main dock.  I temporarily mounted the bail and then returned the anchor to its position on the bow—I say “temporarily” because one of the bolts was too short and I can’t replace it with the anchor in place.  The thickness of the bow casting was thicker for the outboard ears.  (I will pick up a longer bolt when I’m in Annapolis on Monday.)

I made steamed mussels
foran appetizer for our
Happy Hour today.

In the evening I noticed that the fridge’s compressor had finally stopped running—one or both of the improvements we made today (new lid seal and cleaning evaporator coil) solved the runaway compressor problem!  I love it when things work as they should!

Sunday, August 30

This morning was like a beautiful fall day, cool and low humidity.  I added another (the fourth) coat of Cetol to the companionway frame and the first coat of Cetol on the chimney base for our propane fireplace.  (So much for pledging not to work on boat projects on Sundays--but they were very small tasks.)

The chimney base after the
first coat of Cetol.

I spent some time removing loose paint from the dinghy's bottom and marked the little different way I want to paint the dinghy bottom (particularly at the bow) this time around.  I also installed the new fairlead for the headsail furling line that had just arrived.  (The new fairlead has brass inserts for the screws--the old one didn't and the plastic broke at one of the screws.)

The recently installed new fairlead
for the headsail furling line.

The Unprecedented Corruption in the Trump Administration

To date, 14 members of the Trump administration/campaign have been sent to prison.  In addition, his former advisor, Steve Bannon was recently indicted on fraud charges.  Trump himself is an un-indicted co-conspirator (for paying off a porn star he had sex with) and was impeached for "shaking down" the new president of Ukraine (Zelensky) for trying to create dirt on Biden (who had not yet even entered the race).  Trump has pardoned his friends (like Roger Stone) and retaliated against people who testified against him during his impeachment trial.  He has requested favors of UK officials to try get the British Open to use his gold course in Scotland and made a small fortune (estimated at $14 million so far) by having secret service people stay at his clubs when he is there.  In addition to the indictments and prison sentences, his appointments are rife with conflicts of interests, like the new Postmaster General, Luis DeJoy.  ... and DJT claims to be a "law and order" candidate?

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Stay tuned for the completion of the installation of our new anchor bail and thanks for following our blog!