Summer in Baltimore

—Blogpost written by Bob 

Friday, September 11

The weather is starting to be more like a conventional September than it has been.  The temperature has been cooler and the humidity lower.  However the sky is overcast and rain is likely today.

Since yesterday's trip to Annapolis was not so enjoyable (my rectal exam), we decided to go again today, thinking that we would have a much better outcome.

I didn't discuss my rectal exam in yesterday's blog because I felt so used and abused--I wasn't at all expecting what happened.

First, I got there a little late because of heavy traffic in the rain and then I had to fill out about 4 pages of data, data that my primary physician has in his files--why can't this be easier?  Then i waited in the doctor's office for the "consultation."  He asked me a bunch of questions--one of them was "Do I soil my underpants?"  I kinda had the feeling that this "consultation" was going in a bad direction at that point since I had a cyst where my butt cheek meets my leg--what could this possibly have to do with the "soiling my underpants" question?  Sure enough, without warning, I was soon bent over on the examining table with my pants down around my ankles and a periscope type device was shoved up my butt.  I remember asking him, "Is this really necessary?"  Needless to say, I was not in a good mood at that point.  (I guessed that he had to justify the expense of my visit to Medicare, hence the complete rectal exam.)

Anyway, back to today's trip to Annapolis...  We went out for lunch at the Italian Market and had pizza.  Then we did some grocery shopping at the (Gucci) Giant in Annapolis--the one on Riva Road.  The entire day was overcast with sporadic light rain.

Saturday, September 12

Today was cool and the sky was still overcast.  There was a light wind coming from the northeast.  It was like a beautiful Fall day--time to tackle some boat projects!

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After a light breakfast onboard, we got right to our task of replacing a hole cover on our stainless steel galley sink.  I had ordered the hole sink cover with a stainless steel finish a couple days ago from Amazon--it arrived yesterday.  Not wanting to rely on the thin white gasket that came with it, I added some white silicone around the base of the threads before inserting it into the old hole in the sink.  Maggie, with her long skinny arms, tightened the large plastic nut from below the sink. 

The new kitchen sink hole plug is
in the center of this image.

Unbelievably, the task only took 15 minutes instead of the usual minimum of 1 hour for boats jobs!  (The old hole was from a simple faucet that was connected to a foot pump.  I got rid of the faucet and the foot pump a long time ago. While we were working under the sink we also tightened the main faucet again which seems to work itself loose over time.)

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For lunch I made a delicious beef roast in the crockpot.  I used one of Martha Stewart's recipe but with the addition of about 7 ounces of red wine.  I also substituted multi-colored carrots in place of conventional orange carrots (just for some added interest).

This image of the Italian beef roast I made
was taken from Marth Stewart's
Slow Cooker Cookbook.

The next project I decided to tackle was freeing up a frozen seacock--the one at the engine raw water intake.  I got a tip recently from one of my boat neighbors that a frozen seacock can be freed up by using PB Baster (the spray can of magical stuff I keep on board).  After lunch I tried to soak the mechanism with PB Blaster and then, using a large vice grip pliers, I was able to turn the seacock to the closed position.  

The engine raw water intake seacock in the
closed position, now freely able to move.
 (The yellow color was caused by
overspray of PB Blaster.)

After a short while I was able to turn it freely by hand.  This little effort saved a trip to the boatyard for a haulout to rebuild the seacock!

Sunday, September 13

The outside temperature was nice and cool (upper 60’s) in the morning so I began work on the forward toe rail early.  There was not a breath of wind.  First, I started doing some scraping of the loosened old finish and then onto taping and sanding.  After applying my usual plastic masking tape (3M #371), I did some thorough sanding by hand (using 180-grit sandpaper) before applying the first coat of Cetol.  With Maggie’s help, by 11:45 I had finished applying the first coat of Cetol on the forward starboard section of the toe rail.  The Cetol readily soaked into the bare spots and built up on the areas where the original finish stayed intact.

At noon the temperature had risen to the mid-70’s (and moving upward toward 80 degrees) and there was still no breeze to speak of.

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As I close out this blog, 194,000 deaths have occurred in the U.S. due to COVID-19, 808 of those just died yesterday.  It has been estimated that we will experience over 400,000 deaths by the end of this year.  To put the COVID-19 deaths in perspective, if you lay the dead end to end, they would cover a distance of over 200 miles (from Washington DC to New York City).

Three random (mask-less) people (among many) at a recent Trump rally in Michigan were asked why they weren't wearing face masks: one stated that the pandemic was completely fake, another said that God will take care of him and he wasn't afraid, while the third said he couldn't hear people talking through a mask but he did have a face mask in his pocket (and he WAS able to hear the reporter ask him the question).  

Please be safe, wear and mask, and apply social distancing!

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