Autumn in Baltimore

—Blogpost written by Bob 

Thursday, October 15

Today was a beautiful autumn day with low humidity, cool temperatures, and lots of sunshine.  October is one of the most beautiful months on the Chesapeake Bay--April is another one.

Maggie and I worked together in taping, sanding, and cleaning the aft port toe rail.  We got the first full coat of Cetol on this portion of the toe rail in the morning.  (Of course, Lola was in on the action too, jumping onto the neighbors boat and fully taking advantage of not being closely supervised.)

We started refinishing the aft port
toe rail this morning. (The toe
rail is the teak rail where the
deck meets the hull.)

I spent the afternoon organizing some old .22 LR ammo that I intended to sell.  (I no longer have a pistol or rifle that uses .22 LR ammo.)  I organized the 2,778 rounds of ammo into logical packages that I could sell, grouping like ammo together.  (This amount of ammo takes up a space equal to the size of a shoe box.  I should be able to get several hundred dollars for it .)  I was surprised how long it took to accomplish this small task.

Friday, October 16

I was woken by the strong wind, our creaking dock lines, and a slapping halyard.  It was still somewhat dark outside and it was raining.  It was 7:30 AM.   Lola had already made a couple long jumps onto our v-berth, launching herself from the dining table in her attempts to get her morning meal.  It was time to get up.

The sky was overcast and it was raining lightly but steadily as I made my way to the men’s room.  Our plan for the day was to drive to Annapolis and run some errands since no progress on our outdoor boat projects could be made on a day like today.

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We had a discussion this morning about our plan to get pizza at Italian Market since eating out in a restaurant is probably one of the greatest risks we take in terms of possibly catching COVID-19.  Seven hundred and fifty people died just yesterday in the U.S. from COVID-19--this is a reminder that the pandemic is still in full swing and we have to be careful not to let down our guard as 31 states have been seeing increases in cases.  We decided that pizza from Italian Market was worth a slight risk, since there is never a crowd and tables are spaced 10 feet apart.  We really enjoyed our lunch at Italian Market!

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Our errands included getting some lobster meat (for lobster chowder I will be making tomorrow) and some groceries and Sailor Jerry-brand rum.

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When we returned from Annapolis, the diver we hired to clean our boat’s bottom was just finishing up.  He advised me that the only places we had some barnacle growth was on the bottom of the keel (which never seems to get painted adequately) and the propeller.  The hull was in very good condition.  (It was last bottom painted in April of this year, seven months ago, with Petit Trinidad SR-60.)  I asked the diver (from Eastern Marine) if he had any experience with propellers coated with PropSpeed and he said he did and it really works—it only allows an accumulation of soft sea growth during periods of inactivity that would probably come off in operation.  So, I guess we’ll try PropSpeed during our next haulout.  (During our most recent haulout and the previous ones, Petit’s Prop Coat Barnacle Barrier was applied to the propeller and shaft but it only seems to last a couple months in the Chesapeake Bay.)

In late afternoon, we shared a Peanut Butter
Chocolate ice cream for dinner.  
(It was not sugar-free!)

During the day today, two eBay sales that I've recently posted were completed (my Nikon D-700 and Maggie's old 10-100mm lens).

This is one of many large jellyfish that we have
noticed around our boat recently.

Saturday, October 17

Today was a beautiful autumn day, sunny and cool.  I spent a lot of time in the morning, packaging up things I have sold on eBay and other sites.  I made over $750 on old things that I wasn't using anymore but unloading things felt so much better than the money.  (We took the packages to the nearby UPS store but there was a line about 20 people long waiting outside the store--so, we left.)

For our main meal of the day, I made lobster-
corn chowder and it was absolutely
delicious.  I used this recipe.

Maggie and I worked together to get the second coat of Cetol on the aft port toe rail--we are just about finished with the whole thing--just three more coats on the last section!

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In the evening our dock was inundated with racing sailboats--they filled all the empty slips around us.  I'm not sure of anything about the race but many of the boats were from Annapolis.

Sunday, October 18

The outside temperature got pretty chilly last night (45 degrees!).  I heard the boat's heat come on several times during the night.  The morning was full of sunshine but still quite chilly.

I didn't have to go very far to find a
nautical photo this morning.

We started lightly sanding the port aft toe rail at 11 AM and were completed by 11:30 AM--it is surprising how fast it goes with two people working on it.  Then, I sanded the rough areas of the caulk I installed at joints in the rub rail a couple days ago and touched up the nearby areas on the toe rail where the finish had scraped off a little.  I was finished my boat projects by noon!

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In the afternoon, we watched the Baltimore Ravens play the Philadelphia Eagles.  I was born in the Philadelphia area and now live onboard in Baltimore, so my loyalty was mixed.  The Ravens won 30-28.

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As I close out this blogpost, over 219,000 people have died of COVID-19 in the U.S., as the number of cases soar to over 8.17 million.  Please be safe, wear a face mask, practice social distancing, and wash your hands regularly.

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