Winter Onboard in Annapolis

—Blogpost written by Bob 

Friday, December 4

The outside temperature was noticeably warmer last night since the reverse-cycle heat ran less often.  The outside temperature was 45 degrees F and it was raining lightly as we awoke. The light rain was expected to stop around 10 AM and then resume overnight again.

I tackled the TV cable search early by, first, removing the heat shrink tubing over an intermediate connection in the antenna cable.  I was able to do this with my pocket knife while laying on the cabin floor.  I disassembled and cleaned the connection with electronic contact cleaner and put it back together--it was not the problem.  (The heat shrink tubing DID offer surprisingly good protection to the connection within a moist environment in the winter!)

 

Removing the heat shrink tubing from
over the TV cable connection was
somewhat tedious but it
came off very cleanly.

Next, I cleaned all the contacts around the signal amplifier which was mounted in the stereo cabinet--none of these connections were the problem either.  This left the connection at the masthead OR the antenna itself as the source of the problem.  Our TV reception improved significantly after this process.  There was still some pixelation but not as severe as previously.  More on this project when I figure out how to get to the masthead.

Next on our agenda was doing some grocery shopping and to stop by Annapolis Seafood. We went to the ("Gucci") Giant in the Riva shopping center and were able to buy some things we couldn't find at the closer ("Singles") Giant. We purchased salmon fillets at Annapolis Seafood after considering several seafood possibilities.

We had Happy Hour sitting in the cockpit, watching people walk by (kind of like old people sitting on their front porch).  The rain started again just as it got dark outside (4:45 PM) and continued throughout the night. 

Saturday, December 5

Soon after we got up, the overcast sky cleared up and the sun came out.  The outside temperature was already in the mid-40's.  

On my agenda (from yesterday actually), was taking pics of the underside of the mid-ship deck drains in the interest of improving them--they seem to be always clogged up.  (Previously I had made major improvements to the deck drain system well aft of these two drains by increasing the sizes of the drain hoses.)  I noted that the mid-ship drains were located at the aft end of the cabin window--this information helped me locate them from the inside of the boat.

The underside of the starboard mid-ship
deck drain--the drain is shown on
the center left in this image.

On the inside of the boat, this drain is located at the outboard aft end of the cabinet in the head--a very difficult location to access.  I believe that the blockage is occurring at the connections between the hose and the plastic elbow.  A better design might be to eliminate the plastic fitting and simply make a generous radius on the drain hose--this means replacing the drain hose from the deck drain to the point where the hose connects to the other deck drain. Since I have to purchase hose for this project, I will plan on working on this next week. (The required length of the new 1/2" diameter hose is approximately 10 feet, but I will probably buy 12 feet to be safe.)

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Next up was the second-to-last Penn State football game of the season, against Rutgers. In any other year, a win in this game would be a given but this year with Penn State at 1-5, nothing was considered a given.  Penn State eventually won the game by a score of 23-7!  (Next Saturday, Penn State plays Michigan State as the last game of the shortened Big Ten season.)

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In the late afternoon the sky became overcast and the highest temperature we saw for the day was 48 degrees F.

Sunday, December 6

The sun was out from the get go today and the outside temperatures were very similar to yesterday, except there was very little wind.  It still felt cold outside, maybe colder than yesterday.  (The water temperature dropped to 49 degrees yesterday.)  

Since today was Sunday we didn't have much of an agenda in the way of boat projects--they will resume next week.  In the morning I ordered two small extension cords (one for my heating pad to keep my feet warm at night and the other for getting electricity to our Christmas wreath) and a 100-volt adaptor which, hopefully, will solve a shortage of outlets on the port side of the main salon. 

The 110-volt adaptor I ordered plugs into a
3-prong AC outlet and provides
three 3-prong outlets for
additional plugs.

On the port side of the main salon is where Maggie plugs in her laptop, where we frequently plug in the crockpot, and where we plug in a number of little chargers. (I need to add an 110-volt AC outlet in the galley soon too.)

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One issue I have given a lot of thought to recently has been how and when we transition from living aboard to life on land (commonly called a "dirt dweller" by sailors).  I'm 73 and Maggie is 69.  We haven't come to any conclusions yet but I know a transition is ahead of us--I'm hoping in at least a couple or more years rather than sooner.  It will probably involve a condo in a warm location.

Our Christmas wreath on the stern of our boat.

Stay tuned for some of our upcoming (small) boat projects...

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