Winter Onboard in Annapolis

—Blogpost written by Bob 

Friday, December 11

By 11:30 AM the deck drain hose was completely installed (and it worked great!).  I’m was surprised that it took us so long but it WAS a boat project after all.  So much had to come apart to get to the hose—everything had to emptied out of the starboard cockpit locker, the interior chart plotter had to be removed, and a shelf in both the head and the navigation station had to be emptied out (but it was so satisfying to see the drain work so well!).  (We still have to address the same thing on the port side and it is even more complicated in that the ceiling over the quarter berth has to be removed for access.)

Of course, there was some peripheral damage—two of the snaps pulled off the cockpit seat backrest when we removed it.  (We fixed it temporarily but we will need to add reinforcement on the back of the snaps to fix it correctly.)

An image of a very narrow storefront
on West Street from our walk
on Wednesday

The day turned out to be beautiful and reached a high temperature in the high 50’s.  We ordered (Chinese) take out from Jack’s Fortune for lunch.

Today we had communication from a potential buyer for our condo slip in Baltimore.  (We setup a meeting on Monday morning.)  Having a condo slip sounds like a good idea but you are at the mercy of a board that supposedly represents your interests in the future of the marina—in this case, it didn’t work out that way.

This evening in our cockpit
as the sun went down.

Saturday, December 12

I got up an hour later than I wanted (6 AM).  I wanted to get up at 5 AM and start the Hawaiian pork roast in the crockpot.  Oh well, we'll just have lunch at 2 PM (instead of 1 PM) since it needs 8 hours of cooking time on the low setting.  The recipe I'm using is as follows:

Bob’s Hawaiian Crockpot Pork Roast:

4-pound pork roast

1 mango diced

1/2-cup dried cranberries

1 cup pineapple chunks

 slices from 1 tangerine

1-cup spiced rum 

1/4 teaspoon cayenne

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Sea salt and course ground pepper to taste

Cook on low setting for 8 hours

We took full advantage of the nice weather (lower to mid-50's) and strung our white Christmas lights on our wreath in the morning.

Adding twinkle lights to our wreath.

Lola was helping with the addition
of twinkle lights. (At 3 years
old, she hasn't lost her
playfulness.)

Twinkle lights have been added to our wreath
even though it is difficult to see
them in daylight.

Penn State played Michigan State today as their last regular season football game.  Penn State won by a score of 39 to 24 and they may play one more game during the week of the Big Ten Championship.

Sunday, December 13

The outside temperature was in the mid-50's when we got up and in the low 60's in the afternoon!  It was an absolutely gorgeous day!  Some images from the day:

Nautical colors along the City Dock

Sailboats racing in the Annapolis harbor.

Musicians in the waterside park
overlooking Annapolis harbor.

A J-24 sailing out Ego Alley

Recently Fawcett Boat Supplies was promoting a new book on Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse as a Christmas gift for sailors.  I found the book as a Kindle book on Amazon and purchased it.  Today, I finished reading Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse: A Chesapeake Bay Icon by David Gendell.

The Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse, as we know it, was built in 1875 but there were two lighthouses positioned on nearby land that date back to 1825.  This book, not only details the history and construction of the lighthouse, but covers many of the lighthouse keepers, most of whom lived in Annapolis.

I highly recommend this book to people who live in or around Annapolis or for many sailors who have appreciated this important aid to navigation.

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As we wrap up this blogpost, tomorrow is expected to bring very cold weather.  Tomorrow we will be driving to Baltimore to show our slip to a potential buyer, retrieve some tools from our dock box, and to visit a marina we are considering for next summer.  Stay tuned...

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