Winter Onboard in Annapolis

—Blogpost written by Bob 

Monday, November  30

The outside temperatures were gradually getting colder with lows in the mid-to-lower 30's. The water temperature has remained above 50 degrees--today it was 51.6 degrees.  We can keep using our reverse cycle heat until the water temperature gets down to about 40 degrees which may take until the end of December.

Ever since being a kid I was not
very fond of cold weather.

The rain began during the night and continued throughout the day--it was not a nice day to be boat-bound.  About mid-morning we drove across town to do some light grocery shopping, mainly for items I needed for making beef enchiladas.  (For the past several months, we have been eating just two meals a day: breakfast and lunch with lunch being our main meal of the day.)

The beef enchiladas took about an hour to make
and they were delicious but a lot of work.  
Most of the flavor is in the enchilada
sauce that covers them.

This was the second week in a row that we have celebrated our little "Margarita Mondays."  (The term "Margarita Mondays" was termed by the local Mexican Cafe which offers two margaritas for the price of one on Mondays. We have established our own tradition of "Margarita Mondays" on board during the pandemic.)

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So far, since being in a slip in Annapolis, we have been without TV (except for our local PBS station) because our masthead antenna crapped out.  I am considering alternatives for how to fix it.  I don't know whether it is the antenna or just moisture in the connection.  It appears that it will take one trip up the mast to remove the connection, clean the contacts, and refasten the antenna cable.  It that trip doesn't fix it, then another trip up the mast is required to change out the antenna with a new one.  (I'm going to exhaust all possibilities within reach before having someone go up the mast.  Also, if it comes to someone going up the mast, I will be prepared with a new antenna in the event that the problem is the antenna itself.)

Tuesday, December 1

We got up early this morning to an overcast sky and a cool outside temperature—it was 45 degrees F.  Rain was in the forecast but only for the morning hours.  The rain was only a light drizzle and it was intermittent—nothing too bad.

I readdressed the fresh water leak today and replaced the large hose clamp with two smaller ones (as suggested by one of my blog readers, S9tim.  This seemed to have solved the problem of the very small leak I was experiencing!  (Thanks, S9tim!)

I replaced the single large hose clamp
with two small (properly-sized)
hose clamps to fix the very
small leak.

Lola relaxing on the welcome mat while
I work on finding the small
fresh water leak.

I had been watching the outside water temperature, trying to determine when I would have to change heating systems but the water temperature actually increased to 53.6 degrees F recently--this small increase ruins my trend line.  Oh well.

Tomorrow we are planning to completely organize our storage locker, which is the size of a single-car garage--it's now tightly packed!

Wednesday, December 2

It felt like it was freezing outside this morning (but it was only 37 degrees F) when I went out to use the public restroom at the City Dock.  There was a line of three people waiting (which was very unusual) and two police near the bathroom door.  Apparently a drunk was sleeping overnight in the bathroom and they were trying to get him out.  This experience was certainly a “first” for me and I feel badly for the drunk guy who slept in the men's room overnight.

Even though our heat was set at 74 degrees, 
our portable electronic thermometer 
in the navigation station read 
64.6 degrees F.

Prior to driving across town to our storage locker, we had a light breakfast at Starbuck's--this was always a nice treat!  It was nearly 9 AM when we got to our storage unit for the big planned reorganization.

Our strategy with the organizing our storage locker was to pull everything out into the wide hallway and organize everything as we repack it.  We expected to make several trips to Goodwill (with used clothing and shoes) and a few trips to the dumpster (with trash).  To make these tasks easier, we unloaded our folding bikes from our car before leaving the boat. (We ended up making only one fully loaded trip!)

This was our storage unit prior to
reorganization and cleanup.

Even after having lunch at Italian Market and filling a spare propane tank at the hardware store on the way back to the boat, we were home by 2:30 PM.  The storage unit now looks a bit more organized and we got rid of several boxes of stuff in the process.  (I was hoping that we could reduce so much that we could change to a smaller storage unit but that clearly wasn't going to happen.)

This was our storage unit after
reorganization and cleanup.
(It doesn't look much
different.)

More than 3,000 people died of COVID-19 in the U.S. just today!

Thursday, December 3

The outside temperature was only 29 degrees F at 7:30 AM!  It was only 59 degrees inside our boat at the navigation station while the main cabin remained in the lower 70's.  It was our coldest night of the year so far.  The reverse-cycle heat came on every few minutes throughout the morning hours while we were awake.

We drove to Naval Bagels and ate our (fresh bagel and cream cheese) breakfast in our car--it was a nice change of pace.  Afterward, we drove to NASA FCU and deposited our stimulus check.  (Yes, we just received it in the mail after many phone calls over many months.  We didn't really need the money and I wish that this benefit was restricted to those who currently work for a living and really need it but I guess that spending it helps our jobs situation and businesses.)

On my agenda for the day was making sure that our TV problem could be isolated to the masthead, before we make an attempt to go up the mast to fix it.  I want to check an intermediate antenna cable connection that is located below our v-berth.  (At installation more than two years ago, I applied a heat shrink tubing over it so that I wouldn't have to worry about it loosening but maybe it hasn't worked as expected. Perhaps there is moisture trapped inside.) 

Since I mistakenly left my winter coat at Italian Market yesterday, we went back today for pizza (and I picked up my coat).  After lunch I suddenly had my agenda changed--we apparently needed Christmas lights.  Without knowing where we would place them, we purchased two blue and green LED light strings that were each 17 feet long.  When we got back to the boat we decided to put them up in the cockpit.

So, that's how quickly a well thought out agenda can change.  I will be back on the the TV connection thing tomorrow...stay tuned.

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