Winter Onboard in Annapolis

—Blogpost written by Bob 

Friday, January 8

An overcast sky and a cold outside temperature (low 30’s) greeted us as we woke up this morning.  It felt cold and damp like it would start snowing any minute but there was no precipitation in the forecast.

Maggie will be taking our replacement vacuum cleaner for a test drive today.  Our current one was the third identical unit we’ve purchased during the last 6 years or so.  Cat hair is generally involved in their demise--it wraps around the drive motor shaft for the rotating brush and eventually destroys the plastic drive pulley.

Eureka Easy Clean Model 71B
Portable Vacuum Cleaner

This model was no longer available on Amazon--so, we purchased our current one as a used unit on eBay.

Unsatisfied with the lack of urgency of my medical treatment for prostate cancer, I called the oncologists office and got directed to a treatment coordinator who was very helpful.  I now have an appointment for the morning of January 22 for the injection of the special gel (it's called a Space OAR Placement) that it used to separate two bodily organs so that peripheral damage from the radiation can be minimized.  I'm not at all looking forward to his procedure but I'm glad to get things moving.

I spent most of the afternoon just moping around, feeling sorry for myself, even though I had a number of small boat projects on my "to do" list for the day.  I didn't work on any of them.  I'll get out of this funk soon.

Saturday, January 9

The outside temperature was only 30 degrees F as we got on with our day.  The high temperature for the day was expected to be 43 degrees, which isn't bad for winter weather. Once the sun came out in full force, it was quite nice outside.

I actually went outside today, unlike yesterday.  I had to pick up a package at the harbor masters office--it was a new 22mm wide watch band I had ordered from Amazon.

When I returned to the boat, a small group of people had gathered near our boat admiring Lola who was inside the cockpit enclosure. She really attracts attention and she loves it!

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I made notes on a future boat project: shore power modifications. I plan to reorganize the shore power needs in the boat where the A/C, water heater, and battery charger are all on one 30-amp service and everything else is on a second 30-amp service, unless I figure out a better distribution before I actually do the project. 

I already have the second 30-amp plug on the boat but it is not yet hooked up electrically. This new arrangement will allow us to use the toaster (or the iron) at the same time we are running the A/C--it will be a big improvement. (One might wonder how I could still be making improvements to the same boat after 34 years of boat ownership!)

Sunday, January 10

Today was a completely uneventful day.  It was very warm outside in the afternoon.  The only somewhat productive thing we did today was watch the Ravens beat the Titans in the Wildcard game of the NFL playoffs.  (I say "watch" but it was a combination of listening to the game on our satellite radio and watching a severely pixelated picture on our TV.)  I even took the day off from blog writing. I missed publishing my blog tonight--it will have to wait until tomorrow night.

Monday, January 11

This morning coming back from using the bathroom on shore, I fell between the boat and the finger pier while climbing aboard.  I had to have Maggie's help to get me back onto the finger pier securely.  This fall shook me up, to say the least.  It made me wonder if I should be continuing my life as a liveaboard, but I don't want to make any rash decisions because I didn't sleep well last night.

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We met a local rigger this morning at 9 AM about repairing our TV antenna cable connection at the top of the mast.  It was a short meeting and he agreed to send two riggers to the boat sometime in the middle of this week when the weather is most agreeable. (The replacement TV antenna has arrived and is ready for installation if the problem is not the cable, but the antenna itself.)

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In the afternoon I went to my urologists office and left a urine sample.  I have been having a hard time sleeping lately because of the many times I get up to use the bathroom.  They checked for white cells (indicating an infection) right on the spot and found none. The other possibility is an allergic reaction to a specific medication (Solfenace).  I should know more in a few days.  Getting old is awful!

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