Winter Onboard in Annapolis

—Blogpost written by Bob 

Tuesday, January 19

I was able to sleep very well last night and what a difference it has made from the past two weeks!  I felt well rested and full of energy when I woke up at 7 AM.  (Not meaning to be too graphic but my frequency of urination and the burning sensation during urination had dissipated dramatically within the last day or so.  It seemed like I had passed some blockage and was healing.  I originally thought that this temporary condition was unrelated to my prostate cancer diagnosis but much later my urologist assured me that this condition is typical at times.)

The outside weather was 39 degrees already at 9:30 AM, headed for the day's expected high temperature of 47 degrees F. There was no wind to speak of and, consequently, it felt even warmer than yesterday.  The cloud cover was relatively thick in the morning. 

Getting down on his level and even
finding a tasty french fry
for breakfast. 

Looking into the "fishbowl" from the dock.  This 
is the view dock walkers have of our cockpit.

We had two major goals on our agenda for the day: filling our fresh water tanks and visiting our new slip on Kent Island for the third time, this time checking the shore power accommodations for Slip #A-5.

This morning we made a decision to reduce the contents of our storage locker by more than 50% (measured by volume) within the next six months so that before we leave for Mexico, our current monthly storage costs ($250/month) can be roughly cut in half.  Of course, we will still be storing our car ($150/month) and our sailboat ($150/month). (I suppose we could take the reduced contents of our storage locker and put them in our sailboat and our car to eliminate household storage costs altogether for the long winter.)

We drove to Casle Harbor Marina on Kent Island this afternoon to check the location of the shore power connections so that we can be prepared if we have to get longer shore power cords.

Our new slip (A-5).  It doesn't look like much
in this photo.  It is much longer than
we need--over 50 feet.

Driving west on the Bay Bridge back to Annapolis.

The drive took 26.5 minutes one-way with no traffic.   Our current plan is to move our boat during the last weekend in March.

Wednesday, January 20 (Inauguration Day)

I awoke at 4 AM, hot and sweaty in a "hot flash"--it is one of the byproducts of my hormone therapy intended to reduce the size of my prostate cancer prior to radiation. I was able to get back to sleep after cooling down.

As we started another day during our winter stay in Annapolis, I looked forward to Biden's inauguration--finally, we have a decent, mature human being in the position of President!  What an enormous job ahead of one man after so many things were screwed up by #45!

We listened to the inauguration on our satellite radio very intently--more so than any past inauguration (and I've listened to quite a few in my time).  It was "spot on" and first class in every respect!  (It was typical of Trump not to even be present as most other living ex-Presidents were.)

The inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th
President of the United States.
(as captured from CNN
footage on my iPad).

I particularly liked  how tribute was paid to the 400,000 victims of COVID-19 though a flag for every person who died from the pandemic.

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We went out for lunch at Italian Market, one of our favorite restaurants--it's about a 10-minute drive from downtown. We felt in a celebratory mood and had "lunch specials" that were not just our normal (but extremely tasty) pizza.

Thursday, January 21

Again, last night I was up to use the head often and I slept on the starboard settee for several hours in the middle of the night rather than climbing in and out of the quarter berth, waking Maggie each time.

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A westerly breeze in the morning was causing the boat to rock lightly, fore to aft.  The outside temperature was in the mid to upper 30's--which was not really all that cold!  The sun was shining brightly and Lola was raring to go out into the cockpit as usual.

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For lunch we got a hot dog (For Maggie) and a cheesesteak (for me) at PIP's (as take-out), located right on Dock Street.

A Pip's cheesesteak for lunch.

The more I have thought about spending next winter in San Miguel de Allende and possibly moving there permanently someday (a few years away), the life transition of getting out of sailing/cruising, as well as giving up shooting sports in the summer will be much easier to make.  I have to face the fact that we are getting older and may not be able to handle sailing/cruising much longer.  With a residence in Florida and our current mail forwarding service, we can actually live almost anywhere, retaining our U.S. citizenship.  We also thought about driving to San Miguel de Allende lieu of flying--it would probably take us 5 days.

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One of the things that we recently ran across that we decided to try was RITUAL alternative spirits--they are alcohol-free and have a taste and smell identical to the liquor they are intended to replace.  We tried the gin alternative and purchased one bottle from Amazon for $27 (not much cheaper than a decent gin!).

A bottle of RITUAL Gin Alternative

We don't normally drink gin--so, I thought this might be a good selection.  RITUAL has alcohol-free alternatives for whiskey, tequila, as well as gin.  Other manufacturers make many other alcohol-free liquors, like various types of rum as an example.  If you do a search in Amazon for alcohol-free spirits you can find a host of alternatives.  (An ultra-cheap alternative for vodka would be simply purified water since it has no smell nor taste!)

Our main reason for trying this was in preparation for our upcoming KETO diet since any drinks made with alcohol-free liquor would certainly be KETO-friendly while dramatically cutting down on our caloric intake (saving 110 calories per drink, in the case of gin).

I call it "Un-gin and diet tonic."

In the early evening, I tried the gin alternative during our Happy Hour (and as a celebration prior to my upcoming medical procedure).  It was very tasty and the smell and taste was very authentic!  Did I miss the alcohol?  Yes.

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I ran into one of my old computer files that contained a lot of my writings from years past.  This was one of them.  Bunky was my first Maine Coon cat.  He taught me a lot about life at a time that I could appreciate his lessons.

Bunky's Thirteen Laws:

1. Eat whenever you are hungry.
2. Meow when you want something.
3. When you have nothing better to do, take a nap.
4. Sleep in the sunshine or under a bright light.
5. Focus on one thing at a time unless you get distracted.
6. A cat’s biggest problems: ribbon or rubber bands in his feces, being awoken by loud noises, eye boogars, and being inside when you want out and vice versa
7. When confronted by danger, puff yourself up.
8. When a situation is clearly insurmountable, run fast and cry for help.
9. A good day is comprised of: 70% sleeping, 15% grooming, 10% playing and 5% eating
10. When someone pets you, enjoy it and purr loudly.
11. Cuddle the one who feeds you.
12. No one expects much from a cat--so, don't sweat it.
13. Dream hard.

Friday, January 22

Today's sunrise over the Eastport Yacht Club.

My alarm on my iPhone went off at 6:30 AM as instructed--it took me a while to get to it and turn it off.  I fumbled around to get my clothes on and get to the shower on land.  I had to do my prep for my medical procedure, administer a FLEET enema. I hate FLEET enemas and living on a sailboat makes it all the more difficult to administer.  I was hoping I would have the bathroom at the marina all to myself and I did.  It worked to a point (and this is all the detail I will provide on this matter).

Today's procedure was to inject the special gel between my prostate and my colon to minimize collateral damage from my future radiation treatments and to install some type of markers outlining my prostate gand.  I dreaded this procedure much more than the radiation (which is supposedly painless) mostly because of the long needle(s) used in the procedure and where it was injected.

My appointment was at 9:45 AM.  Call me a coward but I gladly paid the additional $100 up front for laughing gas during the procedure.  The procedure didn't start until after 11 AM and lasted a mere (yes, I can say a "mere" now after its over!) 45 minutes--I was out of the surgical office and riding in our car by sometime after noon but I couldn't feel my ass!  It was still numb. 

"I remember being worried about urinating all over myself 

and not even knowing it, just blissfully wondering 

why I was feeling so pleasantly warm."

We decided ahead of my procedure that we would go out to lunch afterward but I really wasn't up to it--all I wanted to do was go back to the boat and sleep.  I must have slept for a couple hours, non-stop.

The procedure was actually worse than my imagination but I was impressed with the competence of surgical doctor, Dr. Rock (who played 60's rock music during the procedure), and the nurses who were ex-emergency room nurses.  At the end of the procedure my blood pressure had dropped dramatically (to something like 60 over 40) and I felt like I was going to pass out.  It took two bags of fluids via IV, a pack of animal crackers, and a small can of apple juice to restore me to some semblance of normality.  I think that was the worst of my medical treatments--we'll see (I hope so!).

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