Springtime on Kent Island: 5/7 - 5/9

—Blogpost written by Bob 

Friday, May 7

Friday started out sunny but it was cooler than normal (57 degrees F).  Rain is still in the forecast for this afternoon, expected to be starting about 4 PM.

After I applied the eighth coat of oil finish to the third knife handle, I touched up some "high wear" spots that I missed on the dinghy yesterday.

After the paint touchup. I repurposed a hose hanger from a nearby slip that was no longer in use.  Our hose was too cold to coil it to fit on the hanger this morning, so I strung it out along the dock and let the sun warm it up.  Hours later, I coiled it nicely on the hose hanger. 

In the afternoon, I started my little cooking adventure with a new KETO recipe for mock potato salad.

Radishes are the substitute for potatoes
in the mock potato salad.

I covered the upside down dinghy with plastic sheet in the afternoon and laid coiled rope on top to keep the plastic sheet from becoming airborne, all this to protect the areas I recently touched up with (water-based) bottom paint.

Saturday, May 8

It was raining when I fell asleep last night—I love the sounds of rain drops on the cabintop!  The sun was shining early in the morning until the rain clouds reappeared at 8 AM.  We expected intermittent rain throughout the day and, sure enough, that was a reality.  The outside temperature was only in the 50's today, reaching a high of 57 degrees in the afternoon.

I applied the tenth coat of thinned ting oil to the third knife handle very early in the morning.

The tenth coat of tung oil finish on
the third knife handle.

After a light breakfast onboard, I turned up the heat a couple degrees and crawled back into the v-berth.  As I laid in the v-berth I could here the rain intensifying.  It was easy dozing off for a couple hours.

At around 2 PM a burst of wind came through the marina and blew all the rain clouds away.  The sun came out almost immediately.  I was glad to see that the temporary plastic sheet cover stayed on the dinghy!

Our covered upside down dinghy
after the burst of wind and
before the hail storm.

After the rain showers cleared in mid-afternoon, I showered and shaved in the marina’s bathhouse.  I really needed it—it’s been several days since I last showered.  (When Maggie is away, I tend to relax my personal hygiene a bit.)

When I returned from my shower I could hear the rumble of a thunder storm coming toward the marina.  It turned out to be a hail storm.  This was one of the few times that Lola acted scared during a storm--she came running into the boat right when it started.

Sunday, May 9 (Mother's Day)

The sky was overcast and it was relatively cool outside (in the 50’s).  As usual, Lola begged to go out into our enclosed cockpit, leaving a perfectly good (cat) breakfast of Fancy Feast’s “grilled seafood feast in gravy” on her meal tray.   The three marina ducks that hang out on A dock had the audacity to walk by our boat while Lola was in the cockpit—it drove her a crazy.  (Many times she gets outside the cockpit enclosure and chases the ducks, like a dog.)

Maggie and I played a game of “Words with Friends” from afar and I lost big time.  (I usually win more than I lose and our games are usually very close.)

Well, enough of small talk—my goal for this morning was to clean my clothes bin on the port side of the v-berth.  Over the winter, some mold has collected there because of condensation and the ventilation being restricted by my clothes.

Mold on the ceiling on the
port v-berth clothes bin.

In this case, “ceiling” refers to the inside planking of a ship's sides—not the upper surface of a room in one’s house.  I removed the mold with Spray-9 cleaner—it worked great.  I ran the v-berth cabin fan all afternoon to thoroughly dry the area and get rid of any odors.  What an improvement!

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My final task for the day was servicing our Watt Wizard which tracks how much energy is going into our battery bank from our solar panels.  Lately it has been acting a little crazy by displaying four identical digits (like four sixes or four threes) without a decimal point.

The malfunctioning Watt Wizard showed
four sixes for solar power to
the battery bank.

After removing the electrical panel that contains the Watt Wizard, I disconnected the primary cable connections and thoroughly sprayed them with WD-40-brand electrical cleaner and then reconnected them.

The only contacts to clean were
associated with the
ribbon cable.

Since the abnormal display happens so infrequently, I have no idea if the cleaning of the cable contacts solved the problem yet.  (It was working properly just before I sprayed the contacts and just afterward.)  We’ll have to wait and see...

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I decided to postpone removal of the leaking auxiliary fuel tank until Maggie returns.  I think it will take two of us to get it onto the dock without creating a mess inside the boat.  (This will probably now occur on Tuesday.)

Until next blogpost when we finally remove the leaking auxiliary fuel tank, thanks for following our blog!