Summertime on Kent Island: 7/5 - 7/8

—Blogpost written by Bob 

Monday, July 5  

It was sunny and warm right from the get go today.  In fact, the weather forecast was for the high temperature to be 85 degrees F today, considerably warmer than yesterday.  It was already 74 degrees at 8 AM.

I woke up in a very creative mood and decided to make breakfast quesadillas, each with two eggs (hard fried and folded over into a half moon shape to fit in a folded over tortilla), parsley, a thin slice of ham, a little diced fresh tomato, and Mexican cheese, all in a folded over (low-carb) whole wheat tortilla.  It was very good but needed something with a stronger taste, like mustard or jalapeños.  (After more than a month on the KETO diet I don't appreciate "bland" any longer!)

My very first breakfast
quesadilla.

After breakfast, it was time to get back to work on painting the starboard bulkhead, applying the very last coat of topcoat.  My first task was to remove some of the paint that bled over onto the teak trim--I did this with the sharp edge of a black plastic epoxy stirring stick which efficiently removed the unwanted paint bleed without damaging the gloss teak finish of the trim.

After that, I worked on applying masking tape for the last time on this bulkhead.  (Removing the masking tape while the paint is still wet eliminates pulling some hardened paint chips off.) However, in spots the first coat of topcoat was still a little wet--so, we postponed further work until tomorrow.

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Just before lunchtime, we went to the local West Marine store to inspect some shipping damage that was done to our new dock box while in transit to the store.  We accepted the damaged dock box at a significant reduction in price.  We went out to lunch at the Fisherman Inn's Crab Deck in Kent Narrows to celebrate saving money.  (We can celebrate almost anything!)

After lunch, we came back to the boat and launched our dinghy to get it out of the way for our new dock box.  (I hope to get the marina's help delivering the dock box on Wednesday or Thursday.)   We also ordered a set of 8 very sturdy (Rubbermaid-brand) storage boxes on-line for use inside the dock box--these should arrive sometime on Wednesday or Thursday.  

Having a dock box, like we had with our Baltimore slip, allows us a lot more space onboard and keeps most of my tools close by.  We will probably keep boat stuff stored in the dock box during the winter as well, while we are in Mexico. (The only danger involved in dock box storage is the possibility of very high tide during hurricane season--it would either flood in place (ruining everything inside) or be torn off the dock and float away.)

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The switch from Google's Feedburner to Follow.it to distribute blogposts by email has had a few minor hiccups.  For some strange reason, some of the line spacing in the last blogpost was altered (opening paragraph) and I'm not sure that all subscribers continue to get blogposts.  We are working on these minor issues...

Tuesday, July 6

A high temperature of 91 degrees F was expected in the afternoon with clear skies and plenty of sunshine all day.  It was quite warm from the start of the day and warmer than yesterday by several degrees.

We drove to Annapolis early to get Maggie's stitches removed (from her recent dental surgery) and, from there, proceeded to run some errands.  We got back to the boat well before lunchtime.  After lunch (I made low-carb white pizza with chicken, white sauce, and diced green peppers), we started on the last topcoat on the starboard bulkhead.  

During this time, it was 88 degrees outside and our boat's onboard A/C was running almost constantly to maintain the setting of 74 degrees.  A nice 11-knot breeze out of the south made it tolerable to be outside but even Lola preferred to be inside in the A/C.

As we finished the last topcoat on the starboard bulkhead, the A/C started to act up a bit.  The temperature reading on the thermostat wondered all over, from a high of 84 to a low of 26 degrees, even the heat coming on when it read 26 degrees.  It was weird!  I pulled out the thermostat and cleaned the connection with electrical contact cleaner--it didn't help.  I even got a false HPF alarm--I knew it was false because I cleaned out the raw water strainer and we had no blockage and plenty of water flow.  So, thinking that the problem was the thermostat, I drove to Cruisair in Annapolis and purchased a new thermostat ($275).  

Before I changed thermostats the temperature
reading varied wildly (from a high of 84
degrees down to a low of 26 degrees). 

At first, the new thermostat seemed to have solved the problem but then, in about 15 minutes, it started to act up again, the temperature wondering all over the place.  The next likely source was the motherboard on the control unit.  I called Cruisair to find out about replacing the motherboard on the control unit and I gave them the unit's serial number.  I waited until 5 PM when everyone at Cruisair went home and I didn't yet have an answer.

The new thermostat in place.

With the new thermostat in place, the A/C finally could keep up and maintain a cabin temperature of 74 degrees without running continuously.  If only we could get through the night without it acting up...

Wednesday, July 7

Today was hot and muggy with very little breeze.  It felt much hotter than any of the other recent Summer days.

Our onboard A/C held up fine overnight.  In fact, the new thermostat seems to be an improvement over the old one—it seems to be more sensitive and the A/C cycled more frequently rather than running continuously.  However, in the morning I noticed another false HPF alarm but after a few minutes, normal operation resumed.  So, replacement of the motherboard is probably still needed but it is not an emergency for now. (I don’t intend to delay replacement of the motherboard but neither will we have to move off the boat and into a hotel because of the excessive heat.)

We drove to the nearby West Marine store when they opened for the day (9 AM) and picked up our 6-foot long dock box this morning—it barely fit into our car, the 24-inch height being very tight and it hung out the back.  We had the back seat down and the rear hatch open for the short trip back to the boat.  Maggie and I carried the dock box all the way out A dock to our slip on the T head, frequently stopping for little breaks along the way.  I mounted the dock box to the dock with four lag screws in the corners.  By the time we were done with the dock box mounting we were both sweating like pigs because of the heat and humidity (but I’m so glad that we finally have a dock box!).

Our new 6-foot long dock box right next
to our boat (on left) on the T-head.

We drove to Annapolis just before lunchtime and had lunch at Lemongrass II before Maggie’s 1 PM haircut appointment.   Before leaving Annapolis, we stopped by Annapolis Cruisair to get things moving on the replacement of the motherboard.  Before replacing the motherboard (at great expense) Cruisair recommended that I replace the cable ($28) between the thermostat and the unit first.  So, I bought a new 10-foot long cable (with old style telephone connectors on each end) and brought it back to the boat for replacement in the evening hours when it is cooler outside.  (Why do A/C problems occur on one of the hottest days of the year?)

In the afternoon, I worked on some projects indoors, like shoring up the frame jig using pieces of wooden yardsticks that I screwed to the plywood jig I previously made.  (I built the frame jig to hold the teak frame of the camera cabinet opening square while it is being glued together.  I wasn’t satisfied with the squareness of the jig that I sawed with my jigsaw on the dock.)

A partial view of the frame jig shored up
with pieces of yardsticks.  One of the
teak corners is sitting in place
on the frame jig.

I also worked on designing a unique (curved) divider between the camera cabinet and the clothes shelf—my work will continue on this divider over the next couple days.

I feel like we accomplished a lot today...

Thursday, July 8

Since we were looking at another hot and muggy day ahead of us (with rain forecast for late in the afternoon), we got to work early in the morning putting our starboard cushions back in place and mounting our TV.  (It was comforting to have the starboard bulkhead work finally done!)

After putting the starboard bulkhead back together, I drove with Maggie to her 9:30 dentist appointment to get a permanent filling on the tooth she recently got a root canal.  When we arrived at the dentist office our right front tire was almost flat.  Fortunately, I carry a Mikita inflator tool in my trunk—I pumped the tire up to 33 psi but within 45 minutes, the low tire pressure indicator was on again—it probably comes on at 28 psi or thereabouts.  I was able to make an appointment at our car dealer for 11:30 AM to repair or replace the tire(s).  

At my last service appointment, we were advised that one of our tires was worn more than the other three—we addressed the cause of the wear (alignment) but not the tire at that time.

Up until our recent tire problem, we were on a schedule so that we could pick up storage boxes that I ordered (at the post office) before noon so that we could get them loaded with “stuff” and into our dock box before the rain (the remnants of Hurricane Elsa) was expected to start (2 PM).  Oh well, we were running a little late…   

In evaluating the tire problem with the service department at the Toyota dealer, we decided to go with new tires all around rather than simply repairing one tire and shortly thereafter replacing it (and probably others).  (I decided to go with tires that were less noisy this time around.  Road noise was never a concern for me previously.)  By now, we were really running late…

Since we had lots of time on our hands (waiting for the tire changouts)  we walked to Paul’s Homewood Cafe for a delicious lunch (salads)—it was only two blocks away.  (In the forty or so years that I’ve lived in Annapolis, I never previously ate at Paul’s.  I’m not sure why not, because lunch was absolutely delicious.)

A red flower in a vase on our table
at Paul's Homewood Cafe.

We were back on the road to Kent Island by 3:30 PM with four nice new (quiet) tires.  (Our flat tire had failed because of a nail in the sidewall but they were all in relatively poor condition).  The rain held off for hours—it actually didn’t arrive until nearly 6:30 PM.  

Meanwhile we had a meeting of the minds, discussing our needs for some supplies being kept in our dock box, the type of stuff we should keep in our storage unit, and the flux we are feeling in our lives right now (not even knowing what country we will be in next year).  We literally found a canvas “bag full of bags” in our quarter berth to illustrate how out of control our onboard storage had become.  We didn’t solve all our problems but we got a little closer and, as they say, that’s progress.  It's difficult living together in such a small space at times.

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Stay tuned for more progress with our bulkhead painting and other matters.  Thanks for following our blog!