Last Four Days on Kent Island

—Blogpost written by Bob 

Wednesday, September 29

I was awoken by a short but heavy rain shower this morning about 6:30 AM—it seemed to have come out of nowhere.  Our hatches were open.  Maggie graciously got up and closed the hatches, giving me another 15 minutes of sleep.  The wind was blowing at 18 knots—I could hear our forepeak tent flapping near its upper rating (15 knots as determined by our experience).  The outside temperature had dropped significantly—down to 60 degrees!  (Which reminded me that I hadn’t planned for cool weather during our trip to Mexico.  However, I did plan for some cool weather in Mexico.)

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Our cats (one big Maine Coon and the other quite-a-bit-smaller Maine Coon) were having a running spree all around the inside of the boat, using me (in bed) as a launching pad.  Our boat doesn’t seem big enough for two Maine Coon cats.  (What was I thinking?)

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I didn’t have a lot on my agenda for today, only resolving an issue with Delmarva Power (an error in my bank’s routing number) and returning a roof rack I purchased on eBay.  I also had to load three empty storage bins (and our cooler) back into our car’s trunk after I temporarily removed them yesterday.  (I’m sure other things will come up as the day progresses—they always do.  Many times I add things to my “to do” list during the day.)

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I needed a wind breaker as I sat outside in the cockpit during our cats’ morning outside time.  Sixty degrees and eighteen knots of wind was quite cool.  (The high temperature for the day was not expected to even reach 70 degrees!)  Meanwhile, a big dark cloud bank hung in the sky to the west—I wasn’t sure what to expect from this in light of the favorable weather forecast for later in the day.

Bright sunshine in the cockpit in the morning hours.
(The cylindrically shaped object hanging from a
string on the right side of this image is a LUCI
light--its internal battery is charged by the
sun during the day and it serves as  
a backup anchor light at night.)

I spent a lot of time in the afternoon tweaking our travel itinerary to Mexico.  We are intentionally avoiding Alabama, Louisiana, and the rest of the gulf coast because of COVID outbreaks and potential hurricane delays.  Our overnight stops now include: Roanoke VA,  Jackson TN, Sulphuric Springs TX, Laredo TX, and Matehuala, Mexico.  (Who knows, I may even tweak it further in the coming days.)

Thursday, September 30

Last night was very cool (58 degrees) as we again slept with the hatches open and without A/C.   (I don’t think we will need A/C for the remainder of our time in Maryland—this will be one of the first systems I will be winterizing.)  

The sun was shining brightly in the morning as the temperature rose to 60 degrees by 8 AM.  (The warm sun felt so good!)  The slight 4-knot breeze was blowing from the west northwest and the marina was calm as could be.  An occasional flock of geese could be heard squawking on their way south.  (Today, we noticed that the leaves are starting to change color on the mainland.)

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Our day’s agenda involved a trip to Annapolis for many different errands, including dropping off one more storage bin at our storage unit, doing some banking that couldn’t be done online, and picking up a sweatshirt and a long-sleeved shirt for use during our trip to Mexico. 

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We decided to stop at the Italian Market for lunch—it may be our last time for more than 6 months.  It was a late lunch and It kind of felt like a pilgrimage for pizza lovers—we just had to have pizza one more time!  One of our day’s highlights was visiting the Container Store in the Annapolis Mall--they had lots of unique items.

There were about a dozen ships in the Annapolis
anchorage when we came across the Bay
Bridge.  They were awaiting loading
or unloading in Baltimore.

After we returned to the island (about 3 PM), we moved four gallon-size jugs of potable antifreeze onto the boat so that we can start winterizing the boat upon arrival in Galesville on Saturday.  (We will need to buy more antifreeze to complete the winterization.)

Friday, October 1

It was even chillier last night (55 degrees).  Again, we slept with the hatches open but this time with an extra blanket.  On the first morning of October we were greeted by bright sunshine and squawking geese heading south—it was a reminder that we needed to be on our way.  (A little later, the landscapers started working in the development across the channel from us with their noisy mowers and gasoline-powered trimmers.)

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Somehow, I previously made a mistake on the tidal charts—high tide is not at 10 AM tomorrow—rather, high tide occurs at 4 PM tomorrow.  We decided to leave the marina at high tide (the only time we can reliably get out through the marina’s channel) tomorrow and anchor out in the Chester River overnight before proceeding to Galesville on Sunday morning.  This works out better because we will have more time to button things up here on Kent Island tomorrow and the weather will be slightly warmer on Sunday for our short boat trip to Galesville.  (We have arranged to borrow the boatyard's van on Sunday evening to retrieve our car from Kent Island.)

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I started the morning out by labeling the three storage bins we will be carrying in our trunk to Mexico: Electronics, Cat Stuff, and Household Items.  (We will be filling them up in Galesville just before departing for Mexico.  Even using our rooftop cargo carrier, I expect that our trunk will be completely full when we leave for Mexico.)

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In the early afternoon I pickled our water maker--it has been sitting and pickled for a year already.

I had to guess at what 20 grams of the biocide (Sodium Metabisulphite) looked like for the pickling mixture. (I hope two teaspoons in two quarts of distilled water was enough.)  While I was pickling I noticed that I need to replace seals again next spring and we have a small leak at a weld near the top of our starboard fresh water tank--I will have to address this next Spring as well.  (I added both items to my list of projects for the spring of 2022.)

As part of my preparation to move our boat to Galesville, I checked the oil level (the oil on the dipstick looked pretty dirty) and ran the engine for 15 minutes.  It started fine and ran fine.  The primary fuel gauge showed nearly full while the fuel gauge for auxiliary tank was on empty--I didn't fill it since the aluminum weld repair was completed earlier this year.

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The afternoon warmed up considerably--up to 67 degrees by Happy Hour!

Saturday, October 2

This morning seemed much warmer than yesterday morning--the outside temperature was 61 degrees (which was 6 degrees warmer than yesterday, to be exact) at 8 AM.  (This will be our last day on Kent Island for the year.)

The heavy dew was very noticeable
this morning, particularly on
our teak toe rail.

A keenly focused Kali on the cockpit
coaming this morning.

I re-checked the tides again this morning—the second high tide for today was supposed to be at 3:48 PM.  After acknowledging this, we planned to leave our slip at 3:30 PM and possibly anchor out at Whitehall Bay, on the opposite side of the Chesapeake Bay from our slip.

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I had just a few things on my agenda for the day: (1) load up our dock hose and remove any last things from our dock box, (2) move our boat to a suitable anchorage late in the afternoon, and, of course, (3) listen to the Penn State game this evening at 7:30 PM.

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In the middle of the afternoon, we motored out of our slip and out through the marina's channel.  (I am almost ashamed to say that this was the first time we moved our boat in 6 months!)    We will pick up at this point on our next blogpost...

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