Sept 27
Promptly at 08:30 mechanic Mike arrived at the boat. I told him my list of five things I wanted to address. One of the items involved the head's holding tank not pumping out correctly. Since this was potentially the messiest and smelliest and generally nastiest item on the list, he decided to get it over with first. The problem was that when we were offshore and tried to pump the tank overboard (which is legal), it did not pump out anymore. Also, we were noticing a smell in the cabin every time we flushed, which we didn't have before. First, we got the yard's manual pump and pumped the holding tank dry. We thought perhaps the pump's impeller was worn out, but as Mike looked over the system to see what hoses ran where, he noticed that the thru-hull valve for the pump output was only half open. He somehow got his skinny arm down in to the valve and tried to open it, but it wouldn't budge. He asked me when the last time the boat was winterized. I gave him a puzzled look and said "winterized"? He didn't realize we were from Texas where winterizing isn't an issue. His point was that when a boat is winterized, every thru-hull gets opened or closed, so they don't freeze up like this one was. He put a little more muscle into it and the valve opened. We pumped water through the head, and then tried the pump. Worked like a charm. The smell problem though is because the vent hose is plugged. And thanks to Catalina's engineering wisdom, it is impossible to get to the vent hose without cutting interior panels. We'll deal with that later.
Next on the list were two electrical issues. One was that the belt on the big alternator that charges the house batteries has never been able to be tightened enough. The way it was installed, you could put a belt just barely big enough to get over the pulley on it, but then there wasn't enough adjustment to tighten it. The other issue was that the big alternator didn't seem to be putting out any juice. Mike thought maybe the two problems were related. Maybe the loose belt meant it wasn't driving the alternator to put out noticeable current. He looked at the brackets holding the alternator, and determined that whoever installed it had the right idea, but implemented it wrong. By loosening the bracket that held the alternator to the engine and twisting it 180 degrees, we were able to get enough adjustability that a belt could be properly installed and then tightened. With the new belt on and tight, we ran the motor and it still didn't charge. So, Mike tested the new voltage regulator I installed in NY, and it was good. He then jumped the alternator to make sure it was charging, and it was. So, the problem was in the wires between the two. Turned out the plug which goes into the back of the alternator was not going in all the way. He trimmed it a little and voila! Two more problems fixed.
Fourth was the way the engine shuddered at idle. I had gotten into the habit of revving the engine a little just so I wouldn't have to listen to it. But, since I had a diesel mechanic handy, I wanted to be sure there was no problem with the valve adjustment or injectors, etc. After Mike listened to it, and did some temperature observations on each cylinder, he said there was nothing amiss with the engine. But, he noticed that one of the motor mounts was not even in contact with the hull. He tightened it up, and the shuddering was gone.
Now on to the problem that brought us here in the first place. The thermostat seems to be stuck open. That wouldn't be a problem except that I don't trust it to stay stuck open, and when it sticks closed, the engine overheats. Mike was saving the best for last, since we already knew the bolts were not coming out the way they were intended to. After trying several types of bolts extractors, I proposed and idea. I had Mike check how much a new thermostat housing would cost, and how soon we could get one. My logic was that destroying the old housing may be cheaper than the labor rate for him to keep trying to get it off gracefully. He went and checked, and found we could have a new housing tomorrow for $70. I told him to the hammer and chisel out. The housing still put up a good fight, but after about an hour, it was off. Mike cleaned up and we kicked back for the rest of the afternoon. We had dinner on the boat.
After dinner, we took a walk. There isn't a lot to Georgetown, MD - not to be confused with Georgetown, DC, near Washington. Just out of the marina, is a drawbridge. As we walked toward the bridge, the bells started ringing, the arms came down, and the damn bridge opened for a boat. This adds to my list of priorities for bridges. Trains rule, boats stop cars and open the bridge, but there was something wrong with us getting stopped as pedestrians. And, it happened on the way back too!
The cat has become quite the star of the marina. The slip we are in is at the end of the repair dock, which is at the end of the main pier into the whole marina. That means every person going to their boat in the whole marina has to walk past us. The cat has spent most of the day in my sport-seat behind the wheel, acting like it's his boat. Everybody stops and says how pretty he is and asks about how he does on the boat. Frankly, I'm getting tired of him getting all the attention. After all, I drive. All he does is sleep.
GPS N 39-21.630 W 75-52.967 Miles made good this leg 0. Total miles covered 2592.
Sept 28
The morning was spent just hanging out and waiting for our new thermostat housing to arrive. It was coming UPS next day air, but the question was whether or not Westerbeke got it shipped yesterday or not. Mike told us the UPS truck came about noon, so we just waited and read. Right at noon, the big brown truck came to the yard. I immediately went up to see if our part was there. It wasn't really a case of having to get it fixed today, but if it wasn't going to be today, we wanted to borrow the marina bicycles and do something. Our part was here, and Mike said he'd be down right after lunch to install it. A couple hours later, we were good to go. There's no good reason to leave a secure dock late in the afternoon though, so we told them we would leave first thing in the morning. That was fine with the marina.
Tonight, we walked the same route we walked yesterday, but this time, we went to dinner at The Granary restaurant, across the harbor from where we are. The food was very good, and this time, the bridge didn't stop us either way.
GPS N 39-21.630 W 75-52.967 Miles made good this leg 0. Total miles covered 2592.
Sept 29
Our plan today is to get to Baltimore. There is a small craft warning out for the bay due to a cold front passing through today. Unable to get 'the schedule' out of my blood, we are going anyway. We have bashed through waves and wind before, so what the heck. We were up and away from the dock a little before 08:00. Randy and Pat from Sans Souci, who we met in Cape May, saw us off. Georgetown is about nine miles up the Sassafras River from the Chesapeake. The closer we got to the bay, the more the wind blew. It was also overcast, and fairly chilly. Near the bay, there is a regular minefield of crab traps. We found that by staying to the southern side of the river, there was a definite boundary to the crab trap field, and we missed them all.
Once out in the bay and headed south, the wind increased to fifteen to twenty and the waves were two to three feet. We were bashing right into it and taking water over the bow on about every wave. Who's crazy idea was this. Once again, I was happy about every penny I spent on the cockpit enclosure. Because although it was noisy, and uncomfortable, it was mostly dry in the cockpit. The trip today is about forty miles. Ten of that was out of the Sassafras River, and ten will be up the Patapsco River to Baltimore. That leaves twenty miles, or three and a half hours, of bashing in the bay. About half way through this, the wind shifted to the west. This left the seas crashing over the bow, but the spray getting blown sideways through the cockpit. I had my foul weather jacket on, but it left me with wet shorts. We were one of only three or four small boats out there, and we saw one very large work boat turn around and go back north. I'm sure they didn't turn around because of the weather, but I don't know why they did. It was a little disconcerting.
Once we got to the Patapsco River, and turned northwest, the wind subsided some, and since we were closer to land, the waves were reduced. The entrance to the river is still about eight or nine miles from the Baltimore Inner Harbor. We had made it about half way in, inside the Francis Scott Key Bridge, when the wind started to pipe up again. They got back up to over fifteen knots, and the waves picked back up enough to be quite annoying even though we were in the harbor.
Our planned destination is the city dock in the inner harbor. The city dock doesn't have any nice services like many of the other marinas in the area, but it is only $1.00/ft, and it is right in the heart of the downtown attractions. The wind didn't get blocked by the buildings until we were right in the dock area. I had hailed the dockmaster on the radio and was told to dock where ever I wanted on the long pier. Docking was remarkably simple, since thankfully once we were up to the dock, the wind was pretty much blocked. We had just gotten secure when the person from the office came on a golf cart to collect our money.
After showers and a much earned margarita, we headed off for dinner. We had not eaten all day given the conditions. There are probably twenty good options for food within a quarter mile walk from the dock. We chose the Capitol Brewery for a couple of beers and dinner. We are overlooking the docks, which includes MoonSail, two dinner cruise boats, and two tall ships. One of the tall ships is a local boat that gives bay cruises. The other is the Mystic Whaler, from Mystic, CT. I don't know their story, but there were a lot of duffle bags on deck like they had a crew exchange going on.
GPS N 39-16.983 W 76-36.678 Miles made good this leg 43. Total miles covered 2635.
Sept 30
Today we are tourists. We start the day with coffee and then head off to the National Aquarium. I was here many years ago, but I love aquariums, so a repeat is ok. Unfortunately, we arrived right after four busloads of small kids on a school field trip. They were loud, but really not all that bad once inside. The aquarium has a large dolphin exhibit with shows, but the shows were cancelled because one of their stars had a baby a couple months ago. The five level aquarium is very well laid out. As you complete the exhibits on one level, you go up a ramp to the next. The ramps cross over a large pool with many different varieties of rays in it. Once you are at the top, there is a rainforest on top of the building. After the rainforest, you go into a large room where around the perimeter you are looking down on a reef tank. You then proceed down ramps in the center with the reef tank around you. After three levels, the reef tank ends but you keep going down and are now surrounded by a shark tank. It really is very nicely laid out.
After the aquarium, we got tickets to the Baltimore Maritime Museum. There is no museum per se, but rather three boats and a lighthouse. The first ship was an old lightship. We first saw an old lightship at the Liberty Landing Marina in NYC. That one had been converted to the offices, bathrooms, restaurant, etc. for the marina. The Chesapeake was a similar ship and had served off the US coast from 1930 to 1965 when she was replaced by an offshore automated light tower. Lightships marked the major entrances on the coast before automated electrical lights were built using solar power. Crews of sixteen men manned each ship and were on station for months at a time with nothing to do but keep the lights working.
The next boat we toured was the USS Torsk, a World War II Tench Class submarine. The Torsk was in service from 1944 to 1968. It was the last American naval vessel to sink a warship in World War II. The Torsk was a diesel/electric sub that carried eighty men. Even though it is over three hundred feet long, the quarters are quite cramped. And we thought MoonSail was small.
Next we went to the US Coast Guard Cutter Taney. The Taney was one of seven Treasury Class ships built in the 1930's and named after Secretaries of the Treasury. They were the largest ships the Coast Guard had ever ordered at the time, and were over three hundred feet long. The Taney spent most of it's active service in the Pacific and is the last warship still afloat that was at Pearl Harbor during the attack. She continued in service after WW II in more traditional Coast Guard roles until 1986.
Last of the Maritime Museum stops was the Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse. Seven Foot Knoll is a shallow area at the mouth of the Patapsco River where it enters the Chesapeake from Baltimore. What made this lighthouse unique at the time was that it was a screw pile lighthouse, meaning they didn't have to build a masonry base for it. Rather, it rested on nine pilings which screwed into the soft bottom of the bay. It was built in the 1850's and until 1949, the keepers and their families lived at the lighthouse. In 1949, it was automated and in the late 1960's it was replaced by a new marker. The original lighthouse was moved via a huge crane barge in the 1980's to it's current place on the shore in the Inner Harbor and is now a museum.
Our next stop was another ship, but it is not part of the Maritime Museum. The USS Constellation was the last tall-sail warship built by the US Navy. She was commissioned in 1855. She spent most of the Civil War in the Mediterranean where she made sure that the Confederates did not purchase any warships from European shipbuilders. After that, she became a Navy training ship into the 1930's. During WW II, she was recommissioned and used as the Flagship of the Atlantic Fleet. In the 1950's she became a museum in Baltimore, but was condemned as unsafe in 1994. Between 1996 and 1999, the boat was restored to it's original 1850's condition. The video of the restoration process was amazing. Basically, the whole hull was rebuilt. During the tour, there was a cannon firing exhibition which I participated in. While the volunteer who put on the demonstration was quite amusing, the actual firing was a bit of a let down.
After a full day of touring, we headed back to our boat. The dock now has several other pleasure boats at it. We had a couple of drinks and watched the afternoon activities unfold. There are people walking home from their offices, joggers along the waterfront path, preparations being made on the two dinner-cruise ships docked here for the evening cruises, and a two-man band playing Chilean flute and Spanish guitar music. About 18:45, we walked down the dock to City Lights Seafood restaurant. I am determined to have crab cakes before we leave. After all, they call them Maryland Crab Cakes for a reason, and we dodged all the darn traps in the bay, so I figure I've earned eating some. While our waiter was not the best, the food was very nice. We both had crab bisque and I had the crab cake. It was all good.
Back at the boat, we are keeping warm. I may actually have to turn on the heat tonight. That cold front that gave us fits yesterday out on the bay, has kept it under 70 degrees today. Tomorrow we are headed for Annapolis. It will be a less than thirty mile day, so we don't have to leave too early.
GPS N 39-16.983 W 76-36.678 Miles made good this leg 0. Total miles covered 2635.