Plane to Sea Departs, But Not by Sea

Stan, Dave and I helped Don and Jan put Plane to Sea onto their trailer.  On Sunday afternoon we waited until things quieted down at Truxton Park to dock PTS.  Earlier that afternoon, when Don tried to lift the keel, a bolt broke so he was not able to lift it.  The plan was to back the trailer into the water and drive PTS onto the trailer thereby pushing the keel upward so that Don could then lock the keel in the up position.  Due to the slightly lower high tide compared to three months ago when they launched, we had difficulties backing the trailer into the water, so had to nix that plan.  The next day, Don adjusted the trailer and arranged for a lift out at Port Annapolis Marina.  It's truly amazing to watch the process of the travel lift driver jockeying the travel lift into place and moving 20,000 pounds of boat.

Lifting Plane to Sea out of the water

The next trick was to lower the boat enough so that the keel could be raised and bolted in position without putting too much weight on the hull.  It was fun to watch the young guy at the stern do his little dance of directions for the travel lift operator.

Raising the keel

And finally we had to lower the mast.  Don had to unbolt the mast and remove some of the stays (side cables), rig two temporary poles, then attach it to the winch at the front of his trailer. 

Attaching mast via the forestay to winch

Except for one line snapping, which pulled the lowering mast in the direction of the shiny, cherry red sailboat for sale parked just to starboard, it went quite smoothly.  It took the five of us exactly thirty minutes to lower the mast.

Smile, Don!  You've got white duct tape!

The hard part was over.  And we all admire Don.  Every step of the way, whenever there was a glitch, Don would trouble shoot and not give up until he solved the problem.  He is incredibly knowledgeble and skilled with all things mechanical.  We've all learned so much from him and marvel at his capabilities.  Another thing we'd always marveled is the size of Don's truck.  We teased him about his "duelies," but alongside PTS, that truck was dwarfed!

Tres Hombres (note proximity of cherry red boat)

We said our good-byes to Don and Jan and promised to meet again -- the Bahamas or California or Texas -- and left them to finish securing PTS to the trailer. 

The happy (RELIEVED!) couple

Don and Jan are now on their way to the Florida Keys where they will leave PTS, then fly to the Cayman Islands to attend their friends' wedding, then on to Texas to visit family for the holidays.  Right after Christmas, they will return to the Keys and wait for a weather window to depart for the Bahamas on PTS.  Happy trails, Plane to Sea! 

Until we meet again

Not much new

Moonrise over Spa Creek

Sorry about the sparse posts.  We're just plugging along with our myriad projects and began some bulk shopping for provisions.  Our Texan friends, Don and Jan, have so sweetly offered to drive us around when they have errands to do.  We usually have lunch together at the Old Country Buffet, Don's fave. 

Misty morning on Spa Creek

Fall has brought nighttime temps in the mid-40s, brisk winds -- BRRR! -- and drizzle for the past few days.  The forecast looks sunny and in the high-60s for the next several days, which will be good for the sailboat show that begins on Thursday.

The other night we went into town to The Federal House (built 1830 now a bar/restaurant) to watch the Dallas Cowboys play the Washington Redskins with Stan, Jeff,  Don and Jan.  We had a great time sharing appetizers and beer and complaining about the temper tantrums of the Dallas quarterback, Tony Roma.  Also Jeff would give a running "sound track" of what the players were "really" saying.  "One...two...four...no, NO!  It's one...two...three!"  Kept me in stitches!  Although we could hear that there was another Cowboy fan somewhere in the place, Don and Jan subdued their enthusiasm for their home team because we were most certainly surrounded by Washington fans.  It was here that I learned from Janis that (though she and Don do not) many in Texas consider the Dallas Cowboys to be "God's team."  As Jan would say -- I tell you what, I am learnin' so much.

The night before last, Stan suggested we have a taste test between two winter beverages -- Irish coffee and hot buttered rum.  So Don, Jan and Stan braved the chilly nighttime wind and dinghied over for hot refreshments.  Heating up the steamy drinks and baked brie made for a warm and cozy time on Wayward Wind.  Stan's mom was Irish and loved Irish coffee made with hazelnut Creamora, so that's what we had, and this won the contest hands down over the hot buttered rum.  We actually are not as toasted as we look in the photo below; however we were feeling quite merry.  Now this is my kind of contest!

Don, Jan, Dave, Linda livin' it up on Wayward Wind...

and Stan, too!

From Annapolis to Napa, with love...

Everybody raise a glass to my lovely mom, Betty Suhr, who celebrated her 90th birthday this week.  Happy Birthday, Mom! 

Dave and I, still in Annapolis, have decided to forego the trip north because it's just getting too late, and, now, cold.  Three days ago before a warm sunrise, I donned my shorts and tank top and rowed up to Truxton Park, took a brisk walk, and rowed back to Wayward Wind.  By mid-day, a cold front from Canada rolled in and with it, a crisp coolness.  Fall arrived on Wednesday afternoon. 

The windlass project is just about finshed.  And, as are all things Italian, it's beautiful and sleek.  And it's so much quieter than the previous windlass.  And no more pounding to get it going.  We're happy.


We will finish other projects, such as repacking the rudder shaft, fixing the leaking aft cabin hatch and two starboard ports, servicing the outboard motor, cleaning the bottom of the boat and other minor things.  And, oh joy, one of the heads has now decided to act up.  We will stay on for the Annapolis Sail Boat show which is the second weekend in October.  We will try to get out for a few days' sail in the bay or at least some day sails. 

We had a little surprise the other day.  In preparing for friends coming over for happy hour, I removed the wheel to make more room in the cockpit.  The next day when we tried to remount the wheel onto the helm stand, it wouldn't slide on, as it should.  We noticed that the piece of metal, the key, that keeps the wheel from spinning around freely on the shaft had a huge crack.  Don came by and when we told him, he thought we were mistaken.  He said that he's dealt with keys on his farm equipment that last forever even though the machinery bounces around over the fields.  Sure enough, when we tapped the key, it broke off completely.  Don was really shocked. He helped us replace it with a new piece of metal.  We are thankful that we discovered it here rather than out at sea.  That would really be a surprise.

Dave has been under the weather for three days - nothing serious - but seems to have a low-grade bug with malaise.  I'm fighting something off.  Don's wife, Janis, has been very ill with a fever and sore throat.  Must be the change in weather. 

Hope everyone is enjoying the last days of summer.  I know I am.  Now I get to learn about marine heads!  ; )

Good Night, Irene

  

Wayward Wind on Mooring Ball 71

We swayed.  We gently swung.  Occasionally we jerked.  But we stayed put and, thankfully, so did our neighbors.  Hurricane Irene was downgraded to a tropical storm by the time she visited Annapolis.  Here in Spa Creek, the sustained wind was in the low 40 knots with the highest gust recorded by neighbor Gordon on N’Aimless at 47 knots.  It reminded me of a bad California winter storm except that it lasted for nearly two days.  The peak winds were on Saturday night from around 8:00pm till 12:00am though it was blowing heavily all day Saturday and most of the day Sunday.  On Saturday evening, after dinner, Dave and I sat in the cockpit playing gin rummy while enjoying a vodka tonic.  (Yes, even Dave had one!)  On a side note, early on, I was up by nine games, but he wound up winning by one game.  I blame / he credits the vodka. 

Sometime in the late afternoon, we heard a knock on our boat, “Wayward Wind!”  We came out in the blowing rain to find Jeff and Stan, who’d donned their foulies looking up from Stan’s dinghy, smilingly asking us if we wanted to join them on Simpatico because they’d heard that dinner was cooking.  They looked like a couple of kids on an adventure.  But that image was slightly altered when Stan asked for a vodka tonic although he DID have boyish grin.

On our end of the creek, we had no boat damage.  Farther downstream, however, sometime on Saturday night, an old Hans Christian with a big bow sprit drug anchor right between Stan’s and Jeff’s boats and plowed into a power boat, Wat a Joy, punching several holes into its hull.  What a drag!

Our little group of boats and another group of boaters who were at docks monitored Channel 69 on the VHF radio.  The boaters at the docks had internet access, so we heard their periodic weather updates.  We went to sleep around midnight.  Dave got up a couple of times to check on things.  I slept till 4:15 and Dave slept later.  We were grateful for the decent night’s sleep.  By morning, the rain was on and off though the wind was still blowing fairly hard.  By mid-morning, the rain stopped and by mid-afternoon, the edge of Irene’s cloud tail passed overhead.  The wind continued to blow until the evening when finally it was as calm as could be.  Irene, good night.

Cone of Uncertainty

This entire journey has been quite an education.  I just learned that we are in the "Cone of Uncertainty" as regards Hurricane Irene.  The link below shows this morning's NOAA predicted track.  At this point, it looks like the eye will pass east of us, but it could veer west, toward us, or east, away from us.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/152238.shtml?gm_track#contents

Jeff, who has experienced four hurricanes - at sea and on shore - suggested we hook onto a nearby mooring ball, which we've done.  These moorings are called Helix and are screwed into the earth and are supposed to be the best.  We are situated far up Spa Creek, off a cove just 75 feet from Truxton Park among five other boats on mooring balls including Jan and Don who cut their East Chesapeake Bay trip short to return to Spa Creek.  Stan and Jeff have their boats moored farther down the creek.  We are all in a well-protected spot and feel secure with our moorings.  The one thing to worry about is other boats who may not be diligent about anchoring and could drag anchor.  Boats breaking loose and ramming other boats are what normally causes problems in storm situations.  Yesterday a big power boat anchored upstream of us in front of the sailboat that is in front of us.  We will monitor their anchoring.

I came into town early today to do laundry and other errands and will return to WW soon.  We are keeping up with the latest info on the storm and making decisions accordingly.  We're all doing the best we can to prepare and stay safe.  We don't have an internet connection where we are moored now so may not post another blog entry until after the storm passes. 

Now, everyone on the West Coast take a big breath, and when I count to three, blow that irascible Irene offshore to the east.  1..2...3...!!!

Windlass-less in Annapolis

Stan, Dave and Jeff in our "windlass workshop"  on the bow of Wayward Wind

The saga of mechanical issues continues, but thankfully the weather has cooled.  We ordered a new windlass from West Marine.  It came.  The footprint was much larger than Jeff expected, which would require some major retrofitting of the base upon which it sits.  We returned it.  Plan B was that Jeff would rebuild the old windlass and parts were available based on what we saw online.  We ordered the parts, but it turns out that six of the ten parts were discontinued  Jeff was on another boat delivery so upon his return on Thursday, we discussed Plan C - possibly a manual windlass.  The three of us are researching windlasses online.  To be continued...

The three guys delicately finesse the drum off of the old windlass.

A treat for us was that while Jeff was doing his boat deliveries, we got to dog-sit his little Cairn Terrier, Oz.  (Will post a photo soon.)  Oz is 16 years old and is deaf and blind...and perhaps dumb as he does not bark.   Jeff said he was thinking of renaming him, Tommy, because he "sure...plays...a mean...pin...ball."  Jeff says he also washes floors and windows, but we did not witness that.  We both fell in love with Oz who is pretty spunky for an old man.  Oz also inspired me to row him every morning in the dinghy over to nearby Truxton Park where he could take care of business.  Dave would take Oz in the evening to an even closer grassy landing.  (He did not row...snicker...)

Janis and Don, whom we fondly refer to as "the Texans," had us over for happy hour the other night.  They showed us a video on their humongous (for a boat) flat screen TV that was a travel-logue of various states and regions of the US as seen from the air.  Don especially wanted to show us Texas and Ohio.  I must say that it dispelled some of the stereotype images I have of the landscape.  Texas - near Don and Jan's home - has many wooded and green acres, although they said that with the terrible drought, there is little that is green now.  In the Ohio segment, there was a scene of a school bus pulling up to the drive that led to a white farm house in the midst of acres and acres of corn.  Don said, "That's me!  Except our drive was a half mile long."  Don says that they had everything they needed on the farm.  Their mom had a huge garden and canned fruits and vegetables, and they raised chickens and dairy cows.  Growing up, he said, they only drank water or milk, no soda.  Their mom would bake a dozen or more loaves of bread at a time along with rolls and cinnamon buns .  Don was the youngest of four boys when his mom and dad decided to try for a girl.  After the delivery, with tears of disbelief in his eyes, the doctor came out to the waiting room to tell Don's dad, "Well, it's twin boys!"  Not missing a beat, Don's dad replied, "Guess we'll be able to buy more cows!"  We're enjoying hearing about Don's childhood on the farm.

We also watched a segment on the travel-logue video about California.  We were surprised and proud that it mostly showed Northern California with its redwood trees, coastline, vineyards, farmlands and San Francisco.  But we know why...because it's the best part!!!  Sorry SoCal-ians!

We had a lovely happy hour that turned into hours with Stan from Coursaire and Greg and Jo from Sympatico joining in.  Greg and Jo have traveled to the Bahamas the past three winters, so we asked their advice on various subjects.  Jan asked about conserving water especially when washing dishes.  Jo said that she wipes the plates with a napkin to remove salad dressing and such before washing.  She said she knows someone who uses a spray bottle to rinse dishes.  Also used dish water can have other uses such as cleaning grime (bird poop!) off the deck.  Jo also bakes bread onboard so brings pounds of flour.  Lots of tips.



Anchoring Plane to Sea with Janis at the helm, getting ready for the next day's trip

The next day, Don and Jan left for St. Michael's on the east side of the Chesapeake.  I woke up feeling sad.  Even though we've known them just over a month, we really miss them.  Beyond being helpful by driving us around - they have a humongous truck - to buy food and pick up and return the windlass, we have enjoyed their companionship and have spent many fun moments together.  They showed us a place called Old Country Buffet, that has a pretty good meal for $7.29.  Such a deal!  I guess we've entered the cheap buffet phase of our lives...  Oh, well, guess I'll have another piece of chocolate mousse pie.

Suspended Animation

View from my dinghy on my early morning rowing routine

Since last writing, the refrigerator has gone out and now after a week, it works again.  We'd called a refrigeration guy who was supposed to come on Tuesday morning, but didn't.  And thank goodness he didn't.  Stan stopped by and, after wiggling some wires on the pump, it started.  We'll check these wires more carefully and clean connections.  On boats, it's all about connections.  After being shaken and stirred in a salt water/air environment, wire connections easily become loose and corrode.  Let's hope that this is it.  Not having the generator for a week and then not having the refrigerator for a week, especially during this hot weather spell, has been difficult. 

While the refrigerator was on the blink, the windless (anchor winch) stopped working.  We'd known that we were on borrowed time with this one.  Then the aft head started acting up.  I had manuals and diagrams spread all over the table.  It was really discouraging for a few days.  Stan helped us out with the head.  Our other neighbor on Spa Creek, Jeff, who spent a year working on windlasses at a marine shop, just last night offered to come over and work on ours saying, "I like to take things apart."  We are beholden to these kind spirits.

The other day we went sailing on Plane to Sea with our Texan neighbors, Don and Janis.  Stan was the motivating force, and while the wind was light, it was a nice afternoon and gave Don and Janis "seat time," as Stan calls it, on their boat.  Though they've had their boat for four years, they are new to sailing and have only lived aboard for one month here on Spa Creek.  They are eager to learn, so Stan and Dave gave advice as we sailed along.  I even showed Janis how to call the bridge tender on the radio to request an opening.  What a switch in roles for me!

Stan and Don

A note about Plane to Sea.  Don grew up on a farm in Iowa where he lived with his brothers and parents.  Due to a tragic family circumstance, at the age of eight he was needed to take over the early morning chore of milking their many cows.  When he was a young man, he moved to Texas where among other things, he learned auto mechanics, how to fly a small plane, first aide and beyond as well as how to fight fires culminating in his being a fireman for thirty years.  Janis grew up in Texas and worked in an office for her county health department for many years.  Their home port is Pottsboro, Texas, where they have been married for 17 years.  Both are retired.  Friendly, friendly people.

Don (full-blooded Norwegian American) and Janis

When I told Don I was a retired teacher, he said, "As a student, I was your worst nightmare."   He says he wasn't interested in school but was more interested in doing things -- sometimes naughty things.  Janis says, "I wouldn't have liked him then."  She says that she wasn't a bad girl, but she "wasn't no goody-two-shoes, neither."  If her parents didn't want her to do something, then she wouldn't.  Both grew up in close-knit families.  It's apparent that their upbringing contributes to their mutual respect for each other.  They work as a team and their enthusiastic nature is infectious.  It's plain to see how the crew of  Plain to Sea are a breath of fresh air!

Sunrise on Spa Creek