Slightly more than a 3-hour tour – a sea-going MMP

Just to backtrack and save you from returning to last week’s MMP. I took off Thurs and Fri to tend to some pre-boat-buying business. Friday morning, I dropped FCD off at work, then took Bernie up to my mom, who’d graciously agreed to doggie-sit. After a short visit, I returned to Goddard to pick up my sweetie, and after a lunch of Famous Dave’s BBQ in Annapolis, we crossed the Bay Bridge and headed to the marina.

Quick and dirty: the boat did well overall. The sea trial was short - we went out on the bay, ran up the main and unfurled the jib. We knew the sails were not great, but they’re not completely raggedy, so there’s that. When I was furling the jib, I got a suddenly slack line and fell backwards, jerking on my sore shoulder - that was great fun. But I sat still for a few minutes, and it was fine.

Before we left, we asked the owner how much fuel was aboard, since the gauge was pegged at F - he said he thought there was 3/4 of a tank. On the way back in from the trial, we stopped to top it off - turns out it was full - it took less than a gallon! But we had to be sure. When we bought our last boat, the two tanks read half and 3/4 full. We barely got into the bay, and we were out of fuel - bad gauges! So we learned our lessons.

Back at the boat brokers, we signed some papers, handed them a check, and became boat owners again. Just that easy. FCD surprised me by getting us a room in Annapolis so we could sleep in the air conditioning - it was mighty hot out and he can’t sleep when he’s hot. So we had a light dinner, bought him some new sneakers, then crashed in a cool, comfy room.

Saturday morning didn’t start well - there was an accident on the Bay Bridge, so it took us forever to get across. By the time we got the boat loaded and dropped the dock lines, it was probably close to 9. Low tide was around 8:30. The channel from the marina to the bay is narrow and relatively shallow. We draw 6’ - we went aground. The wind was fairly strong from the north and it blew us out of the channel. I was trying to figure out how to get a tow boat there, but FCD had it all figured out. He had me take the helm, and he let out the jib. I gave it full power and turned the wheel hard to starboard. There was sufficient wind to get us heeling just enough to clear the bottom, and I took us to the upwind side of the channel. I think we may have bumped once more, but in a few minutes we were in 9’ of water, then well over 50’. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - FCD is a heck of a sailor - he amazes me when he gets us out of messes like that.

It didn’t take me long to realize that we needed a cover over the cockpit. The sun was beating on us, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I found a square of canvas in the V-berth with 6 lines tied to grommets. We tied the center lines to the back stay and the boom, respectively, and the end lines to the lifelines on either side of the boat. It barely cleared FCD’s head, but I could stand under it comfortably, so we had shade at the helm.

I was reminded as we sailed south that while FCD is great in maneuvering and problem solving and such-like, he’s a terrible helmsman. He gets distracted, and the next thing you know, we’re 30 degrees off heading. I swear, when he took the wheel, we were doing a slalom down the bay. But he hates just driving the boat. He’d rather be messing with stuff - like trying to calibrate the instruments - he’d do that, and we’d be off in some random direction. I was splicing eyes into docklines when he was at the wheel, and I could tell we were getting off course by the shadows moving across my legs.

But the tide and wind were with us and we averaged around 7 knots, which is much better than I’d anticipated - I was counting on 5… So we got to Solomons around 4 - maybe a little before, I’m not sure. And we discovered that someone was in our slip - grrrrrr. Turns out the manager had tied up a boat there that was scheduled to come out of the water on Monday - he didn’t know we’d be showing up on Saturday. No biggie - he moved it, and we came around to dock.

Here’s where it gets exciting. We were lining up alongside the pier, and FCD went into reverse to stop our forward motion. Well it went into reverse and stayed there! He backed right into the boat that the manager was moving, and at that point, all he could do was kill the engine. There’s no way to tell coherently what happened at this point, but there were many offers of help and yelled suggestions and I know FCD was embarrassed as all get-out. Coming into a dock is usually his best thing - he and the boat become one. But when the boat has a failure, there’s nothing to be done… Wow – that sounds all poetical!
We were stuck in an area between docks, and the wind was blowing us away from our pier. FCD tried to throw one of our dock lines to a guy on the pier, but the the line was heavy and the distance was probably 40’ or more, and our line ended up sinking. (someone didn’t think to secure the end…) The guy on the dock had a smaller line which he was able to get to us, and in fairly short order, we were secured and exhausted.

Thankfully, the damage we did to the other boat was very minor - a dent in the rub rail. It’s the kind of thing that if it happened to our boat, we’d just blow it off. But we’ll see what the owner says. Our boat just got a tiny bit of green paint on it from the impact to the rub rail.

Once we were secured, I started to get our crap organized, and FCD ran over to West Marine (no relation) to get a grappling hook. He came back, and on the first toss, he snagged our line, so that was good. It was probably $100 worth of dock line, so it was worth recovering. Plus I had just spliced the eye that very day… We proceeded to haul our stuff to the van, and home we went. Long, hot, tiring, exciting, frustrating, fun day.

Sunday morning, I took him back over the bridge to get his car, then I went up to my mom’s to get the dog and some stuff I’m borrowing from her. FCD went to the boat and found the problem - a cable failed. Lucky for us, there’s a shop in Solomons which is a repair facility our engine, and they had the very cable we needed in stock. FCD was able to talk to them about the failure - apparently there’s a slight design flaw where there’s no stop on the throw of the gear lever, so he overstressed the cable, which is old anyway. He’s got it put back together and next weekend, he’ll go back and clean up the mess he made aboard while fixing it. Ah, the joys of boat ownership.

So, that’s my story. If you come visit me, we’ll take you out for a boat ride, weather permitting. Oh, yeah, here are some pics.

Happy Monday!!

Whee! Sounds like a ton o’ fun! Except for the problem parts. Still, I guess that’s part of the excitement.

Know what’d be fun? Dressing up like pirates! Or maybe not.

Ok, off to get purtied up and start my wonderful day. I just wanted to be first is all.

Happy Monday Morning Y’all!!!

No, I wanted to be first!!! No fair! Mommmmmmmmmm!!! He didn’t let me have my turn!

What?

Sounds like an exciting trip, FCM. Cool pics.

How can it be Monday already? Off to get ready for whatever the day will bring…

GT

Congrats on your boat! When I was reading your OP, I kept imagining the music that seems to be in nearly every Navy training film I ever saw – you know, the cheesy ones from the 70s that feature fey-looking men with mustaches that look like they tried out for the Village People but were rejected.

Nice pics, btw. It looks like it was a nice day to go sailing.

Robin

I survived the weekend. Spent the entire time moving stuff around and unpacking. Yuck.

The slaughterhouse is now VWife’s sewing storeroom. The blood and guts are gone, and I covered the floor with a bunch of pallets I found. Then we (mostly just me) filled it with a metric buttload of boxes full of fabric and other stuff. That was A Good Thing, because my workshop is now significantly empty, and I can start work on organizing that.

Mowed the yard; burned 3 boxes of old financial records, took 2 loads of trash to the dump, did a lot of unpacking in the VunderStudy. Once again, I’m at work so I can rest.

Oh, and I have photographic evidence of a dramatic performance in my yard that I’ll post tonight. When I took Maddy out for her morning constitutional yesterday, I spotted Sylvester on top of the woodshed. The play? Cat On A Hot Tin Roof…

I’m tired. It’s Monday. Bleh.

Nice OP, FCM. I can’t even remember the last time I was on a boat. Now I’m going to spend the day trying to figure it out. :slight_smile:

The only exciting thing I did this weekend was drive three hours to have lunch. There’s a place on I-84 in Connecticut, just before the Massachusetts border, called the Travelers Restaurant. We call it FOOD & BOOKS, because that’s what the big sign visible from the highway says. It’s a restaurant and used bookstore, and you get three free books with every meal. Two of my friends drove down from Maine, Roomie and I drove up from Jersey, and we had lunch, and then sat on the lawn and chatted for three hours. Luckily, rather than tell us to get the hell off her property, the owner thought it was pretty danged jake that we drove three to four hours just to meet for lunch. We’re hoping to make it a monthly ritual.

And that’s about all I did this weekend. I also read four trashy romance novels, but I didn’t think anybody would care so much about that. :slight_smile:

I too survived the weekend, or else I am a zombie poster. I am off today so there will be a dogpark run in the near future. Ifound a dead lizard inside the apartment last night. He must have died of natural causes because he has all four legs, although he is a bit dried out. I think I’ll call him Ancho.

FCM, cool pics. I’m glad you like the boat.

swampy, a pirateDopefest would be sweet. Arrrgh! Do ya have any grey Poupon?

Vbob, the slaughter house made me think of this post from the favorite Python quote thread.

Drae, free books? Sweet!

Morning. I’m glad the boat-buying went well.

Will post again after caffeine.

packing stuff up to visit FCM I would LOVE a boat ride!
What a busy weekend…but we have begun to move things in and seem to be getting a lot of it done.

Tired. And got hit by an unpleasant source of stress soon as I opened my e-mail. Sometimes I don’t like this job very much.

The free books can only be taken from the shelves in the restaurant itself, and I’m afraid the selection’s a little more limited, but it’s fifty cents per book in the cellar, where they keep all the good ones. :slight_smile:

Although I found myself a first-edition Trixie Belden book in moderately awful shape upstairs, so I was happy. :smiley:

I’m all enthralled with the wonders of PVC pipe today. Racks are being made on which to sort *wiiiiiiirrrrrrreeeeee haaaaaannnnnnggggggeeeeeerrrrrrrssssss!!!**. They are being made out of PVC pipe. They are so jake! How sad is my life that I can get stoked over a bunch of PVC pipes being made into racks for hangers?

Also, billing is underway. I hate billing.

Every year one of our fundraiser thingys is “The Official City of Albeeeny Christmas Ornament.” This year’s ornament (pronounced orn - a- munt) depicts a once upon a time landmark drive-in restaurant that was called “The Arctic Bear.” Actually it’s a depiction of the sign that hung out in front of the restaurant. It’s a polar bear holding an ice cream cone. It’s cute. Anyways, this has generated some interest. We have pre-orders for the dang thing even! And it ain’t even gonna be unveiled until November. There’s a website maintained by someone who grew up in Albeeeny and went to Albeeeny High School during the 1950’s. The website is called Albeeeny <snerk> High Times. <snerk> This website is promoting the ornament, which I think is real jake of ‘em. I have no idea where I’m goin’ with this, I’m just postin’ is all. Heck, I might even buy one of the things just cause it’s cute.

Ok, back to billing. I hate billing.

Great OP, fcm! I’m glad you had good weather. Boat buying in a gale would not have been so much fun. :wink:

Let’s see…highlights from the weekend. Friday night when Mr. Anachi got home, he went to check on the tile guys and we discovered we had the wrong color tile for the top half of the job. The tiles were supposed to be ivory but the order had sent taupe. Luckily the tile guys hadn’t got very far with the top tiles and were able to take the few that were there down and scrap off the thin set. Now we have to get the order straightened out and pray those tiles aren’t on back order again. What tile IS up is looking mighty fine, though.

Went and paid my entrance fee at Target on Saturday. I needed to buy a little pull carty thingy to put the grumpuses groceries in when I shop for them. Grampy isn’t able to walk far anymore so can’t help me with the toting. I found a very servicable jobby that collapsses down so I can keep it in the car. And it was only $20. I also found some really cute gold flip flops for $3.74!! Oh, and a really cute pink sweater. Total came to about $50. Whoot!

bobbio, cat pictures?

Tupug

Congrats on the boat FCM. I’m glad you have a boat again. All feels right in the world, now that you have a boat once more.

BUSY weekend for me! We moved furniture in both the older kids’ rooms, Also threw away the last of the crap that HAD to be moved, when we moved … but two years hence seems more like the crap that it actually is, rather than the “I Might Need This Later” that it seemed to be when we moved. :smiley: Anyway, lots got done, including much needed pruning of bushes and shurbs. The lavendar bush is much more sane now. The thing was five feet across, I kid you not. re: the discussion of gardening gloves last week – I would have enjoyed some gloves when I was picking up holly bush clippings!

swampy I remember your orna-munts from years past. This one sounds right cute! I like place-specific ornaments and encourge all my internet friends to send me local items from where they live. It makes us all seem like neighbors in the global village! :slight_smile:

Good morning, all! Sounds like quite an adventure, FCM! Looks like you had a great day for sailing. Congratulations on the boat! Hope the shoulder is feeling fine after all that action.

**Drae ** - I love FOOD BOOKS! This is the first year in a long time that I haven’t been there – we used to go to Maine every summer, and that was our place to take a driving break. I’m glad you went there!

I did a lot of driving this weekend, too. I went to PA to see Othello at the PA Shakespeare Festival (about 2 hours away). A friend of mine rode down with me, we stopped along the way for lunch and shopping, and met my sister, her friend, & my niece at the show. It was pretty good, but I was forced to admit that I’m not as smart as I think I am, because I couldn’t always figure out what the actors were saying (people laughed and I missed the joke entirely). But I enjoyed it, anyway. I was rallying for a Dorney Park visit after the show, but I got outvoted. What kind of people say no to roller coasters? :frowning:

I escaped a potentially fatal accident on the way home. I had just dropped my friend at her house shortly after midnight, and was headed back to the interstate. (**Spats ** - I was on Route 23 in Butler NJ – you’ve probably driven it). Anyway, it’s 3 lanes south, 3 lanes north, concrete median. NOTE New Jersey driving lesson: Traffic lights every mile or so, because you have to be able to get the strip malls on either side. You can’t make left turns in Jersey – you have to “jug-handle” (designated spot to turn right, loop 180, go straight across all lanes, then turn). I’m in the center lane, passing a bus that’s in the right lane. There’s a large van in front of me. In the left lane, there’s a car coming straight at me. Northbound on the southbound side, concrete median next to him. We were both moving at about 60mph, so just a few inches to the left for either of us would have done us in. Scary! But it did make me more alert for the rest of the ride home! I told my friend about it, and apparently a cop she knows in the area told her that he never drives in the left lane for exactly that reason – it’s where the drunk drivers tend to end up.

Hey, so did I. Some crazy parent that’s been arguing with me and the superintendent all year has now decided that attacking my character would help her cause.
Busy, 4 meetings today - non here. I’ll write when I get a “free moment”. :frowning:

I hadn’t gone since the day my parents and I drove to Boston to move me into the dorms. :slight_smile: Next time you’re there, I highly recommend the sweet potato fries as an appetizer, served with pancake syrup. I know–I thought the same thing–sweet potatoes and syrup?!?!? But it’s Heaven on a plate.

And about 23 in Butler–if it was Saturday night, I may have been mere miles from you! :slight_smile:

But yeah, 23 north of Wayne pretty much bites it. Glad you’re okay. We came upon an accident on the way home (684 between 84 and the Saw Mill) that was so recent, nobody’d gotten out of their cars yet, and the whole place still smelled of burning rubber and airbag dust. I thought about pulling over to help, but then I realized that I hadn’t seen the accident, at least three unharmed cars had already stopped, I saw a guy with a cellphone standing on the side of the road, and Roomie was having flashbacks to an accident she was in a few years back that left her severely injured and one of our closest friends dead. I decided it was better to get her away from it than to mill around when there wasn’t much I could do to help.

Mine was American Express, freaking out. Get this, how stupid is this. Statement closed 7/30/06. They hadn’t received our payment. So they sent my boss an angry e-mail saying YOU ARE LATE YOU SUCK YOU ARE TERRIBLE and my boss forwarded it to me. I immediately looked into it and saw they had received the payment 8/5. So it just crossed in the mail, like it always does.

Then I had to make reservations for two idiots who apparently have no secretary of their own, to come in, stay two nights, and then have a rental car pick them up at the hotel so they can drive away. But that’s not all! They will both be taking one way trips, so I made one reservation out of Enterprise and one out of Hertz, as one is going to NJ and Enterprise doesn’t allow out-of-statedrop-offs.

I spent my first hour dealing with these two issues.

I dunno.

An engine on a sailboat smells like cheating to me.

But what do I know? The largest thing with a sail I ever operated had a sunfish on it. When it comes to larger boats I prefer motor cruisers. There’s more crap that can go wrong and strand you in the middle of the Atlantic that way.

Buoy oh buoy FCM, you sure do have some high adventure on the high seas. Congrats on the new boat, and try not to hit anyone else’s again, okay? :stuck_out_tongue: In honor of your new boatership, here is another boat-based pun:

I think I’ve driven on Route 23 maybe twice. You’re right, it’s not that great. I prefer, say, a nice 4 or a peppy 17 to an accident prone 23.

I spent my weekend doing absolutely NUFFIN, and I liked it too. I had planned to work on my presentation, but I didn’t. Oh well, I still have time - it’s not until Thursday, and this morning we went out and got some pictures I can use.

I hate Mondays. And now I have the music from Pirates of the Caribbean stuck in my head.

Why is it that when someone tells you the song stuck in *his * head, it immediately gets stuck in yours? I’ll see your Pirates and raise you 99 Red Balloons.

**Drae ** - yes it was Saturday. Sorry I missed you; glad we both missed that other car!