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!!