The Tides - She's back!

Tuesday September 4, 2012

The rental car company was scheduled to pick me up at 9:30 AM, they arrived at 10:00 AM. Then we drove 30 miles the wrong way to pick up the car, and picked up some other customers on the way. I was in the rental by 11:00 AM and on my way. Deidre's plane was due at 7:40 PM and the iPad told me that JFK was 380 miles so I figured I had plenty of time. The first 100 miles were pleasant. After that I was "skirting" Washington and then Baltimore and then Philadelphia and then a dash thru New Jersey and into NYC proper.

The tolls were constant. Each bridge and tunnel seemed to be $14 and by the time I had driven the Delaware and New Jersey toll roads I was out another $50! Amazing, and people chose to live here? The weather started of great but by the time I crossed the Verranzano Bridge it was pelting rain and the clouds were obscuring the tops of buildings. Maybe I am getting old but it was 7:00 PM by the time I got to JFK and I was beat.

Deidre's plane was right on time and I was in the right place. Bliss. I managed to re-find the car and get out of JFK and onto the right freeway. Deidre was starved so we looked for a place to eat - 100 miles later and after a couple of false starts we found an all night pizza joint and enjoyed a couple of slices and a beer. (For those innocents among you that have not driven in NY and NJ at night it might seem hard to imagine, but finding a decent place to eat from a toll road is really difficult.)

By then I was whipped. Deidre had been "traveling" about 30 hours so she was crashing. I through away the budget and drove into a Hilton and $150 later we had a bed (two beds actually).

Wednesday September 5, 2012

Deidre slept like a dead person. If I had not woken her at about 9:30 AM she may well still be sleeping. We checked out and found a really nice little town with the perfect breakfast joint and for $25 gave our gall bladders something to work on.

We stopped in Kilmarnock (the local town) to do a little shopping and ended up at the local Chinese for dinner. We got to the boat, unpacked and went to bed.

Thursday September 6, 2012

Since we still had the car this was our chance to do some shopping and re-provision the boat. I also needed oil and filters for the boat. This we achieved,  but when we arrived back at the boat the sky had opened and it rained solid for an hour. We waited it out in the car - at least there was plenty to eat!

Friday September 7, 2012

After the oil change

One of those perfect days from sunrise to sunset. We celebrated by taking the boat to the local pump-out and changing the oil on the main engines. This is the second time we have changed the oil, it is quite a process, but we seem to have it nailed.

After lunch we went to the pool and took it easy. Nice.





Saturday September 8, 2012

The dribble

Today's job was to remove the anchor plate. (I do not know if this is the right name, but it is the shield shaped piece of stainless steel located right under the anchor mount. It protects the hull from the swinging anchor when launching and recovering the anchor.) I had noticed some weeks ago that there was a steady dribble of rusty water originating under the plate and staining the bow.

The piece came of easily enough. When I removed the lower screws it released a "flood" of viscous rusty muck that must have been damned behind the plate. That felt really good! The paint behind had bubbled a bit, but cleaned up OK. The stainless was "stained" on the back but also polished up OK. I decided that the caulking had failed and was letting water in, but preventing it from draining out.

Later that afternoon we went for a walk on the golf course. I cold front came through at about dinner time, and we saw a bit of wind and rain.

Sunday September 9, 2012

When I design our next boat I will start in the anchor locker. The drain will be about 50mm in diameter (unlike Tide Hikers 10mm) and the door will be wide enough for my shoulders.

It was a perfect morning. Deidre made French Toast for breakfast. We took the 10 AM shuttle to town and I went to Ace to get some fasteners and caulk, and Deidre picked up a few veges. Back at the boat we re-attached the anchor plate. To do so we needed to empty the chain locker onto the dock so we could get at the back of all the fasteners. We had moved the boat up the slip so that the rode and chain would sit on the dock. The chain locker tends to be dirty and damp, so it was logical to clean it out while it was empty. This is a sweaty task.

The anchor plate went on OK. I had decided to caulk it across the top (to keep water out) and not across the bottom (to let it drain). All of the fasteners had to be caulked. Deidre was on the outside with the screwdriver, I was in the chain locker with the spanner (wrench). It all worked well but somehow Deidre managed to get a lot of caulk in her hair (maybe she was worried about water leaking into her brain?) This evening I cut most of the caulk out of her hair and attacked the balance with the acetone (I think she may be a blonde in the AM?)

This afternoon we are drinking beer and watching the US Open tennis. I also signed up and made our hotel reservations for the MTOA Rendezvous in Plymouth, September 18-20.





Monday September 10, 2012

Another relaxing fall day. We borrowed two free hotel bikes and rode into Irvington. Its a small place, but it has a coffee shop, so we had a coffee and shared a sandwich for lunch. Back at the boat I finished cleaning the chain locker and we reloaded the chain. Then we watched the tennis and went to bed. Another "blanket night!"

Tuesday September 11, 2012

Today we tried kayaking. Its hard to take a photo of both of us, so I climbed off to take this photo.

Wednesday September 12, 2012

Made an emergency run into Kilmarnock this morning, as we had run out of Taquilla. Plus Deidre said we needed milk and a few veges.

It was a nice calm day and I decided to try and dive on the boat and check out the running gear and zincs. So we disconnected the boat (this seems quite a process after a couple of weeks of inactivity) and headed out to a protected spot I had identified on the chart further up the Rappahonic, where we anchored.

This was only my second dive and this time I did not have Adam guiding me, and I was pretty nervous. After assembling and donning all the gear I eventually got into the water. Everything seemed to work OK but I felt quite out of balance (top heavy and tipping over backwards) and the visibility was less than 1 foot, maybe as little as 6". I was a bit spooked. But I made my way around the boat hanging onto a mooring line "just in case" and checked out the working parts. There seemed to be a lot of growth, and I cut my hands in several spots on the sharp edges. After about 30 minutes I had had enough and climbed back on board.

I was a bit concerned about the cuts. There is a bacteria in the Chesapeake called "Waterman's Infection". One of our boating acquaintances caught it and almost lost his arm, and is still not out of the woods. So I soaked my abrasions in Dettol and then applied some antiseptic cream. If you are interested, have a look at: http://cbf.typepad.com/bay_daily/2009/09/waterman-loses-leg-to-lifethreatening-bacteria.html

I have decided to hire a professional diver to clean the hull.

Thursday September 12, 2012

Friday September 13, 2012

Saturday September 14, 2012

Sunday September 15, 2012
We treated ourselves and took the taxi over to the main hotel for breakfast.