St. Leonard's Creek, MD - On the move again!

[Kevin's Post] Yes, it's true we have finally departed Solomons. After almost 6 weeks of going nowhere, we still remembered how to drive the boat. We really liked it there, it was great being so close to a west marine (and grocery store, and post office) which allowed us to really knock out a bunch of boat projects. But we're definitely ready for a change of scenery. The forecast is for temps in the 70's and low 80's for the next week or so, exactly what we've been waiting for. Unfortunately, the forecast also is for rain and strong winds due to Ernesto. We can take the wind and the rain, but the heat is the real issue, so hopefully it will stay cool. We cruised up the Patuxent about 9 miles to a lovely place called St. Leonard's Creek. The creek has high banks with tall trees so should provide very good wind protection in the event Ernesto is worse than forecasted. Right now, they are forecasting only 20-25 knot winds, which is nothing extraordinary. But things can change. We'll probably stick around here for a few days until the rain lets up.

Boat Projects completed at Solomons
Genset: replaced raw water pump, cleaned heat exchanger, replaced coolant, changed oil, improved ventilation ducting, repaired hatch scupper leak
Port Engine: fixed steamy exhaust problem by replacing exhaust elbow, cleaned heat exchanger, swapped tachometers
Stbd Head: replaced joker valve
Port Head: replaced shower sump float switch
Galley: replaced leaky drinking water faucet, repaired main sink faucet, defrosted freezer
Outboard: replaced impeller, replaced gear oil, replaced trim tab zinc, rehubbed prob and reinstalled.
General: rearranged locker storage to stow bikes, reorganized fwd stateroom storage (junk room)

After completing all that work we thought we were good to go for at least a week as far as things breaking, but as soon as we left the dock we noticed the onboard GPS is completely dead. Not a big deal since we only use the chartplotter GPS anyway, but another thing that we need to fix eventually. But not today.

Where we are:
Location=St Leonards Creek
Lat=38 24.302 N
Lon=76 29.009 W

Solomons, MD - Lost Verizon

"We never stop working for you". At least that's what they claim -- until they do, in fact, decide to stop working for you. The other day Kevin noticed that our Verizon broadband card (that gives us fast internet access anywhere we get a cell phone signal) had stopped working. He called customer service to see if they could fix it and was transferred to the fraud department where a very angry, very rude woman informed him that the service had been discontinued because he had "violated the terms of service". Kevin politely asked how the terms had been violated, and approximately when, and what specifically he had done. Rude lady then snapped back that Verizon did not have to tell him any specifics, only that he had violated the terms and that he'd been cut off and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. Kevin was appalled at her attitude, and told her so, but she still would not give out any details. So if anyone was considering using Verizon broadband cards: buyer beware! Apparently they have an unadvertised usage limit on their 'Unlimited' broadband service that we exceeded. We do still have the cell phone service, and whenever we are near wi-fi we will have internet access, but the days of surfing the internet from remote anchorages are gone. Sigh.

Today UPS delivered two huge packages for us -- our new folding bikes. They are pretty neat -- they fold right in half and the handlebars fold down as well to make a neat little package. They don't look like your average ten-speed, but they get the job done. We took them out of the boxes, made a few adjustments, and took off for the grocery store. It's nice to have a new way of getting around. Kevin found the perfect place to store them, they both fit right in front of the genset with room to spare.

Solomons Island, MD - Amanda in DC

You can tell things have been quiet around here by the lack of posts. However, last weekend I did go into DC to visit Carrie, Dan, and four-month-old Sammy which was great. My day started at 5am on Friday, taking a cab to the next town to catch the commuter bus, which put me in DC at around 7am, way too early to see any sights. So I hung out at the Old Post Office (which is now a cafeteria) and at 9 am I wandered over to the Ford Theater, the site of Lincoln's assassination. Then I meandered around some of the Smithsonian galleries until it was time to catch the metro to visit Carrie.

Their house is adorable, and it is located near just about every possible shopping outlet and chain restaurant you could dream up. The house is huge -- especially to me after living on this boat for so long -- and they have a nice back porch where they've got Dan's latest purchase -- a massive bbq grill. So for dinner on Friday he grilled up some delicious steaks and portabella mushrooms. Then Saturday, Carrie and I got to work on covering the bright orange wall in the kitchen with a more sedate white. For some reason, the previous person had settled on a color scheme of sky blue and tangerine (!?) so Carrie has been slowly working to bring that color scheme to a more neutral tone. The orange had to go. With two people working, we had it done in no time and it was a big difference. It makes me wonder what my renters think of my "high noon" (desert brown) accent walls in my house. Oh well, too bad.

Dan kindly volunteered to babysit Sam while Carrie and I indulged in a chick flick -- "The Devil Wears Prada". I had low expectations, it is a fashion movie after all, but Meryl Streep never fails to deliver so it was actually pretty good. Of course the quality of the film was only secondary to the real reason for being at the movies: an excuse to indulge in movie popcorn with extra butter. The next evening, Carrie and Dan hosted a dinner party with another couple, Sean and John. Sean is an adventure traveler and has been all over, including a trip where she followed the route of the Tour de France while Lance Armstrong was riding in it. So hearing her

stories was really interesting.

I had a jam-packed weekend, got to catch up with Carrie, was able to hold, feed, and play with little Sam to my heart's content. He is so smart and such a good baby; it didn't even phase him to have this strange person making ga-ga eyes at him all the time -- he just went with the flow. You can tell he will be a real people-person, just like his parents. On the way back I realized that neither Carrie nor I took ONE SINGLE picture, even though we talked about it many times, and even left the camera out at one point to be sure to take photos. So I have manufactured one of Carrie, me, and Sam in front of the tangerine orange wall. That's the beauty of photoshop.

On the way back from Carrie's I stopped in at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History to have a look at the Hope Diamond (enormous 45 carat blue diamond). I wandered around the rest of the jewel exhibit, checking out how my engagement ring stacks up against the worlds biggest gems. I think it looks okay, especially when I "jedi-mind-trick" the photo so that it looks about the same size.

Solomons Island, MD

[Kevin's Post]Over the past few weeks I have been overhauling the genset cooling system. I replaced the raw water pump with a new one with a higher capacity. I took apart the heat exchanger and discovered that the coolant side of the heat exchanger had so much scale built up that it was actually restricting the coolant flow through the heat exchanger. Also, a coating of mineral deposits doesn't do much for your heat transfer either. So, I soaked that in acid for a few minutes and it is good as new (see the before and after pictures). I probably could have stopped right there, but after reading about antifreeze, I learned that antifreeze is actually a pretty bad coolant. It's primary job is to not freeze (hence the name anti-freeze). It is actually a much worse coolant than plain old distilled water. By a lot. In fact, if you can guarantee you'll never see freezing temperatures (which I can) you don't even need antifreeze. But you do need the corrosion inhibitors that the antifreeze provides. So I am now running straight distilled water plus a product called 'water wetter' which provides the corrosion inhibitors (and reduces the surface tension of the water to make it an even better coolant). After all this, the engine on the genset is running about 35 degrees cooler. I don't even think the thermostat is opening up completely at this point.

I have discovered the physical law of 'Conservation of Brokenness'. This law states that upon fixing one thing, something else will either break, or reveal its true state of brokenness. It's uncanny. Every time I declare victory over one problem, within a few hours a new one of equal significance appears. For example, I replaced the water pump on the genset, and the SAME DAY the float switch on the shower sump dies. I replaced the genset coolant, and within a few hours I go to change the oil and oil change pump impeller has stripped all it's vanes and won't pump. Now that the diesel on the genset is working great and can handle a 30 amp load without any effort, the generator (the part of the genset that is attached to the engine and converts rotation to electricity) is overheating and shutting down. So, now that goes to the top of my list of major boat issues. Stay tuned.

Anybody tried out the Google Earth stuff? We haven't heard from anybody who has actually tried it yet.

Editorial Note - Google Earth

We've added a cool new feature to the blog. If you look to the left, you'll see a map which contains a link to our current position using Google Earth. Google Earth, for those of you who haven't heard of it, is basically an electronic globe which uses satellite imagery covering every inch of the planet. The amount of detail is incredible. By clicking the map on the left, you'll be able to see a birdseye view of our exact location. You can zoom in, zoom out, and look to see what else is nearby. Before you try it for the first time, you'll need to download and install the Google Earth Client which you can get by following the link below the map on the left. It is free. After it is installed, click on the map to the left, it will launch Google Earth.

Solomons Island, MD

[Kevin's Post]When we were in the Bahamas, our outboard propeller hub got damaged rendering it unusable. There is this rubber part in the hub of the propeller which is designed to fail if you hit something (or several somethings) and protects the engine and the transmission from damage. In our case, ours failed just from throttling up too fast (we were in 20 feet of water). But most likely it was already damaged and just finally gave out. It is supposed to be easy and cheap to fix, but nobody in the Exumas could do it so we broke down and bought a new one. We waited 2 weeks and paid $265 for an $85 propeller that wasn't even the right pitch. That's boat maintenance in the Bahamas. The reason I am bringing all this up is because last week I shipped the old prop to get it rehubbed (to Kansas of all places). They rehubbed it and shipped it back to me the same day they received it. They charged us $33 and it is good as new. I could have fedexed it from the Bahamas, had it repaired and shipped back cheaper and faster than what we did. Another expensive boat maintenance lesson. Anyway, the silver lining is that at least now we have a spare prop for the outboard which is a very good thing to have. We met lots of other boaters that also damaged their prop hubs, one of them even resorted to buying a whole new outboard (faster than getting a new prop). If you ever need a propeller repaired, I highly recommend Midwest Propeller Service in Olathe, Kansas. http://www.midwestpropeller.com/

Amanda abandoned ship this morning to go spend the weekend at Carrie's new house and help paint their kitchen. I am staying with the boat babysitting the air conditioning strainer. There is a commuter bus that runs from nearby to DC and she will take the Metro from there. It only runs Monday-Friday so she won't be back till Monday.


We finally got our professional wedding photos recently (also on Bahamas time) and uploaded them to snapfish. So, if you wanted any prints but didn't want to pay 6 bucks, you can get them now for 12 cents. Or, if you want a pillowcase with my picture on it those are $19.99. The wedding album link on the left is updated to go to the new snapfish album.

Solomons Island, MD - Sammy the Sailor

This morning my friend Darlene said, "Write a post already." I know, I know -- the posts are few and far between, but honestly some days nothing exciting happens. So if you want to see entries like, "Hot outside. Watched TV." then that's what you'll get. CBS comes in really well on our rabbit ears and we are hooked on the American Idol rip-off "Rock Star: Supernova". Exciting, huh? See, Dar, I told you -- be careful what you wish for.

However, this was a pretty eventful week for us. First we ran into our old friends on Paragon (who we met down in the Bahamas and seem to run into fairly often). During the two weeks we've been here at the dock, they passed through Solomons, raced up to New York City, toured around there for a week, and got back again. Meanwhile, what did we do? (See the above paragraph...) Anyway, we had a nice dinner with them before they had to take off and continue down to Virginia.

The highlight of the week was seeing our friends Carrie and Dan and their new baby, little four-month-old Sammy. It was the first chance I'd had to see little Sam and he is adorable! Of course, we had to take the requisite "sailor hat" photo. The five of us went down to the boardwalk area to have lunch and walk around a little bit. I loved getting the chance to hold the little guy and seeing him smile his little toothless grin. I think Kevin was a little worried there that I might start campaigning for a munchkin of our own but rest assured I can't imagine having a baby on board a boat. It was great to have a chance to see them and the baby, thanks so much to Carrie and Dan for making the four hour round-trip.

Solomons Island, MD

[Kevin's Post]Not much to report here. We're still at the marina in Solomons Island enjoying the facilities. It is brutally hot here this week, it is supposed to get to 100 today and tomorrow. The water is so thick with jellyfish that the air conditioning through-hull is getting clogged on a regular basis. At night the water looks like something out of a horror movie there are so many of them. Luckily the through-hull is on the outside and not between the hulls, otherwise it would be impossible to clean without getting in the water. As it is I can reach it with a brush on a pole since it is only a couple feet below the waterline. There is a grill over the through-hull which keeps big stuff out and a strainer inside the boat that catches the smaller stuff. THe jellyfish are getting sucked against the grill and blocking the water flow. I'm having to clean it several times a day, but it is a small price to pay to keep the air conditioning running.

When we're not battling the jellyfish, we read, watch movies/tv, surf the internet, balance things on the cat's head, and occasionally do some work on the boat. I've dismantled the entire cooling system on the genset and have finally tracked down the correct parts manual for the genset diesel. So now I can actually order replacement parts. Its tough to get up the energy to do any projects outside with it being so hot, and we don't have too many inside projects.