continued… On the walk back, we marveled at how different the town looked now that the extra infrastructure for the boat show had been cleared away. This entire street had been part of the show. Only the sidewalk in front of the stores had been open to the public. Even yesterday, the road was open, but the parking spots were still closed off, and so was pedestrian traffic along the waterfront.
The Market was to the right, on the other side of the street.
Thursday, October 16 — Dawn this morning.
Yesterday morning, Eric was busy with more boat maintenance. He changed the batteries in the refrigerator sensors. He unpacked the lazarette in order to access the wireless temperature sensor for the inverter blower and changed the batteries in it. Eric was relieved that the system remembered all the settings and he didn’t need to reprogram the settings.
We have two modes of operation: anchoring and marina. When we’re in a marina, some of the gear that we need for anchoring gets stowed in the dinghy. He unpacked the dinghy so that he could work on it. Then he tested the new dinghy motor battery that he’d bought at the boat show (it had arrived via UPS a couple of days ago) and confirmed it worked.
Next he tackled the handles. Our dinghy has 6 handles that were factory installed. As we’d already mentioned, two had broken. While we were in Norfolk, Eric had purchased special line specifically for the handle repair project. He installed the lines and the handles (the one he’d purchased and the hose). Much to his delight, the hose worked great as a handle — almost as good as the one we’d bought.
When he was done, he put all the stuff away that had come out of the dinghy and the lazarette, which was a significant task.
At one point, we all took a break from chores/school so we could go say our goodbyes to Blue Heeler, who were leaving today to start heading south. Since we were going to the Eastern Caribbean and they were going to The Bahamas, we likely wouldn’t see them again. The hardest part about boating is leaving the friends that have been made.
After we finished chores/school, we went to The Market for lunch. Now that the boat show was over, the tents and other obstructions were being removed, and we were starting to see what the City Dock area actually looked like.
Tuesday, October 14 — Sunday night was really rainy, but by the Monday morning, the precipitation slowed down to a drizzle. It was drizzly and cool all day, making it a great day for boat projects. Eric went back to the wing engine exhaust project. He undid the hoses and tightened the wing engine exhaust elbow. When he tested it, he was frustrated to see that there was still debris in the air. But after inspecting it more closely, he’d determined it was probably smoke from the paint; he’s pretty sure that the exhaust was properly put back together and wasn’t leaking. He’ll run it some more over the next few days to be certain.
Once Keith was done with his school work, Eric and Keith went to a restaurant called the Iron Rooster, which was located near The Market. Christi stayed aboard to work on her land-life project.
In the afternoon, Eric again hosted two D & D sessions aboard Kosmos.
Tuesday October 7 — The moon was just as amazing this morning as it was preparing to set as it had been last night shortly after it rose.
We’re sad to report that the marina was rolly and uncomfortable. It didn’t seem to have any protection from the direction that the wind and waves were coming from today. 🙁
When we were in Baltimore, we’d mentioned that Eric had bought a replacement part for the wing engine exhaust from a supplier in Annapolis, called Portside Marine. This morning, he hailed a ride share to go pick the part up, which was a short drive from our marina in Annapolis.
Continue readingSaturday, Sept 27 — First thing this morning, Eric went to move car. His plan was to move the car out of the lot and then park right back in it. However, the lot was closed – cars could only leave, they couldn’t enter. Since it was so early in the morning, he decided to see if he could find street parking along The Wharf. He found a spot, but the tire popped when he bumped into the curb while parallel parking. Then he noticed the sign said 10-minute parking. Argh!
He changed the tire with the donut in the trunk, then went to the car rental agency at the airport to exchange cars. The staff in the office told him they couldn’t help him until after he called into the customer service line. He was very frustrated about being on hold for 7-minutes while the staff at the counter were twiddling their thumbs. Fortunately, the agency exchanged the car with no issues, though they did charge $100 for the tire. And he’d forgotten to fill the tank up before returning the car, and we are still waiting to find out what they’re going to charge us for the gas.
Meanwhile, on The Wharf, there was a big event. Christi and Keith watched a giant crowd of people congregate on the pier to the west of the marina, with loud music playing. The music stopped and the whole crowd moved to the boardwalk and started walking east. They thought it may have been a fundraiser walk, but weren’t sure. Here was a photo of the pier after the crowd cleared out.
Once Eric had the replacement car, he headed back to The Wharf. He drove around for a solid half-hour and couldn’t find a parking spot anywhere. Much to his frustration, many of the lots and garages were closed on the weekends. He gave up and finally parked at the outrageously expensive Wharf parking garage. We tried to hurry, but since we hadn’t realized there would be a rush to leave, none of us had really gotten going on the day yet. By the time each of us showered, ate breakfast and got everything ready to go out for the day, almost two hours had passed. The parking fee was $24.00.
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