Category Archives: Upgrade

Getting Ready to Leave For Bermuda

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Sunday, November 2, 2025 —

The time changed today for Daylight Savings. Eric was up at 0500. While this was certainly not a sunrise photo, we thought we’d post a photo of how beautiful the marina was today with all the leaves turning pretty colors.

In good news, it looked like there was going to be a weather window to Bermuda on Wednesday. It wasn’t going to be great conditions, but it would be good enough. In anticipation of the passage, Eric spent the day getting the boat organized for our upcoming passage:

He repacked part of the forward stateroom (Keith’s room). Since we’ve been here so long, lots of stuff has come out of the cabinets. Getting it all back in was a challenge.

He checked the generator coolant, which meant moving stuff in the engine room out of the way so he could take the cover off. He also put an extra bilge pad under generator.

There was a little corrosion on the raw water pump, so he scraped it off and added a some anti-corrosion coating. 

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And Even More Exploring and Boat Chores in Annapolis, MD

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The dawn on Monday, October 20 wasn’t dramatic. But one of the things that makes dawns special was that they were rarely the same.

We were pleased to report that it was calm in marina today, which was a huge relief. We needed to rent a car to stock up on supplies for our upcoming trip to the Caribbean. The marina was going to charge us $40 per night for parking. Eric did a little searching and found another marina just outside of town that was less expensive and had free parking — the marina fee and car rental fee together would be the same as what we were paying now for the slip here in Annapolis Yacht Basin. Eric made arrangement to move Kosmos to the other marina on Wednesday and rent a car on Thursday. We decided to fuel up during the move. 

In anticipation for the fuel up, Eric checked all the raycor filters and added the fuel additives Biobor and Stanadyne to the tank. Eric forgot there was back pressure in the new pump and spilled some fuel when checking the filters. He got fuel all over himself.  

After we finished school and chores, we walked to Picante for lunch. Eric hadn’t eaten there yet, and he loved it. Eric hadn’t really done much sightseeing in town yet, so we walked by the State House and took side streets back to the City Dock, including several that none of us had been on before. While most of the trees were still green, a few were changing colors.

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Replacing Anchor Chain Markers and Exploring Fell’s Point, Baltimore, Maryland

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Monday, August 18 — Today there was no rain in forecast, but it was ominous outside. It was 73-degrees Fahrenheit, a strong, cool wind and very grey skies. Eric decided it was a good day to redo the chain markers. Over the years, we’ve tried an assortment of ways to try to mark the chain at every 50-feet so that we knew exactly how much chain was out. We started with paint, which flaked off quickly. We tried plastic inserts next, but they popped out pretty fast. We then tried colored zip ties and colored tapes, but they tended to break and fall off after a while.

A while ago, Eric had found some plastic inserts that screwed in, and he was hopeful that the screw would mean they would stay in place and not pop out. We hadn’t put them in yet because we needed the right kind of dock – one with a pole at the end that could handle the weight and one long enough to stretch the chain all the way out. This was the spot. We carefully lowered the anchor and placed it on the dock. Then we let out all the chain, winding it up and down the length of the finger.

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Waterman’s with Miss Roxy and Portsmouth with Bigger Boat

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Sunrise on Wednesday, July 9, 2025:

Eric’s morning chore was to grease the windlass. We’d replaced our windlass last year before we left San Diego with an updated version of the same model. Eric was pleased to find that the updated model was easier to service than the last one. It was easy to take apart — just one screw and 2-bolts. This model also doesn’t need the oil changed; our old one did. 

In the afternoon, we went to Virginia Beach to visit Miss Roxy. On the way, we stopped at West Marine to pick up some more parts. West Marine didn’t take as long as we’d anticipated, so we had some extra time to kill. We decided to visit the famous Oceanfront boardwalk. We parked at a public parking garage that Karen had told us was the cheapest parking garage/lot in the area.

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Dinner at The Blue Talon Bistro in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia

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Monday, July 7, continued… As we stated earlier, we were confused about Colonial Williamsburg. It was apparently still an active town with restaurants and shops and other amenities… but apparently you needed to buy a ticket to go into the town? It looked like there was a small section of it called Merchant Square where people could see the historical buildings without buying a ticket. We decided to go there for an early dinner and try to get clarification on what exactly the sightseeing activities in Colonial Williamsburg entailed.

It was about a 10-mile scenic drive from Jamestown. As we neared the town, we drove through William and Mary College, which was founded in 1693. The old buildings were charming. We parked on Boundary Street, the street that separated the college from the edge of town. It was hot and we’d already done a lot of walking, so we didn’t do much exploring by foot. We picked the first open restaurant that looked good, a French restaurant called The Blue Talon Bistro which was around the corner on Prince George Street.

As short as our walk was, it was still pretty with all the mature trees and beautiful old buildings.

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