Stuck in Annapolis! - By Myself! - Broke Down! - And she left me!

First, I have to apologize for the late blog entry. It was my turn to do the blog, but I’ve been busy!

Before I explain the title, I’ll tell you about our trip from St. Michaels to Annapolis. We looked at the charts for our journey from St Michaels to Annapolis. Easy - we just take a NW heading across the Chesapeake, and we’re there! Well - not very scenic. So we decided to go through another narrows! Instead, we headed north to the Kent Narrows, and then back a little south.

And they weren't kidding when they said this one was NARROW! You don’t want to meet someone coming the other way! Plus - the current was ripping! And the channel coming out was also narrow and shallow. 

There was also someone / something out there watching us! 

We are seeing a lot of Osprey and Osprey nests up here. They remind us of our beloved Eagles back on the Mighty Miss.

It was a nice, comfortable ride, and we soon had the Bay Bridge in site.

Admiral Pat does all the navigating. First, the paper charts are consulted to get a general idea of what route, and which portion of the water-way to follow. Then she fires up her i-Pad, and plots the course with Navionics - a computer based charting program. She just taps on the screen to insert waypoints. We then take the GPS coordinates for those waypoints, and enter them into the chart plotter on the boat. A chart plotter is “sort of” like an automotive GPS, but with a LOT more cool features!

Then the chart plotter generates the course to follow. Once underway, we can “give” the course to the autopilot, and the boat will steer itself along the course. All we have to do is set the throttles, and sit back and watch where we are going. If we need to “dodge” an obstruction, or another boat, I can just reach down on the autopilot, and push a button to turn the boat so many degrees to the left or right. After we clear the obstruction, another button tells the autopilot to go back to the original course. Pretty neat!!

The autopilot got us out of the Kent Narrows, and to the Bay Bridge. As we were getting close to our destination, I zoomed the plotter out to see our arrival point. The course entered had us going a little too far west, and then back east, so I decided to take a “short cut” to Back Creek, where the marina we were going to is. 

Well...What those plotters do NOT tell you, is that there are a gazillion crab pots out there, a thousand fishing boats pulling planer boards with 10 lines out behind them, and the National Nood Sailboat races are happening! I think the few miles I saved was MORE than eaten up in dodge maneuvers!

We did manage to make it unscathed to our marina on Back Creek.

Man - I just love the names of all these back bays and rivers up here!

Spa Creek, College Creek, Shady Lake, Hearing Bay, Oyster Creek!

When we hit Annapolis, Pat's friends Ted and Wanda picked us up, and took us on a tour of the Naval Academy! They had also joined us in Florida, and taken us to their winter place for a day. Ted taught sailing at the Academy, so we got the “complete” tour! And some behind the scenes stuff!

I hardly know where to begin talking about this place! It is absolutely spectacular! Many of the buildings were built in the 1800’s. Above are the officers quarters. I wouldn’t mind living there!

The museum had numerous model ships collected from all over the world depicting the history of Naval combat throughout the years. 

The church has John Paul Jones’ tomb in the lower level.

The rooms for the enlisted remind me of my dorm room in college.

The engineering students were building a race car.

Our day at the Academy gave us a greater appreciation of our armed forces.

Thank you so much Ted & Wanda!

Well,  now for the She Left Me! part. Pat has a group of girlfriends who are her scuba buddies, and all live back home in the Twin Cities.  They have gone on dive trips together all over the world! A pretty close nit group I must say! One of the girls moved out near Annapolis recently. When she heard we would be here, of course they wanted to get together. Well - the rest of the Scuba Girls all flew out to join them! So Pat took off for a few days to join the group.

That’s OK - I had some maintenance to do on the boat anyhow. The oil needs changing, the raw water pump impellers need replacing, the deck carpets need scrubbing, and the pooper tank level indicator needs a new part installed. So off I go to the engine room for a few days. First thing I noticed was a spot below the port raw water pump. Wasn’t there when I did my daily engine room check on the way here! So I fired up the engine to have a look. Sure enough, it’s leaking out of the shaft right behind the belt pulley. I pull the pump off, and can see the bearing is moving out of the housing.

Darn - how do I get a new pump here??? I get on-line, and can’t find a match to the part number! What now! I call Mercury, and they tell me it is discontinued, but gave me a replacement pump number that is a direct replacement. OK - so I find that one on-line. However, there is no pulley on it. The pulley has to be pressed off the old, and onto the new. Darn - forgot to bring my 2 ton bench press!!!

OK - I can get the pump, but need someone to put on the pulley. But who and where??? A call to my Cruisers Yachts buddy Mike from St Michaels, and he had just the marine repair shop to do it! I called them, and no problem. Pump should be here Sat or Monday, the marina manager will let me use his car to drive there, and they will swap the pully.

OK - now on to the pooper tank. The level indicator has been acting up. Called the manufacturer a few days ago, and we deciphered it was the logic board. A new - improved model is available. That arrived today. I put it in, and still the same problem. Another call, and the only other thing it can be is a new tank probe. It’s on the way.

So that’s my last few days, while Pat is having fun with the girls!

OH WELL - we really can’t complain. The boat has been running really well! This is the first break down - could have been much worse - knock on fiberglass! We haven’t run aground, and haven’t hit anything either! So goes the life of a Looper! I suspect we won’t be out of here until Tuesday.
 

Stick Around - Much More To Come!

Captn Ken

St. Michaels, MD!

First I had to share this photo of our last sunset in Oxford, MD.  I thought it was a pretty darn good picture!  Such a beautiful evening it was. 

We pulled out of Oxford, passing some of the homes along the water!  These homes are ginormous!  Almost all of the marker poles had Ospreys sitting on nests waiting for babies!  We had decided to alter our original course and pass through the Knapps Narrows rather than going back out the way we came.  The guidebook said that on summer weekends it is a pretty crazy place to have to wait out the raising of the bascule bridge.  The skies were gray and foggy when we left but by the time we arrived at the narrows, it was just cloudy!  

The bascule bridge was listed in the guidebook as a 12’ clearance.  It was low tide so Ken called the bridge tender, told him we needed 13’ and inquired as to the height today.  “13 is your lucky number today.”  We approached slowly to make sure we could clear the bridge.  We cleared it and were on our way!  Not a lot of room to spare!

The  further north we go on the Chesapeake, the higher the prices are at marinas!   We arrived at Higgins Yacht Yard conveniently located a block from the grocery store and town and also very close to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum which we wanted to visit!  

Another Cruiser’s Yachts buddy of Ken’s that boats in these waters came and joined us for dinner!  Thank you Mike for taking the time to come meet us!

The Chesapeake Maritime Museum has certainly been a highlight of St. Michaels!  We spent an entire day exploring the museum’s many exhibits.

This screwpile lighthouse was moved to the site!  Screwpile lighthouses are so named because they are “screwed” into the Bay bottom.

We could watch them building boats and restoring boats.

You could practice scooping up oysters with tongs.  The tongs were very long and very heavy!  Ken scooped a good amount of oysters!

There was a great exhibit on Tugboats telling museum visitors all the Tugboats have been and are still used for!

The stories in the “rising tide” exhibit were pretty scary.  Some of the islands that used to have residents are now totally empty.  The picture at the right shows high tide 2008 to 2009.  The fear is that some of these sea level islands on the bay will someday be under water and uninhabitable!

 

Mama  duck just had 11 babies!  Love it!

The town of St. Michaels is charming.  There are many fine shops to wander through and great restaurants too. 

Of course we had to stop for ice cream! 

The Episcopal church pictured plays chimes on the hour and half hour so you always know what time it is!

This purple gift store is called a “Wish called Wanda”.  My good friend Wanda and her husband Ted will join us for lunch on Sunday in Annapolis so this picture is for her!

Lastly,  I updated maps as to how far we have come on this trip of a lifetime!  We have traveled over 4,500 miles on the trip.  We are now spending time on the Chesapeake Bay.

The Chesapeake Bay is a HUGE body of water.  Many boaters spend weeks or even months exploring all the rivers and creeks that feed the Chesapeake!  There is also tons of history that has happened in these waters!  It is 200 miles long from top to bottom but has thousands of miles of shoreline with all the rivers that feed it!  We have tried to pick stops on the Chesapeake either rich with history or recommended by other “loopers”.  We have not been disappointed but I know we are only scratching the surface.  Tomorrow we will head to Annapolis, home of the US Naval Academy so another blue line will be drawn to the other side of the Bay!   We still have Baltimore at the top of the bay and then we connect with Delaware Bay via the C & D canal!  Then it is on to New York City by June 1!

Stay tuned readers!  There is a lot more to come!  Thanks for coming along!   Pat

A trip to Cutts and Case!

On Tuesday, we traveled to Oxford, MD., the home of Cutts & Case Shipyard. We didn’t know they were there, but saw this building as we were walking thru town. Turns out this is a family owned shipyard that specializes in building custom wooden boats. They also do repairs and rebuilds of newer boats. We walked into the shop to find all kinds of projects underway.

One young man, full of sawdust, and his pants full of dried glue from many past projects, stopped and chatted with us briefly. He explained the unique process that Edmund Cutts developed to lay up their wooden hulls. Instead of heavy planking, or veneers laid in opposite grain directions over stringers and other framework, they lay two layers of planking, the first thicker than the second, over a removable mold. In the photo below you can see the two layers at the transom of this hull under construction.

What sets a Cutts wooden hull apart from all others is his patented construction technique. After the first, thicker planking is on, they route grooves in it from one gunnel, down the side, across the bottom, and up to the other gunnel. Into these grooves they lay kevlar cord, and epoxy it into place. Then the second layer of lighter planking is secured with epoxy, using temporary screws and nails to hold it in place.

This gives the hull the necessary strength with much less interior frame work, which leaves the interior design much more flexible. Also, there are no fasteners exposed to the corrosive sea water.

The photo below is a sample of this technique. 

The  photo below is of Edmund's personal boat he was building when he died in 2009. 

Here is some of the memorabilia that was in their showroom. 

A trip to Cutts and Case is like a trip back in time.

We thoroughly enjoyed finding this treasure.

Captn Ken