by Judy Handley | Nov 10, 2005 | Sailing Logs Year 1, US - Boston to Norfolk |
Day 24, Year 1: The Engine is Coming
Date: Thursday, November 24, 2005
Weather: Continued Warm Fall Weather
Location: Oxford, Maryland, Tred-on-Avon, SailAway Marina
The new Yanmar 4JH4E/ZF15MIV (the part after the slash refers to the transmission) will arrive tomorrow and we will spend the weekend getting its new home ready. Mark and I worked with David Laux all day today taking various accessories out of the engine room and basically turning the boat inside out. Well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but for those of you who don’t live on a boat, I’ll try to paint a picture here of what I mean. I’ll start with removing the exhaust hose which runs under the battery compartment which is under the aft cabin bed. So to get to the exhaust hose, you have to take all of the bedding and put it in the v-berth and take the mattress off and put it in the aft head to get it out of the way. You then have to remove the boards under the mattress and remove the six batteries that run everything on this boat. And then you have to remove the plywood floor the batteries sit on to get to the exhaust hose. And since the new exhaust hose is twice the size of the old hose, you have to cut a bigger hole to get the hose from the engine room to back of the boat. And then you have to get out the vacuum and clean up the mess you made cutting the whole. And then . . . You get the picture. Inside-out might not be an exaggeration.
It is now 5:00 and the sun is going down. We just got the batteries back in place, but before putting the area temporarily back together so we can sleep tonight (on a slant), there is more work to be done. Dave is out in the dinghy and Mark is in the battery compartment trying to pull the stainless exhaust fitting off the back of the boat. This weekend, once the new exhaust hose arrives, that hole in the boat will have to be enlarged to accommodate the larger exhaust system. And then we will have to remove everything again so the hose can be installed. Sounds like fun to me. And that reminds me of a sailing story. Friends of ours from Concord, Jim and Teresa Speigel, once sailed with us for a weekend from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to Rockport, Massachusetts, and back to Portsmouth. We had a great evening at the Isles of Shoals, but the next night we rocked and rolled terribly in the Rockport anchorage. It was so rough that we had to leave before dawn. We flew back to Portsmouth in very windy conditions. After that weekend, all Jim had to say was, “And this is what you do for fun?” I thought of those words today, but the answer is still, “Yes, this is what we do for fun.” Things have not been going as we had hoped, but we are meeting fantastic new friends and seeing the US of A at its best. There are wonderful people out here ready to help at every turn and it is unfortunate that we had to have a turn of bad luck to experience this. But it is truly wonderful to live each day, learn new things, and meet incredible people. Today a guy named Frank Lawlor came by the boat. David Laux has built a couple of different boats for Frank, and his wife, Liz, who live close by in Royal Oaks. He came by to meet us and offer a car or a place to sleep that wouldn’t be “on a slant.” For now we are doing fine, but we did get Frank’s phone number just in case.
In 1971, when I was teaching high school in Cleveland, Ohio, I went to see Donny Hathaway and Aretha Franklin in concert at Cleveland State University. They sang a song that has been spinning through my head all day. I think it is called, “You’ve Got a Friend.” Linda Stuart, a very close and wonderful friend of mine from the Concord School District, gave me a “friends” CD mix as a going away gift and that song is on the CD. I’m playing it right now and thinking of you Linda. “If you’re down and troubled and you need some loving care, and nothing, nothing is going right, close your eyes and think of me and soon I will be there to brighten up even your darkest night . . . If the sky above you grows dark and full of clouds and that old north wind begins to blow, keep your head together and call my name out loud and soon you’ll hear me knocking at your door . . . You just call out my name and you know that wherever I am I’ll come running to see you again. Winter, spring, summer, or fall, all you have to do is call and I’ll be there, you’ve got a friend.” When I feel like things just aren’t going as expected, I think of friends and family like Linda and know that everything will really be alright. I just have to have patience.
by Judy Handley | Nov 9, 2005 | Sailing Logs Year 1, US - Boston to Norfolk |
Day 23, Year 1: Success
Date: Wednesday, November 9, 2005
Weather: Too Busy to Notice
Location: Oxford, Maryland, Tred-on-Avon, SailAway Marina
I started the day thinking that I would go next door to the Hinkley marina to do laundry and take advantage of their wireless internet to do some long overdue e-mail replies. While I was doing that, I thought Mark could be working on preparing the boat for engine removal. But plans quickly changed.
It’s not even 5:00 o’clock and we are already winding down from an amazing day. Our “engine doctor”, David Laux, arrived at 8:30 this morning to begin the removal of our beloved Perkins 4-108 engine. The first job was to move the boat to a different slip at high tide. We had to move another boat belonging to a friend of Dave’s and then slip in behind so we would be next to a bulkhead as this would facilitate engine removal. We started the engine and tried to get out of the slip that had taken us all afternoon and evening on Monday to get into because of the shallow depths. Of course, we hit the sandbar at the entrance to the slip right off, but with persistence, we were able to make the move. By 9:30, I realized that I would not be doing laundry today. We were really going to remove the engine, so the process began. We started taking anything off the engine that could be easily removed and by 1:00 we were ready to take the engine out.
I found the whole process amazing. The engine probably weighs about 500 pounds with the transmission and other parts removed. Somehow, Dave, Mark, and I were going to wrestle it out of here and into Dave’s truck. All I could think was, “Fat chance.” But I was wrong. With a ? ton chain hoist attached to our mainsail halyard and the use of our boom, we were able to lift the engine out with very little effort and swing the engine to land and into the back of David’s truck. It was unbelievably easy and I would never have imagined that it could have been so. Let’s just hope the installation of the new engine goes as smoothly.
Here’s a side note . . . Last Monday as we were preparing to leave Lewes, Delaware, I walked up to the City Hall to pay the final dock fees. As I was counting out the money, a woman walked up to me and said, “Hello, Judy.” I looked at her and just couldn’t place the face. She explained that she knew me and my children, Heather and Justin, and I still couldn’t figure out who she was. She then told me she was Gail Riggs, the secretary at the Seaford Kindergarten, where I had taught before moving to New Hampshire. I was so surprised and so pleased to see an old friend. She gave me the phone number of fellow teacher that I had been very close to when teaching in Delaware and I promised to contact Sally Moneymaker. Tonight I called Sally and explained that we were now in Oxford, Maryland. She asked where we were docked and I explained that we were between the Hinkley Yard and Cutts and Chase and she said, “You are in SailAway Marina. We own the slips there along with a couple of other people.” And all I could think is, “What a very small world.” And it was great to make contact with old friends again.
As I look out into the night sky, I see a perfectly half moon. Could we possibly have the new engine installed before full moon? That is my secret hope. Well, I guess it is no longer my secret, but I will say “our” secret.
by Judy Handley | Nov 8, 2005 | Sailing Logs Year 1, US - Boston to Norfolk |
Day 22, Year 1: Living on a Slant
Date: Tuesday, November 8, 2005
Weather: No Time to Notice
Location: Oxford, Maryland, Tred-on-Avon
When I sent yesterday’s log, we were aground and waiting for high tide in order to move into the slip we will call home for the next week or so. The tide rose and we were able to make it as far as the entrance to the slip, but once again found ourselves aground. It was still not high tide, so we thought we might have a chance to move into the slip at the height of the tide, but try as we might, we were unable to move. I was on the phone talking to Claire McKellar back at Shipyard Quarters while we were waiting and she recommended getting as much weight off the boat as we could. We emptied the water tanks, took the dinghy and motor off the boat, off-loaded all extra fuel and water tanks, but nothing we did seemed to help. We decided to call it a night and try again in the morning. At low tide during the night, we found ourselves sitting on the bottom and leaning to one side. Getting out of bed was an interesting experience. Heeling while sailing is one thing, but heeling while sitting still is quite another!
We rose early and once again started the process of trying to get into our destination. The tide was much higher than the night before, and with the help of lots of strategically placed lines, we were finally successful. We then began the process of removing our dodger and bimini and all the walls surrounding the engine room in preparation for removing the engine. We did all of this three years ago when we removed the Perkins 4-108 engine to have it overhauled. The “been there, done that” feeling of doing this a second time was a bit depressing, but Mark kept reminding me to think of how happy we will be when the new engine is installed. The whole process was made even harder by the fact that the old engine looks brand new and has been running great since the v-drive was repaired. If we were going to do coastal sailing or go only as far as the Caribbean, the current engine would be fine, but it is a long trip around the world and a new engine certainly makes sense. It is just a lot of work at a time when we had hoped to be well on our way to Bermuda.
At low tide during the afternoon, we were able to see the boat from land. There she was, heeling to one side with at least a foot of the bottom exposed. At least the top third of the rudder was exposed, but we have now adjusted to the twice daily slanted floor. Living on a slant is not all bad.
Tomorrow we will begin the process of removing the old engine. Hope with us that all goes smoothly.
by Judy Handley | Nov 7, 2005 | Sailing Logs Year 1, US - Boston to Norfolk |
Day 16 through Day 21: A Martin Clan Farewell
Date: Wednesday, November 2 through Monday, November 7, 2005
Weather: Glorious Fall Weather, Sunny and Warm
Location: Oxford, Maryland, Tred-on-Avon
It is Monday afternoon, November 7. If we had not had engine problems, we would be headed for Bermuda today, but instead we are sitting here aground (Yes, you read that right. We are aground.) Oxford, Maryland, on the Tred Avon. It is the eighth beautiful, warm day in a row, so we are enjoying the weather while it lasts. But we are enjoying it about a football field’s length from where we need to be. They say you haven’t sailed in the Chesapeake until you have gone aground, so I guess we can now say we have sailed the Chesapeake! Actually, we knew we were headed for a slip that has only about five feet of water at low tide. We will sit here aground until the tide comes up and then head into the slip where we need to be for the next week or so. Once in the slip, at low tide we will sink into the mud, but that should not be a problem. I say “should not be a problem” because we are about five inches deeper than normal due to all the supplies we have stored for the trip. Hopefully that won’t cause a problem. We at least went aground close to some piers. We are tied off and actually Mark is ashore right now checking out the situation.
We arrived in the Magothy River near Annapolis last Tuesday afternoon. As I explained in an earlier log, my nephew, Tommy, his wife, Marilou, and their five children (Josh, Ryan, Madelyn, Cory Hayes, and Olivia-ranging in age from sixteen to one) live just a few blocks from the Magothy Marina, so we made that our home-base during the day and traveled to and from the boat by bike, golf cart, or borrowed van.. On Wednesday, Mark, my brother, Dickie, and I drove from Annapolis back to the Lewes, Delaware, area to get my brother’s van. Then on Thursday, I went shopping for the many items we still needed to provision the boat for our travels. Of course, we will buy fresh food and other items all along the way, but we want to leave with all the basics onboard. I’m not crazy about shopping, but in this case, shopping was the easy part. It was putting everything away that took lots of time and ingenuity, but with a little help from family, we found a home for everything. I continued shopping on Friday while we were waiting for other family members to arrive and didn’t finish until Sunday night, but the good news is that we were able to get most everything on our lists.
Now back to the family gathering . . . The first thing you need to understand is that when I refer to family, I am referring not only my children, but also my brothers, my sisters, their spouses, their children, and their grandchildren. When the whole clan is together it is about forty people and we actually vacation together often. We do everything in mass. So Friday afternoon the masses began arriving. They came from North Carolina, Ohio, and West Virginia. The Massachusetts, Florida, and Georgia parts of the family were not able to come, but twenty-three of us had a wonderful weekend together. We did more shopping, gave tours of the boat, enjoyed downtown Annapolis, enjoyed each other, and basked in the absolutely gorgeous weather. The leaves here have started to change and that added a hint of color to the weekend. Even the evenings were warm enough for us to stay out on the deck well after midnight, but I must admit that we had a little wood stove on the deck to keep us warm in the wee hours of the morning. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect setting for a gathering. For those family members who couldn’t make it, we missed you very much and you will simply have to plan to fly to visit us somewhere along the way.
When my family gets together, parting is always hard, but yesterday’s goodbyes were a little tougher than usual. Rachel and Billy, my nephew Rex’s college-aged children, had to leave at 6:00 am, so we had to say goodbye to them on Saturday night. My nephew, Barry, and his wife Beth, were the next to leave, followed by Rex, and his friend Anissa. They were all traveling back to West Virginia. Later in the afternoon, my sister Patsy’s daughter, Jennifer, her husband, Bill, and their son, Jacob, left for Charlotte, North Carolina. My sister Patsy, her husband, Joe, and their other daughter, Janet, left later in the afternoon. Janet was flying back to Columbus, Ohio, and Patsy and Joe were headed to Ohio for a visit with friends before returning home to Calabash, North Carolina. That left my brother, Dickie, his wife, Conda, and, of course, Tommy, Marilou, and their children. We spent a quiet evening cooking, reading with the kids, and saying the final farewells when we left to go to the boat. I feel blessed to have such a wonderful, supportive family. I am the baby of the family and I know my remaining brother and sister worry about Mark and I as we set off on this journey. I will think of them everyday as we travel and look forward to flying home from New Zealand to gather once again with the Martin Clan.
Mark is back from his information gathering walk ashore and just got off the phone with the engine doctor. The tide is rising, so we are no longer aground. We will be in the slip before the sun sets and prepare to begin the old engine removal tomorrow. I’ll check in with you then.
by Judy Handley | Nov 1, 2005 | Sailing Logs Year 1, US - Boston to Norfolk |
Day 15, Year 1: The Chesapeake Bay
Date: Tuesday, November 1, 2005
Weather: Beautiful, Warm Fall Day, No Wind AM, S 12-14 knots PM
Location: Magothy Marina, Maryland (near Annapolis)
This is the log for Tuesday, November 1. We left Chesapeake City at 8:00 am and arrived here at the Magothy Marina near Annapolis at 4:00 pm. It was another beautiful day, a few clouds and not as warm as Monday, and again we had to motor. In the morning the winds were almost non-existent and then in the afternoon the 12-14 knot winds were right on our nose. As we completed the trip through the C & D Canal, the realization hit us that we should have been here a week and a half ago, but at least we are here. We heard from the engine “doctor”, David Laux, today and Mack-Boring is guaranteeing delivery of the new engine and transmission no later than Monday, November 14. There is hope that it will arrive by the end of next week, but in any case, we will do the installation as soon as it arrives and hope to be really on our way south by Friday, November 18. At that point, we will hope for a weather window to get us to Bermuda. We will be a couple of weeks off schedule, but we are learning to deal with that. We realize that there could be other delays, but we are still optimistic that we will be in Bermuda by Thanksgiving.
For now, we will enjoy our time here in the Chesapeake Bay. We lived on the Eastern Shore of Maryland when we started sailing in the mid-1980’s and being here feels like coming home to see an old friend. We will stay in the Magothy River until Sunday and then head down to Oxford, Maryland, on the Eastern Shore. It is there that we will prepare Windbird for her new engine. This weekend my family will gather in Annapolis, instead of the originally planned Hampton, Virginia, for a family farewell. Since my nephew, Tommy, and his wife, Marilou, live just a few blocks from the marina where we are staying, we will have a home base for the family gathering. We are looking forward to that. Between now and Friday, we will shop ’til we drop. We had planned to spend this week in Hampton, Virginia, provisioning, but we will just do it here. Fresh food provisioning will have to wait, but we can get everything else onboard between now and Friday..
I will probably not write another log until Monday, but I will have lots to report then. Hope the weather wherever you are is as beautiful and warm as it is here. After the long week of rainy, cool weather in Lewes, the blue skies and bright sunshine here in the Chesapeake are glorious!
by Judy Handley | Oct 31, 2005 | Sailing Logs Year 1, US - Boston to Norfolk |
Day 14, Year 1: Strangers in the Night
Date: Monday, October 31, 2005
Weather: No Wind, Warm and Sunny
Location: Chesapeake City, Chesapeake and Delaware Canal
We did it! We pulled away from the Town Dock in Lewes at 10:15 this morning and arrived here in Chesapeake City in the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal 12 hours later. The transmission fix-up was very successful and got a good work out today as we had to motor all 12 hours. It was a warm, sunny, short sleeves, no shoes day, but there was not enough wind to sail. After more than a week of very cool weather, the warm, sunny day was gift. There will be plenty of other days for sailing.
The sun slipped beneath the horizon at 5:00 today, just as the Delaware Bay started to narrow. There had been a fair amount of ship traffic all day, but in twilight going into darkness, the traffic increased. One after another we spotted the light patterns, identified shapes on the radar screen, and then quietly, one stranger after another passed by us. This continued until we made our turn to enter the canal. Traveling by night in busy traffic lanes is not my favorite thing, but I am glad to be on the way again.
We hope to hear confirmation in the morning that our new engine will arrive next week. That will be welcome news indeed. If all goes well, we will still leave Norfolk for Bermuda well before Thanksgiving. For now, I’m just hoping for another warm and sunny day tomorrow.
