We have been so busy that I haven't gotten a chance to write anything down, let alone upload a web page update. The increasingly chilly weather is a very good motivator to get our current task -- installing the diesel heater -- completed. We fervently hope that we will be underway soon, and filling these pages again with exciting adventures of tropical places. How depressing it would be to see snow on our poor deck!
It was just a little strange, taking a few weeks of "vacation" from our cruising life. We gulped the thin air of Colorado, re-acquainted our butts with saddle horses, saw dentists and doctors and the motor vehicle administration, and visited with family and friends. Colorado allows early voting, so after a crash course with the phone-book-thick voter's guide to familiarize ourselves with the myriad ballot items, we did our civic duty. I had a few disorienting moments when the habits of boat life conflicted with those of landlubbing -- my first thought on seeing boxes of food stacked high in my mother-in-law's pantry was, "As soon as we get underway those will just topple right over" -- but in the end the seduction of a full-size refrigerator and a bed you can actually walk around wasn't enough to woo us away from our little boat.
It was nice to get back "home". I arrived a few days earlier than Britt because of my high school reunion (which was a blast but left me so hoarse I couldn't talk for two days), and immediately set to work. Windom was still on stilts, so I checked out the new bottom paint job (looked fine) and the newly washed and waxed hull (looked fabulous). There were quite a few barnacles on the lower boot stripe, which I knocked off with an ice scraper; we probably should raise the waterline a few inches in the rear. I put a new zinc on the prop and replaced the one in the fridge condenser, and touched up the interior teak.
After Britt returned and we got dropped back in the water, the real work began. So far, it mostly looks like we've converted our nice tidy boat-home into a jumbled-up junkheap. We're putting the furnace and the "instant" water heater under the aft cabin berth, so the first thing we had to do was move all the junk in the aft cabin (a.k.a. "the garage") elsewhere. Then we had to remove all the stuff in the under-berth space, including the existing water heater -- which means we have no hot water for the duration. The heater we're installing is a pumped hot-water system, with hoses running around the boat going to blower-driven radiators. In order to drill holes for running the hoses we had to empty all the lockers where the hoses would run. Where do you put stuff when you have to move it out of its storage area? After all, we don't have a whole lot of extra room! The forward shower is filled with junk now (well, we're certainly not going to take cold showers in November in Maryland), as is the entire aft head. The port settee is piled high, while all the little parts of the heater which are awaiting installation are strewn across the cabin sole.
Since we're installing the heater and all the blowers on the starboard side, we had to move nearly everything stored on the starboard side over to the port side. Most of the storage is actually to port, as are just about all the other systems -- fridge, watermaker, windlass cables -- so at the best of times we have a slight list to port. It's no longer slight. In fact, we're heeled at a fair approximation of a broad reach on starboard tack.
With no hot water, no clear places to sit down, and a distinct tilt, living aboard is a bit more of a challenge. It's darn cold, too; our little electric heater does fine in the middle of the day but doesn't keep us warm enough once the sun goes down. We've been living on instant oatmeal, canned soup, and lots of coffee, tea, and hot chocolate. And we're both fighting colds, the result no doubt of flying back and forth to Colorado and being around lots of people. We just have to keep reminding ourselves of the reward that waits for us when we're finished.
This is a really big project, on a par with the refrigeration. Big pieces need to be sited and installed, fuel lines and water hoses and exhaust pipes need to be put together and run, wires need to be pulled. The dealer supplied, we were assured, "everything other than the hose", and when we unpacked the boxes and found all sorts of things we weren't really planning on using, it really did look like "everything." But it wasn't. In addition to the expected runs to the hardware store and West Marine, we had to do a serious Home Depot run for $160 worth of brass plumbing pieces.
Fortunately, we have a lot of friends in the area who are generous with their cars. Kevin and Sara from Severn Star, who we cruised with in the southern Bahamas, live in Annapolis; they gave us a ride up to their house where we shared a great dinner (real non-instant food!) and spent the night (without shoving aside piles of settee cushions!). The next morning they loaned us their car, which was a great help. Other cruisers we met in the Bahamas are here as well: Keith from Colleen works at the brokerage here, and Don and Dave of Night Swimming live at the marina across the creek. Monte and Liz, the first cruisers we met last summer, are working on their boat Florie here. We have other non-liveaboard friends who live nearby too. If we spent as much time with our friends as we would like, we'd probably get the heater installed by February or so!
We have other distractions we need to ignore as well. The small bilge pump which we use as a shower sump pump is broken, and a replacement is on order. Our fresh water pump sounds pretty bad, we burned out a cabin light bulb, and the oven sparker has quit sparking. These minor problems are just going to have to wait. We still have a long "things to do before leaving the US" list, but they are going to have to wait too.
My youngest brother is getting married in Virginia on the day after Thanksgiving, and I've got tickets from Savannah. When I bought them,over a month ago, it seemed a pretty sure bet we'd be there in time. Now I'm not so sure. If we can't get out of here within a week, the chances of making it to Savannah in time are slim. I may have to rent a car from wherever we end up -- or we may end up staying here through Thanksgiving! It's going to be a cold ride south once we get going, either way.