Back on the Boat Again

     We're back on the boat again after a week and a half away. I usually only write after a passage or two but the boat is still on land in Pasadena, MD.

     The paint job turned into a sand blasting paint removal job which turned into a grind off inches of epoxy from a poor repair job done by the original boat builder about 10 years, and several owners, ago. Boooooo!

     The boat had more than an inch of epoxy filler removed in some places. Putting that much on is an improper repair procedure and we're paying the price now. 5 figures. To the left of the decimal point.

   
   We were away from the boat to go "home" to empty and prepare our house for a closing.There were several last minute issues which cost money and stress but now it's done. We are without a house. Our only home floats. Yay!

     Frankenstorm is heading our way or to New Jersey or to New England in the next few days. We should still be on land and therefor reasonably safe. We'll see.

Pasadena

    We are now on land for annual service to the boat. It's going to be a very expensive stop. We've been having issues the last few years with peeling bottom (anti-fouling) paint. It's going to cost a lot to have the bottom soda-blasted, barrier coated and painted.

     To make things more hectic we have been negotiating (now finished) our house sale and repairs and are waiting for financing confirmation, then the closing.

      Getting here was interesting. My last post was written while underway off the coast of New Jersey. We had a good sail until we got to Atlantic City right around sunset. The course change put us more into the wind and seas. The bigger chop only lasted about an hour before the seas dropped to under a foot again. Not bad.

     We had to go around Cape May in the dark through a very narrow passage in the reefs. We came pretty close to a 6 foot shoal before making it through the most dangerous areas. Then we aimed for the main shipping channel. I went to bed for two hours just before we reached the channel and woke up for my shift to find us a mile or more off course on the wrong side of Ship John Shoal. Scary. Took me a while to get back on track. Fortunately daylight came and all was well.

     We started through the C & D Canal about 0800 and passed by Chessapeake City and its free dock to go on to the Sassafras River off Chessapeake Bay. The last segment from the Canal to the Sassafras was nasty, bashing into a very big, nasty chop. Pounding is no fun. It was a nice quiet anchorage, however. We'd never been there before. All in all it was a 30.5 hour passage.

     The next day we went to 'our' spot in Worton Creek. It was only two hours away so even though it wasn't a great day to be on the Bay again, it was short.

     After that we went to Bodkin Creek where Pleasure Cove Marina is.

     And that's where we are now. Not knowing when we will leave or how much it's going to cost us.