I Miss Val....

Soon after Jeff and I were married I went back to night school to get an MBA while I continued to work full-time. Something had to give so I hired a cleaning women to come once a week - a luxury my mother never had. This “habit” stayed even after I finished school and we've had some great people over the years. For the past 5 or 6, we've had Val.

Val's job is to come once a week to keep the dog hair to a gentle roar, make sure my bathrooms are not conducting any science experiments, and administer the required amount of belly rubs to Dylan (who complains that she loafs on the job). I love Val because she helps keep my life in order and she's a wonderful person.

Almost two weeks ago we said goodbye to Val. She's filled our spot with other clients with a promise to fit us in if she can when we return - I'm trying hard not to wish any of them harm.

So as we spend day two comfortably anchored in Northport, I decide it's time to thoroughly clean the cabin. How can two dogs generate so much hair?! Fortunately I have discovered a magical dog hair tool. Actually, it's been on the boat for years but I was never sure why I had it...

I moved this funny looking rubber brush-like thing around the “dog bin” for the past couple of cruises. Finally, the other day I tried brushing it across a cushion and was stunned at how the dog hair came up. It's called a Sweepa and even has a sharp edger for pulling the hair out of cracks. I'm adding it to "Products and Tips We Love." I honestly don't know where I got it but they do have a web site (http://www.sweepa.com/).

Don't worry Val, you're still irreplaceable. The Sweepa can't do belly rubs.

Dog Day Morning

ActiveCaptain warned us that the beach at Northport (Asharoken Beach) didn't allow dogs. The town of Northport just didn't understand though - these dogs have been on the boat for a solid 4 days. There wasn't an option of "No Dogs" at this point. By 7:00 am we were all in the dinghy headed out for a stealth beach landing. By 7:15, everyone within a 2 mile radius knew that Dylan was retrieving items from the water. He needs some stealth training.


The sky is nasty looking and there is rain spitting from the skies. The water temperature is a nice 70 degrees, very different from Maine ocean temperatures. To be honest, the dogs showed no preference. They loved the swimming.

The storm is projected to have 20 kt winds here - almost nothing. There isn't even a small craft warning for the area - it was called off last night. There's just a lot of rain coming.


Karen walked Dylan down the beach which gave me a rare moment to allow Dyna to retrieve her bumper from the water by herself. Dyna is an excellent swimmer but at 11 years old, she can't compete with 2 year old Dylan. I know she loves swimming with Dylan but I think she felt a little more joy by being able to get the bumper first and bring it all the way back. She deserved that moment.

By lunchtime back on the boat, the canine crew was exhausted and sleeping. We'll try another swim tomorrow and go into town to explore and search for bread and vegetables.

Walking from Danny

We awoke again at 5:00 am with plans of heading out to Sandy Hook. The latest forecast showed that Danny was going to be much less of a threat to western Long Island - there was almost no chance of 50 MPH winds. We now had a lot more options.

Going to Sandy Hook would mean we'd be stuck on the boat with almost nothing around for a few days. It had already been more than 3 days since we'd been off the boat and the team was in need of exercise, especially Dylan. Northport, NY has a wonderfully protected bay area. ActiveCaptain had a couple of anchorage areas for it. We've anchored ourselves in one of them before. Northport also has a town dock, a beach, restaurants - it would give us much more to do. We figured we'd be stuck because of the storm and rain for a few days. Everyone voted to change plans and go there instead.

The route to Northport is only 35 nm away. Leaving by 7:00 got us anchored in the harbor by noon. We have almost a quarter mile between us and the closest other boat anchored here. With 250 feet of chain out in 11 feet of water, this would be an excellent place to hunker down and ride out any storm. It's times like this that I'm happy we installed that new monster Rocna anchor.

It was a cloudy day with no waves and no wind. The perfect type of day to move the boat from one place to another. Once again our crew was ready at a moment's notice for anything. Well, as long as you had enough time to wake them up or allowed them to finish playing their cell phone game.

Running from Danny

We spent most of Wednesday night planning our options for tropical storm/hurricane Danny. The current path shows it headed directly for Long Island, perhaps a little east. These things have a way of moving out to sea further to the east so we decided that the best plan would be to move west. And move west as fast as possible.

The weather outlook is pretty good for the next 2 days. That gives us a nice set of options - but we have to move now. We have to get as far west into the Long Island Sound as possible today. That would allow us to get to Sandy Hook, NJ on Friday or head up the Hudson River to Yonkers if the storm moved west toward New York City. Once in Yonkers, we'd have another day to get deep into the Hudson River with little chance of great storm damage because of the land barriers. Either way, today was the day to move west.

We awoke at 5:00 am (yikes!) and were pulling up the anchor at 5:45. By 6:00 we were heading out of Cuttyhunk's protected harbor. It had been a dead calm night - it would have been nice to stay here another day. Our destination was 85 nm to the west to Joshua Cove off Sachem Head, CT. All projected winds were from the north there for today so anchoring off Connecticut would give us the best protection.

It was a beautiful day with no waves beyond the slightest ripple. There was a lot of sleeping going on especially by our canine crew. We picked up some wonderful current around "The Race" at Fishers Island which sped us to our destination. By 4:00 pm we were anchored and enjoying the stillness and incredible homes lining the cove.

All eyes are glued to NOAA forecasts and the National Hurricane Center right now.

The "Good" versus the "Not So Good"...

We arrived at the town dock at 7:30 am to find Larry waiting to take us to our boat. That was good. While loading the boat, Dylan decided to jump into the water soaking all of our clothes - this while still tied to the dock. Definitely not so good.

Upon dropping us off at the boat, Larry had one final set of instructions - "Keep her off the rocks" - definitely good.

We unhooked the mooring lines at 8:30 am - right on schedule. It was a beautiful morning and a bunch of friends waved goodbye at the town dock - all very good.

One planned stop in Rockland to top off our fuel at Journey's End Marina. We also picked up a SPOT Messenger and configured it over a cellular internet connection after leaving Rockland. The SPOT device sends our position to satellites every 10 minutes. The track that those positions create can be viewed by anyone so everyone can watch our progress or see exactly where we are. Our public tracking page is located here:

http://tinyurl.com/ActiveCaptainSPOT

All good.

Leaving Rockland we experienced 2-4 foot rolling waves - we call them rollers. They rise slowly and fall slowly. It's a nice gently motion. More good. How much good do we deserve in a single day?

Two hours before sunset we arrived outside Monhegan Island. This is our final go/no-go position before heading overnight across the Gulf of Maine to Cape Cod. There was no change in the weather prediction and the 4 foot rollers continued. Even more good!

It turns out, we used up our allocation of good. About 2 hours after sunset, the period of the waves shortened from 8 seconds to 4 seconds (and less). This turns those nice gentle rollers into choppy, nasty, up-and-down motion. The waves were all coming on our nose too. Straight-at-you waves are the safest bad weather condition but they are mighty uncomfortable. We had 12 more hours of this type of weather to face. This was certainly in the not so good category. In fact, it was worth 10 not-so-goods.

Within 2 hours, Karen was sick. I felt queasy but was OK. The dogs had never been in bad weather and took it wonderfully. We gave them some preventative sea-sickness medication that would make them a little drowsy. They didn't like the motion but they were really great. Karen couldn't do her watches and I had to pilot all night in the dark against those waves with no sleep. Make that 50 not-so-goods. 10 isn't enough.

By 9:30 the next morning, we were in the protection of Cape Cod and the weather was light. I gave the helm to Karen so I could sleep for a couple of hours before piloting through the Cape Cod Canal with close maneuvers and other boats all around.

We eventually found our way to a calm cove off Cuttyhunk where we dropped the anchor, ate one of the three meals we missed, and tried to brush ourselves off. The anchorage was beautiful, the sunset was golden, and all was happy again inside aCappella. Very, very good.

That lasted all of 10 minutes - Hurricane Danny is aiming right at Long Island and set to hit in 3 days.

The not-so-goods won today but we've only just begun this joust.

We're all ready...

The boat is ready. The house is ready. We've gotten everything we're going to get for departing. We just have to do a final loading of perishable foods this afternoon, top off our water tank, and disconnect the mooring pennant. The dogs know that something is up.

We plan to leave tomorrow at 8:30 am headed for Rockland, Maine to quickly top off our fuel tanks. By loading up with fuel now, we won't need fuel again until we're on the Chesapeake unless we come across a good price somewhere. We need to leave Rockland by 1:00 pm to get long past Mongehan Island by sunset. Then we'll be making a straight line from Monhegan to the Cape Cod Canal approaching Cape Cod at sunrise and entering the canal around 9:30 am. Our departure delay of a couple of days will cause us to now be against the current on the canal slowing us down significantly for those 10 miles. Once in Buzzards Bay we plan on heading to Third Beach (ActiveCaptain reference here) off the Sakonnet River to anchor for the night. We've never been on the Sakonnet River or near that anchorage before. But is has a 4 star rating by 3 captains. We especially like the comment someone made about there being a "pet friendly beach".

It's both sad and exciting to leave. We'll miss our friends, Castine, our house, long hot showers, high-speed internet, DVR, and our general routine. The dogs have a huge surprise coming when they take that dinghy ride to the boat expecting a fun day trip only to find that they're not getting off - and not even stopping for the night. It'll certainly be a change. But we'll all be together. We'll face the challenges and share the joys of whatever comes our way.

Fair winds and following seas for all...

Downtime

We're still waiting for Bill to make his way up the east coast. The predictions here in Maine are for rains and winds to start tonight through Sunday. He's moved further east and slowed down so we're hoping the seas will settle down Monday allowing us to leave first thing Tuesday morning.

In the meantime, we're taking the final preparations a bit slower and taking some downtime with our friends. We've had some parties, big and small, and went to see the new Meryl Streep movie, Julie & Julia - Karen loved it (Jeff says "chick flick"). This afternoon we found time to give the dogs a final bath. Can anyone explain why dogs who absolutely love being in the water hate being bathed? But they smell awful sweet right now.

We were left a comment asking advice about the "poop deck" for the dogs. We have an article describing all about the technique we used. Check out Canine Crew on the web site. If you'd like a reply to your comment, please make sure you leave us your email address!

A Wiki for Mariners...

MadMariner and Navagear did a review comparing ActiveCaptain to 3 other similar sites. Tim did a good review and we'll take the A-. Tim would have liked to see a "Hazard" type of marker added to our site. We know it's needed too. In fact, it's already in the X Preview tab which is the next version of our Interactive Cruising Guidebook.

As cruisers ourselves we know that up-to-date information is critical to safe passages. The reality is that the official nautical charts don't get updated often enough with the data we need. It's up to all of us to help each other. That's the whole idea behind ActiveCaptain.

In fact, Tim's "Old pier eliminated" hazard is already in X Preview along with many others through the Atlantic ICW. This new yellow/orange hazard marker will become live for everyone when we make X live. We're getting closer to having that complete. Note also how X Preview shows the new hazard marker on top of real NOAA nautical charts. We think this will be one of the most important additions to ActiveCaptain ever made.

We also think that our pre-loaded, already available markers for every marina and thousands of anchorages is a huge benefit to any cruiser planning their adventures and cruises. Added with that are all of the reviews, thousands of them, giving personal experiences and impressions. As we are planning our day-to-day movements now, those are the things that we find most important.

It's nice to see our web site in print! And the suggestions in reviews like Tim's make us work harder to produce a better product.

Curses to Bill!

Hurricane Bill is churning up the waters off the east coast so we have postponed our Friday departure. There's even a possibility it could hit here in Castine. We're considering putting aCappella on our storm mooring tomorrow or Friday. Our next possible departure date looks like Tuesday the 25th. So we wait, visit some more with friends, and hope he hurries his way north.

Cruising With Our Friends

We're in what we thought would be our final week - Friday, August 21st being our take off day. So we planned some day cruises with friends to say good-bye. While we're looking forward to the trip, we're also going to miss those back home. We had two beautiful days cruising around the Penobscot Bay. Our friend, Marion, took this picture after we pulled into the dock one day. I think it's a pretty good looking crew!

While we're almost ready to go, it seems that Mother Nature has some other plans for us. The weather is deteriorating as the week goes on so Friday is looking like a "no go." We're actively watching the building disturbances in the Caribbean with Hurricane Bill too. We're still moving ahead as planned. That way if the weather clears we can go and if it doesn't, we'll have some down time before we leave. No more projects are left - we're simply loading clothes, books, last minute supplies, readying the house, etc.

Anchor Testing

On Tuesday we left for Carver Cove to do some testing with our new anchor. We wanted to really understand how it worked and how working with it might differ from our other anchors. Carver Cove is a good spot for this as it's a large cove with good water. Tuesday night we were the only boat anchored there - even better. We pulled in around 5:00 PM and set the anchor at a variety of scopes, at first trying to make it not set and skip along the bottom so Jeff could know what that felt like. Whenever we anchor Jeff does the bow work while I handle the helm. When we finally let her set, she really did set. Putting the engines in reverse didn't cause us to move an inch.

The night was calm but we still wondered how hard it would be to haul anchor in the morning. Rocna's have a reputation for being a bear to free - the reason we got it actually. We were up early Wednesday morning and found the process went very smoothly. Using the engines, we were able to free the anchor fairly quickly. It also gave the prefect chance to use our new saltwater wash down. Jeff says he's in love. It's a good thing I'm not the jealous type. There is still an issue with positioning the anchor and chain as she moves in and out to ensure the chain stays on the winch. Jeff and Larry are working on that one so I'm sure a solution is coming.

The kids did great. They're settling in and finding the spots they like - the bow is a favorite for sniffing those good sea smells. We tried feeding them while underway (something our last crew mate, Tucker, never liked doing) and they finished in their usual rush. They both seem to understand the "poop deck," although Dylan still waits for Dyna to go first. He seems a bit unsure whether or not it's OK. We stuff our pockets with treats so I'm sure he'll feel more confident soon.

When we returned home, the dogs were loaded into the car for a ride to Bangor. We had a promise to fulfill for JoDee -- a four generation picture of Dyan, daughter Katie, granddaughter Daisy, and great-grandson Sarge. Of course, we also took the opportunity to get Dylan with his grandma Dyna, and mom Katie. Dyna has certainly created quite a "Dynasty"!

Less Than Two Weeks

Time is growing short. Last week Jeff made a calendar of each day remaining and what we needed to get done. So of course we started the week with me in bed with a cold, followed by my computer dying, totally blowing the schedule - a good lesson to re-learn prior to our departure. We did manage to get the engine room painting mostly done along with applying the ActiveCaptain logo to the side of the boat. The provisioning process is coming along quite well with our "to get" list down to a single column. Our home freezer is filled-to-overflowing with meat and frozen vegetables. The dining room is stacked with other must-have things that need to be stored onboard. Once again, I'm really appreciating the vast amount of storage space they put into DeFever trawlers.

We finished the week with a visit from JoDee and Al. JoDee owns Birchwood Labrador Retrievers where we adopted Dyna, Dylan and our beloved Tucker. JoDee needed some "Dyna time" before we left and we wanted them to see the kids on the boat. We finally had a wonderful day on the boat without projects to do!

Engine Week

Last week was Engine Week. On Sunday we left in pea soup fog for the 4 hour trip to Downeast Diesel in Southwest Harbor. 6 hours later their dock emerged from the fog. The mechanic, Bernie, spent all day Monday in the engine room - new belts, adjusted valves, new idler pulleys, new thermostats, a thorough going over and both engines were declared ready. We love Downeast Diesel. They're excellent mechanics and charge fair prices. The owner, John, has even talked us through some problems via phone. If you're in Maine and need diesel work, they're the only place we'd suggest.

While all this was going on we attacked our projects list and made quite a dent. About 20 projects came off the list making us feel more relaxed about our take-off date. The lazarrette is cleaned and organized, a new switch was installed for the new chargers, the engine room spares have been sorted and cataloged, etc., etc.

It was also a very successful trip for Dyna and Dylan. Both successfully manage the "poop deck" while lots of treats were dispensed. They made friends with the two boatyard dogs, Tank and Rocko. And of course were right there to supervise all activities.

We returned to Castine on Tuesday a perfect boating day that made us long to turn west and keep on going!

We have worked the rest of the week on cleaning the engine room - there was lots of mold and mildew from all our wet weather - and brushing and sanding the engines in preparation for painting next week. Jeff likes to paint the engines every couple of years. I must admit that the first time he proposed this to me I thought he had really gone over the deep end about the boat. But having a "spotless" - more or less - engine room has made it much easier to notice and track down problems we have encountered. It's a pain to do but adds to the peace of mind factor so it's worth it.

I have started the provisioning process in earnest and hope to blog about it soon as several people have ask how I do it. I can give you a hint, it involves lots of lists.

Karen loses the coin toss...

Cleaning out the water tanks isn't fun. We flip a coin to see who "gets" to do it. Karen lost. I just got my new iPhone 3GS with video capture ability and took this video of her having all the fun.

You need to turn your sound up to hear all of Karen's comments. I wonder how many more questions I could have asked before getting the sludge water thrown at me...

Karen: The coin toss was rigged! Now that there's concrete evidence of who cleaned out the tank this time, I'm pretty sure sure I know who'll be doing it next time...

Jeff: Concrete evidence? I have a video from February 2007 showing you cleaning out the tanks then too! You do such a good job with it - why would we change?

She Fits!

We loaded the new anchor into the car, drove to the Castine Town Dock, and lugged it down the gangway to the dinghy. Of course, several “friends” felt the need to comment on its dimensions while no one offered to help carry it. We didn't care. We know we'll be sleeping better. Our little Whaler had a bit of a time getting onto plane – I'm pretty sure I heard her saying, “I think I can, I think I can.” Once at the boat I lowered the Bruce down to Jeff in the dinghy. He disconnected the old anchor, attached the new anchor, and we pulled her up. She fit like a dream. I think she looks rather stately. We're off to Southwest Harbor for routine engine maintenance at our favorite John Deere mechanic – Downeast Diesel. The owner, John Spofford, is the best and has watched over our engines for the last 6 years. He's always been there when we had a question or needed help in any way.

We hope to do several anchor tests starting next week. It'll be a good chance for a shake down cruise and will give our crew some more experience before we leave on the 9 month adventure.

Washdown Complete!

The saltwater washdown is now installed and fully functioning. We're amazed that it went in without a single real hitch. Of course, we're not tempting fate, so we keep checking the staterooms where the hose runs through for leaks. This is not to say it was easy. It was the most complex addition we've undertaken on the boat so far. But for several days of effort we now have a way to save about 25 gallons or more of fresh water each time we anchor. Our plan is to anchor most nights on this cruise, so that's significant.


In light of our anchoring plans, Jeff decided to upgrade our anchor. Currently, we have four anchors: a Bruce, a CQR, a Fortress, and a Danforth. The Bruce is the anchor we use from Maine to Charleston. It works well in the soft, muddy bottoms from the Penobscot Bay to the Chesapeake. Unfortunately, the first time we anchored in the Bahamas we discovered (at 3 AM) that it is poor in hard sand bottoms. So we started switching to the Fortress and then back again to the Bruce - kind of a pain. The CQR was our backup anchor which we've never used and the Danforth is our stern anchor.

While we've only dragged anchor twice in 15,000 miles of cruising, Jeff has always worried that our Bruce, at 66 pounds, and our Fortress FX55 were a bit undersized. For the sake of many good night's sleep, we decided to get a heavier anchor that would also eliminate the need to switch mid-cruise. After much research, Jeff settled on the Rocna 55 (55 kg or 121 lbs). Unfortunately, the manufacturer had no experience with mounting a large Rocna on a newer model DeFever, so we were a bit concerned it would be too big for our bow roller. After some testing with cardboard templates, we decided to give it a try.

So off we went late last week to West Marine in Southwest Harbor (an hour and a half drive) on my 50th birthday - Jeff was smart enough not to put a ribbon on it and say, "Happy Birthday, honey!" - to meet the delivery truck. The next day we left to drive to Mystic, CT to talk at the MTOA NE Rendevous (great people, great fun) so we will have to wait until later this week for our first anchor fit test. Our hope is that eventually we can get rid of the CQR and maybe the Bruce to gain some needed space in the lazarette. Any one need a gently used anchor?

Progress At Last...

The weather finally broke on Thursday. It was a bright, sunny, perfect Maine summer day. Unfortunately, we had to stay home to wait for a shipment of batteries. Long story, short, we finagled a deal where all new batteries for the boat would be delivered to our house if we guaranteed we would meet the truck and off load them ourselves - over 1,000 lbs. of batteries according to the delivery guy. They were supposed to be here by noon leaving us the afternoon to work on the boat. They arrived at 5:45pm. Our months of weight training paid off as we moved them onto wood planks in the basement.

Fortunately, two more days of perfect weather followed with more rain Saturday night into Sunday morning. That left us all day Friday and Saturday, and Sunday afternoon to get things done - and we sure did.

We brought one each of the monster batteries (8D's at 169 lbs) for the bow thruster to the boat on Friday and Saturday. Our boat is still on our storm mooring about 2 miles from the town dock. Getting it down the ramp, into the dinghy, and then onto the boat was hard enough, but we then had to get it down in to the lazarette. Jeff rigged some line so we could lower them down in what we hoped would be a controlled way.

We used a technique we learned from Larry to surround the terminals before covering them with anti-corrosion spray. They're now installed and working fine. We still have 12 more Trojan T-105 batteries for our house and the starter banks but we've decided to bring the boat up to the dock to load those.

We secured the saltwater wash-down hose with tie-wraps for its entire length and cut the final hole in the bow deck. It turns out the deck is wood sandwiched between two layers of fiberglass. Jeff was fortunate to learn basic fiberglass skills a few years ago from a friend in the business. He over-drilled the hole, routed out some of the wood inner section, and coated it all with West System epoxy to keep water out. We also over-drilled the three screw holes and filled them to be drilled again when the epoxy is hardened. The deck fitting will go in this week covering the patch work.

Our horn has been slowly fading to the point where it's embarrassing - kind of like a Chihuahua bark on a Doberman. So replacing it was on our list. Of course, there was no way that the mounting from the old horn would match up with the new one. So not only did the old one need to be removed and holes drilled for the new one, but we had to repair the old holes. Out came the gelcoat and epoxy boxes again. We patched the bottom with 4 layers of fiberglass and filled the holes with epoxy. When we get a chance to breathe, Jeff will apply gelcoat over the repair and we'll never know where the old horn was!

On Saturday Jeff was finally able to coat the cap-rail on the bow and portuguese bridge with Semco. We removed the varnish several years ago (yes, I know it's beautiful to look at, but now I can just admire the labor of others). After, trying different things, Jeff settled on Semco - a teak seaker - and we've been very happy with it. We still have the stern left to do.

While he worked on that, I worked on the bow railings. I recently read a novel that described how in marriages of certain durations, tasks become the responsibility of one or the other spouse, for example, making sure there's toilet paper or monitoring the room temperature. One of my tasks is polishing the stainless steel. I actually don't mind it. I've tried several different products and really like StarBrite's Marine Polish with Teflon. I've even added it to Products and Tips We Love listing. It's easy to use and looks great. I've found that putting on a second coat soon after the first makes it last much longer and makes subsequent coats easier. It generally removes most of the discoloration but when it's been a long time since cleaning - like the first time of the season - I also use Nevr-Dull (another Product We Love) to remove the tough stains. Another trick I discovered is to leave the marine polish on for a bit before buffing it off. Unlike fiberglass polish which I find works best if you buff almost immediately, the marine polish actually works better if left to harden for 10-15 minutes.

Dyna and Dylan have enjoyed their dinghy rides to the boat and are learning to sit nicely while underway (well, sometimes anyway). Visiting the boat is a nice little adventure and each finds a comfy spot to sleep or to supervise our activities. How could we do it without them? Dyna has quickly remembered where to do her business. Dylan needs some remedial training. We're not sure what they're going to think in about 6 weeks when that dinghy ride turns into a 9 month adventure. They'll keep you posted.

We're getting some of the major projects done and it's beginning to feel like we'll be ready on time. If the weather holds we'll keep checking things off the list!

Here Comes The Sunshine?

As I write this it is pouring down rain - again - even though Yahoo Weather says "Light Rain." The rain and fog just refuses to let up. According to AccuWeather, we had over 8 inches of rain in June, our normal is 3. We have been going to the boat when it's merely been raining, as opposed to pouring with blowing wind. There have been trips back in pea soup fog. Most trips we've taken one or both of the dogs. They're settling back in and finding the places they like to sleep. But we've mostly been confined to doing indoor tasks.

The biggest job we've worked on was running hose for the saltwater wash-down. On the first trip we decided to cut two of the five holes we'd need. Somehow it always feels ominous when cutting a hole in the boat. The first hole went from the chain locker, which has an access door in the guest stateroom, to behind the curtained area. That took pretty much all afternoon and we returned home well after dinner time, much to Dyna and Dylan's dismay. The next time we decided to cut just two more holes and all four went in quickly without a hitch! Jeff spent one more trip pulling the hose from the master stateroom through an access hatch to the engine room which required one more hole. Dylan was there to help with that one. So now the hose runs from the chain locker at the bow, aft to the engine room where we will mount the pump. One last hole in the deck to connect the deck fitting and she's ready for a trial. Hopefully we'll get that done this week.

On July 4th we had an amazing break of afternoon sun so Jeff took Dyna out to help him install new site-glass material on the fuel tanks. They've become so discolored that we can no longer see the fuel level. Jeff heard about this special tubing called Tygon from another trawler owner who has had it for several years. He says it's still crystal clear. We'll see. He said it was about the smoothest project he's done to date, and was back earlier than predicted. He stepped in the door just before the sky opened up. Went to the annual July 4th party to watch the fireworks. Fortunately, the rain slowed to a drizzle just about 9PM so we had a beautiful fireworks display before the rain started again.

The job we are most anxious to get done is touching up the cap-rail. For that we need several dry days in a row. Fat chance. 7 weeks from today is our targeted take off date.....

Is Noah In The House?

It's been a week and a half since we put aCappella in the water and it has rained almost every day. Not misty, foggy rain. No, it has poured - torrential rain with high winds. My boat shoes have never gotten dry. The dinghy went to the "dinghy doctor" for what turned out to be bad battery cables. It seems the original installation involved a shoddy splicing job which finally went bad in a hidden location. Jeff made it out to the boat one day when it was merely sprinkling to scrub the cap rail in preparation for coating it along with putting the dinghy back up on the fly-bridge. Not much has been removed from our lists. Simple stuff like buying the hose for the salt water wash down is about all that we've gotten done.

We're trying to get as much ActiveCaptain work out of the way as we can so when the sun comes out we can spend more time on the boat. We leave tomorrow to give several talks at the Greenport, NY TrawlerFest at the Mitchell Park Marina - I'm sure the weather will clear as soon as we leave town. The "kids" are going to Uncle Larry's for a few days. Yes, Larry does do more than boats. He loves dogs, too. Another reason I love him!

She's In The Water!

All week "they" predicted rain with clearing Friday and through the weekend - perfect! We spent all day on a drizzly Thursday completing projects that had to be done before we could put aCappella in the water - tightening every hose clamp, spraying the shafts with anti-fouling paint, cleaning strainers, loading supplies, bleeding fuel tanks - lots of stuff. By the time we left she was in the slings waiting to be launched on Friday morning at 6:30 am. Nothing would stop us now.

Well, on Friday morning we woke to pouring rain and headed out with dogs in tow for our early launching - it's a 90 minute drive. We ended up soaked but it all went pretty smoothly. The rain never let up so we just started in on our to-do list - de-winterizing the water system, cleaning and organizing inside, checking the heat, frig, stove, heads, and on and on. Of course, we forgot to bring the "magic mat" (see our article on training dogs for the "poop deck", Canine Crew) - it wasn't on "the list" - so the dogs were not cooperating with their bathroom chores.

Once the boat was secure at the dock, I headed out to bring back breakfast along with the dogs - it was really pouring by then. Seeing the very steep (low tide with our 10 foot tides) ramp I decided that holding on to two Labs while carrying coffee and breakfast sandwiches was not a good idea, so I let them off leash at the top to run down by themselves - what could go wrong? Spry Dylan went down like a bullet - mainly a slightly controlled free-fall. Dyna followed behind. Half way down her back foot caught in a drain hole and she ended up splayed on her belly stuck. My cry for help instantly brought three guys from Journey's End Marina who helped free her. My heroes! Another reason I love this marina! Dyna was unhurt but I did lose one of the coffees (Jeff's)...

We all fell into bed exhausted on Friday night and awoke to the most glorious day on Saturday. The dogs were cooperative with their morning bathroom activities and we decided to reward them with a dinghy ride - we wanted to test her out anyway.

Our first real problem - it was dead. A check of the battery showed it was fine, so we assumed it was a reincarnation of the electrical problem we thought we had fixed last summer. No dinghy ride but now we couldn't put her back because the engine wouldn't tilt. Several calls to Larry with several attempted fixes didn't change the situation. We finally decided to put her back up onto the boat on blocks. Jeff was pretty frustrated but then our problem wasn't as bad as the boat across the way...

Next, a thorough boat cleaning (she was filthy), bilge cleaning, sorting through the engine room and lazarette, new bronze fittings for the salt water wash-down, and I can't even remember what else. Somehow we got to the end of our list in time to go out for dinner and back to watch a movie. We were ready to head home on Sunday. Of course, we awoke Sunday to rain. Well, at least it wasn't pouring rain. The three hour trip back to Castine was great with flat, calm water. Everything worked fine.

Dyna, otherwise known as "The Queen," claimed the settee in the salon on which she slept the entire way back.

Dylan stayed close in the pilothouse but he soon succumbed to sleep also.

Larry met us with our Whaler and helped put the bridle back on our mooring. He then chauffeured us back to shore. Tomorrow we head back to Rockland to pick up the car and start down our list for our August departure - gel-coat fixes, cap rail touch-up, install hosing for the wash-down, engine room painting, new exhaust blankets, new batteries, plus a lot more. We're down to (only) 58 things on our Project list.

Bada Bing!

Yesterday our Whaler, Bada Bing!, went in the water while it rained. Rain today, rain tomorrow but Friday looks good for our launching, so the rest is OK. Our friend Larry returned from Florida where he delivered a boat and picked up his granddaughter. While there he had our life raft inspected and repacked, and the EPRIB battery changed - cause he "knows a guy." They'll be put back onboard before we leave Rockland. It sure is alot of money for something you never, ever want to use!!!!! Need to think of it as insurance.

The Time Grows Short

We are scheduled to put the boat in one week from today. Actually, we're in pretty good shape. Barring no unforeseen event we'll be ready. Hey, what could possibly happen? But just to be sure I have been making plenty of overtures to the God Dylan. No, not our lovely puppy who turns two today by the way, but the Celtic God of the waves, for whom our Dylan is named. As you can tell, we are absolutely not above shamelessly sucking up to any available deity in the hopes of calm seas. I find it just as effective as swearing when you're in a blow.

This week was mainly attending to lots of small tasks. Adding the final connectors to the new VHF antenna and testing the fly-bridge radio, putting the snaps on the two new window screens, replacing the windshield wipers, etc. Jeff finished gel coat repairs on the Whaler and plans to bottom paint this weekend so she can go in early next week. Each trip we make down to the boat we load the car with items we removed last fall. Excitement is growing.

Our final tasks include preparing our four-legged crew for duty. We fear they have reverted into quite the landlubbers over the winter. I put the "training mat" back out several months ago which they are completely ignoring (see our article on training your crew to use the poop deck, Canine Crew, for an explanation). A week from today they will begin 3-days onboard as we whip them back into salty dawgs. We'll keep you posted.

Eight week old Dylan reports for duty. Where does the time go???????

5200 Follow-Up

A quick follow-up to my recent hair trauma. A search of Google (5200 sealant hair) turned up nothing helpful. I did find reference to using mineral spirits - although with various amounts of warnings - to remove oil based paint from hair. A couple of references suggested salad oil or very oily body wash. So I used a generous amount of baby oil, working it from the roots out for several minutes. I then took the hottest shower I could stand and let my hair air dry. My hair feels soft and silky with no noticeable residue. Maybe this will help someone else - from now on I will proudly wear my ActiveCaptain hat to avoid this from happening!

Note from Jeff: we have some 50 hats on the boat. Couldn't you use an old one instead of the nice new ActiveCaptain ones??

5200 In My Hair!

It's been a busy week. The boat goes in a week from Friday and there is much left to do. Jeff installed new engine room blowers and a new VHF antenna on Thursday. We began prepping our “Castine dinghy” for its launch date next week. We have two dinghies, one inflatable which stays on the fly-bridge of aCappella and a 13 foot Boston Whaler that we keep at the Castine Town Dock in the summer. The Whaler allows us to easily cart the dogs, ourselves, and lots of gear across the river to our mooring. Truth be told, it's the dog's favorite boat as we often use it to take them swimming at Indian Bar.

Today we left very early to spend the day at the boat. Our main task for the day was to remove the shrink-wrap and put up the bimini. It has to be completed in a single day as once we remove the shrink-wrap the upper helm is exposed to the elements. Taking off the shrink-wrap, that's kind of like opening a present - it's fun. But putting up the bimini? This is always a frustrating task which tries the marriage. The absolute worst part is putting the anchor light back up. It's a 5 pound pole that I must hold above my head for hours (he claims moments) while Jeff applies 5200 sealant and puts in the screws. To add insult to injury, this year a glob of 5200 landed in my hair! Yes, a thoroughly waterproof, resistant to everything sealant ended up in my hair (on a boat with no water, on a Sunday when nothing around was open). As the wind picked up and dark clouds gathered, we rushed to apply the canvas and miraculously finished before the sky opened up. After a few other minor tasks were finished, we climbed into the car for the nearly 2 hour ride home. We decided to reward ourselves with a DQ Blizzard on the way home. It was great but doesn't help the fact that I still have 5200 sealant in my hair...

Putting Her Back Together

Somehow it always feels better when we're putting things back on the boat than when we're taking them off. It's the start of new adventures! This week we put our newly cleaned blinds back up in the salon. First I washed the windows and woodwork as it is so easy with nothing on the windows. We started testing equipment. One of the new chargers Jeff installed last time didn't seem to be working - %$#&!. We took a trip to Home Depot to buy new fuses only to discover it was the outlet splitter that wasn't working -- good news actually. Our speed sensor stopped working last season so we played with that a bit. Jeff is guessing it's a problem with the wiring, so that goes on the list for next time. Jeff replaced all of the engine room zincs. The massive hull zinc is about 30% used but since it is so easy to replace now, we're putting on a new one so the holes had to be measured. We'll keep the old one and monitor the new one during our cruise. If it wears too much Jeff can always dive and put the old one back on. We took some initial measurements for the new saltwater washdown we're installing. The job will be bigger than we had hoped - aren't they always. But we figure this will cut our fresh water usage by about half - an important consideration in the outer Bahamas and of course, if we're lucky enough to get to Cuba! More cleaning, organizing, etc. The most pleasant part of the process is thinking about our trip and what things we will want aboard - happy thoughts. We didn't get our list done as we had to get back to Castine for a cocktail cruise on a friend's new (to him) Grand Banks. We had a beautiful little trip up the Bagaduce River on a perfect evening! Bill will also be heading south next winter and we're making plans for our paths to cross. Happy thoughts indeed!