{"id":948,"date":"2012-10-17T22:31:33","date_gmt":"2012-10-18T02:31:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/?p=948"},"modified":"2012-10-17T22:31:33","modified_gmt":"2012-10-18T02:31:33","slug":"what-we-did-in-annapolis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/?p=948","title":{"rendered":"What we did in Annapolis…"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a>Well, sometime tomorrow or the next day we will finally leave the Annapolis area after having first arrived here on Labor Day. \u00a0It was unbearably hot and very busy then but now fall has set in and it’s time to move south. \u00a0Although Annapolis has been very good to us, \u00a0it will certainly feel good to be on the move once again<\/p>\n

We have eaten numerous crab cakes and sipped several Painkllers (the signature drink of Pusser’s Rum); dodged racing sailboats and crab pots in the bay (amazed with the amount of boat traffic); had a few chuckles over the argumentative radio chatter here in the east (with the increased boating traffic comes increased close encounters and hot tempers); traveled around town by foot, bike, dinghy, bus, friend’s car and rental car; had a rigging survey where it was reported that our rigging looked like it was a brand new boat but, not to worry, the salt environment would soon make it’s mark.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>We installed an inner forestay for handling high wind conditions when necessary (thanks to Mike Meers at Port Annapolis Marina); had a new storm sail made (thanks to Justin and Charlie of Quantum.) \u00a0BTW, Justin, Charlie and Jeff are left handed and there was such interesting conversation about left handed people as they were on the bow measuring and planning the sail; \u00a0joined Seven Seas Cruising Association and attended our first GAM which was a great resource for us! \u00a0(GAM is a old seafaring term for a friendly gathering of sailors or fishermen); took advantage of a few webinars hosted by SSCA to learn about cruising the Exhumas in the Bahamas, provisioning for journeying to remote areas, and cool products to make life aboard easier\/safer\/more convenient.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>We also attended the Annapolis Boat Show and made several necessary and unnecessary purchases; longingly explored new sailboats and picked up a few ideas for improvements on Echo.<\/p>\n

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Jefferson Beach Marina crew<\/p><\/div>\n

We had great fun (and a PainKiller or two) with Eric and Dana, friends and neighbors from Jefferson Beach Marina along with Ed and Chris also from JBM. \u00a0Ed and Chris left last year to become cruisers on their boat Freedom<\/a>. \u00a0We touched base with Bob Reed the broker who sold Echo to us and was a tremendous resource to us as we prepared to set out on our journey.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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We each acquired new Crowns – dental that is. \u00a0 Purchased and installed a Single Side Band Radio which will provide communication while off shore,\u00a0 Jeff also obtained his Ham Radio License while here, this allows him to communicate on said radio – congratulations Jeff!\u00a0 He has already had a few conversations with his brother Kurt in Michigan just to test things out.\u00a0 Of course when they ran into problems with the radios, they did communicate over cell phone…radio communication will be much more impressive when we are in some remote location.<\/p>\n

Other purchases include a Lectra San system which allows us to treat our waste water. \u00a0The system was purchased at a Flee Market at the Gam for a fraction of the cost of new and works well so far. \u00a0We purchased and installed 4 solar panels which will provide as much as 90% of our daily power needs – provided the sun is shining of course. \u00a0We also have ordered a water making system from Electromax which will desalinate sea water for use on board, just have to find an address to ship it to now that we’re leaving here.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Jeff has also made numerous and significant improvements on board to store things. \u00a0He changed two large hanging lockers to shelves with bins, this new set up allows us to use every inch of space inside the locker. \u00a0With more space in the locker we were able to move clothing that had been stored in bins elsewhere into the lockers. \u00a0We also moved our dive tanks to the bilge which freed up space in the garage where Jeff made a “pantry” with several small bins for storage. \u00a0\"\"<\/a>Jeff donned his dive gear and ventured in the dark murky water in hopes to retrieve something that had fallen overboard and check on the status of our “zincs”. \u00a0It was too dark to find anything but using \u00a0flash light he was able to see the zincs are still in good shape. \u00a0 In salt water in order to protect the various important metals under the water line you attach a “sacrificial” metal to be consumed rather than those more important metal boat parts such as props and thru-hull fittings, etc. \u00a0So it is very important to check the status of the sacrificial zinc periodically. \u00a0He did have a little scare in the water when he reached in the bow thruster tunnel and found that a crab had taken up residence, luckily the crab didn’t get his hand! \u00a0We evicted the crab by starting up the thruster. \u00a0 We both had gotten our diving certification in June before leaving home, we bought 2 sets of equipment which we hadn’t gotten the chance to try out yet. \u00a0Glad to know all of Jeff’s gear is in working order.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>We also had some fun times with our cousin, Katie O’Connell who lives in Alexandria Virginia. \u00a0She sailed with us one beautiful Saturday in September when the bay was filled with races and freighters.\u00a0\"\"<\/a> She also spent a night at anchor with us and experienced a little late night excitement when a weather front passed at about 2:30 am.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Last Saturday we spent the day with her as our tour guide in DC where we visited the Pentagon Memorial, the Library of Congress, the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden, saw the White House, the Iwo Jima Memorial and had 2 great meals. \u00a0The memorial is so well done and the library so impressive, there is so much to see and do in that city – wish we had more time time to explore!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0\"\"<\/a>\u00a0\"\"<\/a>\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We have also met so many great people here, including Ginny and JW aboard Over Budget who introduced us to SSCA and Karen and Earl aboard Getaway. \u00a0We connected with the Conway<\/a> family who Jeff has been emailing with for some time and is traveling aboard their Beneteau 473 for the next year. \u00a0We met up with them at the boat show then visited their boat where we all compared notes about improvements, storage and travels. \u00a0We were amazed with how neat their boat was in comparison to ours – we seem to have loads more stuff on board. \u00a0During our visit the kids quietly occupied themselves with \u00a0miniature cars on a city they had drawn on several papers \u00a0 and could rearrange how ever they liked. \u00a0With no TV and very little stuff kids can be very creative! \u00a0Although they are heading directly to the Caribbean \u00a0we hope to meet up with them again along the way. \u00a0You can follow their story at conwaysailors.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We have continued to vacillate a bit on where to head for the winter, the \u00a0Caribbean or the Bahamas. \u00a0Either destination will be amazing and each has it’s pros and cons with regard to the journey there. \u00a0At this point we believe the Bahamas is the best choice for us. \u00a0We expect to head out of \u00a0Chesapeake Bay toward Virginia Beach, then start making our way south either via the Inter Coastal Waterway or off shore sailing. \u00a0It’s likely there will be a bit of both as we continue toward Florida. \u00a0At some point we will head east from the coast toward Bimini in the Bahamas. \u00a0Just remember – life is fluid…<\/p>\n

Oh yes, and Jeff shaved his mustache.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Here’s Mary down in a locker acting as Jeff’s “able assistant” yanking wires for the solar panel installation.<\/p>\n

Guess travel is our muse and we’re back on the move so it shouldn’t be too long before you hear from us again.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, sometime tomorrow or the next day we will finally leave the Annapolis area after having first arrived here on Labor Day. \u00a0It was unbearably hot and very busy then but now fall has set in and it’s time to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2y1a7-fi","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=948"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":982,"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948\/revisions\/982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svecho.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}