Here it is Nov 7, 2010, already and I am still here at the yacht yard on Gibson Island hating the cold weather. I am planning on leaving here on Nov 9, 2010, for Norfolk where I will reprovision and get ready to head out for St John as soon as the weather is agreeable.

This has been a busy summer with lots of boat jobs to do and I am tired of working and ready to head out. Bella Vita is almost ready too. She has not moved from the slip since I got here except for the trip to the haulout dock for the annual haulout. I was up in the yard for about a month while I did the bottom and pulled the three 80 gallon water tanks out. The tank are mounted so that you can't see the hull under them and have no way to assess the integrity of the hull. It probably hasn't been looked at since the boat was built and I was getting worried about what might be going on in that area.

Each tank is about 6.5 feet long and about 20 inches wide so they are pretty heavy. I drained each tank and unhooked all the hoses so they were ready to pull out. Of course this was after I removed about half the woodwork in the boat just to get to the tanks. Then I hooked the Mizzen halyard, the line used to raise the rear or mizzen sail, to one tanks at a time to pull them out. Using the large mainsheet winch, a 46:1 ratio, I was able to slowly winch them out through the companionway, into the cockpit and up over the side of the boat. It took a couple of hours per tank and then a couple of hours for me to recover.

I finally got all three of the out and on the ground letting me see the inside of the hull. The bilge and the keel both had water in them so that was next. I pumped out what I could and then got the rest with the shop-vac. After it dried out I went over it with a wire brush in my angle grinder to get the loose stuff off. After doing that, and loosing one finger nail when the brush caught on the edge of a rib and smashed a finger, I went back over it all with a grinder disc to get it ready for paint. The paint process was three coats of an epoxy barrier coat followed by primer and paint. This takes about a week and I did it in three passes so I could still get around the boat without stepping in the paint. That's why it took a month this year for the haulout.

While out I put on a new anchor to replace the one I lost on the trip south last year and 190 feet of 3/8 inch High Test chain to replace the one that I have been using for the last five years and was significantly rusted.

Once back in the water I decided to get rid of four of the old Dorade vents in the deck. They were a terrible design that let in more water than air. Two of them I cut out and welded new steel in the holes. The other two I made a big cutout and put in two Lewmar Ocean hatches. That was another pretty big job and took lots of time. They are in and are really nice to have and it is much easier to get around on deck without those old hatches.

I also put in a new VHF radio which includes an AIS unit to replace the one I bought two years ago and quit working. It also has a hailer function, built in fog horn and has DSC (Digital Selective Calling). I had to replace the Balmar voltage regulator for the third time.

The other big project was to install a new autopilot. I decided to get a Simrad unit because it had the easiest actuator to install. It still required building a steel box about 2' x 2' x 1' to hold the actuator. This had to be welded up and then welded to the deck. It turned out pretty nice and the actuator fit, although just barely, and we tested it out today at the dock and all looked good. I'll probably wait till we leave here to do the final test and calibration. It really works nice so far and is almost silent.

Steve Applegate was over for a couple days to help get things ready for the trip south. Tom Emmert, another retired Lexmark guy, is going to sail to St John with me so that should make the trip somewhat easier. We got a lot done over the last few days and the boat is almost ready to go.

I did take a little time off. My friend Natalie and I went to the Eastern shore for a few days. We went to a Pearson sailboat regatta at Wye Island for a day. The next days we went to a little town of Claiboure (sp?) for a night and then on to Oxford for night Somewhere in that little trip we both go food poisoning and by the time we got the Cambridge I think we both were starting to feel a little off, at least I know I was. We started back to Gibson Island and stopped off Bloody Point Bar and anchored for the night. It was not pleasant night with both of us sick, I actually went and laid in the dinghy for a while because it was cooler and made me feel a little better. As soon as we got back to GI, we went into town for Gatorade and I was able to keep it down. She seemed to get over it pretty well but it took me over a week before I could do a lot.

The other little trip was to the Trawlerfest in Baltimore. There were over 50 boats in the water that were available to tour, all the ones on the front row were open. The other picture is the smallest next to one of the larger ones. The small one is a Ranger Tug, I think. We volunteered for a couple of hours and they gave us parking passes, valet of course, lunch and free admission. It was a nice day and a chance to see some nice power boats.

Natalie hosted the Lord Nelson Victory Tug rendevous at the Gibson Island Yacht Squadron this year. Not many boats came but there three of four at the dock with other owners driving over for it. Gibson Island is a great place for it and I think all had a good time

I have a few other pictures to post but am getting tired and running out of time so they may have to wait until I get to St John. I will try to keep the Spot going so my position can be tracked. More when I get south.

Nov 13, 2010

We're in Norfolk after a 3 1/2 day trip down the Chesapeake. We had pretty good winds and on Friday did about 54 miles, not bad for the short days this time of year.

The plan is to leave tomorrow sometime. I think we are supposed to b out of the slip by noon so I guess we'll leave by then. The weather tomorrow is supposed to pretty nice although a bit light. Sometime Monday the winds will pick up and be strong through Tues. I'm hoping to make the trip to St John in about two weeks, hopefully before our food runs out. I did get the autopilot calibrated and it works great. It is so quiet you can not hear it running and it keeps a really good course. We had following seas for most of the trip which make the boat swing a lot from side to side. The autopilot would bring it back on course better than I could. It is supposed to learn how the boat handles and compensate in its steering algorithms to minimize the swing. I still need to get the GPS data to the autopilot. I bought an adapter today that will let me do this and will probably install it tomorrow before we leave. This will allow the autopilot to follow a predefined course instead of just pointing the boat as the compass tells it to. This would be a big improvement.

The internet access here was down today but hopefully it will be up tomorrow so I can post this. I have remembered to turn on the SPOT each day and will try to for the rest of the trip.