So I haven’t been keeping up with the blog. Why? Well it’s a long story, so here goes:
After two pleasant days of sailing up the Chesapeake we arrived at Liberty Marina, just south of Annapolis, June 1st and Paul immediately flew to Detroit to pick up our car from our son’s place in South Lyon, Michigan (check out Facebook – Garden Fort). He spent a day helping with a little gardening then drove the car back to Annapolis. Now that we have had the car again, the shopping began. I’ve managed to find myself some swimsuits, shorts, sundresses, tops, sunglasses and flip-flops (outrageous prices in the Caribbean kept me from buying much even if I did need it). Many of the clothes I took with me on our first season were too warm. I did manage to wear my hot-yoga clothes a lot though. I also filled up our pantry. Basically I’ve learned what we use and what we can stock up on while we have the convenience of a car. Anything heavy is a priority.
We also took advantage of being at a marina where we could have a few things shipped. So Amazon is doing a fair business with us at present. We also invested in a new cooler. It plugs in so we don’t have to buy ice and it can be set as a fridge or a freezer. We’ve been using it as a fridge for the past month, I don’t know how we lived without it. Our built in fridge is the size of a bar fridge and the freezer is a very small portion of it. Basically I can’t have much in the freezer once I make a little ice. So we’ve also placed an order for another small freezer which we’ll drop into our counter top. I will loose some cupboard space, but it will be wonderful to be able to take along more frozen fruit and veggies for those times when we don’t get to a store. We added a solar panel and have new batteries coming.
While we were on our passage we had some power issues in our master suite side of the boat. Basically we got nailed with a big wave, which woke me up by soaking me and the bed, and that followed with our lights beginning to flicker on and off. We assumed that somehow the water had also gotten in to the lighting wiring. We turned off our power and lived with flashlights until we arrived. Shortly after we arrived and were settled on the dock, Paul took down the ceiling to look at the problem with the lights and found many corroded wires. One big wave was not enough to corrode these wires, the water had been coming in longer than we were aware.
Upon investigation we discovered an area of about 8 feet where the caulking was broken between the hull and the deck of the boat under the rub rail. Paul tore apart the interior to get and better view and it became obvious that we had a hull deck separation that needed repair (with a gap greater than a quarter of an inch in some places allowing seawater to come into the boat when in big waves). We put in a claim through insurance, which came back as not covered as the surveyor pointed out it was a manufacturing defect. We contacted Lagoon and the hull warranty on our boat only goes 5 years, so no go there. We were on our own to fix it. Lagoon was helpful in having their designers provide us input on how best to do the repair resulting in a bond much stronger than the original factory. Then we got quotes, made a selection and last week the work was finally done (thanks very much for the great professional work of Osprey Marine Composites).
I could go into a lot of detail, but rather than bore you, lets just say it was a happy day when the repair was finished and I could sleep again knowing that no more water would be coming through. It’s just downright scary to think about it. This problem was likely cleverly covered up by previous owners as the insurance surveyor pointed out liberal use of silicone caulk which was not original but our purchase surveyor did not catch it. All I know is I’m confident that this part of the boat is now the strongest part of the boat.
Oh, we also visited Paul’s mom in Burlington when we first arrived. Then a few weeks later she was deemed unsafe to be in assisted living any longer and had to move to health care due to memory issues. So Paul went and helped move her along with his sister Linda. Then last week they called and said that a room had opened up in Memory Care, so Paul is there again today helping his sister Karen move her one more time.
So that’s why we’ve been on the dock for 2 months. And we were supposed to get rid of our car in June before we continued cruising. Well that hasn’t happened yet. So the plan is that we’ll move off the dock tomorrow, but anchor in a harbor right next to the marina. This way we can still receive the few packages that have yet to arrive. We can pay a nominal fee to continue to use their facilities while at anchor, so that will save some $$. Meanwhile, I (G) am going to drive the car back to BC visiting family and friends along the way. I’ll sell the car in BC and return to the boat in 3 weeks time. Paul will stay with the boat to work on various projects and take care of the dog.
I’ll ask Paul to post some pictures. Check back soon okay.