Ready?

Girlfriend aboard, aka Little Blonde Distraction (LBD)

Storage space cleared for LBD, so she won't be so cranky.

Girlfriend's car parked at Grampa's house for the summer.

New anchor purchased.

New main halyard installed.

Boat power-washed. First shower boat and I have had in a number of months.

Leaky hatches removed, cleaned, recaulked and reinstalled.

Engine tuned and sounding better. No more misses or dying.

New fridge purchased for 3rd floor tenant.

Minor house maintenance completed.


I think we're ready.

Thanks to Glen and Maryanne and their clan for Memorial day crabs and birthday cookie. It's been ages since I've blown out candles on my bday.

Thanks to Grampa for storing LBD's car and giving us a ride back to Bmore.

Thanks to Mike at my old marina for hooking me up with electricity again.

Thanks to Sandy and Dennis for the new knives and fisherman tools (seen in the pic). Now I just need to catch something.


Winds are predicted calm and then southerly tomorrow. I was hoping for a short shakedown sail tomorrow. But if things go well, we may make some miles up the bay. I'll try to get the boatcam and gps online for the sail.

New Halyard

The old main sail halyard (line with which you hoist the sail) was beginning to disintegrate. The halyard runs from a cleat at the bottom of the mast, up to a pulley at the top of the mast, and back down to the sail. You might think that you would have to climb to the top of the mast to replace the halyard line, but that's not the case.

Sewed the ends of the old and new halyards together.

Taped the ends together.

Pulled the old halyard and then the connected new halyard through the mast. Cut the old halyard away. Tied the new halyard to the shackle with a bowline knot and cleated the other end.

Eyes of a Beginner

Bought a new Delta anchor from West Marine. Any advice on its proper usage is much appreciated. It's made of thicker and higher grade steel than the danforth anchors I'm accustomed to. But if anyone can find a way to bend the shank, it would be me.

Also bought a new main halyard line, which I'll replace today. The old is almost certainly original to the boat, and is beginning to disintegrate.

Admiral Crankypants

Yesterday we hauled a bunch of my toys off the boat. Golf Clubs, Bow & Arrows, jib that needs repair, etc. Today I organized my remaining stuff and cleaned out a space for Amy to use as a closet. Amy speaks:

I’ve been a little out of sorts for the last couple of days. As Scott has mentioned, we’ve both spent the last several years living alone and now, we’re together in a space no larger than about 150 square feet. We’ve had a lot of errands to run before we leave Baltimore next week, and so have been running around for much of the day. On top of that, I was still living out of my duffel bag, and feeling not at all settled in. Most of you that know me would also know that this is a recipe for crankiness.

More on Admiral Crankypants' blog

CWCS: Nectarine Chicken

Cooking with Capt' Scott (CWCS)

Grill chicken

Cook rice

Make chutney sauce to pour over chicken:
Chop up nectarine and zucchini. Mush equal parts banana and water. Add nectarines and zucchini to banana mush and heat in pot until hot. Add hot sauce until desired spiciness is reached.

Grill nectarine garnish:
Cut a nectarine in half. Stick a fork in each half and grill over stove top flame like you would a marshmellow. Try to char the nectarine a little. It's done when it falls off the fork.


I like to grill chicken thighs and legs because they are nearly impossible to overcook. They are so fatty that they don't dry out. The only problem is that they are so fatty that they start grease fires on my gas grill.

At the supermarket we smelled the nectarines as we passed them in the produce aisle. That's always a good sign of a fruit that is ripe and will be flavorful. We passed strawberries, raspberries and blueberries too. They all looked good, but had no smell.

The zucchinis looked good at the market. My initial plan was to slice and grill the zucchinis as a side dish to plain grilled chicken. I didn't have a plan for the nectarines.

I guess the nectarine chicken idea was inspired by our dinner at Bicycle last week, and the mix of flavors in their dishes. I like the balance of sweet and hot in a chutney. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any hot sauce on the boat. I ended up borrowing a couple packets of Taco Bell hot sauce from a marina neighbor.

Negotiations

Amy and I are trying to adapt to life aboard and going forward together. It doesn't help that I've lived alone for seven years and that we are now constantly together in a confined space.

One of the minor issues I'm trying to resolve is whether to steal Amy's boat posts from her blog and post them here, or just link to them. In any case, if you want to comment on her posts, you can do it here or there. We read each other's blogs and comments. Amy just posted The First Week Aboard.

Infrastructure

Just because I'm taking a break from blogging doesn't mean Amy is.

The Old Fart Club

Grampa Speaks:

Visit with Scott on the occasion of his officially joining the old fart club (as he puts it)

The Salty Sea Dog, Sho-Me, and I paid a visit to Split Decision today to celebrate the big 40 and inspect the boat to see how he and it survived the trip. Both look in fine shape.

We embarked on a short sail (motoring) over to the Broadway Pier, where we expected to tie up and walk the short distance to the Wharf Rat, a favorite of Scott, me, and Sho-Me. Unfortunately we did not get far before the motor began missing and stalled out. Scott observed that we were apparent jinxes for his boat and began working on the motor after anchoring. I guessed that the problem sounded like water in the gas, and that may be it, but the full diagnosis is not in. After drying the spark plugs and letting the cylinders dry out (while we enjoyed a beer), we started up again toward Broadway.

But alas, the same thing happened again after beginning well. So repeat the previous paragraph, but change the last sentence to back to the marina.

And alas, again, repeat the previous paragraph, at almost back to the marina. But we did finally make it back.

When we (Scott, me, and Sho-Me) went to Nick’s, the bar/restaurant just up from the marina, we found discrimination is alive and well in Baltimore. Poor Salty Sea Dog was not permitted to join us on the outside patio and had to sit out lunch in the truck (more to add insult to injury, the truck belongs to Wookie, my regular truck dog).

But we enjoyed a couple of beers and fish sandwiches and good conversation about Scott’s adventures and plans, and my plans for retirement.

See the attached photos to see Scott actually at work.




Pic of Grampa and his Admiral: