It’s been another busy few days split between shopping, provisioning and maintenance. Part of the shopping and maintenance was the installation of a new toilet – but that’s all good to go now. On a boat there is always something else to do….

The anchor and chain are all on board, the diesel tanks are full, the heads are pumped out, the fresh water tank is full, the fridge, freezer and pantry are provisioned, the rental car has been returned and we’re all set to go. Lance has just put the flags up and the plan is to leave early tomorrow morning.

It’s definitely time to head south as the last two days and nights have been the coldest we’ve had yet. But Amanzi is well equipped with heaters (or air-conditioners) – seems like standard equipment over here.

Our new found friends, Linda and Steve, left early this morning for their trip down the ICW and we’re hoping to catch up with them as we follow. They were more or less forced to stay here in Baltimore for two months as Steve had a bad fall when climbing onto the boat one day and he broke his shoulder. He had to have surgery and has been getting physio all this time. It’s still not right but they were really keen to get going and he’ll continue to do the exercises himself.

We’ve just been out to dinner with Dave – he’s planning to leave on Wednesday. We’re hoping to meet up again as we move south.

So it’s all go, go, go…….

Well, how does a dinghy arrive from the manufacturer? Fully inflated  and ready to go you would think. Not so!!! Here’s a photo of what she looks like when ready to go:

All pretty and inflated, just raring to go!

And this is what she lookied like prior to pumping her up:

Now, there’s a big difference between the two and you can’t see it. It’s about a thousand strokes of the hand pump needed to inflate it to 0.25 bar (or 3.6 psi as we now have to use US measurements). Well it should be about a 1000 strokes but if you don’t ensure that the valve is closed before you start pumping, then it will cost you another 600 strokes after all the air rushes out after disconnecting the pump. And how do I know this? Well, figure it out!

Finally, this is what she looked like after being dropped off by the shipping company.

I had to borrow a sabre saw to cut all the wooden crating away – without damaging the dink in the process, Then we had to cart all the pieces of wood and dump it in the dumpster. Then Mary and I together lifted the 135lb dink onto the trolley to take down to Amanzi.

And all the while, one of the marina’s staff members stood by and watched!!! Not even an inkling of a thought to help with anything! Although, to be fair, he did organise me the sabre saw.

Well we decided to bring it along on our trip and plan to ask anyone dropping by Amanzi to sign it.

Last night we had our first visitor – Dave from his sailboat Mary Lee. We first met Dave a few days ago – he is from Northern Idaho and like us bought a boat here in Baltimore. He is also heading down the ICW to Florida, as are several other boaties in the marina. Once we all leave here we’ll no doubt meet up somewhere or other down the line.

Dave has an amazing amount of determination and get up and go – having been laid up for 5 years with a severe back injury he decided he needed to be up and doing something. Earlier this year a friend told him that he could either have pain and sit and watch TV all day or he could have pain and live life. So he drove across the US and has been here about a month working to get Mary Lee ship shape and ready for his trip. He is hoping to one day sail on through the Panama Canal and who knows may even head to New Zealand.

We wish him fair weather and a great trip and we’ll look forward to staying in touch with him – and yes, Dave became our first entry in this section of our visitors’ book.

Now its time for her to embark on new adventures under new owners and a new name.

First however is the de-naming ceremony which entails removing the name from the boat, then appeasing Neptune, then applying the new name followed by a naming ceremony.

First, the removal of the name:

PS
How do you remove a name that’s been painted on a boat without damaging the underlying gelcoat? With difficulty, it seems – but there is a fairly easy way!! First, forget about paint strippers and the like as they will eat into the gelcoat. So, how? Well, I used a tip I picked up from the Cruiser’s forums – Spray the old painted name with heavy duty oven cleaner – yes, that’s right, oven cleaner. I used Easy Off. Spray it on, let it dry, use a nylon kitchen scourer to wipe what you can off. Then repeat 2-3 times and it will all, almost magically, come off. Just need to use a bit of old fashioned elbow grease for a few stubborn spots.

Be warned that the oven cleaner will discolour the gelcoat yellowish. Then, I used Chlorox bleach to bleach the yellow and, voila – a name easily removed!

As Lance mentioned, on Saturday we headed down to Annapolis for the huge sailboat show. The motor boat show is only this weekend but the things we were looking for would have been at both.

We managed to find parking quite easily but had to cross a drawbridge and wait while it was raised for a sailboat or two to pass through. We’ll see lots more of these bridges as we make our way down the ICW but from the water point of view!

The show was great, the weather was fantastic and we managed to get a lot of what we wanted. It was also very busy – look at the photo of the dinghy dock. Not quite sure how you’re meant to scramble over the other dinghys to get to your own!

Today was the first time we haven’t headed off to the shops for something or other – the weather was pretty wet and so we just worked on or inside the boat. I have to say that things are pretty well organised now and mostly everything is now ship shape.

I feel that I can now start to relax a bit.

Then there’s the question of finding place for everything and remembering where you put it.

Add to that a trip to the Annapolis boat show to look at dinghy’s, outboard motors, and a host of other things for the boat.

Slowly the boat is getting tidier and cleaner – Mary is doing a sterling job of getting us shipshape while I have been busy sorting our the tools – they all are very rusty and inventorying the mechanical stuff; repairing a leaky tap and a leaking drain from the sink. Simple jobs but time consuming. For instance, the sink required a new drain attachment which we bought. Then I found that I had to replace the other one (in the double sink) as well. So this entailed 2 8km trips to the Home Depot Store for the various parts. And so it’s been with a number of other things – mostly entailing multiple trips to the shops!!

I think I have had enough “retail therapy” to last a few years but there’s still more to get.

and we haven’t even started on the groceries – “provisions” – for our trip down the ICW!!!!

And with boats there’s always something that takes longer than usual!! New throttle controls require an additional part that has to be ordered in and so the delays mount up. Need to install davits for the dinghy but have to wait for them to be manufactured and then shipped to me! Delays, delays.

Still, overall, I’m giving everything a 10/10