An open letter to the Woman’s Group of the Pentagon Sailing Club:

When Annette and I made the commitment to learn to sail, we also promised we would learn to do this in lock-step. Meaning our education and experience was going to be equal. As time has progressed and experience increased we have learned some jobs are better handled by one of us though we each maintain proficiency.

I have no idea how prevalent or not the following is in the “club.” Many times on the docks we see a boat getting underway or coming in where it’s the female who is handling lines while the male provides direction (sometimes loudly) from behind the helm. As the woman struggles and the man becomes frustrated it seems there must be a better way. We see this all the time and it makes me crazy. 

Something that works for us on Magnolia is that under “most” circumstances at “Sea & Anchor” my wife, Annette, handles the helm while I work the decks and lines as required. I am no giant and Annette is no weakling, but for us it plays to our individual strengths than the other way around.

Another tool in our arsenal is “Marriage Savers.” These are inexpensive, geeky-looking headset walkie-talkies that we wear during all “sea & anchor” evolutions. It gives us a way to communicate while barely speaking above a whisper. They are an excellent supplement to only hand signals. There are no “loud” voices which greatly reduces stress in an already stressful part of sailing.

As for the title of this post, I wish I could say I came up with the above on my own, but it is actually the title of a book, It’s Your Boat Too: A Woman’s Guide to Greater Enjoyment on the Water by Suzanne Giesemann.  I recommend you  read it and then have your spouse read it too because it is a very educational book for both men and women. A strange coincidence, the first sailboat Annette and I were ever on was Suzanne’s and Ty’s sailboat, Liberty. We actually hold them responsible for getting this snowball rolling and those other two on Second Sally for making us somewhat capable and less dangerous to ourselves and those around us!!!!

I will get to the headline in a moment but first a little background.  Magnolia was purchased with 2 x 2oo amp/hours of battery storage in her house bank. The amount of storage allowed us to operate the systems aboard Magnolia for about 24 hours without connecting to either shore power or running the Westerbeke 8.5 Kilo-Watt generator for a couple hours while at anchor. I am here to tell you there is nothing more annoying on a sail boat than to hear an engine run whether it’s the auxiliary engine or the generator. The larger battery bank we will not have to run that generator as long!

(Starboard House Bank)

(Port House Bank)

In addition to the House Bank we replaced the start batteries, one for each generator and auxiliary engine. This is where the mystery began. In consultation with my friend Greg and Magnolia’s professional electrician it was decided we would install a Group 27 battery for the auxiliary engine and a Group 24 for the generator. This is where my mystery began. I installed the Group 27 and the Auxiliary Engine operated perfectly. I installed the Group 24 on the generator and it would not even turn over.

(Engine Start Battery)

(Generator Start Battery)

This would be an excellent time to disclose my dirty little secret. I am a lousy mechanic and until we purchased Magnolia the most mechanical thing I ever did was change the oil in my cars. I was such a neophyte my “best” friends labeled me “beer Bi$&h.” I have the coffee cup to prove it!

After the initial start failure of the generator I connected it to the proven Group 27  and the generator started right up. Crazy! Ok, guess the generator requires the increased power available on the Group 27 over the Group 24. Truth be told I nor my ”consultants” believed a Group 27 should be required to start the generator. In spite of the previous I traded for another Group 27. After the installing the Group 27 surprisingly the problem persisted!  What? A quick voltage check indicated a voltage of 12.6 on the “problem” battery and 13.4 on the “good”battery. Are you kidding me??? A call to whom I refer to Mr. Happy (definitely not happy) at Westerbeke he suggested checking voltage at the starter instead of at the battery. It was then that I discovered the ground cable on the generator was ever so slightly loose! CRAP!! Obviously the problem went right away after cleaning and tightening the connection.

Lesson learned, stick with to your instincts. If it appears to not make sense, IT DOES NOT MAKE SENSE!!! In hindsight the above can be seen perfectly clear, the trick is going to be to see clearly during the process! Practice makes perfect, will keep working it!

One of the Admirals (Annette) earliest requests for Magnolia was the inclusion of a Automatic Identification System (AIS)  system as part of the electronics upgrade. There are two types of implementations. A passive system that would allow Magnolia to electronically know what ships were around her. The second in addition seeing what ships are around Magnolia tells those same ships that Magnolia is around them too! Its good to see, but better to be seen! Below is just a couple of the many ships we have seen near by!

The AIS System on Magnolia is made up of the two boxes seen below on the left. The AIS transponder is on the right and the device that allows the VHF antenna to be shared is in the center.  Though the picture on the right may not be that pretty, the organization is actually pretty good.

Below is the cockpit display where surrounding ship data will be displayed and overlaid upon charts and radar data. In addition alarms will be sounded automatically if a ship appears to be moving in a way that might threaten Magnolia with collision.

As you can see the Admiral appears happy with the additional tools she has available when safely navigating Magnolia.

That list is really long, but lets start from the beginning. We departed Galesville, MD early on Monday (8 July) and had a surprisingly nice sail to Solomon’s Island on the Patuxent River. The passage was planned for 42 miles and the winds stayed more west than south so we made a good 35 of those miles on a single tack enjoying music and a fine lunch. I do think the Admiral might have snuck in a little nap in the afternoon. There is a Navy Airbase at PAX, so though the Blue Angels have been ‘sequestered’, we were still entertained by a number of aircraft.  We even saw one Osprey, the plane not the bird, though we saw many of the live ones too! We have been to Solomon’s on a couple previous trips, so the area was familiar and offered an overnight stop with a swim and nice barbeque at the anchorage.

Tuesday we awoke to the excitement of a new destination. We were headed to Reedville which offered unknown anchorage and port entrances we have never been to before. The second becoming important quickly! We had a very pleasant sail out of Solomon’s again being blessed with favorable winds that again were not predicted.

We crossed the mouth of the Potomac in 3-4 ft swells, but with Magnolia’s weight and the reduced sail we were quit comfortable. As the winds became less favorable and reports of thunderstorms coming in we decided a swift entrance into Reedville would be prudent.  As we motored along the engine began to sputter a little which happens seldom, but understood to be a dirty fuel filter. This is a common enough occurrence that we have a second filter plumbed in and swapped in/out with the other with a simple valve adjustment. No problem. Swap complete and we were running….for a few minutes when that one clogged as well…crap. Swapping out Racor filters is not a very big issue, easy in port, but in rolling boat less than ideal. So as Annette managed the cockpit and kept Magnolia safe I retired to the engine room. The filter swap out went as planned, but in the end did not solve the problem. It seems the clog was actually between the tank and the filter where sadly we have no redundancy. 

#1 The Admiral can indeed tack the boat by herself in 20+ knots of wind. Perhaps I might be a little bias but I never doubted her ability, it just has not been tested and now she knows too!

After about 1 1/2 hours I reported to the Admiral that I ran out of ideas in the engine room. With the expected thunderstorms approaching and the winds now steady in the 20’s it was time to get safe.

#2 Know when its time to quit troubleshooting and get the boat to safety.

While I was busy in the engine room the Admiral had been assessing our options and so when I reported out setback she simply stated we would sail her in. I am the first to admit that this is a sailboat the engine is referred to as the Auxiliary Engine we general don’t sail into port, particularly ones we have never visited.

#3 Never ever forget you are on a SAIL boat!

The Admiral’s assessment was if we could get off shore some we could end up on a nice run right into Reedville. When you are sailing hard on the wind as we were there is a lot of noise and a little rough as Magnolia fought her way forward. The moment the wind came onto the down wind run to take us into the bay a deafening silence and calmness came over the boat. It was a fabulous 3 minutes! Why only 3, well usually we get weather info on the radio weather channel. This time though, the on coming was of significance that the Coast Guard themselves came up on the radio and said it was going to be a doosey! Great!

#4 God loves angels and idiots alike.

We continued the run right into a well-protected cove next to the menhaden fish oil plant where we dropped the sail and drifted to an excellent (i.e. first safe cove we could easily get to – it turned out to be smelly from the menhaden fish oil plant) place to drop the anchor. We got the anchor down literally with 10 minutes to spare before the storm. The Admiral permitted me one Stella beer to watch the storm from the cockpit. We quickly saw 30+ knot winds and just as quickly they abated.

First thing on Wednesday we were up and with our trusty tire pump (Thanks to my friend and mentor Greg) we blew all the fuels lines and were quickly back in business.  We stayed in port here at Reedville to rest and wait for better weather expected tomorrow. We will make a 25 mile run down to Jackson Creek near Deltaville tomorrow and on into Little Creek in Norfolk on Saturday.

#5 The Crazy Crab in Reedville has some really good Rock Fish and hoping Chit Chat Ice Cream (this afternoon) is as good!

Like I said, we learned a lot and we are better for it! See you soon A**2

Magnolia was underway yesterday with a couple of my “GenIV” cousins aboard.  Jim & Kyle McAndrews. Disappointingly Jim’s friend, Kaitlyn, had to cancel but we look forward to getting her aboard soon!

Not having any kids of our own, we do try to give back to family, friends and the community as we can. Neither Annette or I were destined for our current adventure. Perhaps friends and family who know me might say, “Oh, Anthony is off doing something crazy again!” The Admiral, Annette, is here completely of her own volition and this is pretty far out of her comfort zone! She has stepped up and shown courage in ways that I completely underestimated. It is no secret how proud of her accomplishments I am as we travel down “this road.” If there is one thing Annette and I would like to do is simply show “what’s possible.” If there is one we would love to give back is a belief that anything is possible.  You can accomplish anything, just decide what it is, be prepared to make some sacrifices and believe in yourself! Stepping off the soap box now!

I have neglected to write on this blog much since Memorial Day and here it is the 4th already! This fact could be attributed to 3 things, 1) Procrastination (possible but not normally given to that) 2) Dis-interest? (again possibly, but I do want to document this adventure for all our grandchildren – no kids, going to make the former a harder sell.) 3) In ”retirement” I am working harder now than I ever did in real life.  All three are partially true but heavily weighted to 3). (That’s my story and sticking to it!)

After some really great sailing in late May and early June we have been relegated to so so wind and phase I of the electronics upgrade. During our Mast and Rig work winter before last we had a Raymarine HD Chartplotter antenna installed on the mast as well has, yes a television antenna (not going to be newlyweds forever!!!) Needed to run power cable for the radar from the mast step to 12 volt panel and another from cockpit to panel for the Raymarine C95 Chartplotter. In addition to power had to pull Raymarine Network cables to make all the new hardware talk to each other. With that complete it was time to mount the chart-plotter plotter in the binnacle pod. The pod is a HUGELY overly-priced piece of plastic so the thought of taking a saw to it was rather unnerving. A number of sources recommended this power tool or that for the job. I went with something a lot slower and less likely to result in catastrophic failure. I used this saw that uses a hack saw blade but leaves one end completely open enabling it to cut out the hole to hold the chart plotter.

With the chart plotter mounted it was a relatively simple thing to connect up the radar and the already installed Autopilot. All the Raymarine equipment is  plug and play so that was simply and plug in and turn on. Things usually come apart at the turn on part and it works part! Amazingly everything came right up and worked as expected including that radar that was installed 18 months ago! (The television antenna has been working fine for some time).

Interfacing the Standard Horizon GX2000 VHF Radar was a different critter all together. I had to use the NMEA 183 ports available on both devices and make a couple adjustments in each of the devices. In the end, worked with no major issues, more stress than issues!

Admiral inspected and approved the installation. That is rather important since she spends 10 times more than I behind that wheel!

Magnolia will be getting underway this weekend with some of the Steinke Gen IV kids (I am included in that population). More precisely some Mona McAndrews, grandchildren.  Should be a great day. Monday then Magnolia is intending to take Annette and I to Norfolk for a visit. Straight line it is about 115 miles but there never is such a thing on a sailboat! We are looking forward to get going!!!

.

Promise to write more when we are off the dock and underway! Be Safe A**2

I am finding it a little disconcerting how quickly our view of the world has changed. I find myself trying to remember what day of the week it is most of the time. No really, there are times (mostly all the time) that I could not tell you the day of the week to save my behind. The only time I am really sure is when we are expecting guests aboard Magnolia. Most definitely want to be at the dock when they arrive!!!

As far as the “where” question…well as I lie here in bed writing this (the same bed for the last 12+ years) it seems familiar but not home. Annette has been back here a couple times but this is my first in about a month and wow how quickly our life’s center has relocated from this condominium next to National Airport looking at out at the Potomac and monuments beyond to a little sailboat tucked way up Lurch Creek 3 miles off the Chesapeake Bay.

Learning experience definitely! Really living? Feeling more alive than ever before….

Because it is the first hot spell of the season and the water is terrific in the Wye River. It is also home of to the Audubon Society (Maryland) and the Admiral wanted to see it! I must digress though.

The Admirals last day of work was last Thursday and we got underway with a lovely couple who have sailed with us before to attend the Pentagon Sailing Club event. This Memorial Day the event was near Oxford MD on the Choptank. It was a great weekend filled with some very spirited sailing on Saturday! We made a passage south down the bay in winds in the mid 20knt range which gave Magnolia and crew a fabulously fun & fast passage to Oxford.

After returning from the weekend event the Admiral & I spent Tuesday at our marina in Galesville doing some boat chores and a little laundry. We had made arrangements with our engine doctor for a quick check up in Annapolis on Thursday and meet up with some friends on Wednesday. We took a mooring ball right in downtown Annapolis and dinghy’d in for a walk and a ice cream cone. Our friends visited Magnolia as our first “cruising guests” and had a lovely evening.

Thursday we needed to meet the engine doctor in Back Creek so we motored the mile over there arriving at a dock we had never been too! Every dock is a new experience! Annette did great getting us in and out though. I thought she was going to have a coronary though when I told her she would need to do it twice because the mechanic was coming with for a test run! She did great though, simply cannot say enough on the subject!

We were able to get underway for the Wye River by late morning. It is about 30 miles over there and when adding in distance for tacking gets close to 40. None the less we had a lovely sail with winds in the mid teens and comfortable temperatures. It was a long day so after getting the anchor down a dip in the river and a ice cold beer really hit the spot.

Adding another first (of many this week) Annette started and took the dinghy (Blossom)out for an extended ride to find the Audubon Center up Pickering Creek. It may not sound like much but you get a 15 horse Yamaha fired and controlled for a several mile run and back! We have VHF radio so Blossom could always call Magnolia if she needed!

We have a storm front coming through the mid-Atlantic on  Sunday so we are going to head back to Galesville and continue boat chores tomorrow. I have a little more topside varnish and electronics upgrade to complete. It’s a a boat, there is always something more!

It seems a little surreal that is was just three (3) years ago today that we arrived “home” after Magnolias first trip north from Florida. The preparations and the trip are well documented starting here. Not only did our friends Greg & Marie get Magnolia, Annette and I safely home but they set the “tone” on Magnolia that we observe today.

The rhythm on Magnolia is slow and steady with an emphasis on safety. As I was heard many times, “It’s a sailboat, things don’t happen that fast, patience.” I am not sure if the following is a hard and fast rule aboard S/V Second Sally (Greg & Marie) but “we only go in and out of ports that ships do too.” We have learned so much from them but unspoken lessons are some of the most memorable. A couple years ago Magnolia was in company of Second Sally departing the Choptank River. As we have been through this area many times we had grown accustomed to “cutting a corner” by ignoring one of the markers. We knew there was “plenty of water.” A couple of minutes later I looked back and saw Second Sally further back than I anticipated. She had not cut the marker, I felt a little guilty and somewhat irresponsible at the time but I got the lesson! Funny thing, to this day Greg has no idea he even taught a  lesson that day!

Fast forward to yesterday…last fall we met a couple of similar age as Annette and I with similar plans. I received a surprise message from Frank on FB yesterday afternoon that S/V Eleanor Q was anchored here in the West River. What a treat to share some time with Frank & Mary-Marie sharing thoughts and lessons of the last couple weeks…yup they are ahead simple by a couple weeks! (and yet I am jealous!!)

As Annette take off for sometime in the Chesapeake to celebrate her retirement (tomorrow) we take with us gifts of old and new friends! We are very lucky to have this opportunity!  What an exciting time here on Magnolia!

The Admiral wanted the hanging locker converted for additional shelf space. If you go back and review 2012-04-16 “Single Digit Midget” & “Nearing Splash Time” you will see the beginning of this project. As I said at the time “The Admiral suggested Wire Rack Shelves but I initially resisted because of  how to make them work with a curved which backs the cabinet. I will build some suspense with the answer cause I think it might be one of my best ever ideas! In the meantime I used some left over oak threshold material for supports. I used some thickened West epoxy to attach them to the exposed hull fiberglass. After some primer and paint they will be ready for that surprise shelf solution so standby!”

As can be seen below the supports were indeed epoxied to the bulkhead, taped up and painted. As you can see the paint plan came off the tracks, it happens. The paint bled behind tape! Thankfully the supports are at the BACK of the cabinet!

As you probably know there are no square edges on a boat yet the Admiral wants rectangular wire shelves installed. The solution was to simply trim the wire shelves to the shape of the hull as required.

The Admiral and I split a piece of 1/2 inch PVC lengthwise and opened it wide enough to insert the individual shelf wires. The PVC grips the wires like a vice and completely stiffens the overall shelf. I am not sure about corrosion where the shelves were cut. Could be a problem down the road (waterway), but if they need to be redone, they are cheap and next time I will fill the the PVC with epoxy. (I think I am becoming an epoxy addict)