Though we have mostly been documenting the water-maker progress we have also been catching up with friends and family while we are in Maryland. Actually first stop in August was a visit with Frank & MaryMarie of SV Eleanor Q but a lass the gab fest took over and no pictures remain…. Out next outing, to the foothills of Virginia brought us to a visit with Annette’s Nephew and Fiancé’ Byron and Alex. 

We enjoyed a tour of the Cleckner Estate and followed up a terrific dinner nearby. The fact that we were NEARLY 100 miles inland and minimal impact…that’s my story!

A friend we made in Galesville several years ago still enjoys racing. Dennis and we all started sailing about the same time. There are regular Wednesday Beer Can Races and he lets me ride along and get in the way whenever I am in town. It is ALWAYS a treat and happy to hear that he and Liz are both doing well.

The other Anthony, and full time race crew, he’s in the Air Force……

We had a lovely evening catching up with our old former neighbors Kathy & Ron over at Crystal Park. It was great catching up and we so miss them!

One of the highlights of August was to get some of the local GenIVs out on Magnolia.  GenIVs are the grandchildren of the the Steinke Kids, ie Generation IV. We brought as many along on this day of sailing as we could safely fit on Magnolia.

As you can see everyone fit okay and we did have a particularly nice sail day in-spite of the fact that it was in the middle of August.

Magnolia while underway is a “dry” vessel but once we are back to the dock, the crew enjoys a cold straight from a bucket of ice…they were COLD!!

Thank you all for taking time out of your weekend to come share the day with us! Shannon, Shamus, Sean and Mary Rose, you are not forgotten and on the first sail of the season 1016….unless you come and find us on our transit south, more on that next time!

To close the month out we had dinner with Dan & Lori last night. The opportunity to visit with the before they enter the bonds of matrimony in October. We are looking forward to hosting Jim III this weekend while we get Magnolia underway for her Charlie Sea Trial (last sea trial before departure – and more on that next time) this weekend. Looking forward, more soon, Be Safe Anthony & Annette

At the end of our last writing we were waiting for Marine Technical Services of Deale, MD to make the 120volt connections for the Boost, High Pressure pumps as well as the control panel.

MTS did an excellent job with an exceedingly neat and organized installation. You can see the terminal box located near the membranes. After a successful test we configured the water-maker to add pickling solution to the system. The pickling process protects the system when it is not being utilized on a regulars basis. Since we will not really be using the water-maker until we head for the Bahamas we went ahead and pickled it.

If you think this “Part #2” was a long time in coming you should be on this end!!! Truthfully a big project but on the other hand, I have not been killing myself either! The great motivator as always, the calendar! With less than a month to go before we start the fall migration it was time to finish this job up! Back to the beginning first though.

Essentially the water maker is made up of the following components. (TL clockwise). Control Panel, Boost Pump, Charcoal Filter, HP Pump, Membranes and Raw Water Filter.  A VERY quick water maker theory class, the boost pump receives raw seawater and pressurizes to about 30psi. The seawater is sent through the 20 and 5 micron filters before being fed to the HP Pump which pushes the seawater into the membranes at 850psi. The output of the Membranes is a salt-free drinkable water at about 30 gallons per hour.

The first exercise was to locate a place on Magnolia where to install the equipment? The ideal location would be: 1) Near an existing thru-hull to receive the raw saltwater. 2) Near the fresh water tank. 3) Location where the filters are easily accessible. 4) A location with good drainage to the bilge for inevitable spillage when changing filters. 5) Accessibility to a A/C 20amp breaker.  In the case of Magnolia I think we scored exceptionally well with perhaps accessibility to the the filters for easy changing.  I will let you know in the spring after we live with the system for a season.

In the case of our Morgan 44 the ideal location is under the forward berth. The water tank is under the berth (18 inches away, there is a thru-hull directly aft of the berth and the location is directly over the forward bilge.

The location currently contains 3 VERY shallow drawers. To make the space accessible we need to remove the drawers and replace them with cabinet doors. We stopped at every consignment shop along the east coast on our way north last spring. The “Lucky Duck” finally scored in Hampton VA at a cost of $10.00 a piece and they match just about perfect!

The first action was to install a shelf on which to mount the High Pressure Pump

I took the opportunity to fully replace the sanitation hoses for the forward head which made the job significantly larger than initially planned. (That is ALWAYS the case on a boat so no real surprise there)

It was then just an exercise to install largest components first. Note: The string is only used during installation. Its not permanent.

I did tons of measuring and thinking before the installation began but it was not until a component was installed that I was able to determine if that was the best choice. To illustrate you might notice the filters were re-positioned in the below pictures. A subsequently the black 3-way valve was also relocated.

Eventually the configuration ended as seen below.

The final component is the 48lb high pressure pump.

The control panel has all of the lines connected and ready to go. The mounting has been dry fit and should work out nicely.

The system uses Magnolia’s 120volt service which is similar to how a house is wired but since this “house” sits in water I am having a professional come in and make the final electrical connections. Hopefully that will be done this week. We will keep you apprised!

Annette and I have been aboard Magnolia full time for nearly 2 1/2 years and have never been away for more than a couple days. We have not been up to visit Michigan for a number of years so it was a time to go! It also gave us the opportunity to get out of the hot and steamy Chesapeake Bay Summer! On the bad side my picture taking NEEDS to improve! We get yacking and I forget to start snapping…not good!

First stop was downtown Detroit for lunch with my niece Janine at a fabulous bar-b-que place call Slows. Highly recommended mostly because we yacked and ate for a couple hours and they did not toss us out!

Later in the day we met up with few people from the gang I grew up with, literally, like kindergarten!  We laughed and talked the night away, terrific time and so happy to see everyone…thank you for taking time out of your schedules!!!

A very special thank you to Bill Mazarra who could not join us from his home in Texas but did indeed send a bottle of wine…here’s to you Bill!!!

Next day was a stop at my bother Jimmy’s house for a visit with him, Angie and their three terrific kids. They are all doing and exceptionally well and it was a real treat catching up with all the goings on….and there was the brunch to die for…thank you Jim & Angie for making us feel so welcome.

(along the shore of Lake Michigan)

It was off then to Canadian Lakes MI to visit and relax with my parents at there place. We gabbed for about 3 days straight, did a little touring and stopped in for a visit with Mrs Carpenter (Dean) who lived two doors down in Detroit. It was a wonderful visit and very relaxing, hopefully we did not make too much work for mom and dad!!!

Long time readers will recognize Frank from Eleanor Q whom we spent much of our first season cruising with. We met up with Mary Marie who took us over to Franks office. We caught him in the midst of a high powered staff meeting! We had a terrific evening visiting and catching up and look forward to looking off Magnolia’s beam to find Eleanor Q nearby!

Next stop was the traditional Steinke Family reunion near Lima OH. As always great to catch up but especially so with my godson who is growing up so darn fast! I also have to say quite the young gentlemen as well!!!

On they way to Virginia was a breakfast stop with Ted & Tina Tennar, my friend Jacks brother. We have been crossing pats for the better part of 30 years and always so much fun to catch up.

After the long drive back to Arlington, Annette and I crashed one last time at our condominium. The next day we closed the deal to sell so now we really are house-less! We are really at home aboard Magnolia.

Next time water maker installation!