Magnolia got underway Tuesday and made a short of hop over to the Rhode River and since then had a couple days of just relaxing. We made a point of getting over to Smithsonian Environmental Research Center to take advantage of their miles of trails. It is a very lovely place. We have been getting in at least a 3 mile walk everyday,

(As you can tell from the above, I am still a geek)

On the SERT property there are a couple different places of historic places which really appeals to me,

(That Admiral is always a patient model)

(The picture does not do the view justice! This is looking down on the Rhode River where 150 years ago ships arrives to take Tobacco back to England)

Though we tried to wake with a “Laissez-faire” attitude this day was going to be different from all the rest. Today was the day we finally left the dock and took the dock-lines with us, ie we are not coming back!

(The “Admiral” at the helm backs us out of our slip former slip while the “Deck-Ape” looks after things forward.)

(Our friends Nona and Charlie’s rocket-ship, also known as SV Frequent Flyer!)

We visited with a number of employees at Hartge Yacht Harbor who worked on and helped us prepare Magnolia. We filled the water tanks and we were off.

(Hartge Yacht Harbor – Galesville, MD)

(Even the barometer is pointing towards a sunny day as the Admiral takes us out)

Our first day passage was all of 5 miles over to the Rhode River where we will be participating in the Seven Sea’s Cruising Association Gam (gam (gǎm) n. : A social visit or friendly interchange, especially between sailors or seafarers.) 

(Magnolia at Anchor in the Rhode River with Camp Letts in the distance)

We dropped the “dink” in the water and motored to Smithsonian Environmental Research Center around the corner from where we are anchored here on the Rhode. It is a lovely place to get ashore and stretch your legs a little

We did a three (3) mile hike declared victory and are now in relax mode!

All in all a great way to start the adventure!

We had Magnolia “hauled” today to have the bottom cleaned and sacrificial zincs replaced.

Normally when we leave our homeport we leave our dock lines on the dock since we will be coming back to the same slip. Tomorrow if the day goes as planned we will take our lines with us. It is going to be a very big day!!!

I know, “there’s” always something exciting going on aboard Magnolia. This time we really mean it! By the close of Friday we will be completely moved aboard no longer making the trudge from house to boat and back! So happy about that!

One of our “Cats & Dogs” was to have the compass swung (calibrated)which was an interesting experience. The gentlemen who did the job brought this really cool device aboard which was built by his father when he started the business. It is basically an aircraft gyro with a 12volt to 400hz converter included. It really was a very cool device!

The process was simply to motor back and forth north and south and then east and west and adjust the compass on each pass. The entire process took about 2 hours but we will long benefit from the couple of hours of effort.

A better close up of the custom built gyro device.

The next job was cover and secure our extra fuel and water Jerry Cans. Annette undertook the sewing portion of the job onboard Magnolia. This was the first sewing job Annette she had done onboard. We were able to set the saloon up so she could work pretty efficiently.

Next it was my job to secure the cans safely on deck. First step was a nice piece of pressure treated lumber primed and painted with a “few” coats of HomeDepots best. Add a couple stainless ubolts from McMaster-Carr along with acorn nuts (keep things nice and smooth) and we have a pretty secure tie-down point.

Short haul for bottom clean and zinc replacement scheduled for Monday. Away from the dock on Tuesday? We will see!

The last few weeks on Magnolia have been busy but we are hardly near “dock-line” fever. When you set off on a trip as we have planned it is a symbolic gesture to remove your dock lines from the dock. (Generally if you are coming back you leave the lines on the dock). Magnolia will participate in the Seven Seas Cruising Association (http://ssca.org) GAM in three (3) weeks from which we will directly depart on our slow journey south towards the Bahamas.

One of our last major projects was to have an access plate installed in our starboard tank and have the tank cleaned. First thing diesel tank guys are like “septic tank engineers.” You have to have them, but they are certainly an acquired taste!

You certainly want to keep them in their “box.” As you can see I sealed everything up near where they were they working.

As you can see the diesel sprinkles on the paper my concerns were well founded!

The Admiral and I completed loading out the Master’s cabin. We continue to cull the contents trying to reduce where possible but we are down to the perceived basics. I suspect by the time we come back to the Chesapeake in the spring we will be saying, why the heck did we bring this or that!!!

Yesterday brought on the balance or our canned and dry goods. It took the better part of the day to for Annette to get everything entered into inventory and stored.

We currently have 570 types of items that we track in inventory. This includes number onboard and where each of those items is stored. You would be surprised how easy it is to loose and item on a 44 ft sailboat!

We have an handful of small tasked to tackle but we are no where near “dock-line” fever! We are scheduled to have out compass swung (calibrated) next week and the week after we after that we will have the boat “hauled” (out of the water) for a bottom cleaning and couple of small maintenance actions. Want to have the bottom as slick as possible when we get underway south!  We still have 3 weeks to stave off the “fever” but so far so good!

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!