After leaving the truly spectacular Sassafras River Magnolia transited the Chesapeake & Delaware (C&D) Canal as far as Chesapeake City, MD.

Most ships going from or to Baltimore from Philadelphia, New York or Northern Europe transit the C&D Canal. Some of the largest ships in the world can and do pass through this canal. Thankfully we did not need to share the waters with the really huge ones. The barge and tug at anchor was plenty large!

Upon arriving at Chesapeake City we took advantage of the Anchorage Basin just off the canal which gave us a wonderful view of the Chesapeake City Bridge.

The C&D Canal is owned and maintained by the Army Corp of Engineers. (Canal Information) There is a small really enjoyable museum dedicated to the history of the canal. We had a very enjoyable visit. It is only open Monday – Friday though!

In preparation of friends our friends Tennars and Browns arriving we brought Magnolia into a slip to make it easier to have guests aboard. As you can see we needed to park right in front of that 53 foot Carver Power Boat. As you might know Annette does most of the boat driving in our family and this was no exception. Annette slipped Magnolia right in front of the Carver in-spite of the fact the Carver’s bow extended beyond the dock!

After spending a couple of days in Georgetown the Admiral decided it was time for some sightseeing so we moved Magnolia a few miles down the river to a remote corner creek where Harmon Plantation is located.  Harmon was an old Tobacco Plantation and though it was not open for touring we were able to tour the grounds after Blossom our dinghy brought us ashore!

Okay, I get why you might like a place like this….

Time to pile back in Blossom and head for Magnolia….hate to be late for Happy Hour! This was  literally “our anchorage” with not another soul in sight!

With our departure from Worton Creek to the Sassafras River the weather had not obviously improved but we just slogged along the best we could praying for some sun!

Perhaps we are a little biased but darn she is a good looking lady!

Yes, this one even more so!!! We decided to get off the boat for dinner and head over to the Kitty Knight Inn in Georgetown, MD. It was a lovely evening!

Yes those are Magnolias…must be a sign to get back to the boat! Not as easy as you might guess from the below!

We are going to walk where? for what?

“No Anthony we are not walking to  Elkton to see some stupid Rocket Motor”

“but Annette we got to see this cool historical maker….and George Washing slept here too!”

After spending Friday at the Annapolis Sailboat Show and time in the crowds, Magnolia was ready to get out of “dodge” and head up the bay. The forecast was for winds to clock from SW to N and we wanted to be at anchor by the time that happened. We had a lovely 35 nm trip north with the main sheeted all the way out anchoring in Worton Creek. Neither of us had been there before so we looked forward to exploring a new anchorage.

I am sure many of you have driven over the Bay Bridge but have you driven under it? It is actually pretty imposing looking at it from underneath!

As we entered Worton Creek the first thing we see is sticks with birds. The obvious question is do they have their own stick or is it first come first serve?

Worton Creek ended up pretty nice!

Annette and I attended the Annapolis Sailboat show again this year and unlike last year I actually stepped onto a boat! See, we have Magnolia, she is in my mind the first and last sailboat we will own! (Granted we will see and of course the Admiral will have some input on that!) There was one boat from Gozzard displayed there. Our slip neighbors are very interested in the brand so I promised them we would tour it! The boat is truly “art.” In addition we had a our shopping list (purchases & information).

Boat & Dinghy Ladders – Magnolia has a swim platform on her stern that drops down and allows for SUPER EASY access to and from the dingy or from the water if swimming. Unfortunately this platform can not be deployed unless the dinghy is in the water and out of the way. From a safety standpoint “no good at all”. We decided to go with one of the Up-N-Out Ladder  (www.up-n-out.com). The best thing is the ladder can be deployed by someone already in the water which is a HUGE safety step forward. While we were there we also opted for one of their dinghy ladders as well which will make the Admiral happy so she can comfortably get in and out of the dinghy in those nettle free coves around the bay and beyond! These are ladders are not inexpensive but they are made as solid as you could ask and fold up compactly. Granted this whole paragraph is written before I have even tried them out so will report out more later.

LED Lights – With the exception of one LED light in the aft head, all our lights are traditional which translates to a battery sucking sound every time a light comes on! Five (5) of our cabin lights use a E-27 bulb so thought this would be a good place to start! Keith over at the Boat Light Store (www.boatlightstore.com) hooked us up. I generally/always have what I want to purchase in my “minds eye” and of course that did not come off the shelf. Keith suggested using a particular LED along with an E-27 base adapter would provide me with what I wanted. To make it all work, Keith had to break out his soldering iron, but in the end it worked perfectly and we happily have them installed on Magnolia.

Galley Countertops – The Admiral has not been over excited about the countertops in the galley so we have been on the lookout for a quality craftsman to perform the upgrade. We had a very good conversation with John Norton from Annapolis Harbor Boat Yard (www.annapolisharbor.net). He seemed to “get us” and suggested we send him some measurements and pictures to give us a “ballpark” estimate. I am simply relating a first impression but thought I would share.

Navpod Electronic Housing – We recently purchased a new “pod” for our new cockpit chart plotter. Rob Walsh from Ocean Equipment (www.oceanequipment.com) gave me some tips and pointers for cutting the pod to accept our chart plotter, including using a rotor zip cutting tool.

Charger/Inverter – Magnolia has a old Freedom Xantrex charger inverter installed along with a new Xantrex LinkLite battery monitor. After hearing Nigel Calder speak at last weeks GAM I started wondering if the technology had improved to the point where we should consider upgrading in spite of the fact the equipment is still functioning perfectly fine. After speaking with Chris Hanranhan (www.tekris.com) we decided against any upgrade at this time, but based on his unbiased advice we will certainly consider his service when we do!

Two other products we purchased and will try out are the Poli-Glow (www.poliglow-int.com) UV Protectant for fiberglass and Spotless Stainless (www.spotlessstainless.com)

We also met the marketing director for Kanberra gel which we swear by for eliminating boat smells on Magnolia. See Annette’s testimonial video on the Kanberra Facebook page.  Annette also upgraded her Sailrite SZ1 with an accessory pack on sale at the Sailrite booth.  See Annette’s blog post on www.seamlesssailor.com.

I nearly forgot the TriTip Steak Sandwich from the Fleet Reserve Center. If for no other reason, this is your reason for attending the Annapolis Boat Show!!

(Our approach to Camp Letts – this was the day before the main events and we still felt like we arrived late to the party!)

Annette and I belong to the the Seven Seas Cruising Association (SSCA) which holds one of their three GAMS here on the Chesapeake at Camp Letts on the Rhode River, just south of Annapolis, MD. In the “old days”  a Gam occurred when two sailing ships came upon each other they stopped yelled news and exchanged information between the ships. The SSCA format allows cruisers to exchange information among themselves and the experts in a variety of fields from weather all the way to boat systems. We had the opportunity to participate in seminars and discussions on topics ranging from weather, medical issues at sea, various boat systems operation and maintenance.

We had never heard Nigel Calder speak but I have several of his books which are very good at going into the technical details of a particular boat system. The thing I did not expect was how good of speaker he was and funny!!! I mean really funny

There were so many great speakers that on several occasion Annette and I had to “divide & conquer” on a couple occasions. As an example while I attended “Anchorages on the Intercostal Waterway (ICW) and was listening to Lin & Larry Pardey (two REAL rock stars of cruising) on how best make your boat unsinkable! In my mind that sounds like a really important topic!

The Seven Sea Cruising Association capitalize the same idea. We are lucky that one of the three GAMs are held right here in out back yard. (Rhode River just south of Annapolis. The “Super Stars” of the cruising world come and give educational and entertaining talks and discussions.

In addition we met with some attendees from last year and met some new people also planning to make the “trip south” to the Bahamas in the fall of 2013. My buddy Greg suggested I make badges which said, “Magnolia is heading south in 2013, are you?” It was a call out to “our” class of 2013!

All in all it was a very enjoyable weekend. We learned a lot and hopefully be able to hold onto some of those lessons as we get started on our own adventures! Next week is the Annapolis Boat Sailboat Show. Annette I will be attending and working at the SSCA booth on Friday and then we head on our big year end cruise right after! It is certainly fun crunch season for us!!

Last winter while Magnolia was on the hard Annette and I discovered a small amount of fuel below the galley. I used to completely freak when it came to anything about fuel which I think my friend Greg still looks on with some humor. As I have spent time and learned more, yes fuel issues are not good but freak out? Nah, not anymore, keep it on the boat (we actually carry oil spill insurance) and get it cleaned up, not the end of the world, but I digress. We cleaned up the fuel and started our search for the leak. Nothing looked likely, so went away for a week. On our return we found some more but a much smaller volume. The only part of the system we could not examine was the tank. Consequently we pumped out the 25 gallons of fuel in the 50 gallon tank. Moving the fuel over to our other tank so we could eventually remove the tank and have it repaired or replaced. You have to remember, in the 80’s and 90’s they installed the tanks and built the boat around the tank so we were not even sure we could easily get at it. Thankfully this summer with ugly hot weather was the time to do it. So after removing about 50 screws we were able to expose the tank.

After another 50 screws, 4 hoses (Vent, Fill, Feed, Return) and 8 hose clamps we had her free.

The tank is amazingly light but bulky!

Our mechanic took the tank pressurized it and reported he could not find a leak! WHAT? As an additional test he put some alcohol in which is less viscous than diesel fuel and easier to leak out, all to no avail, no leak! Crap! Oh well can’t find the leak unless the tank is installed and fuel in it. So before re-installing we cut an access under the galley sink so we can observe the tank better than we could before. We followed that up with a fresh coat of paint in the tank compartment.

Well with the tank installed where does that leave us? About where we started but we now know how to get that tank out when it does fail, and it will. As far as the leak, well we chase after it when it comes back. Its diesel fuel, its nothing to freak out about!

When we purchased Magnolia she had an older Raymarine Autopilot installed that we used to get Magnolia home from Florida, well almost. The Autopilot is really only useful in open water so as luck would have it the installed unit died about one day before arriving the Intercostal Waterway in North Carolina. Since then Magnolia has been hand steered but with our imminent departure next summer it was time to get an appropriate Autopilot installed.

The linear drive was the first item to be replaced. This is the top of the rudder post and the drive unit moves the rudder as directed by the Autopilot computer. We were able to reuse the rudder indicator from the previous Autopilot.

The original Autopilot computer was installed in the engine room. That always seemed like the one of the crazier things we had ever seen. Why would you put a sensitive piece of electronics in the hottest space on the boat? Beats us so we relocated the new computer to the aft cabin where it will rest comfortably!

Final Autopilot computer installation in the Aft Cabin locker.

The Fluxgate compass was mounted in the forward cabin locker and cabled back to the Autopilot computer in the aft cabin.

Next electrical power cables were connected from the Autopilot computer to the main 12volt distribution panel in the engine room.

The Autopilot control head was plugged into the boat wide Raymarine bus cable and instantly came to life.  Annette and I completed the in-port commissioning procedure without incident so all that’s left is get underway and complete the underway commissioning procedures hopefully this Saturday.

After our Memorial Day sail Annette and I agreed we would do two weekends of boat work and sail on the third. We had no way of knowing that third weekend would be the best conditions we could possibly hope for! Long live the Lucky Duck! The day of departure the winds were North, North-East turning east. As the chart below shows, longer we could keep those North winds the more sailing we would do that day. As luck would have it the weather man was wrong and we were able to sail door-to-door as indicated by the track with showing our “tacks” on the way out. The return track is nice and smooth indicating we either had the wind behind the beam or we had no wind and had to motor. Sadly the second was true for the trip home!

Annette and I arrived Wye River mid day after a spectacular morning 23 mile sail. We had lovely afternoon swimming and simply relaxing in the warm but not hot sunshine. Believe it or not, there is not a whole lot of relaxing done on Magnolia. Our girl needs a lot of love and we have a lot to learn so we are normally pretty busy. That day though was for us!

Before returning to Galesville we dropped the Blossom (or dinghy) in the water and explored further up river. We have a 9ft RIB (rigid-hulled inflatable boat) with a 15 horse outboard. If provides us the ability to sneak up into some really small creeks which are often really really cool!

Note our anchorage in the lower left corner.

After returning from a wonderful Memorial Day sail with our friends Brian & Patricia it was time for Annette and I to get to work on our girl. The first order of business was to get after the the Navigation Station, or has we call it, the Nav-Station. The Nav-Station is exactly what its names implies and is located right at the base ladder to the cockpit. From this location you can easily communicate with the helmsmen, manage the charts and stay connected with the boats surroundings. In Magnolia’s particular case, Admiral Annette does 90% of the driving, at dock and underway. I handle most of the navigation duties and along with the handling the lines. This system works best for us.

After removing the out of date LORAN units the station really needed a full rebuild and update. The face-plate had holes from old equipment and just needed a complete redesign.

The updated design needed to have wind; direction and speed water; temperature, depth along with Magnolia’s speed through the water. In addition there is an updated VHF Radio along with and updated stereo, have to have music right? In addition we needed to reserve space for a future Single Side Band (SSB) radio which is a type of HAM radio used to receive long range voice communication along with weather and email data. We also included a 12volt outlet for charging computers and phones. There was a lot time in the mockup to make sure the current and future planned equipment would fit.

Back on Magnolia the picture might show me (dorky electrical guy) attaching the last of the wires but the Admiral was in there stripping wire and crimping on connectors.

In the in end the behind the scenes wiring came out neat and well organized which is exactly what we wanted.

The final product came out better than we could have hoped though the picture really does not show it. I forgot we included the plaque celebrating Magnolia’s 1991 Biloxi, MS Challenge victory. Yup our girl is fast as well as being a comfortable cruiser.

While we redoing the nav-station we enclosed the cabinet just the right for additional storage. When we are living onboard for months at a time storage space is going to be king!

Now its time to go sailing!