Foreign Affair Sailing

We moved Foreign Affair from Haven Harbour Marina in Rock Hall to Bert Jabin Yacht Yard on the Back River in Annapolis.  Tomorrow, she will be hauled and put on Brokers' Row for sale.  It is time to turn her over to Keith Mayes with Annapolis Yacht Sales to get her sold.  Its is time for us to return to Kansas and Missouri to spend time with friends and family.  We are looking forward to being home during the 4th of July holiday.

Our trip across the Bay was a great way to end our days of sailing Foreign Affair.  Initially, the winds were 10 knots and increased in velocity to 15 as we continued to move toward the Bay Bridge.  It was definitely one of our best days of sailing ever.  Unfortunately, we had to drop sail just north of the Bay Bridge as a storm front started to move in and the winds were really picking up speed.  A weather alert came over our VHF radio to warn of the storm's location, direction of travel and intensity.  We motored the rest of the way to Annapolis and arrived just in time to get the sail cover on before it rained.  Keith met us at the dock and helped us secure the boat for the evening.  We were parked opposite a superb ocean racer capable of going three to four times our best speed of the day which was 6.7 knots.  Foreign Affair was in the grove all morning.  It was a rare, super sail day.

We drove from Rock Hall to Washington, D.C. to visit with Scott and Freddie who supported our being named commodores in the Seven Seas Sailing Association.  We first met them back  in September, 2015 when we took Foreign Affair up the Potomac River to spend some time touring our nation's capital. We ended up staying almost three weeks due to too much fun and waiting for Hurricane Joaquin to pass.

Freddie has served as Commodore for the Capital Yacht Club and continues to work long, hard hours in support of CYC.  Scott is busy with a major refit of their once beautiful - soon to be gorgeous 60 foot Seaton ketch.  We had a pleasant reunion and enjoyed a couple of bottles of chardonnay while bringing each other up to date on life in general and our plans for the future.  The Wharf and new Capital Yacht Club facilities are truly world class.  Lunched at the fish market. We'll be back.

We are getting near the end of our stay on the Eastern Shore.  Before crossing back over to Annapolis to put the boat up for sale with a broker, we decided to visit some of our favorite Eastern Shore places and say good bye to a few friends.  Our first stop was St. Michaels where the annual Classic Boat Show was in full swing.  Dozens of wonderfully restored wooden and early non-wooden boats were on display.  The mahogany Chris Craft runabouts with their deep-throated engines and barrel back decks are our favorites.  Of course, sailing vessels were also represented with the Chesapeake Bay skipjacks holding top honors among wind-powered craft.  Their decks were full of people taking advantage of the opportunity to sail on one of these historic craft.  We enjoyed re-visiting the Maritime Museum and learning more about life on the Chesapeake Bay and how it has changed over the many years.  Unfortunately, many of the changes were for the worse due to over fishing and pollution from many sources as the Bay is fed by hundreds of tributary rivers in several states.

Carla had her toothbrush out along with her stainless steel polish.  She's getting down to the fine details on the stanchions and hand rails.  We never cease to be amazed at how much damage salt water can quickly do to a boat.  Even here on the upper Chesapeake Bay with its brackish water, we need to be constantly scrubbing.  She doesn't complain but just keeps at it.

The rigger was aloft today changing out an anchor light and adding a television antenna to a boat nearby.  Usually, riggers go aloft in a boatswain's chair.  I guess a crane is helpful when you want to be a bit higher than the top of the mast so you can get a better angle for the work being done.  I hope the boat owner is only paying for the rigger's time and not the crane time as well.

As it happens nearly every day on the boat, we did some maintenance; however, we played more than we worked today.  The marina is also a resort and has many games and activities for its guests.  The bocce ball court was vacant as it was a weekday.  So, we decided to try our hand at rolling the balls.  A Google search provided us the rules and we did our best to learn the game.  It appears we are equally unskilled but improved our performance over time.  We enjoyed our play and might look for a bocce league when we return to a more settled life in the future.

We spent the day working off tasks from our list of things to be done on Foreign Affair. The small Whale pump on the galley sink leaked from the day we acquired the boat on Labor Day weekend, 2014.  We ordered a rebuild kit from West Marine.  Dwayne had no difficulty disassembling the pump but putting it back together again was a bit challenging as one of the rubber seals made screwing the pump barrel back onto its housing difficult.  Eventually, the pump was reassembled and installed.  Another 15 minute job that took nearly three quarters an hour to complete.  As often as not, simple tasks become time consuming irritants.  As a friend once shared with us and we remind ourselves on these occasions, "This is the life we have chosen."  Still, it is worth the frustration.

We spent most of the morning and part of the afternoon installing and adjusting our Dutchman Sail Flaking System.  It was a tedious task and at times frustrating because everything has to be adjusted just right or the system won't work as well as intended.  Eventually, we got it adjusted to where it seemed to be working well.  We'll find out for sure when we next take the boat out and drop the main sail.  The Dutchman together with the Strong Tides Track System makes dropping and flaking the sail very easy.  To celebrate and cool off after completing this major job, we went swimming in the cold water of the marina's pool.  It was refreshing and we dried while relaxing on the poolside lounge furniture.  We started out reading but were soon napping protected from the sun by trees bordering the pool.  Work hard - Play hard.

Here is a link to a short YouTube video describing the Dutchman Sail Flaking System.

We got a courtesy ride from the Haven Harbour Marina to Chestertown where we rented a car from Geno's U-Save Car Rental so we could drive to Herrington Harbour to get our car which was left there while we moved Foreign Affair to Rock Hall.  The round trip was 140 miles which we made in about 5 hours.  We also made a quick trip to West Marine in Deale to pick up parts for our galley Whale pump which was leaking when in use.  We dropped the rental car off on our way back to Rock Hall.  Its good to have the car and boat in one place again.  We still have quite a list of things to do on the boat to get her in top condition for sale.  Haven Harbour is a great marina to get work done.  The challenge is that the current workload is keeping everyone very busy and we just have to wait until the right person for the job we need done is available.  In the meantime, we do as much as we can and seek advice from the experts.  Patience is a virtue.  We work by Boating Standard Time.

We departed Herrington Harbour around 9 a.m. northbound for Rock Hall and Haven Harbour Marina.  It was warm and sunny with a slight 5 knot breeze from the south which allowed us to sail almost all the way up the bay at a slow but steady 4 knots.  It was great being under sail again.  You never know what interesting sights you will encounter on the Bay.  A Japanese Coast Guard cutter passed under the Bay Bridge as we approached the bridge.  We suspect she was heading south for the "Tall Ships Weekend" at Norfolk, Virginia.  Frank and Carol on Hakuna Matata will be sailing as escorts for one of the tall ships arriving for the festival.  If we weren't selling the boat, we'd be sailing south ourselves bound for Norfolk.  We really enjoy the maritime festivals and will miss not being able to participate or be part of the fun while on the water in our own vessel.

After 3 days of constant rain, we were very happy to get into the car and head back to Columbia where we will get to spend a day or two with family while the car goes into the shop to get the left  front wheel bearing replaced.  It is always something that needs repair - usually it is the boat rather than the car.  In any case, we drove slowly and stayed off the interstate during the 50 mile trip from Herrington Harbour to Columbia.  The good news was the car could be repaired in a day.  Then, it is back to Herrington with the prospect of having to return to Haven Harbour to have a new air conditioning system installed which will make the boat more attractive to potential buyers.  The system could be replaced at Herrington; however, the backlog of work there would result in more delay and we can get the work done sooner at Haven Harbour.  Perhaps, we will pass under the Bay Bridge once again.  At least, this time we are hoping to have favorable wind from the south as we head north rather than beating all the way to Rock Hall.  Lately, the wind has been mostly southerly.