Cold and Rainy in Baltimore

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Cold and Rainy in Baltimore

Phew! What a week! I came down to Baltimore last weekend, to move the boat to Annapolis on Monday for a haul out and bottom paint on Tuesday. Spent Monday morning trying to save the sale of my rental properties and realized later that afternoon that I couldn't make Annpolis in daylight, so kept working and departed about 830 pm. Putted down the Chesapeake and arrived about 4am and cruised up and down the Severn River (to Paul's Hidey Hole) until 730 am when I called the boat yard. Went in slowly to find the yard docks crammed with yachts for the power boat show and the way in to the lift slip was lined on both sides with new yachts, but there was a man on the stern of each with a boat hook, in case I lost it and got too close. It went perfectly and I crept in with out incident. AF was on the hard within an hour, and one of my nightmares proved wrong. The bottom was in pretty good shape. My brother drove down and took me back to Baltimore and we drove up to York, Pa where they bought me dinner and a couple scotches, and I crashed after being up for 36 hours straight.

Here is a pic of AF in the lift slings as they brought her to land:

I worked on my home on Alden Road until midnight Thursday and got up at 3am and drove down to Baltimore where I parked and Wes here at Inner Harbor East drove me down to pick up AF. Thanks, Wes. I called ahead and AF was launched when I arrived, and I was able to get underway about 2 pm, after worrying about backing out of this narrow slip. Out came the guys with boat hooks, manning the sterns again, but I crept out, and the fellow hollered, "What did you need us for?" But there had been a Nor'eastern the day before, and I went right out into the remnants - 25 mph winds from the north, and chop and drove at about 1.9 knots for many hours, and slower when the gusts hit just right. But the further north the calmer it became and by 9pm, when I arrived at Inner Harbor, it was glass and no wind, so I brought her into the slip alone with no troubles. Just plain worn out.

I got the power hooked up and walked directly up to town to James Joyce Irish Pub, and ordered 2 meals, and some vodka, as I hadn't eaten all day and was frozen stiff (Did I mention it was also 42 degrees when I left Annapolis?) Out having a smoke, a fellow spoke to me, and I asked him and his 3 buddies to join me. They are here for the schooner races and were living on his boat, and had had the cr+p beaten out of them just getting to the starting line, so quit, anchored and drank. Great guys on an interesting old boat, and we have just returned Sat. night from carousing Fell's Pt together.

And the rain continues. But I have my WM space heaters - thanks, Bart - and the boat is relatively dry and warm and she sports 2 coats of new bottom paint, and new zincs, and a greased up prop.

What a great life I have now. Even after freezing my fingers and feet for 7 hours in the fog and rain, when I arrived here safely, I thanked God, and Annah and Foster for this wonderful life I have now. I LOVED it!

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About Annah Foster

Annah Foster is a 1980'ish Morgan 462. She is a USCG Documented vessel and the year on the document is 1979, which I believe is the year the keel was laid. She is known as a ketch, which means she has 2 masts, and the aft mast is forward of the rudder. She also is a center compartment boat, which means the helm is located between the 2 masts, which are, by the way, the main and the mizzen. She is equipped with roller furling on the jib/genoa sail which is the big triangular sail on the front. Her empty weight, or rather displacement, is 33,000 lbs, which is fat for her length. Mr. Morgan believed in thick fiberglas for strength and I am told that at places it is often found to be 2 inches of solid fiberglas. Her keel has encapsulated lead weighing 8,000 lbs.

She boasts 2 staterooms, - v-berth forward with separate head and twin beds aft with separate head, including the famous bathtub. The configuration of the aft stateroom could easily be changed with a change in the mattresses to an almost queen berth, port to starboard, but currently she has twins, running fore and aft, with 2 large mattress cushions separating them. There is also a ladder and sliding hatch aft for egress in an emergency, to the aft deck, which I call the back porch. I bought some director's chairs for it and have sat there many evenings enjoying a drink and sunset. The aft deck is also the location of the propane gas grill, storage for the 2 outboard motors, Yamaha 4hp 4cycle, and a Yamaha 15hp 2 cycle, which power a new Apex Lite 10'6 inflatable dinghy, which can hang from the installed davits.

The main sail has 2 reefing points on jiffy reefing and the mizzen has 1. No lines lead to the cockpit but the jib, main and mizzen sheets.

She has a Switlick 6 man life raft mounted aft the mizzen mast. And, an emergency tiller aboard.

She is equipped with a Perkins 4 cylinder diesel engine, powering a Hurth transmission and turning a 4 bladed Max Prop, which feathers when sailing, and reverses pitch in Reverse so that she has the same thrust as in Forward. One unique design flaw is that the propeller shaft exits the boat at 3 degrees off center, making the port prop walk in reverse, even worse. The engine is equipped with about a 90 amp alternator with a very good voltage regulator.

She also has a Westerbeke 5.7 kw diesel generator, which produces 110 v AC power, and charges the batteries thru a 40 amp charger. I also have a Honda 1000 watt gasoline powered generator for emergency 110v, and an automotive battery charger aboard.

She came with an old Windbugger wind generator, not quite perfectly mounted. Stowed in the V-berth, there is a replacement AirX marine wind generator and 8 foot mast waiting to be installed, along with the controller, and 2 solar panels, which are half the possible wattage the controller can handle.

She has 3 4-D AGM batteries for the house bank and a type 18 start battery - all are 12volt.

The 4 gallon water heater will heat with both engine cooling water and 110v AC power and is equipped with a mixing valve to prevent scalding.

Tankage - Water - 110 gallon port and 85 gallon center tanks
Fuel - 175 gallons
Range when new at 2250 RPM is almost 800 nm.

Currently, her refridgerator and freezer are 110 volt AC, with several holding plates each which must be manually started and stopped. She has waiting to be installed, 2 Cool Blue 12 volt systems, with automatic controls, but truthfully, I don't know where the new holding plates will fit.

Electronics -
She is equipped with 2 VHF marine band radios, one at the helm and the other at the nav station, with repeater at the helm, and a hand held low power VHF 'walkie talkie'. Also, at the nav station, she has a Single Side Band HF radio - SSB with a Pactor 2 modem making her capable of downloading NOAA weather fax and Sail Mail emails and Grb files. onto a dedicated IBM laptop. She has as primary a Raymarine E-80 Chartplotter at the helm and a smaller Garmin Chartplotter for back up at the helm, a handheld Garmin Chartplotter, and an older Furuno GPS at the nav station. She has an older Raytheon black and white 24 nm radar at the helm, with a repeater at the nav station. She has a RapidFix 406 EPIRB, emergency locator beacon, that is hand activated. She has a new Clarion AM FM CD player, with input for computer or MP3 player on 3 sets of individual speakers - cockpit, salon, and aft cabin.

For those who do not know me, I named her for my parents - Annah Margaret and George Foster Doak. It is through their beneficence that I am able to live this dream and I felt that I should dedicate my boat to honor their memories.