Chores while Heather is Gone

mid-July 2019

While Heather was back in Arizona for some appointments I had some time to myself and a long list of chores to do. So I spent more time admiring the view of the bay from the marina.

One of the big jobs was cleaning off the hull of the dinghy. We had dropped it in the water when we got into the Chesapeake, and left it in the entire month we were in Solomons. We pulled it up on to the foredeck just before arriving in Annapolis so it had a good six weeks of summer growth on it. I scraped and scrubbed for a couple hours to get this far.

My work was observed from up high on an adjacent catamaran. In a few weeks this boat's owner will wonder why his wind instruments aren't working.


For a couple days after Heather left it continued to be brutally hot and humid. It was better to start outside very early then get inside by mid-morning before the heat really kicked in. After switching to indoor jobs I'd finish up a few more outside as the sun was going down. I masked off the last section of the teak rail around the edge of the boat then finished coating it with Cetol. Now each section of the rail has been coated at least once since we bought the boat. Time to start over again.

I organized the huge, deep starboard lazerette so I could get one thing without emptying everything out. I ordered assorted sizes of multicolored mesh bags for smaller items, then an application specific heavy duty bag for holding the 30amp power cables and adapters. I got a mostly mesh large gym bag for the lines. Now I have to remove at most one thing to get at the items I'm most commonly using. For a boat this is pretty good.

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Mt. Vernon Estate and Museum

11 July 2019

In a manner similar to Monticello, buildings at each side of the main house were connected by walkways, covered here.

There were many restored outbuildings on the estate, including the stable and bunk house both below.

Washing was such a huge task that it had its own building, running six days a week to keep up. Us spending an hour at a laundromat every week or so doesn't seem too bad. Making fabric was a similar endeavor. 

In the visitor center museum there were several very detailed dioramas and displays. I think the horse below is supposed to be Blueskin, one of his two primary horses.

The inauguration display. 

One final view of the main house.

We had really bad DC traffic getting back to the boat. At one point we literally spent about 45 minutes going a little more than a quarter mile. 

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Mt. Vernon

11 July 2019

Towards the end of the week we went to Mt. Vernon for the day. A few days before I had my chipped filling removed and replaced. I'm definitely looking at a cap at some point, so maybe should just get that out of the way during the holidays when we are back in Az, rather than risking being in the Bahamas or something. Anyway, on to George Washington's estate. Heather had been here decades ago, but I had never been.

There is a very nice visitors center with decent parking, and the approach to the main house across the lawn is impressive. There is a substantial restoration of the exterior underway. While at first glance the house exterior appears to be stone, it it actually planks of wood given beveled edges to have the shape of stone. When painted sand was sprinkled into the paint, giving the appearance of stone. Again, no pictures were allowed when inside the house.

A docent entertained us while we waited in line in the heat for our turn to tour the house. However hot we were, he had to be hotter in his costume.

Once finished with the tour we were able to wander the grounds. This is a view looking up at the house from the Potomac side. In the museum there was a picture of the house from this side, taken just before the house was taken out of private hands. The porch seen here was slowly falling down, only being held up with boat masts lashed together.

There were gardens being maintained roughly as they would have been during his life, providing most of the food for the residents of the estate.

They had multiple examples of period transportation, including this "riding chair", which seems like it would have been roughly comparable to how a golf cart is used to get around short distances today.

There was also a much more formal carriage.

The view from the back porch is impressive, and apparently will stay that way. The custodians of Mt. Vernon purchased the land across the Potomac from the house so the view would remain the same as it was it Washington's time.

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DC

05 - 06 July 2019

We didn't want to deal with DC on the 4th itself, so we went right after. We found a good deal at a pod type hotel for weekend nights. Since it was well before check in when we arrived, we parked at garage a block away from the hotel, leaving our luggage inside it for now. We started walking down to the nearest Metro station, navigated the ticket machines, and popped out at L'Enfant Plaza. It was so hot we picked up an Uber across from the Spy Museum and took it over to the Jefferson Memorial.

Somehow it continued to get even more hot and humid. After only about 30-40 minutes outside in the sun we were trashed. We made new plans to spend the rest of the day in air conditioning, and headed over to American Indian museum, which wasn't even here the last time we were.

The museum was very interesting, and much more comprehensive than I had imagined. When they say American, they mean all of the Americas, north or south, and anything in between. They chased us out at closing and we made our way back to the parking garage, picked up our luggage, and dragged it a block to our pod hotel. Every square inch of that room, both high and low, were accounted for and had some use, but after a sailboat it seemed big enough. Think of a cruise ship cabin and you'd be close. The pic below is from our room. We were right on the edge of Chinatown.

Dinner time was interrupted by some pouring rain. The restaurant next door somehow now seemed much more appealing than it had on our way in, and actually it was pretty good. The restaurant was another variation of the nicer restaurant in an expensive area that can't afford waitstaff, so pretty good food but with fast food type lines and self service.

The next day we packed up, dropped our bags in the car in the garage, and walked over to Lincoln's Waffle Shop for breakfast, right across from Ford's Theater, and adjoining the house across the street where Lincoln died. After breakfast it was a fairly short walk to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.

As usual, I went through things a little faster than Heather, so I had plenty of time for refreshment and phone recharging breaks. Something you need to do at least every decade or so.

That evening we had dinner at a little asian place called Reren near the garage, then drove on back to the boat.

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4th of July

03-04 July 2019

I lost a big chunk of a filling on the day before the 4th of July holiday, just before closing hours. I was only able to get an appointment for the following Monday, a long five days hence.  It didn't hurt really, but at the time I didn't entirely know what had happened, and was nervous it could kick in at any time. I checked out emergency dentists, and made sure I still had almost all of my scrip from when I had that wisdom tooth pulled earlier this year, and hoped for the best.

For the 4th of July fireworks Annapolis has a barge in the river between downtown and Eastport. While we were on the other side of Eastport we hoped we would have a good enough view of the fireworks without having to leave the boat. We shot these pictures sitting in our cockpit.

I really liked the short, traffic-free trip back home when the fireworks were done.

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Annapolis!

30 June - 01 July 2019

In the morning we were departing Solomons. We got out of our slip just fine, even towing our dinghy, but while circling around the fuel dock waiting for our turn we managed to run aground in the muck. It took a little plowing but we quickly got loose, then topped up with diesel. After that we entered the Pax river again, and then into the Chesapeake, back to dodging container ships.

We planned on going to St. Michaels on our way to Annapolis, which was highly recommended by everyone, but we were still towing our dinghy. Heather didn't want to dock in an unfamiliar place while towing it, so we paused at the mouth of the inlet heading up to St. Michaels.

We were trying to get the dingy loaded back on deck, which after a hot day on the water was very difficult. I barely was able to get that done after a few tries, and by then it was too late to make it to StM before dark, so we just headed closer to shore and anchored again for the night. I vowed to work on our rig for loading the dinghy.

In the morning we had a short day to Annapolis, arriving about mid-day. Around the corner from our anchorage was the Bloody Point lighthouse, below. There are multiple competing storing on how this acquired its ominous name, but it can't be good.

Arriving early in Annapolis was good because the wind was supposed to kick up later in the afternoon. On our departure in the morning Heather backed all of the way to the main channel, practicing for our arrival. We backed into the slip with surprising little drama, even lassoing the outing pilings on the first (or third) try.

Our boat, which we had listed on our Coast Guard registration with Annapolis as home port, was for the first time in our three and a half years actually in Annapolis. Our girl has come a long way from Houston, but it certainly took a lot longer than we ever thought.

The views of the Chesapeake from the marina are really impressive. We are settled for at least a month.

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Preparing to Leave Solomons

Late June 2019

As our month in Solomons was coming to an end we started to take another look at everything around us. The park area next to our slip sounded like a zoo most of the time with all the wildlife.

Next up was Annapolis, but we were a little concerned about where we were going to end up there. Although we had been there many times, we finally just took a road trip up there to scope things out from the marina perspective. We checked out our sight unseen first choice marina, which was probably a good investment. It was a great location but the fairway was very narrow. Also, the slips were angled, so turning around once we had entered the marina was not for us. If we wanted to be stern in we had to back in all the way, with two tight turns before even getting to the slip, which Heather was not thrilled about.

We had one last marvelous sunset before leaving Solomons.

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To Colonial Williamsburg

19 - 20 June 2019

A week later, another road trip, this time driving to Colonial Williamsburg in the pouring rain. Again on the way we hit a used dvd store. Late afternoon we arrived at the visitor center and started getting a feel for the area, but the rain continued to pour. Later we had dinner at the 2nd Street Bistro just as the skies were clearing.

In the morning we came back to clear skies, but it was significantly hotter. We took the kids there maybe 15 years ago. A lot was still the same, but they've made quite a few improvements as well. There was another afternoon shower to help cool things off a little.

It was a little hot in shorts and sandals. The folks in colonial costumes working outside had it rough.

The folks working inside in air conditioning had a much better deal.

They even had colonial squirrels!

Once we were done, again we made our way back to Solomons in the dark. A few of the less fortunate fireflies made their way to our windshield, leaving glowy streaks.

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