Even though the weather was still overcast and still not sunny and bright, the wind is down and it appears that it is not going to rain today so we are heading off the dock today! We are leaving Herrington Harbor North in Deale, MD where we have been for the last 2+ months and are heading to Annapolis. This is only about 20 miles or so today. It was still rather dreary as we left the dock and it was still rather wet on the boat, so I spent about 30 mins wiping down areas so we could be dry.

Once we got out a ways, we wanted to go through the steps to commission our new autopilot drive that needed to be done while on the water. This involves pushing a few buttons on the chart plotter and then turning the boat slowly in circles. We have to do this several times to calibrate everything. To others that might be observing us on the water, they are probably wondering, “Why is that boat going in circles?” It probably looks rather odd. But we were able to get it all calibrated and it seems to be working just fine and we are very happy.

We are testing out our newly rebuilt prop on this trip as well. When the prop guy removed our prop to have it shipped to Washington state to be rebuilt, he told us later that the prop was really bad and he didn’t think they were going to actually rebuild it. A new one would have doubled the cost, so we were happy they were able to rebuild the old one. Out on the water, the new prop seems to be performing quite well. There is no more vibration in the helm that there used to be and as we go into the bottom of a wave and the stern of the boat squats down, we used to hear a groaning sound and this is gone as well. We are extremely happy with the results of the newly re-built prop!

Mark and I enjoyed our morning coffee on the water and just took in the stillness and joy that we get from being on the water. We have missed being on the water the last couple of months.

We are also excited to be in Annapolis and among civilization rather than out in the country with nothing nearby. We will have access to grocery stores, ubers, restaurants, etc, all at our fingertips! We are heading to Annapolis to complete one more boat project. We need to have our watermaker rebuilt before we head to the Bahamas this winter. A watermaker is a device that we have aboard that takes salt water from the ocean and turns it into fresh drinking water through reverse osmosis. The watermaker has been aboard the boat since we bought the boat, however we haven’t used it at all in the fresh water of the midwest and the watermaker is about 20 years old, just like everything else on the boat. A watermaker is a popular piece of equipment to have for those who travel to the Bahamas. Fresh drinking water in the Bahamas to fill our 180 gallon tank is scarce and cruisers need to pay to fill tanks with drinking water. The going rate for drinking water in the Bahamas is $1.00 per gallon, so it’s not cheap. It’s much better to have our watermaker functioning so we don’t have to worry about water and can enjoy unlimited showers, dish washing, etc.

Once we arrived at J.Gordon in the back creek area of Annapolis. They guys got right to work the next morning on the watermaker. Once they finished up their work after several hours, they tried to run the watermaker and we soon discovered a few leaks and a non-functioning pump. We needed a new diverter vavle, this was the source of the leak and a new pump to replace the non-functioning one that was causing a fuse to blow every time it kicked in. So, they will need to order these parts and we will need to wait here for the parts to arrive before we can complete this project.

With that all sorted, we decided to head to the grocery store and do some stocking up of groceries and supplies that will hopefully last us for the next month or so. We do have a freezer aboard the boat and I am able to freeze lots of meats and other items which cuts down on the need to frequently go to a grocery store. We can sometimes go several weeks without a trip to the grocery store and then only need some fresh produce to replenish our supply.

Everything on a boat takes twice as long as doing the same job at home and grocery shopping is no exception. On a boat, it involves 1) inventorying what I have and compiling a list before I go. 2) Google to see where to nearest grocery store is to us. 3) Find an uber/lyft to take us to the store. 4) Shop 5) Unload all our groceries from the uber into a dock cart to wheel it down the dock to the boat. 6) Unload the dock cart into the cockpit of the boat 7) Move the groceries from the cockpit to down below in the boat 8) Sort the groceries based on where they go, fridge stuff, freezer stuff, pantry stuff 9) Get the fridge stuff in there before it gets too warm 10) Repackage all the freezer stuff and vacuum seal all the meat and freezer items so they stay fresh longer and don’t get freezer burn 11) Put away all the pantry items 12) Check freezer every couple hours and rotate items to ensure everything freezes. This process literally takes all day!

After all that we were too tired to cook so we headed to one of our favorite sailing pubs here in Annapolis. We headed over to Davis Pub in Eastport on Back Creek. This is a great little place that has it’s own dinghy dock nearby and when we have come here before, we came by dinghy. Today, however, the boat is docked within walking distance so we walked the 4 – 5 blocks to get here.

I was feeling a bit adventuresome from a food perspective, so I tried their hot dog covered with crab dip and cheese. It was pretty good!

Since we are here waiting for parts for the watermaker, I guess now is a good time to complete some projects on our list.