Tuesday 12 Nov, HHN day 32: Bitterly cold day. New dinghy davit strops spliced, cockpit tent up, engine room work completed … then we “run” aground.
In the early hours the predicted cold front comes through with wind and lots of rain. And again we find the same saloon window is leaking. Lots of kitchen roll is stuffed into the curtain track to soak it up.
Inside jobs only today, but before they start we head to the hardware store, then do pickups for various Amazon and Defender parts that have arrived to Liz, who kindly allows us to abuse the Free State Yachts address (thank you).
When we return to CB, we find the paper towels have not held back the rain and it has dripped, with perfect aim, directly all over the open laptop 🙁 There follows yet more cursing related to leaky boats till Oana comes out with a hair drier to save the PC.
One of the received parts from Defender are the 4 Wichard hooks for the new davit strops. It’s a good day to sit in the warm inside and do the dyneema splicing to complete the strops. After 3 hours (I’m not a fast splicer!) the 4 splices are complete and I’m pretty pleased with how they look. They were a bit tricky because both sets of splices needed to be the exact same length if the dinghy is to lift up without listing to one side or another. So despite the rain, I go outside to test them. Gladly, they fit perfectly. These are the kind of jobs I love …. when they go right!
With the rain stopped (but still bitterly cold) next job is on the swim platform, to test the feedwater pump for the water maker (which I just installed new seals in). With a bucket of water, some improvised piping and 220VAC applied the pump works without leaking. Wonderful.
While on deck, and with the temperatures continuing to fall, it’s time we put the cockpit tent up. Doesn’t take long but fingers are numb by the time it’s up. But what a relief to have a dry cockpit protected from the bitterly cold wind.
After our usual sun-down late lunch it’s another evening of entertainment in the engine room. Firstly, to reinstall the feedwater pump and all its intricate piping. Then some electrical work. Our 2 Dyson vacuum cleaners were both bought in the USA so have the US style AC-DC chargers. I therefore remove the single European style 220VAC socket and replace with a double US style socket so that both Dyson’s can plug into and charge at once. I make sure I write in big red lettering on the new socket “220VAC!!!” because US sockets are always 110VAC normally. But on Cloudy Bay, nothing is normal! In fact we commented today that most things we buy get attacked one way or another to adapt them to Cloudy, fussy as she is!
And finally, after many weeks of it looking like work in progress, tools are clean up and the engine room is restored to its normal clean state …. only much much better now. The 6 new skin fittings, valves and piping, newly painted light-grey bilge areas, new exhaust hose and 2 newly mounted Dyson vacuums all make it look like new again. Very happy with all the work, we finally stop looking at it with admiration, close the door and head for bed.
Few minutes after we are in bed we feel the boat motion which we know too well. We have touched bottom. And sure enough the instruments show 2.4m, as we sit keel in the mud. Such is the Chesapeake River level when a northerly wind blows the water out of it. Nothing to do about it but hope it’s just soft mud down there.