Friday 2 November – Sunday 4 November: Herrington Harbor North – provisioning completed, and preparations for passage to Bermuda.
Clock changed last night. And we know, because our phones had a weird and loud alarm at 1.56am. Interesting how all sorts of alarms and notifications can be pushed on our phones here in USA, from presidential alerts to clock change.
Last two days we spent mostly shopping, from one hypermarket to another, till we ticked off all the items from our provisioning list. It was a big exercise: tiring, time consuming, and unexciting – hence no separate posts on the blog. Despite the overall bills of well over $1,000 we know it will pay off. We had a similar exercise before we left Europe in October 2017, provisioning with everything we thought we might struggle to find in the Caribbean. And we patted ourselves for how wise that was. Now the nonperishable supplies should last us for another year… or, as we joke, till New Zealand the next civilized place!
Thanks to Ray, and his generous loan of fidelity shopping cards, we also managed to save $150 on the shopping bills.
We could say we splashed out a bit, as on top of the mandatory listed food items we “slipped” and bought all sorts of not exactly necessary items. The policy “it’s cheap, let’s get that too” proved to be a dangerous one! The inventory of Cloudy Bay has now extended – having more cushions, rugs, lamp shades, and even a Christmas tree! … to the detriment of our waterline, which is at least 5cm higher than when we left Europe. It seems American “comfort food” can even effect the waistline of a yacht 🙂
It wasn’t all provisioning for food, but also for spare parts. So on Friday we drove to Colliflower and Fawcett chandleries in Annapolis. Most important items we needed to buy were brass fittings as replacements for some skin fittings and the rubber flexible bilge pump hose (which we have been hunting for since summer). The hose is actually not a marine hose, but an automotive hose. Which we manage to find the part number of in a spare parts car shop, and we ordered it online. 4 of them! We don’t want to be running out of this one ever again.
And since we were on the car spare parts mode, we blew a tyre after Glen tackled a rather big curb accidentally. And in order to avoid a ridiculous charge from Enterprise for a new tyre, we bought one ourselves and had it balanced and fitted in a garage. Let’s see if the Enterprise representative will notice the new tire when we return the car 🙂
So it was a hectic schedule for the last two days, with shopping till evening and packing away till passed midnight. By 1.30am all purchased items were orderly stowed away and added to the provisions inventory file. With very few still needed items, which we ticked off today. And when we returned to Cloudy Bay this evening we declared the provisioning mission completed. We don’t want to see another supermarket for at least few months!
Last night Glen identified where our long standing fresh water leak into the bilge has been coming from. The drain pipe from the pressure relief valve under the water heater was dripping. He finally found the drip with his endoscope, as the end of the pipe was hidden behind the shaft gland. So last night we emptied the bilge then placed the dripping pipe into a big tray. And it was nearly full to the rim when we checked it immediately after we woke up. A fair amount of water, no wonder the bilge pump was kicking in. And best of all the bilge itself was still dry. Eurica!! That explains how the water drained from our water tank, kicking in the water pump occasionally even when we were not using water. And why we had such a high water level in the bilge after we were launched. During the two weeks in the yard, the bilge pump has been switched off, so water level could only build up. Well, that’s a relief: at least we are not sinking!
But now, how to fix it?! The damned pressure relief valve, where the actual leak is, is deep in a jungle of pipes and fitting under the water heater. Glen decided to spend the day thinking about it.
Another bright day and hardly any wind, so perfect for preparations before our passage to Bermuda. First task, hoist the genoa. Which we manage to do without any trouble in this zero wind. A lot easier to hoist than to bring down and flake on the deck. Glen puts on new tell-tails, as the old ones were pretty much gone. We notice lots of mildew patches on the genoa. We guess it must have still been damp when we took it down. Can only hope that the sun will burn it off.
Then dinghy is removed from the davits and tied upside down to the foredeck ready for the Atlantic. We could leave it on the davits, but if we get caught out in bad weather, it would only take one wave break into the dinghy to rip the davits off. 1 cubic meter of water weighs 1 ton, 3 times the rating of the davits.
We also finished with settling all pending bills – with the yard for the haul out and the wood work on the gunwale. Officially, we are free to leave now :). Interestingly it’s the first yard/marina where they insist our length is measured tip to tip, which is 59ft including davits … and the next charge category. But to balance, they did not charge us for days in the marina waiting on water level. Anyway, we can’t complain, the travel lift team has been very professional.
We had a fair bit of driving around today too, returning some items to the hardware store, one last shop at West Marine, and two brief stops in two supermarkets. We’ll certainly feel relieved after we return the hire car. We’ve had it for nearly three weeks now!
In the evening Glen has a good look at Predict Wind for passage planning. And as it looks now, we should be good to leave Herrington on Tuesday afternoon. There are 100nm till we are out of Chesapeake Bay, so we will aim to dock and fuel up at the Little Creek, right before we go into the Atlantic. As for the actual passage weather window, we’ll check on that in the coming days. Too far ahead now.
Then it’s back into the engine room for him. He tries to unscrew the brass fittings that need replacing … but after 10 years they don’t budge. He will need a vice for that. Job for tomorrow.
Next his attention turns to the leaking pressure relief valve again. Now, either the valve is faulty or there actually is pressure >4Bar in the heater. So he rigs up a pressure gauge on the pipe. It’s reading matches exactly the gauge on our expansion tank – maximum 3.2Bar. So the valve must be faulty. It’s only a $15 valve but getting it unscrewed then installing the replacement will be very challenging. At least the endoscope confirms that the valve is 1/2” ( stamped on its side) so it will be off to the hardware store tomorrow. And until we have time to replace it, the dripping pipe will be plugged …. and hope the heater doesn’t blow up!!
Then it’s an early night. With the clocks going back last night it feels like it’s been dark forever even though it’s only 11pm!