Spring

Last weekend, I started the engine and generator, and everything is running fine. I was hoping to have crew this weekend, and to go out and hoist the sails. Unfortunately, all of my crew went awol, and I had to content myself with swabbing the decks. At least she'll be clean for her maiden voyage of the season.

I had some trouble today finding the big oil filter that is used for the engine. (It's a Fram PH977A, a tall boy.) I did a google query, and found it on Amazon. It seems odd to buy oil filters from a bookstore...

I also ordered some PoliPrep, the stripper for Poliglow. This year we are stripping and starting over, after about 8 years. Poliglow has been great for us, and I highly recommend it if you have a chalky, oxidized hull. So many people in the boat yard stop and ask about what we are doing, that I should get a commission for selling this stuff.

Spring

Well, the vernal equinox has passed, and April 15th is coming up. This can only mean one thing: it's time to get the boat ready to sail! If the weather is good, I plan to go over this weekend and start the engine, and bend on the sails.

Fall

Silence is put away for the winter, the pink stuff is now in her water tanks.

Meeting Sir Knox-Johnston

A couple of weekends ago, I went to Norfolk to see the racers in town for the Velux 5 Oceans solo around-the-world race. The rain held off and I was fortunate enough to meet Sir Robin Knox-Johnston on the dock. I offered my congratulations on his race, and he told me "I don't deserve any congratulations, I'm not winning the thing!". (He's in 4th place at the moment.) I asked him if he thought he could make up the time on the 3rd place boat, and he said he thought it would be tough. I checked today, however, and he is roughly 12 hours ahead, so he needs to put more distance between him and his competitor if he hopes to beat him out for 3rd.

I also briefly met Koji Suraishi, in second place. It was great to see the skippers and their boats. Best of luck to all of them in the third, and final leg, back to Spain.

The Mast is Out

Last Wednesday, Bryan and I took Silence around to Jabin's to unstep the mast. We had already unhooked all the electrical connections at the base of the mast. The guys from Chesapeake Rigging did a very professional job of unrigging all the standing rigging and preparing for the hoist. After about an hour of work, we were ready, so we spun the boat around and brought it up close to the bulkhead. The crane was brought up to the edge and stabilized, then one of the riggers rode the crane up to the spreaders. A sturdy strap was wrapped around the mast, just above the spreader and secured against slipping by running a line down to the winches near the deck. Once the crane was ready, the forestay and shrouds were released, and crane lifted the mast out easily. The mast is lying in the yard now, awaiting new paint.

Velux 5 Oceans in Norfolk

All of the racers, save one, are in Norfolk, and will be restarting the race this coming Sunday. The last racer, Graham Dalton, has been struggling with damage to his boat, and is racing against time to make it to Norfolk in time to avoid disqualification. I plan to drive down on Saturday and see the boats and, hopefully, the sailors.

Dismasting

That headline may have gotten your attention. However, the dismasting of Silence will be intentional, and will happen next week. We plan to have the mast hauled out, painted, and rewired. This will be our biggest project to-date, but we're looking forward to having a working anchor light, working deck-lights, and a new radar. Not to mention, no more snagging halyards!

5 Oceans Race

I've been following the 5 Oceans race for the last few weeks. So far there has been one abandonment, and one dismasting in the Southern Ocean. If you are curious, and like an adventure (which a friend once quipped is when someone else has a bad time), check it out at: http://www.velux5oceans.com/

End of the Season

As of last week, Silence is put away for the season. We have run the "pink stuff" through all of her water systems.

Now it's time to start thinking about next season. We are planning to have new canvas made for the dodger and bimini. I've taken the teak treads off the ladder for refinishing, and I really need to make a centerboard insert for the dinghy, so that I don't have another near sinking... I've had enough bailing in the middle of the Bay!

Maintenance and Sailing

Well, we got the batteries in place back in August, in time for the Labor Day weekend voyage to Oxford. Thanks to Bryan, my brother-in-law, for coming out and helping me to heft them aboard.

The sail to Oxford came the day after Ernesto passed through. He brought 50 knot winds to our slip, with gusts of up to 60 knots! Four headsails in our marina were destroyed, unwrapping and shredding in the wind. Fortunately, Silence rode out the storm with no problems. The wind for our sail to Oxford was 15-20 knots from the NW, which made for a downwind romp, with Silence hitting speeds of 8+ knots. This was great, except that we were towing our dinghy, Silent Partner, which began leaking water through the centerboard trunk at these high speeds. We've had this problem in the past, and we jam a piece of foam rubber and some rags into the trunk to stop the water. There was just too much pressure and so the dinghy took on water and began to sink. This required us to stop the boat, take in sails and I had to get into the dinghy and bail her out. This can be very exciting with 3 foot waves. This happened twice before we decided to shorten sail and keep the boat moving at less than 6 knots.

We came up with an even better fix on our return trip, we lashed an oar on top of the trunk with our foam and rags. The oar kept everything in place, so no more trouble.

The winds were light the rest of the weekend, and we passed a pleasant couple of days in Oxford. The day before we departed, the refrigeration pump gave up. I replaced this pump about 8 years ago, so I guess that's about how long a pump lasts. I've now owned the boat long enough that I'm starting to replace things that I've already replaced once before. I have to tell you that there is no one more unhappy than Suzan watching food go bad in a dead refrigerator. But we had plenty of ice, and the fridge was at 40 degrees when the pump failed, so we made out just fine.

When I pulled the pump out of the boat, I figured that I'd have to order one from the manufacturer. I stopped by West Marine just to see if they might direct me to a supplier, and the rep there said that he thought he had one in stock. Unbelievable, they actually had the exact pump! I was able to get the fridge back up and running in one day! (This rarely happens.)

Two weeks ago, we moved the boat to Annapolis for a week, while our friend Tom renewed the Armada on the teak. Silence is looking very fine now, ready for our annual trip out to watch the Schooner Race. Hopefully, we'll be seeing some of you out there!

Batteries Not Included

I've noticed recently that each time we return to the boat, the house batteries are low. I went over to the boat with a voltmeter last Sunday, and took some measurements. The voltage was 11.5 on both batteries, and under load, the voltage started falling rapidly. Not good. So, it looks like I'll be buying some new batteries this soon... these are big boys, 4Ds, about the size of two car batteries joined together, it takes two guys to lift them into place. Who feels strong today?

Splashed!

Silence went back into the water yesterday morning, after a week on dry land. She has a nice clean bottom, and freshly applied poliglow (special thanks to Joe for his help on Saturday).

We were lucky to be in Annapolis yesterday, since it was also the day of the Blue Angels rehearsal flight at the Naval Academy. We anchored in the harbor for the show, then sailed down to the West River late in the afternoon. We had 15 knots of breeze from the NW, so we saw all points of sail, mostly on starboard. We peaked at 8.2 knots of boatspeed, and spent lot's of time in the mid 7s. Excellent sailing!

Silence once more...

Silence has her name on once again, this time with a new layout. Also today, the mechanic was by and is working on the raw water pumps for both the main engine and generator. The generator pump is in a location that makes it impossible to replace the impeller with out removing the pump, so I generally leave that work to the mechanic. The main engine pump is accessible, but the bolts looked likely to shear off due to rust. I decided to leave it to an expert to extract these old bolts.

It looks like we are on target for relaunching next Monday!

On the Hard

Silence was hauled out yesterday. While she was in the slings, Ted, from Seaside Boatworks checked out the centerboard pendant. The pendant is in great condition, no burrs, no corosion. Pretty amazing for a 10+ year old piece of hardware which spends all of it's time under water.

I stripped off the name and port on the transom, preparing the way for re-lettering. If you ever need to remove old adhesive residue like that left behind after peeling off vinyl lettering, check out Goo Gone. It's magic stuff! The old letters were looking worn and we want to reorganize the transom layout. Accent Graphics will be installing the new letters sometime this week.

This evening I went over to check on the progress of the bottom work and found the bottom already painted. The most important of the maintenance work is already taken care of.

Haulout

The forecast for today was not very promising, however, we managed to dodge the rain and had a nice sail from the West River up to Annapolis. Silence is now at the dock at Jabin's waiting to be hauled out tomorrow. We will be painting the bottom, renewing the poliglow, greasing all of the through-hulls, and checking the centerboard pendant. The pendant is probably 10 years old or more, so we wonder how it's doing.

Volvo Restart from Annapolis

Silence left the dock for only the second time on Sunday, to head out to the Volvo restart. The day began with big breezes, but, by the time of the start at 1:00 PM, the breeze had fallen off to around 10 knots. No worries, these boats still make 10-12 knots of boat speed in these conditions!

We were positioned south of the starting line, which also served as a downwind gate before the racers headed down the Bay. We got lucky with our position and the boats came through the spectator fleet not far from our location. It was a great day for everyone aboard.

Signs of Spring

I went over to the marina this weekend to visit the boat and begin the process of recommissioning for the season. It was a sunny day, in the 60s, with winds from the West at about 20 knots. It felt good to be on deck.

I re-installed the compass, and polished the binnacle and the wheel. Then I moved on to add some coolant to the engine and generator, opened the seawater intakes, and started them up. They both sprang to life immediately, awakening from their winter slumber.

The Volvo is Coming

The Volvo Ocean race is coming to Annapolis in April, and will restart on May 7th. We have social obligations during the time of the inshore race, but we plan to be out for the race restart. These boats are fast, (40+ knots in the right conditions) so we don't expect to see much of them as they head south, down the Bay.

Haulout This Year

We plan to haul Silence out this year for bottom painting and maintenance. We checked into hauling at Hartge's, but the problem there is that they won't let you do any of your own work. So, we plan to haul at Jabin's in May. In addition to painting, we plan to have the centerboard pendant checked and maybe replaced, renew the Poliglow (it's not a wax) on the hull, and replace the lettering on the transom.

Polarity!

Of course, where LEDs are concerned, polarity matters. I discovered that I wired the connector backwards when I plugged it in at the boat. I had a 50/50 chance of getting it right, but Murphy's Law prevails in these instances. I've rewired the connector and it works fine now.