Annapolis to St. Michaels MD

Originally posted at www.svsweetescape.com

When we last left you we were debating about whether to stay another day in Annapolis and attend the boat show.  We decided to do that and boy are we glad we did.  We’ll explain why in a moment.

So on Thursday we dinghied in to the only remaining dinghy dock near the mooring field and found that it was jammed full to the point where you could not even go down the fairway much less get out if you were unfortunate enough to be one of the first in.  Knowing that this wasn’t going to work we went further up the creek and landed at a little used dinghy dock just north of the 5th Street Bridge.  This meant we had a short walk across the bridge to the show.

We walked around the show and toured a few of the larger more luxurious sailing yachts.  Wow if only we had $1.5 million laying around somewhere.  

We went over by the Hunter dock and found Steve Paulsen the broker at Racine Riverside that we used when we purchased Sweet Escape.  He was a little surprised to see us and we had a nice chat.

We bought a few odds and ends for the boat from various vendors, looked into purchasing a water maker, a large purchase we will have to make prior to going to the Islands, and spoke to the Fischer Panda generator people.  Brian has been trying to determine how to bleed the fuel system on our generator and the show proved to be the perfect place to get this question answered which it was.

On Friday we dropped our mooring and headed out - bound for St. Michaels on the Miles River just off the Eastern Bay.  Daughter Jenny had sent our mail to the post office there.  We sailed most of the way until the wind went away and we could sail no more.  At St. Michaels we anchored out in the large river in what we feel like is a less than optimum spot.  Given the amount of fetch to our north and east we feel a little exposed here but there really isn’t a lot of choice.

Once the boat was secure we went into shore, collected our mail and stopped at the Acme Supermarket and picked up a few things.  (Anytime I see something labeled “Acme” I always think of Roadrunner and Wiley E. Coyote.)

Lest anyone think that cruising is all sundowners and pot lucks on the beach please read on.

On Saturday morning we started the generator to recharge the batteries and after a few minutes we began smelling diesel.  It was at this point that we could see diesel pooling on the floor in the aft cabin entrance. Uh oh we have a problem.  We shut down the genset and removed the stairs above the engine space.  It appeared that the o-ring around the Racor fuel filter for the generator had somehow gotten pinched and had started leaking.  The diesel had run down the side of the engine space bulkhead and into the aft cabin where it pooled on and under the floor.  Great.

This is the ironic part.  In order to repair this, we had to change out the Racor filter for the genset and until three days ago we did not have a spare Racor on board that we could have used.  We purchased three in Annapolis.  Also, had we not attended the boat show and spoken with the Fischer Panda representative there, we would not have known how to bleed the fuel system.  That is why we are happy that we stayed an extra day and went to the show.

But I digress.  Once the problem was fixed, we still had a bunch of diesel fuel to clean up.  The problem with diesel is that you can clean it up but it takes a while for the smell to go away.  We will be anxiously waiting for that to occur.  In the meantime the boat smells like the inside of a fuel tank.

This afternoon a sailboat passed by very near to where we are anchored and on board was a wedding party.  They had apparently just tied the knot and photos were being taken.  The good news here is that they had apparently been married for several minutes and neither one had thrown the other overboard - yet.

The weather is supposed to turn bad this afternoon with winds at 25 knots, rain and then cold temperatures for the next couple of days.  We will hang out at St. Michaels and wait for it to get nice again before continuing our journey south.  Aside from having to be at Yorktown sometime in the next couple of weeks to collect a life raft that we purchased, we really have no plans and will continue to lolly-gag our way down the Chesapeake.