The Slaughter on the Water and Stella’s Graduation

Annapolis – 1 miles by dinghy, 8 kilometres walked

That whole morning movie thing worked out so well for me that I did it again today. I fired up The Fall Guy at 6:30 am and despite my low expectations, I loved it. I only got about halfway through, but it is very funny, so I’ll finish it off tomorrow.

 

I decided to take a day off boat work today. After giving Kevin and Ana a dinghy ride into town (they were off to Washington for the day), I went for a long, hot shower at the marina office then started on a long walk to explore Annapolis. It is a beautiful, historic town with a marine tradition unlike anything I’ve seen before. I found a couple restaurants I want to take Ana to when she’s back. I found this amazing little bookstore that had a copy of Marcus Aurellius’ Meditations on the discount rack for six bucks so I grabbed it. I explored St. John’s College, founded in 1696. I found a children’s park and did some pull ups. I walked across the bridge to the town of Eastport and found the Maritime museum, a lot of historic houses and buildings, and a thousand or two people and a dozen food and booze vendors and bunch of bands gathered for the Slaughter on the Water Tug of War competition with Annapolis. And yes, the tug of war takes place by stringing a thick rope right across the entire bay and stopping all boat traffic for a few hours.

 

The party was already going by 10:30 am and most people were carrying a beer or two. I wasn’t ready for drinking yet, but I did grab a half dozen delicious oysters for the ridiculous cheap price of nine bucks. This is the 25^th anniversary of this event and the crowd was really into it. I stayed for the first of ten or so tugs. There were at least 30 or 40 people on the rope and the other side of the bay was so far away you couldn’t make out details, but I assume they had similar numbers on their team. There was a five second countdown then the tug began and the crowd went wild! It went on for several minutes and sadly the Eastport team started giving way and  lost the first round. But it didn’t dampen the crowd’s enthusiasm.

I walked back over the bridge to check out the Annapolis side and there wasn’t much of a party going on at all – just the tuggers and a couple hundred spectators. I was told by somebody there that the big party is always on the Eastport side.

 

I had lunch back at the boat, then after the competition finished and the rope was removed I was able to dinghy some tools over to Ben and Kate, then I gave them a bit of help installing a new stove on their boat. Really, I just handed Ben the tools.

 

After that job I returned to my favourite coffee shop and found an exuberant lad on the front counter who would great each customer as they walked in the store with a booming voice hollering “HELLO LADIES AND GENTLEMAN AND CHILDREN OF ALL AGES! WELCOME TO BITTY AND BEAU’S! THE GREATEST COFFEE SHOP IN THE WORLD”. It was awesome.

While there Ana called with two pieces of great news. First, Magnus was going to be spending a week with us in Florida before flying to Edinburgh for his next school semester in January. He found a crazy flight that was just as cheap as flying directly to Scotland. Also, because he will be arriving five days before he’s able to move into the university residence, our friends Steve and Abby have graciously agreed to host him for those days at their house which is in a small village called Jedburgh, not far from Edinburgh and I am sure they will give him a fantastic introduction to Scotland. So on December 26 Magnus, Ana, Stella, and her friend Anna and will all fly into Fort Lauderdale and take over SeaLight. Secondly, Ana attended Stella’s grade 12 graduation ceremony today and sent me an image of the program that showed Stella had won a whole slew of awards and scholarships. I am so proud of her! She worked so hard at school and is such a good student so I’m happy to see her recognized for her efforts and leadership.

 

I capped off the day with sundowner drinks and snacks on SeaLight with Ben and Kate as we floated in the peaceful and beautiful Annapolis harbour.

It was a most excellent Saturday.

Toilet Tasks, Bachelor Life, and Domino Arrives

Annapolis – 1 mile by dinghy, 2 kilometres walked

I am adjusting to temporary bachelorhood rapidly. This morning I was up at 5:30, but instead of making a caffeine-free hot drink and writing, I flipped open the laptop and finished off the last two movies I tried to watch with Ana at night but fell asleep.

 

When daylight arrived I got to work emptying and refilling the composting toilet. I have a love/hate affair with boat toilets and have spent many hours of my life removing them, installing them, deodourizing them, fine tuning them, unclogging them, usually without gloves or protective gear because that’s for sissies. Toilet jobs usually end in heartache, except that one time my buddy Andrew foolishly agreed to help me replace the sanitation hose (this transports the nautical logs from the throne to the holding tank) on our last sailboat Bella Blue and he got shot in the face with chunky sewage after the 18 feet of inclined hose built up a significant amount of back pressure that exploded when we removed it. And he was right in the firing line. Now that was funny.

 

I got so sick of repairing and replacing the manual Jabsco toilet pumps that last year we invested in an electric push button macerating toilet which has worked flawlessly. And I no longer need to give visitors the fifteen minute training session on how to use the damn thing. Now, they just press a button and the toilet does all the work. The other toilet on the boat is a composting toilet and it is a marvel of low technology. It consists of two chambers. The first is a pee chamber which gets filled from pee being directed through one of two holes at the front of the toilet bowl. If you’re left handed, you aim for the left one. If you’re right, go right. If you're ambidextrous, feel free to alternate. The other chamber is for the numero doses, the turds, the logs, the pipe. That one is accessed by flipping a lever on the side of the toilet which opens up a hatch to the drop zone. You make sure you’re centred over the bowl and hope for the swish shot – nothing but net. If you are misaligned, there may some manual cleanup required, so you need to focus and keep your aim straight and true. The poo-poos drop into a chamber which has been preloaded with this moisturized coconut husk that is loaded with hungry bacteria that make fast work of the solids. It works so well that we’ve found the solids chamber is completely odourless. In fact, it’s the pee that smells, and can induce some gagging when we dump it.

 

Today, it was time to empty the solids bucket as it has been about 3 or 4 months since I last changed it. It is as easy as putting a garbage bag over the top then tipping it upside down, and it all just drops into the bag and smells of nothing other than soil. I was thinking of sprinkling it in the nice Annapolis flower beds near the park, but it was a ways to walk so instead I tossed it in the garbage bin.

 

My next job was to reroute some speaker wire that one of the previous owners had strangely decided to run right through the engine compartment near the shaft. This had been bothering me since we bought the boat and it finally rose up in the project list. That task me right through to early afternoon so I broke for bachelor lunch and had beans on toast with a side of radish and high volume Deftones (Around the Fur album…perfect) then I decided to go into town for a little walk and to see if I could find some cream cheese for jalepeno poppers I wanted to make for sundowner snacks. I hadn’t really been into town that far yet but it was hopping – people everywhere, locals and tourists, so many bars and restaurants and nice shops. But right at the top of Main Street I found a little convenience store run by a sweet Latino lady. She had cream cheese and she also had twelve packs of Yuengling for thirteen bucks so I grabbed one of those too.

 

Ben and Kate had originally been traveling the Erie Canal with two other buddy boats but had gotten ahead of them when they hooked up with us and they had been several days behind us. Today, one of the couples – Kevin and Ann – arrived on their sailboat Domino so I took my snacks over there and the five of us met up in their cockpit for a sundowner. They are a lovely couple and we had a great conversation – I was just sad my Ana wasn’t there because she will really like them. But she will meet them very soon.

How Does Energy Work on a Sailboat?

Annapolis – 0 miles sailed, 0 kilometres walked

I was up at 6 after an early night. I had a list of jobs to do and I wanted to get as many of them done as possible. I started by running a new 12 volt circuit up to the v-berth which had never been outfitted with one despite the other two cabins having one. Until now we’d used the 120 volt system for that, but then we have to run the inverter all night which uses up battery unnecessarily. That took longer than expected, so I had lunch then dinghy’d into town and had a nice decaf coffee at Bitty & Beau’s (look it up, amazing place) and used their wifi to publish a few days’ worth of journals. I then went on a fruitless search for a propane refill then returned to the boat and installed these neat plastic/rubber distance indicators on our anchor chain, which makes it very easy to see how much chain we’ve let out. Once I had all the chain hauled out on the deck, I went headfirst back into the anchor hold to remove the crappy sealant I used on the first attempt to fix a leak. Once it was cleaned up, I put fresh Sikaflex compound on the suspect crack. It will take a day or two to dry, but hopefully that fixes the leak. After that I washed the hull then zipped over to Ben and Kate’s for a one drink sundowner.

 

So since there wasn’t much of interest to report on today, I thought I’d write a bit about sources and uses of energy on a sailboat. With our recent battery problems and the prospect of living for the next six months off the grid, our energy needs and management thereof have taken on much greater significance.

 

The Wind

The wind powers the sails, and with the magic of vectors and wing physics, propels the boat forward and allows us to travel in the most environmentally friendly way possible. There are two devices some sailboats have (we do not) which makes supplementary use of this energy. Wind generators are miniature windmills that use the wind power to create electricity to charge the batteries. The other are hydro generators, which are devices either integrated into the propellor, attached to the underside of the boat, or towed behind the boat. They contain an impeller which is spun by the force of the water to generate electricity. Lastly, the wind can also be used to remove energy or heat from a boat by opening the windows and hatches.

 

The Sun

That big energy ball in the sky shines on our six solar panels to produce a lot of electricity. The theoretically maximum amount of energy our panels can produce is about 1300 watts but realistically it’s probably about 85% of that. The solar panels transform photons into higher voltage electricity which is taken by the three solar controllers on board and turned into 12 volt electricity which charges the batteries. The sun also produces thermal energy by hitting the boat and heating up the surfaces which increases temperature inside the boat.

 

The Ocean or Lake

The water we travel through affects the energy levels on the boat. Cold water cools the hull, absorbing interior heat, and dropping the temperature while hot water does the opposite.

 

Food and Drinks

A lot of muscle power is required to make a sailboat work. The obvious ones are pulling on lines to raise and trim sails, or pulling up the anchor, or rowing the dinghy, but all the repairs and everyday tasks on a sailboat require human movement. And this movement is fueled by food and drinks.

 

Gravity

We use gravity to store potential energy on our boat. The best example I can think of is our Brita water filter device. We fill it up with tap water using our muscle power and the energy required to run the pump, then whenever we want a glass of water, we push the spigot and water runs out, courtesy of gravity. Gravity is also used by the boat rigging and sails to make the whole thing move.

 

Diesel

Our sailboat engine runs on diesel and without it we are in big trouble. The diesel is stored in a 50 gallon tank and is sipped by the 54 horsepower engine. This energy is transformed into forward momentum by the spinning shaft and propellor, and a great deal of heat from the engine which warms the cabin as well as the water in our hot water tank, which is used later for showers and washing dishes. The diesel also powers the engine’s alternator which produces electrical current to charge the batteries. Lastly, we have a diesel burning heater which can be used on chilly nights to heat up the cabin of the boat.

 

Gasoline

We also carry gasoline on the boat and use it for two things. First, is the outboard engine on the dinghy, which isn’t strictly necessary, but it sure it convenient for getting around, especially in strong currents and winds where rowing can become impossible. The second use for gasoline is the portable generator we have on the boat which we can use to generate electricity to charge the batteries and power the 120 volt system.

 

Batteries

We have many batteries on the boat and they all need to be charged with electricity. The house bank consists of four 6-volt AGM (Absorbent Glass Matt) batteries that can store around 600 amp hours of energy. We have a single 12-volt lead-acid starting battery used for turning over the engine. We also have rechargeable batteries all over the place – the spotlight, table lamps, solar lights, toothbrushes, portable VHF, head flashlights, phones, tablet, laptop, Ryobi tool, probably a few more.

 

Propane

We carry 24 pounds of propane in two 12 pound tanks. This is used to power the two burners on the stovetop, the oven, and the barbeque, and can also be used to power the portable generator if gasoline is not available.

 

Now how is all this energy used? The boat has a 120-volt system, which can be powered from a shore cable when at a dock, but on the water is powered by a 2000 watt inverter which is, in turn, powered by the 12 volt house bank. We use this for all the things we plug in – the toaster, the air fryer, the electric kettle, device chargers, vacuum, ice maker, heat gun, soldering gun, and beauty items such as hair dryers and hair straighteners. The boat also has an extensive 12-volt system that runs directly off the house batteries and is used for such things as cabin lighting, bilge pumps, shower pumps, fresh water pump, mast lights, navigational lights, charging ports, stove solenoid, stereo system, vhf radio, auto pilot and navigational instruments, and refrigeration.

 

Now a lot of things I mentioned above also apply to your home, but you just don’t need to think about this much in a house because things generally just work…most of the time. Unless you live on the Ring of Fire or other earthquake-prone areas, houses are generally stationary and are not subject to the vicious and frequent beatings that boats take which tends to knock things loose and shakes the systems and equipment until they eventually break. Also, the national power grid tends to be quite reliable so you don’t need to think much about how much energy you are consuming nor where you next “energy meal” is coming from.

 

And that, my friends, is why boaters have a never-ending project list. Boats are complex systems and tend to break with some regularity. So if you’ve never thought of becoming an electrician, plumber, painter, fibreglasser, woodworker, solar expert, or gas fitter, just buy yourself a boat and you will become an expert in all those things!

An Asshole Boater and Arrival in Daytona

St. Augustine to Daytona  –  48 nautical miles sailed, 4 miles by dinghy, 4 kilometres walked

By 8 am we had filled the diesel and water tanks, discarded garbage and recycling, donated a bunch of books to the city marina library, and were back on the ICW headed south for Daytona. This part of the ICW was nice – deserted beaches with palm trees, cranes stabbing at minnows in the shallows, pelicans flying overhead, dolphins curving up and out of the water in pursuit of breakfast, but it demanded constant attention as many of the channels where narrow and shallow and there were many twists and turns. Ana took over the helm so I could have a shower, and shortly after I returned to the cockpit she pointed ahead at some commotion on the water. A big powerboat had done a 180 degree turn in the middle of the channel and drove back to a boat he had just passed. There looked to be some shouting back and forth and finger pointing, then the guy in the big boat suddenly powered up his four huge outboards and created a giant wake, trying to swamp the smaller boat. He succeeded in driving a wave of water over them and into their boat, then took off speeding northward past us and up the ICW. It wasn’t just the one asshole in the boat either, there were three or four other passengers, probably cheering him on.

 

That’s the first time we’ve seen anything like this on the water. It was brutal and extremely dangerous and it’s hard to imagine anybody being that careless and stupid. I hope we don’t see any more of that.

 

A bit later a power boater came up behind us, lurking slowly, suspiciously. We realized it was our friends Adrian and Sara, from the tequila episodes back in Charleston. They were moving their boat down the ICW to warmer climates just like us. We chatted back and forth on the radio a bit then they passed by and roared ahead.

 

The channel turned into the wide Halifax River and suddenly we were in Daytona. The anchorage location was poor – in a wide open are just past one of the many bridges in the city, but our anchor stuck on the first try and held fast. I launched the dinghy and we went in search of a place to dock it. We first tried a dinghy dock on the west side of the river that had been reviewed favourably on the Noforeignland app just in April. Well, it was mostly destroyed, we assumed from hurricane Milton in the summer, as was a large boardwalk we could see from there. So we moved further down the river to the next one, at Halifax Marina, and found it completely vacant but in decent shape so we locked the dinghy to the dock and started walking north as that direction seemed more promising, but you just never know what you’ll find.

 

Well, we found a cute commercial area with a bunch of shops, and sitting on a bench in front of one of the shops was Adrian. We chatted for a while, then Sara appeared, with a bag of product from the tea shop next door. There was brief consideration of a drink at the pub next door but I bailed. Very strange for me to bail on a drinking opportunity, but I did it for two reasons. First, I was feeling a little bit tired, and it looked to me like Adrian was perhaps a wee tired himself as he’s had a couple of friends come down to help him move the boat and I’m guessing there may have been some late nights. Second, and more importantly, Ana had some awful insomnia last night and hadn’t fallen asleep until after 3am so I knew she was tired. So we said goodbye, but I knew it wouldn’t be long before we ran into them again.

 

What did we find in Daytona? There were a lot of muscle cars and hot rods driving around, and the roar of engines was coming from all directions, not entirely unexpected for the city that hosts the NASCAR headquarters. Saturday night cruising maybe? Or perhaps a classic car rally? We also strolled through a lovely waterfront garden, called the Riverfront Esplanade. An elaborately laid stone and tile pathway meandered through tastefully lit palm trees, ponds and other water features, and swinging garden chairs looking over the river. It was very nice, but it was getting damn chilly from the cold front that had blown in a couple of days ago, so we returned to the boat, made a nice dinner, and retired for the evening.

Solo in Annapolis - Underwater Current Leakage and Sailor Jerry Reflections

Annapolis – 5 miles by dinghy, 4 kilometres walked

I lost my best girl today. Ana left this morning in the rental car for a trip back home to attend Stella’s grade 12 graduation, to see Magnus, to visit with her folks, and to take care of a few administrative tasks such as buying new winter tires for the car. The kids are good for taking care of basic housing necessities, but when it comes to plump maintenance expenditures, a parent’s credit card is a necessity.

 

My first day of bachelorhood was good, for the most part. I started working on my list of boat projects after kissing my beautiful wife goodbye and it didn’t take long until I found a major problem. There seemed to be 12 volts of electrical current passing below the boat, in the super conductive seawater, through the engine shaft to the metal parts on the underside of the boat, such as the keel and thru-hulls which tends to disintegrate things and cause one’s boat to sink. Just another day in the boater’s life, so I took it in stride and started testing everything on the boat with my multi-meter, ruling out certain theories, and ruling in others. I was tempted to call SeaLight’s electrician-in-chief (my dad), but I wanted to give myself a respective margin of failure before taking it to the next step. It didn’t take long before I hit a dead end, so I gave up, in hope of gaining some inspiration though purposeful procrastination.

 

I met up with Kate and Ben and we took a long dinghy ride to the furthest end of Back Creek and walked for 22 minutes to Fawcett Boat Supplies to pick up project materials. It is a great chandlery and the people working there were wonderful. I picked up a new zinc, a 12 volt charge port for the v-berth and associated connections, flag clips, and a few nuts and bolts for other needs, plus a boat electrician recommendation. We also hit a wine shop and Ben and I each scored a 1.75 litre bottle of Sailor Jerry's for $29, what a deal! We then walked back to the dinghy and rode back to vessel Waddington where they invited me in for a sundowner and we had a lovely sundowner indeed, being visited by various spooky witches and creatures on paddleboards, then enjoyed the warm sun and cozy cockpit thinking about the likely sub-zero situation back home.

 

After a few Sailor Jerry’s rum and cokes I dinghy’d back to SeaLight and started some serious reflection as I made a tikka masala Indian curry (anytime I am separated from my life partner I sprint directly for ring-sting inducing Indian food as she is not a huge fan…) I put on my Spotify 2021 Thanksgiving playlist that we and my brothers’ families made at that time, and it's an incredible set of songs that I listen to all the time. A song came up – Love Song by Tesla, an 80’s rock band. And you know who I thought of? My best buddy from high school, Darren Bessette.

I first met Darren Bessette in the change room in grade 10 as some of the other weak kids were getting rat-tail towel whipped in the showers by the hairy super jocks . He was complaining about something or someone (probably the super-jocks) and our complaints exactly matched so we became friends. And we remained best buddies for a long time, including those awkward high school years where boys think of nothing else but getting drunk and getting laid, and we had tremendous success with the former, but far less with the latter, despite our best efforts.

 

When I set off from Saskatchewan in search of my life, Darren remained there in pursuit of his. We went our separate ways, and tried to stay in touch, but our realities started to change. When I met the woman of my dream, there was never any doubt he would be my best man, as I was his, back in our early 20’s when he married Darla, from Debden. We had a great time meeting up again, but things had changed, and our paths and geographies were very different. We moved from overseas to Calgary, and we met up once or twice, but the reunions became infrequent after that. He ended up getting divorced from Darla and we moved to Ontario and somewhere along the way we stopped talking. Darren never was great for keeping in touch, and as soon as I stopped calling him, the communication ceased.

 

I know he’s bumped into my parents in Saskatoon over the years. But I haven’t spoken to him for at least ten years. A couple of years ago I got his cell phone number from a mutual friend of ours and tried calling him a couple of times but no luck. One night I was listening to a band we used to love – L.A. Guns – and I called him and left a 10 minute long message for him, playing tunes, talking about stuff, whatever. I probably dialled the wrong number, or maybe he thought it was a prank call (if people still do those...) I'm sad I was unable to get hold of him, but I do know if we ever met up in person again, we’d revert right back to where we left off and have a great time. Different realities, different priorites.

I miss him. I miss my other close buddies from Saskatoon too. But I do believe that old friendships never die, and when the stars align, they can be rekindled.

Visit to Washington…and a Near Run-in With Kamala Harris

Annapolis – 120 kilometres driven, 10 kilometres walked

Ana and I were out of the boat by 8am and on our way via Uber to the Thrifty rental car office. We got our Kia Sol car after a most entertaining conversation with the two local ladies there, who were looking for food recommendations for Canada and Ana recommended beaver tails, which is the best way to ensure tourists never visit Canada for a second time and just leave us alone. I told them to try a hot dog because they are way better than the American ones at least.

 

We used our newfound vehicular freedom to move batteries around. The old ones had to go back so I humped those four 83 pound lead-acid beauties from the boat to the dinghy to Steven’s Battery Warehouse, with help of Ben and Kate. After dumping the batts, we went to the local Aldi grocery store and score big time on groceries – the prices were cheap and much more in line with what we’ve seen from Aldi stores in the past.

 

On the way back to the boat we stopped at Bacon Sails and Marine Supply and found a massive warehouse of boater treats – used anchors, electronic gadgetry, solvents, rope, clothing, gear, man they had everything. Annapolis is a boater’s paradise and you find things here you just cannot find elsewhere. It is the best place in the world to have a boat breakdown.

 

After lunch back at the boats we took off for an afternoon tour of Washington, DC, which is less than an hour’s drive from Annapolis. There, we were surprised to find ourselves staring down the barrel of 75,000 very ordinary and regular, non-crazy, non open carry gun toting, and non dictator-worshipping people waiting in line for a Kamala Harris political rally. The city was electric with people everywhere, cops everywhere, total insanity. We sidestepped the chaos and walked the Mall to the Lincoln Memorial, WW2 Memorial, Reflecting Pond, Vietnam War Memorial, then found our way to a Cheesecake Factory restaurant, on Kate’s recommendation, which was excellent.

As we were walking back to our car after dinner we were stopped at the corner of the street by some cops. They had cleared the entire street and were yelling at people to stay on the sidewalks if they tried to cross. We waited for quite a while, speculating, and our suspicions were confirmed when Ana spoke to one of the cops and they said Kamala Harris's motorcade was going to be coming through. Sure enough, we saw the motorcade appear several blocks away heading for us...but they turned off before reaching our street. Ana was really hoping to see her, or at least one of the Escalades carrying her! The whole scene was quite exciting as neither of us has ever been this close to a big political rally before. It's just not the sort of thing that happens in Canada much.

We did not have time to visit any of the twelve Smithsonian museums while we were there, but it was a short pleasure to once again visit this grand city. Especially one week away from another sure to be tumultuous election.

As a final note, I remembered that today was exactly one month since we left Canada. Wow.

Annapolis. They Must Have Batteries Here

Rogue Harbour to Annapolis – 14 nautical miles, 50 kilometres Uber’d

Pulling that rope on my generator at 8am was excruciating. It was a calm and magical morning. Silent. A cozy blanket of fog was slowly lifting over the tranquil reed banks and glass ocean waters. The temperature was low, but the morning was crisp, and the other sailboats moored in the harbour sat still in the waters. The duck hunters must have slept in as I heard no shots. But our batteries were dead, and we needed energy to make toast, warm the water, and heat the frozen boat. The generator fired, destroying the peace, and I slunk below, embarrassed, but enjoyed the warm air blowing on my feet from the diesel heater. Sorry folks.

 

We left around 10 for Annapolis, 14 miles, and it was an easy run. Ana and I talked a lot about the trip experience thus far. However glamorous a sailboat trip to the Caribbean may look, it is a lot of work. And pressure. And stress. Add to that leaving our kids at home, and our jobs, and our everyday routine, and there’s just no way it is ever going to be a seamless transition. We are at a funny stage of our lives. We are both changing physically, getting older, and it sucks ass, but it’s inevitable. I think we often imagine ourselves as our sexy, fit, and whip-smart 20-somethings, which we were, and we rocked that shit. We’re now in our 50’s. I still think of ourselves as sexy as hell, but I know deep down that’s probably not true (at least not the way it was when we first met…). I've been told men are often better able to handle the aging process, probably because we don’t have menopause to deal with, nor societal beauty expectations, and our nature is generally more accepting of body odour and shredded clothing and we tend to care less about our physical appearance, focusing instead on our perceived ability to wrestle crocodiles, subdue terrorists, do corporate acquisitions, invest funds for long term appreciation, and tell really funny jokes.

 

We got anchored on a mooring buoy in Annapolis and I stood on the deck for a while to appreciate where we were. This is where we bought our dear sweet Bella Blue sailboat so it holds a special significance for us. It is also the sailing capital of the east coast and is packed, and I mean packed with sailboats and the sailing culture pervades everything.

 

It was time to solve the battery problem so we headed out in the dinghy to find the Victron lithium battery dealer at the back end of Back Creek. Our original plan to order lithium batteries online and have them delivered here had completely fallen apart because of an incompetent online retailer, but since we were now here we could get them ourselves. We found the boss Peter at the Victron dealership, or I should say we accosted him, unannounced, in his small warehouse. And he spent 20 minutes baffling us with so much techno bullshit that we left in a daze. He recommended five grand worth of upgrades to make our boat lithium-ready and we just couldn’t get behind that. So instead, we Uber’d first to West Marine, then to Steven’s Battery Warehouse and found a set of four AGM batteries to replace our faulty lead-acid ones. And those suckers fit right into the space available…after doing a couple of small modifications on the wood strapping. I got my daily workout by humping those batteries from the store, to the Uber, to the dinghy, to the boat, to the battery space within the boat, and by the end of the day my hands were raw and cracked. All in day’s work. But it seemed we had finally solved our battery problem. But let’s see how they come up tomorrow.