October 11, 2008.

Well, the boat show has come and gone for us. While there though, we saw several couples that we’ve come to know over the last few years. We even had the chance to accept an invitation from our friends Jeff & Tessa for a fabulous dinner at their home in Annapolis.

We spent Thursday running around trying to find parts and the local NAPA. We found the solenoid we needed and headed back to the boat to install it and a new transmission cooler. Once that was taken care of we spent the rest of the day on the boat doing chores. We’ve had a spat of mechanical failures recently.

First it was the generators governor needed readjustment. The very next day was the generator’s impeller, a day or so later it was the main engine impeller. Then I found water in the transmission during our morning system check. That meant we had to order and install a new transmission cooler. While I was inside the engine compartment I cleaned every connection in the ignition system and replaced both solenoids while I was at it. Everything worked as it should, but I certainly wouldn’t mind a little respite from the extra maintenance.

With our maintenance done we spent Friday at the boat show. We strolled the aisles and looked at all the goodies that vendors are trying to tempt people with. Since we’ve spent so much time on the boat its interesting when a salesperson try’s to bullshit me on the newest, bestest crapola their trying to peddle.

There is always something that is brilliant, new and revolutionary but it’s often tough to find amongst all the shiny pieces of garbage that are out there.

We left Annapolis this morning while the boat show was in full swing. The wind was from the north as predicted, but with a little less steam. We sailed along at better than 7 knots for the first 2 hours then the wind slowly abated. We ended up moving along at 4 knots while configured “wing & wing”. At about 1300 hours we started the engine so we could arrive in Solomon’s Island early enough in the day to hit the post office.

So we’re back in Solomon’s for the night. We made it to the post office and hit the grocery store before settling in for the night.