Annapolis Sailboat Show

Attended the Annapolis Sailboat Show (http://www.usboat.com/us-sailboat-show/home), and looked at the newest offering from the world's manufactures of boats, boating gear, and stuff you will never need.  One vendor, Torqeedo from Germany http://www.torqeedo.com/us/hn/products/travel-503-1003.html, was displaying their line of electric outboard motors.  We have been discussing going electric to replace/augment our noisy, messy, gas powered 1998 Mercury 3.3 outboard.  My concern was the wiring requirements to charge the battery between usage.  The system is well thought out, and all of my concerns were alleviated.  We will soon have an electric outboard on our EBay dinghy.

By-the-way, the young lady was selling a gizmo to keep your beer can from sliding off surfaces.  I did my part to support the economy.  

HDTV

One cannot expect civilized people to forsake too many of the comforts of the landlubber life.  Therefore, we have installed a 32" LED HDTV and a PS3 to provide some entertainment.

Mostly, we like to watch movies from Pollie's extensive collection.  I also like to catch the news sometimes, so we installed an YouTube bow tie over the air antenna behind one of the seats.  Out here in the "boonies," I only receive 3 channels, but in more metropolitan areas I will receive more.

Not pretty, but it works.

 

Haul Out & Power Wash

Because we have been sitting while getting ready for our cruise, we decided have Serenity pulled out of the water and power washed to remove any slime and barnacles.  Waste of money, the new bottom paint was doing its job.

But, while she was out of the water strainers were installed to keep the jelly fish out of the air conditioning. They are the white spots on the black bottom.

Wind Generator

Serenity now has her wind generator, the D400 from Eclectic Energy.  So far it has been quietly spinning away.  I haven't pulled down the batteries to find out how much it can produce, but it seems to be doing quite nicely.

The stainless steel mount and install was done by Phipps Boat Works (http://www.herringtonharbour.com/workreq/form/pbw.htm).  Great job, thanks Shaun!

EBay Dinghy

AquaPro aluminum RIB: On a recent trip to an Annapolis inflatable boat store, I became acquainted with aluminum bottom rigid inflatable boats (RIBs).  We had been using a small rollup inflatable that we had purchased for use with our previous boat.  Because it was still in good shape, we thought we would keep using it until it died, or it became obvious that it was not sufficient.  When I went to research aluminum RIBs, I found that there seems to be only two manufactures, and they are lighter, but more expensive than their fiberglass counterparts.  Lighter is better for hanging off the aft end of Serenity.  While researching I noticed one for sale on EBay.  Serenity is now sporting a slightly used aluminum RIB.  Our old dinghy was purchased by a friend – thanks Chris.   

On Schedule

Our DC home is under contract, and we are scheduled to close on October 12.  We plan on sailing out of Herrington North on or about October 16, 2010.

Up the Pole

This weekend I did the pole climbing, while Pollie did the cranking...