Song of the Sails

Ed's new sport, dock boarding. 

Imagine's sails want to stretch and open to the wind; to blow out the spiders and mud dabbers that found summer homes and decided to stay.

The canvas has been cleaned and treated.  The toe rail, hand rails, boom cradle and other teak trim sanded and coated with three coats of natural teak sealant.  The hull has been washed, chainplate covers re-bedded and three out of seven starboard portholes frame covers tightened and re-caulked.

The leak over the starboard settee seems to have dried out.  The rain must have been coming in through a loose frame and trickled down through the side of the cabin top and into the main cabin. 

Ed has installed the solar panels. They are cranking out the juice.   This will allow us to run the watermaker longer and we won't have to recharge the batteries everyday as the amp hungry refrigeration keeps our food cool.  Maybe we’ll crank out enough water that I won’t have to use the spray bottle to rinse the dishes.   One’s hand can cramp quickly rinsing a sink full of dishes using that route.

We are now working on the stainless, removing every minute bit of rust that will reappear overnight once Imagine ventures into salt waters.  The dull brown colored brass lanterns, bells and weather instruments now shine golden reflecting light and brightening the main salon.

The inside port light gaskets were dry rotting.  After several days, Ed thought he found a supplier to purchase rubber gasket seals for the nearly 30-year old porthole hatches.   There are 15 gaskets to replace. The rubber has degraded and rain seeps in no matter how tight we dog down the port windows.

The T-shaped rubber gasket seal has a wide base and a thin T-top.  Three suppliers sent samples. None worked.  In the bottom of a locker I found eight feet of the seal left over from owners past, or from when the boat was new.  The two worst gaskets have been replaced.  It takes 42 inches of gasket for each of the larger portholes.  The search continues.

Getting ready for the fall exodus is always a project, this year it seems to be going as well as can be expected.   Ed only lost one screw overboard while installing the solar panels.  

I caught the cleaning supplies, and myself, from falling off the floating dock section when a powerboat went speeding past the marina.    I was sitting on the floating platform cleaning the waterline. I only kept from going overboard by grabbing the line that tethered the dock to Imagine as huge wakes came rushing in, rocking the dock as I anticipated getting wet.

I was more prepared the next three times the boat sped past.   It appears that the Western side of the Sassafras River drawbridge has gotten too congested so ski boats, wakeboard boats and powerboats have migrated to our quieter Eastern end of the river.  

For reasons that I can't comprehend there are no slow wake zone buoys on the Eastern side of the bridge.   That gives the weekend warriors and water idiots free reign to do what they want.   Meanwhile, the boats in the marina rock and roll and bang against the docks.  I hate to think that boaters are that inconsiderate. I prefer to think that they are just totally clueless.

Now that I've ranted as politely as I'm able, I have to say that the weather has been beautiful this fall for working on Imagine.   During a quiet moment, mid week, we watched as a pair of bald eagles soared overhead. Sunsets are beautiful and life is good.

October has arrived.  Nights have gotten cooler.  The leaves are beginning to blush with the light reds and oranges that will get brighter with each cool evening.

In the morning Ed turns on the Single Sideband Radio and checks in along with other boaters from Canada to Florida.  On one particular day friends on Dyad were in Beaufort, North Carolina; Mon Ami docked in Oriental; Anania was anchored on the southern Chesapeake Bay and Perseverance 2 was on the Wicomico River.   Like us they are all heading south.

Each day Ed checks in. “Imagine, Sassafras River, Galena, Maryland for 21 more days,” he reported a couple of days ago.   My heart skipped a beat and I wondered how the summer on land had passed so quickly.

Imagine is scheduled to set sail on October 28.   Family obligations will keep us in port a bit longer than planned.  I will miss my family, but I'm looking forward to sailing down the Bay as Imagine once again spreads her wings.