Ahoy, me readers!

Of course I couldn't let International Talk Like a Pirate Day go unnoticed here on Diary of a Liveaboard. I talk like a pirate EVERY day, of course, but today, you all can join me!

So pull up a dead man's chest and let's have some rum! Yo, ho ho!





(Real post on the moldiness resulting from Tropical Storm Lee to come as soon as I can get home and snap some pictures. I also may NEED some rum to get me through this one... it's a disgusting tale or misery and mutinous mold.)

Thirteen Thursday...

Continuing in my occasional series of blog memes, I am inspired to share thirteen things this Thursday:

1. So far at least 3 people have asked me if they can join me on the boat if our region continues to flood.

2. Did I mention that it's rained nonstop for a week? Everything on the boat is damp. I am running out of rags and paper towels.

3. Four people have suggested I buy a dehumidifier.

4. Dehumidifiers are large.

5. I have nowhere to put one.

6. I discovered this morning that my rubber boots have a hole near the pinky toe of my right foot.

7. I have had these rubber boots so long that I had forgotten how expensive rubber boots are.

8. As much as I love Target shoes, cute galoshes are not going to cut it.

9. I am pondering new internet access options and am soliciting opinions on Clear.

10. I have started seriously thinking about replacing the floor in Misty's cabin. I am thinking parquet.

11. Ditto purchasing a range.

12. I did not sleep more than an hour straight last night because of the thunder.

13. I'm getting nervous for winter again... I may need my mommy...

Irene who?

Yes, faithful readers, I survived Hurricane Irene.

She was, almost disappointingly, pretty much a non-event here in Baltimore. Almost being the key word there. Not so lucky on other parts of the East Coast -- I wish everyone good luck cleaning up and getting power back. Especially the folks in Vermont.

I stayed overnight at my friend Pascal's house along with boyfriend Greg and two other friends -- and we had a lot of fun. We made hurricanes and jambalaya. Yum achieved! We were having so much fun that we barely noticed a hurricane was happening and headed out to Ale Mary's for some middle-of-the-night tater tots and a drink. And to see if Fell's Point was underwater. It wasn't -- but we sure got soaked like we'd been swimming on the walk there!

Anyway, I checked on Misty Sunday morning after some corned beef hash at Jimmy's and the weather was beautiful. Would have been sailing weather if the wind hadn't been blowing so hard! ;) Misty was completely unscathed and I almost felt silly for worrying. But you know what they say -- better safe than sorry.

Hope you all had as fun and uneventful a hurricane as I did!

Hurricane shmurricane... right?

Well, folks, Misty Rose is all set to ride out Hurricane Irene. The forecast is becoming more favorable -- we're sitting at 80 percent chance of tropical storm force winds, according to the NOAA weather radio aboard. Yes, I'm still aboard. No, I will not be here once it starts hurricane-ing. I know I posted the other day that I wasn't that worried, but, well, I've succumbed to peer pressure.

In the end, the marina decided for me that I would be taking off my roller-furled sail, which Greg helped me do after work yesterday. It's folded up in my dock box. I also took an extra line and tightly tied around the outside of my sail cover.

Now, many of the boats in my marina came out of the water for the hurricane. I decided not to go that route. Tidewater, my marina, cited on their Facebook page an MIT study that found it is safer to keep your boat ashore than in the water during a hurricane.

I don't necessarily disagree with that. Or maybe I do. One of the ladies in the office here said to me a couple days ago, "but what if it comes up the Bay?"

Well, that's what insurance is for when it comes right down to it. If the hurricane comes up the Bay, you're pretty much screwed whether you're ashore or in the water in my mind.

I did, however, wake up at 8 a.m. this morning and decide, for no apparent reason that I wanted more fenders:

I called my dad from the car after I made the $143 purchase of one large fender, one smaller fender and two double-braided fender lines. His response?

"Good girl."

I also bungeed my grill shut. I suppose it's recommended that you take it off the boat, but it's not like I have a garage where I can put stuff and my dock box is pretty full of genoa just now.

The final precaution I took was doubling all my lines. I doubled the bow line, stern line and spring lines.

I think I'm as ready as I can be. I had crabs for dinner last night. I'm going to a hurricane party tonight. Misty will ride out the hurricane, just as she has ridden out hurricanes for nearly 30 years.

Either that or I'll be homeless come Monday...

Anticipating the unexpected...

So it looks like Baltimore is going to be hit by Hurricane Irene this weekend. Weather reports are still sketchy, but at the very least we will get some high winds and rain, according to the weathermen.

I don't claim to be an expert on hurricane preparedness on boats, but when I lived in Washington, D.C., I was required to file a hurricane plan (including location of extra lines and fenders) which is what initially got me thinking about and researching hurricane preparedness. That and Ida, which hit the first year I lived aboard.

Here in the Chesapeake Bay we don't frequently see the effects of hurricanes beyond what's expected for this weekend: high winds, some possible flooding, high tides and lots and lots of rain.

Rain and high water aren't so much a problem for me since I am docked at a floating dock. The dock will just rise as the water rises. And so will Misty Rose. The problem comes with the high winds. High winds cause large waves, which if your boat is not tied up properly can cause serious problems -- like hull damage.

Tidewater, which is where I live, posted on their Facebook page today that they recommend boat owners consider taking their sails off and removing canvas coverings.

Unless the forecast gets a whole lot more serious, I won't be removing my sails. They are a lot of work to get off and get folded and I don't really want to have to do that. So without further ado, here is my list of hurricane preparations:

1. Make sure genoa is tightly rolled to the roller furler and tied down. 
2. Double bow line (mine has a tendency to rub in the chock and wear down).
3. Check all dock lines. Add extra lines where necessary.
4. Rehang all fenders so that they will stay between the boat and the dock.
5. Pump bilge (yes -- I am still pumping the bilge by hand!)
6. Dog down all hatches (it only takes one hatch partially open to cause a flood -- trust me, I've been there!)

And of course my final step -- head for the hills! When Ida hit I was incredibly seasick. I don't particularly have a mind to do that again, so I'll be heading over to the boyfriend's. Normally we split our weekends between his house and the boat, but this weekend we're definitely planning to hang out at his place!

SOURCE: Graphic from weather.com.

The trials of summer...

Well now that summer is drawing to a close and the weather has been cooler, things have been exceedingly pleasant on the boat.

Apparently not pleasant enough, though.

Yes. That's right. Melted chocolate-cracker stick things. Oh the humanity.

This is just the most recent in a long long list of lessons with a single moral: When in doubt, put it in the refrigerator!

Days without A/C on the boat mean that with the hatches closed, Misty gets slightly past toasty and into melty... And now I have a mass of melted chocolate-cracker sticks. Luckily they taste OK... but they are now one solid mass instead of multiple sticks. Oh summer...

Installing a new bow light...

Well last summer dad and I took a nice overnight trip to Annapolis. There was a nautical flea market I wanted to visit. It turned out to be a bust, but it was a nice visit and we got to eat at our favorite Eastport eatery, Davis' Pub.

As we were leaving Sunday morning, we stopped for fuel. Last summer, Dad couldn't much leave the cockpit. So he was steering and I was guiding him to the fuel dock.

This worked quite well. Until it came time to leave the dock and we scraped the bow pulpit on the pilings at the dock and, we discovered later, knocked the bow light off.

Yes. That's a very embarrassing story I just told the blog world. But, readers, you needed to know the pain.

Anyway, dad ordered a new light and I taped the wires left from the old light and we forgot about it until the next summer, when I put my foot down. I wanted to sail at night and I needed lights to do it!

Enter my computer nerd boyfriend Greg and my trusty Dad.

Now, please keep in mind that this fix, while completely workable, would get you dinged on a survey because instead of completely re-running the wires, we spliced the new light onto the old wires.

We're rebels like that.

Here's Greg splicing.

I should maybe mention that it was 100 degrees Fahrenheit that day. I hid in the shade under the ramp and held the boat when necessary. I am largely useless when it comes to matters electrical.

The new light was not identical to the old one. It hangs from the forwardmost rail of the pulpit. The old one was mounted to a plate hanging from the aftmost rail if the pulpit (there is a double rail at the top of it). The old plate was welded on. We despaired for a moment of getting it off.

Then I had my sole brilliant moment of that hot, hot day: Why not just hang it and leave the old plate? It looks stupid, but how would we get it off without making the rail look REALLY bad? So we bent it down and the wires from the old light were in position to be spliced to the new light. Dad needed to drill the holes in the new light to make them larger so the wires would fit through.

And then Greg held the lamp to the rail and screwed it in place and spliced together the wires hanging from the light to the wires hanging from the plate.

Yes. There is an exposed splice.

Yes. This is bad for a survey. Weren't you keeping up? I said that already.

ANYWAY.

Night sailing? Yes please!

A day late...

Well... it seems the worst of the worst has passed for summer. It's been much cooler lately and, you know what? I think I can easily make it through the rest of the summer without an air conditioner.

I think I will buy one for the future though -- but my strategy will be to let the a/c fund collect some interest and buy either just in time for next summer or whenever it happens to go on sale.

Anyone happen to know if these units typically go on sale post-summer? I mean... West Marine can't want them sitting around the warehouses all winter, right? Please advise.

And while you're advising, let me know what you want to read about! I haven't done any "exciting" sailing this summer, though I certainly should post some pictures. But what do you guys want to read about? This lazy boat owner has some time while Congress is in recess and is looking to do some reader requests!

To condition? Or not to condition?

Well... I mean the air, of course! Baltimore is in the midst of a serious heat wave. The overnight lows have been in the high 80s all week.

So far I've got a small fan and a big Vornado fan and that's about it. And a lot of hatches. And the occasional merciful breeze.

Now, I could buy one of those air conditioners pictured to the left there... I had one last year. It sits on one of the hatches and hangs inside. I borrowed it from the sailing center I used to work for.

But that is not an option this year -- the borrowing, I mean. Now the pros of one of these is that it's actually liveable in the cabin during the day. The cons? Slightly more numerous. The unit is fairly heavy and difficult to maneuver, which makes sailing a pain. My boat is not big enough to sail with that thing sitting on one of the hatches -- and it's not terribly sturdy, so if the boat was going to heel, I would worry about it falling off. Also, last year the cotton cover that came with it was not the right size/fabric to cover my hatch opening and not have rain come in. Slightly less than awesome.

Up until now I've been working about 50 hours a week and commuting about 16 hours a week and spending some weekends away. So it really hasn't been that bad. The overnight lows have been enough to sustain me.

But in this record heat wave I'm torn. There's to be another heat wave next week.

And can you imagine what will happen to me if it rains and I have to close all my hatches?

Readers, this is a true conundrum. I need your thoughts.

The 50th post -- where does the time go?

Spring is here and I find myself with an entirely new dilemma for my 50th post at Diary of a Liveaboard -- lack of time.

In the past, I held jobs that allowed for time to work on the boat. Jobs that weren't at least an hour away. Jobs that... well... weren't paid by the hour solely for the purpose of making me feel guilty about not working them. 

So after four months of unemployment this winter, I elected to take a 32-hour-a-week secretary job at a church an hour away and a supplemental job as a copy-editor for a Capitol Hill publication in Washington, D.C. -- an hour in the opposite direction. 

And I had to buy a new car, which only makes me want to work more (in my copious spare time I am copy-editing a book that the Capitol Hill publication I work with publishes every two years). 

So I now face dilemma that boat owners the world over must also face: I have no time to work on my boat! It's just killing me! I'm keeping up with the cleaning for the most part. That's no so bad. But measuring the floor for parquet? Putting the sails back on? Scrubbing the boat? Painting the bottom? 

I just don't know! How do you other boat owners find time to do all of this? I think I'll have some free weekends in May. I hope I have some free weekends in May. But jeez. For the time being all I see is the marina launching boats and painting bottoms and generally being industrious.

I guess one solution is to pay the marina to paint the boat bottom and scrape the barnacles and replace the floor. But pay someone to do something I could do myself? I just don't know about that.

So, fellow boat people, what are your solutions to this distressing dilemma? Where do you find the time?!