Since we have gotten to Annapolis, we done a walking tour of the downtown and did some general sight seeing. Ian intends to put the boat ‘on the hard’(take it out of the water) and return to the UK. He is concerned that if he leaves the boat here regulations around travel for the virus may prevent him from returning when he wants to. We are hoping he can fly to the UK at the end of June so we are preparing Yantina for a summer at a boatyard on Solomon Island, Maryland.
Our major activity has been to put together a list of things that need to get done on the boat before Ian leaves. The biggest concern is that the boat suffered a lightening strike about 18 months age and after replacing some of the electronic components things still don’t work properly. We have decided to replace everything including the wires inside the mast that go to the midpoint and the top. Ian convinced me that going up the mast was important for my education and I was assigned to go up to the midpoint to fix/replace the foredeck light. It was pretty exhilarating to be hoisted up way above the boat. The view was awesome. I wasn’t scared so much unnerved by being that far off the ground. You may be belted in, but it is hard work with two hands when you instinctively want to hold on with one!
After a day of outlining the projects that need to be done and figuring out what components and supplies need to ordered, we decided to change locations. We sailed down to South River off the west side of Chesapeake Bay and found a quiet inlet to put the boat. There is a Ocean Cruising Club member in this inlet and he has agreed to be our address for shipping components and supplies for our various projects. The sail down was great, winds started out at 12kts and built to 22kts over the course of our 5 hour sail. It was great to get back out on the water. As for right now now it is back to work. We just fixed one of the loos (bathroom) and next is replacing electronic instruments!
