Tomorrow's the day

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  Solomons, Maryland, United States
Saturday, June 30, 2007

Today I said "Today's the day", but it wasn't.

"Today's the Day" was the slogan of the famous treasure hunter who exploited all the Key West wrecks.  He always felt today would be the day he would find the treasure.  Well today was going to be the day I didn't have to spend hours in the engine room,, but it wasn't. 
Actually we are underway.  Today is Saturday.  We left Atlantic Yacht Basin on Wednesday morning after several days of delay waiting for repairs to be done or done correctly.  Our destination was Glauster, VA with the intention of having dinner with Sue's brother and sister in law.  The trip up from AYB is through some very congested marine areas with lots of barges and ship traffic.  After dodging several of them, we finally made it out of Norfolk and moved out past the Navy Base.  It was a beautiful day.  We had troubles with the stuffing box which was to have been adjusted by the yard.  It was not done correctly and I spent hours in a hot engine room getting it right. 

We made a successful stop in Glauster and had a nice dinner with Sue's bro.  The next morning we motored over to my favorite Chesapeake anchorage: Onancock, MD.  Its a perfect anchorage and a quiet place.  That night it stormed big time, but First Forty did fine. 

We are now in Solomon's MD about half way up the bay.  We have had a number of mechanical start up issues, all but one of which I had addressed and closed.  This is why we called it a "shake down" and after leaving the boat for 7 months, I expected some.   Some were work not done well by the yard, some were my problems and a couple were just maintenance.   I thought "today was the day", I would not spend hours in the engine room but that was not the case. 

Our main issue is that the autopilot motor must be replaced.  We have ordered one from Seattle and it will be send to Annapolis to arrive Tuesday.  But getting it installed is another thing.  We have called about 10 sources and all give the same lament: "three weeks".  We really want to have this fixed before we head up the NJ coast or go open ocean to Block Island.   This may cause us to be delayed for another week.

Maybe tomorrow will be the day.

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