The Sailing Coopers: When are you guys leaving?

When are you guys leaving? That, my friends, is the question of the day. Every day.

We were preparing to set to sail yesterday, but during our departure checklist on Wednesday, David found a leak in the fuel injector pump for the Volvo diesel engine. Aric, our trusty mechanic at (and owner of) Chesapeake Marine Engineering, removed the pump and made some calls. We trotted the piece across the Bay Bridge yesterday morning and delivered it for repair/rebuild. Alas, our departure was foiled.

But the day was not lost, we walked around historic Annapolis and toured the Naval Academy. The museum in Preble Hall was fascinating. I’d like to get back to see the chapel (it was closed for a service) and the tomb of John Paul Jones. Speaking of chapels, at the recommendation of the docent at the Annapolis visitor’s center, we toured St. Anne’s Church to see the Louis Comfort Tiffany windows. Imagine my dismay when I read the sign “No photography. God is watching and so are we.” (with a drawing of a surveillance camera). What?!?! I’ve been in dozens of chapels, churches, and cathedrals in Europe and not one of them prohibited photographs (flash, yes, but not photos). Why?? The light was perfect. The windows were richly colored and beautiful. You'll just have to take my word for it, or take the online "tour" (a PDF).

Back to the tasks at hand…..since purchasing Virginia Dare in late September, we’ve had several repairs and upgrades made before beginning our adventure. Some of these items were discovered during the survey, others were found after that inspection -- listed as known and unknown, below.

Freshwater pump replacement – unknown
Latch on stern locker – known
Bad solenoid to stove – unknown
New rudder bearings and lip seal replacement – surveyor assumed it was a bad lip seal, turned out to be excessively bad rudder bearings that had to be replaced
Installation of AIS, a computer program that shows ships on the water in our vicinity. It gives details of ship size, name, destination, heading, etc. It also shows our boat to other vessels and gives them the same information. – our choice
Installation of single side band (SSB) radio – our choice
Installation of a freezer – our choice
Broken manual (foot pedal) freshwater pump – known
Leak from bolts extending through toe rail to aft locker – unknown
New turnbuckle to roller furler to prevent binding (original was too short) – known
Replace windscreen struts and latches – known
Tear in bimini at zipper – unknown
Broken snap and malfunctioning zipper on mainsail cover – unknown
Winch on port side of mast is nonfunctional – unknown
Drip in porthole above nav station – unknown
Fuel injection pump leak on Volvo diesel engine – unknown

David says it’s a good thing we didn’t change the name of the boat as we had originally planned. With all the superstitious voodoo associated with changing the name, surely we would have thought Virginia Dare was rankled and fighting back. However, we kept the name because both sets of previous owners had great experiences with her, and we figured we’d keep the good juju going. Hmmm...

I have to say, when David found the leak on Wednesday he let rip some choice expletives (this man rarely swears). The discovery tipped our level of frustration a wee bit over the edge. That being said, we’re glad it happened at this marina where great service abounds. So, we wait for the phone call to say the injector pump is ready. When it’s reinstalled, we’ll watch the weather again and look for our next window.

In the meantime, we might get David to Washington, DC, this weekend. He's been to the Kremlin, but not our nation's capitol.

Stay tuned, friends, we WILL get out of here!