Wintry mix

We woke up to the sound of shoveling(!) on our dock.  Yes, it's the mid-Atlantic "wintry mix" that screws with all plans.........snow, sleet, and freezing rain.  One of my best friends in the whole wide world was planning on visiting from Philadelphia, but the weather trumped our hopes of catching up today.......watch out weather, there's always next week!  We WILL make this happen :)

It was so crappy outside that David didn't go to West Marine for a few parts today.  So any plans for us to be productive flew right out the frozen portholes.  We spent the day reading, napping, knitting, and generally being L-A-Z-Y.  A perfect winter day if you ask me!

David made lamb stew with sweet potatoes for Valentine's dinner

Don't have Valentine's napkins, so snowflakes will have to do.

I made warm chocolate raspberry cake for dessert (negated all calories burned at the fitness center!)

We need help finishing the cake!

Today we woke up to snow-covered portholes.

A true "wintry mix" fell all day.

Snowy cockpit

Snow on the teak grate

Strange phenomenon in the marina

Virginia Dare thinks she's in Sweden, her motherland!

D dock

Warm and comfy down below

By this evening, a glaze of ice covered everything.

We hope all our friends stayed safe and warm during this latest winter storm!

Out with the old, in with the new!

H O L Y    M A C K E R E L !

It finally happened, our old engine was removed and the new one was lowered in this morning!

The sole (floor) of the cockpit comes out, so this is looking straight down into the engine room.

Thankfully, David waited until the last minute to remove our diesel furnace.

Looking into the cockpit (cardboard for extra protection).

Here comes the crane!  Aric used hand signals with the crane operator to get it right where we needed it.

Pulling the old engine out.  The "ball" of the crane is padded with carpet and duck tape.

Out with the old!

New engine is sitting "at the ready" on the tailgate.

New engine being lowered into the engine room.

David was guiding it from the companionway.  Jim was in the engine room.

Busy morning!

After the crane left, David and Jim rigged the engine on a steel bar to fine tune the installation.

I got to raise and lower the engine with this ratchet-y device while they made adjustments.

Tight quarters!

In order for the engines to move around today, the diesel furnace had to be removed from the engine room (second photo, above).  That black and gray "shoebox" keeps us toasty warm on these winter days.  Hallberg Rassy sailboats are also very well insulated.  We keep warm in the winter and cool in the summer!

With the companionway and engine room wide open this morning, it got down to 49* in the cabin.  However, the furnace has been reinstalled as of 2pm and we are already up to 63* right now.

Two boats were hauled out this morning.

Ice in the haul-out basin early this afternoon.

Getting pushed back to our slip.  The ice ends near the yellow cat up there.

Gray on the bay today.

Back "home" at the other end of the marina.

So there you have it.  This is what we've been waiting for for a long, long time!  David will make all the connections in the coming days and we'll schedule a sea trial with a certified Volvo mechanic.

Making progress!

Well, for those of you who follow us on Facebook, you might have seen this unexpected post this morning:

Imagine our surprise at 8:15 this morning when we get a knock on the hull......the guys were here to move us! Really? Yesterday, we were told they'd move us tomorrow [Friday]. Oh well, we were eager to get the ball rolling, so we slugged down the last of our coffee, ditched our pajamas, and sprung into action. (Mind you, we have 15-25 knots of wind -- more than yesterday when it was deemed "too windy" to move us........go figure.) Remember, ADAPTATION is the name of this game.

More on the blog later today...

So, this whole exercise took less than 45 minutes this morning:

This little boat came to our slip, attached lines starboard midship and port stern. Pulled us out of the slip and pushed us to the haul-out basin at the other end of the marina.

It was a gorgeous, but CHILLY, morning (looking through the breakwall toward the Chesapeake).

These guys were great.  They've got this drill down pat.  No muss, no fuss.  Bing, bang, boom, we were secured in no time flat.

Crust of ice forming in Tracy's Creek.

This action is harder than you think!

THANKS for the ride!

All secure in our temporary location.

After we were tied up in the haul-out basin, I checked our anemometer: 17 knots of wind and 22 degrees F makes for a wind chill of about 7.  And that's just *balmy* compared to what's headed our way on Saturday.

There we sit (below dock level).  The crane is ready to pluck out the old engine and insert the new tomorrow.

Herrington Harbour North even posted pictures of Virginia Dare today.  I think you can view them here.

So, I'm sure there will be an update tomorrow.  We can't believe -- after sitting here for weeks -- that the new engine will be on board TOMORROW!

It's a date! Oh wait, no it's not.......

This episode is brought to you by the letter F.  

We've been looking forward to today for several days.......we'd finally been put on the crane schedule!  Since our current engine has been disconnected from all other components, our boat was going to be ferried over to the haul-out well and the crane was going to sidle up beside Virginia Dare, pluck out the old engine, and lower in the shiny, new engine.  But, we were thwarted late this morning as the winds built up to 15+ knots.......too much wind to maneuver us to the other end of the marina.

FANTASMAGORICALLY FRUSTRATING!

The new engine has been sitting here for FIFTEEN days!  We were up and at 'em early this morning.  The camera was ready.  The sun was shining.  It was just. Not. To. Be.  

Our collective patience is running very thin these days.  We're at the mercy of many schedules as well as the [winter] weather.  Right now, I just want to scream a one-syllable F word, but I won't.....I'm keepin' it clean on the blog.  So, stay tuned.........and drop an F bomb for me.