The Journey Begins!

Two days after our captain friends arrived, we were ready to set off.  We had returned their rental car, provisioned and picked up my SCUBA tanks that were being filled.  I parked the truck in a spot out of the way and left the keys with the office manager at the marina.  Lippincott agreed to store my truck while we were on the water.  I was very appreciative and although this is a small marina, if you can get out there it might be worth a stop for a quiet low key stay.  They were all very friendly and the Marina is within a short walk of some decent restaurants.  

One of the restaurants on the waterfront in Kent Narrows.

More restaurants only a short walk from Lippincott.

While staying at Lippincott, our days were very busy.  I normally started the day by taking Tank for his morning walk on land.  I would then return to the boat and Karen had a pot of coffee brewing.  I would check on the diesel situation and change out the pads. We would have our breakfast shake, then I would head out to work with the previous owner on his burger over in Annapolis repaying him for the hours he spent helping us get Tropical Horizons II in the water and over to Lippincott.  Karen would spend her day cleaning, organizing and looking after Tank.  When I returned back to Lippincott; I would stop by West Marine, Western Auto, Safeway, and or Ace Hardware to pick up supplies as Karen would text me a list of what was needed.  I would return to Tropical Horizons II and check the diesel situation again, change the pads and for a few days I would pump out an additional amount of fuel into the jerrycans that I had purchased.  Finally it would be time for a cool shower to clean up and have some supper before relaxing for the end of the day.

Lippincott Marina.

Once I had repaid my time to the previous owner, I spent the day, cleaning the outside, going through lockers and carting off so much junk that we would find as we discovered more storage spots while going through the boat trying to clean up the diesel that had found it's way under the floor boards.  We must have thrown out about 8 cubic yards worth of junk and still we were finding items that should have been destined for the garbage.

After spending 6 days cleaning scrubbing, sorting, storing and mopping up diesel, the boat was finally looking like she was ours.  We were finally feeling at home on her and I had been exploring all of her spaces.  Still there were more spaces to be discovered and more secrets that would cause us grief in the days to come. 

We had launched her on a Tuesday, our captains arrived on the following Tuesday, Wednesday, we returned their rental car and provisioned on Thursday morning and were off to St Michaels that afternoon as a quick shakedown cruise and to begin our journey.  First we would head south on the Chesapeake heading from St. Michaels to Solomon's Island; from Solomon's, back up north to Oxford, then up to the C&D canal and Schaefer's Canal House before we continued to the Delaware Bay and beyond.

Loaded up and ready to go!

This would be my first time taking command of Tropical Horizons II and operating her in the Chesapeake Bay.  With the boarding ramp stowed, engines started and warming up, and all unnecessary lines removed, we said goodbye to the friends we made on the dock and pushed ourselves off as we aimed her bow towards the channel leaving Lippincott behind us.

St. Michales, here we come!

Cleaning and diesel fuel.

We've now made it to Lippincott marina where we were placed on the breakwater outside of the marina and open to the elements.  I wasn't too pleased with this arrangement at first but at the end of the day we only had one night of strong winds and storms that had us a bit concerned.  In all honesty I really had very little choice as the dock that we were supposed to be on had another boater on it who had some serious engine problems.  Add to all of this that in order to move the boat I needed to have a captain on board as my insurance had restricted me to be under the supervision of a captain until such time that the captain signed off on my ability to run the yacht.  This type of restriction is often imposed when there is a major jump in size and weight of the vessel that you are operating.  At 60 feet and just under 50 t, Tropical Horizons II is a whole different beast to operate than Tropical Horizons is.  

Our dock at Lippincott.

Storms on the horizon!

These thunderstorms spawned 4 tornadoes in the county across the bay.

At the peak of the storm, the winds were sustained at 23-24 kt.

While at Lippincott I notice some kind of liquid at the bottom of the steps going down to the accommodations deck.  I also noticed a diesel smell.  When I wiped up the liquid, thinking Tank had a bit of a dribble, it was red in color and did not smell like urine.  You guessed it, diesel!  This was not good as diesel can really stink up a boat in no time.  I lifted the floor panel that was closest to the bit of fuel I wiped up and to my horror I found that the inspection port to the fuel tank was leaking!  I quickly grabbed some oil absorbing mats and placed them over the inspection port and then we placed an old area rug over that before we went to bed that evening.  

Friends who made us feel welcome!

The following morning, the mats were soaked, the rug was soaked, and diesel was still rising up through the inspection port hatch.  This was not good and I had to figure something out quick.  I kept going with the absorbent mats and a bucket replacing them almost every 30 minutes.  Then I thought about using the fuel polishing pump to remove fuel from the tank, the question was just how much fuel would I need to remove.  I used the dipstick to check my fuel level and wouldn't you know it, the company who fueled up the boat over filled it by about 50 gal.  The question is just how much space is left in the tank when you are holding 950 gal of fuel?  The dipstick actually had a mark for 950 gal, so I decided that I would remove the return hose from the fuel polishing pump (for those of you who are not familiar with fuel polishing, this is a method of cleaning the fuel in your tanks.  A pump takes the fuel from the lowest point in the tank, forces the fuel through a filter and returns to fuel to the tank through a fill pipe.)  The only question that remained is how far up the fill pipe did the fuel go?  I placed a clamp on the return hose to close it off and as I removed it I had a small bucket handy just in case fuel would start to spill out.  We were in luck, no fuel came out.  I purchased 4 Jerry Cans and started to fill those.  Once filled we were now 20 gal. lighter in the fuel tank and it seemed that the leak was slowing down, but it had not quite stopped.  It almost looked like the fuel was being pulled out from under the floorboards, so I kept going with the mats which I had now dubbed boat maxi pads.  I was still changing these every few hours so I took out yet another 20 gal of fuel and now the dipstick was reading 900 gal. This was a good thing.  After a few more days and checking under cupboards, cabinets and bunks we had the leak under control.

Looking good!

While all of this was happening, we were removing stuff that the previous owner left behind.  I am sure we filled at least three dumpsters full of junk and we still have some to remove.  Karen and I cleaned and scrubbed and organized.  I made several trips from the trailer to the boat as we loaded our stuff onto the boat.  I made even more trips back to the dumpsters as we continued to clean and purge and clean some more.

A well deserved celebration!  

By the time our training captain and friends arrived, we had Tropical Horizons II looking good.  The only thing was the smell of diesel.  The smell was so bad that our friends were not sure they would be able to make the trip with us and we were considering moving them from one of the guest cabins to the forward crew cabin, where there was no fuel smell.

We had all of their belongings loaded up in the Port side guest cabin and they were to sleep in the Starboard side cabin.  We decided we would wait before moving everything from the crew area to the guest area and see if the smell would start to dissipate.  Unlike gasoline, diesel is not volatile and the fumes do tend to evaporate quickly.  

We now had a mission.  We needed to burn as much fuel as possible to get the level in the tank down further.  Our adventure was about to begin as we set out to St. Michaels the next day.

Leaving Lippincott.

Next stop, St. Michaels!