So many important things have been happening this season. First we’ve become more involved in the Chesapeake Bay Alberg 30 Association which is a group made up of current and former owners of the Alberg 30. They’re a very active association cruising together on the weekends and participating in the Wednesday night races during the summer. In the winter there is the Annual Dinner and seminars on the weekends of February.
Sara and I joined the Association in October soon after we purchased Rose Anne. We didn’t really know what to expect but decided to attend the Annual Dinner in January at the Historic Kent Manor Inn. We arrived on the beautiful property and found the event being held in a large glass enclosed garden house behind the inn.
We felt a bit under dressed but the rest of the members made us feel very welcome and as the dinner and meeting progressed it became obvious that the people there were caring and fun loving people. After dinner the Commodore initiated the meeting starting with various business items for the coming year. The new officers for 2016 were introduced and then awards were given out.
We sat at a table with three other families, one of them is also starting a blog to document maintenance and repairs that he’s doing on his Alberg, Laughing Gull (hull #197.)
We attended the Cruising and Maintenance seminars in February. There was lots of planning for the upcoming summer and even an idea to float a couple Albergs down the ICW in a bid to get to the Bahamas or Cuba! During the maintenance seminar we learned about insulating the ice box and a couple other neat ideas like a deck wash down system made with a bilge pump. After each of these seminars we joined the group at a local house for an after party. This gave us so much opportunity to continue meeting members, learn about their lives and also get more ideas about how to handle our own adventure going forward.
Speaking of our adventure, I officially gave my notice at work. My last day will be the 1st of April (poor timing I know, but it’s not a joke!) One of the things Sara and I have been realizing is that our life is short. It would be easy to stay in our comfortable house with a steady job and few risks but what would I accomplish in a comfortable life? Nxtbook Media has been good to us for the past eight years and it will be sad to move on. But by putting a new challenge in front of us it’ll give us the opportunity to live life more fully, experience new people and places and to test ourselves.
Let’s talk about diesel training! In early March I attended Diesel Basics and Diesel Level II at Annapolis School of Seamanship. I learned tons and got my hands very dirty! It’s pretty difficult to get that diesel smell out of your hands and cloths! I learned the basic theory of diesel combustion, we went over troubleshooting failure to turn over and start. Common problems in the cooling system and the fuel system. I got to work on a Yanmar 3GM30, which is great because it’s the big brother to our little 2GM20. I also got some advise about our fuel and tank which has been sitting for about five years. I’m going to have to get it cleaned out, anybody know a good tank cleaning service near the upper bay area?
