Rain has been a staple in Annapolis lately, at least whenever we are on Makara. Dry driving down. Dry driving back, but as soon as we hit the marina for a full days work with deck tasks involved it pours. Hopefully that will improve as the season progresses! It’s a good thing I put the Bimini up last week, as we had a down pour almost all day this Saturday. We arrived late in the afternoon Friday, and since we only had a few measurement tasks scheduled it was, you guessed it, gorgeous on Back Creek. After we finished those tasks we retired to dinner and the hotel to rest up for a busy day Saturday. It was supposed to rain a bit in the early morning and then clear by Noon. This was adequate for our major deck task of removing the bow pulpit for some modifications. Zeus had other plans. The rain just kept on coming, and coming and really coming. I had thought I had gone to sleep and woken up in Scotland on a bad day. Given the pressure of the ever long task list we took stock and went to work on an “inside” task, hoping the rain would at least stop later in the day long enough to remove the pulpit.

Nancy the “bilge rat” and her trusted helper Judy the “deck monkey” set about finishing the major cable run of the water maker power and ground cables. The #2 cables are pretty big and unwieldy and we have been slowly working these aft since last fall. The big issue was getting the ground cable to the ground buss aft of the battery box/companionway area. For a long time we have been worried about how to get there, and Nancy was concerned that she hadn’t sized the length of the $5.00 per foot cable properly. Fortunately we finally noticed a cable hole that went exactly where we needed it to allowing the ground cable to go right under the battery area and come up almost right at the ground buss. Now it was not quite that easy. First, this hole is virtually impossible to see. I found it while feeling around last visit. Second, to route the cable we need to remove parts of the generator enclosure and battery compartment flooring. After a lot of work, many bruises and boat bites on the “bilge rat” the ground cable is fully run, cable tied and ready for the end connector and attachment (which of course requires a $200 tool).  After again extracting suitable tax in bruises and boat bites, the “Positive” cable is now ready to pull into the breaker panel area and attach to the breaker. Needless to say we are quite happy as trying to thread that large a cable, times two, over half the boat length is not easy. Trust us!

About three in the afternoon or so, just as we were finishing up, the rain finally started to abate. Determined to get the pulpit off and over to Kato Marine we put on some rain gear and started the preparation for removing the pulpit. This entailed moving all but one halyard we had parked on the pulpit and clearing out the water tight compartment so someone, you guessed it “bilge rat” could get in to deal with the nuts on the pulpit bolts. Appreciate that this required advanced yoga moves on a “comfortable” mat of 3/8” chain.

We left one halyard on the pulpit as a safety line and for use in moving it off onto the dock once free of the deck. The rain had stopped and of course the wind had come up and it was a chilly and still damp 50º or so out. Perfect weather if you are a seagull. But that pulpit had to come off and we were on mission. Out came the wrenches and we had at it. Surprisingly most of the bolts yielded without difficulty.  There were of course the odd issue or two such as the forward bolts in each mounting pad being blocked by the pulpit tubing  for all but an open ended box wrench. Those had to stay in the mount holes until the pulpit was lifted. When all the bolts were either removed or free of nuts a good yank or two and it was up. After a quick sigh of relief came the delicate dance of getting it onto the dock without damaging anything or falling overboard. Remember the lifelines had been removed from the pulpit so there was not much between us and a very cold dip in Back Creek. Finally it was on the dock ready to be stripped of any remaining items prior to transport to Kato. Fortunately they are close to our Marina and the pulpit fit, albeit with tailgate up and sticking out, in our Highlander. The boat now looks like it has gotten a buzz cut (crew cut is another term) as it now is devoid of the bow pulpit and forward lifelines. Now almost six in the evening  we gathered our gear, closed up shop and said good bye to Makara until our next visit, packed up our stuff and the pulpit in the car and headed for Kato to drop it off (with me riding in the back insuring the pulpit would not go a flying). After depositing our pulpit at Kato we finally started heading home, but not after treating ourselves to a well deserved ice cream cone for a good days work. It might be a bit chilly and damp out for a frozen treat but it sure tasted good