Century Club: Jen Hendershot

Today we took the Look Far out, somewhat late.  We took the boat to work on the sail rigging. Kent from the dock gave us some nice suggestions on how to temporarily turn the reefing hook.  We have impressive spiders with their babies aboard.

This day we went back to the boat and cleaned her up, checked her lines, and in general fussed all about her.  This day was spent trying to understand the elecrical particularly, which is unusual.  The 12 volt outlets wouldn't work and the external shore power wouldn't either. I figured out a work around and in general learned a ton about marine electrical systems.  Today was particularly frustrating.  Everything I did was a bandaid.  Had to head out and to West Marine.  Again.

Excitedly, I with two helpers went to my new boat Look Far and tried to move the boat from Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum to Herrington Harbor South.  Unfortunately, we started her up and got her ready, however there were two problems.  Not only was the elecrtical completely dead, but the raw water pump leaking, the bilge also failed.  The electrical survived a jump, however the combo of the water and bilge failure did not allow for us to safely take her.  We called a mechanic, who gave us a quote to fix the issues with results costing more than the boat.  And so it begins.  I inspected the leaks, and did the research for the raw water pump.  A problem that we could not figure out was that there was oil or fuel in the bilge.  This will come up later.  

8/24/2025 I took a bus from Annapolis to NYC and then the subway to 1WTC where I met First Mate Jonathan who took me on a VERY (as in the MOST) sporting dinghy ride in rough waters and current across the NY harbor to the Leopard 45 Jes Want which was anchored very near Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty (yes it was still there). As the waters got rougher, we moved the boat to a more protected anchorage and stayed the night.

8/25/2025 We departed int he morning on our journey.  Got great photos of The Narrows, Coney Island, other ships and bridges outside NYC.  We sailed overnight

8/26/2025 We sailed along the coast, but far enough to avoid other traffic.  We sailed all day and night again heading south to the mouth of the Chesapeake.

8/27/2025 We arrived just outside of Norfolk late.  Our anchorage was not my favorite.  It was noisy with military training helicopters hovering for hours, lot of marina traffic, and other recreational boaters.

8/28/2025 The anchorage is very noisy and rolly.  All day while we rested there was so much noise.  We eventually started our sail up the Chesapeake. Sailed up the Chesapeake.  It was busy with cargo traffic in the middle of the night per usual.

8/29/2025 We arrived to St. Michaels (the south anchorage) and this anchorage was very nice.  We stayed had a nice dinner and stayed on the boat.

8/30/2025 We explored the museum and the auction boats at the St. Michaels Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.  I bid and won a new boat!  An Ericson 27!  I left the Leopard and drove home happy.