Our Boat is Packed, We’re Ready to Go

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May 10, 2026

We left this morning! It has seemed too long since we’ve been boating. We had our various improvements to make, but also needed to find our space again on Rincon. It worked well, being in our AirBnB for a month, then moving onto the boat for a couple weeks before leaving. We were ready, and comfortable again with life on Rincon.

We spent quite a bit of time “cleaning house”; cleaning pollen and dirt, even though I’d cleaned pretty well before we left. There was also a fair amount of ditching things we decided we no longer needed and buying a few items we decided we did. This happens every time we come back to the boat, or to the big house for that matter.

Food Planning

I’ve had to get my brain back into the fact that food is readily available. After being in the Caribbean and Bahamas for the past two years, one does not need to plan nearly as far ahead for food in the US, nor stock up nearly as much. Food it quite plentiful and it is not far between groceries, at least until we get to the northern Great Lakes. Right now, it is much more like a normal shopping run with minimal stocking up.

Travis owns a place called Nauti Nells, a consignment and used boat part store and gift shop. We have been in several times looking for parts and also dropped off several items we no longer needed (including our old life raft – see below) He has a few crab pots off the Zimmerman docks (where out boat has been stored and we were tied for 2 weeks. We saw him checking his pots and he brought us 5 small crabs for dinner. Sometimes one does not need to shop for groceries!

The Boat Garden

As always, I have to have plants on board. I have a few orchids inside and a mixture of herbs and flowers out. It is always more than Jim “wants”, but he humors me and does enjoy them.

The herb garden. Basil, rosemary, chives, thyme, oregano, parsley, sage and tarragon. The little 4 pack is from Jill on Moku. She has gone back to Hawaii for a month were she works on a tug boat and her husband Ben was headed back as well as he needs to go back to work as well (on a tug boat). They were working on their boat in the yard and Jill had started he little boat garden. As they both will be gone for multiple months, I was willed the herbs (as well as some other food products.) I think I can tuck the basil and parsley into my pots. The thyme will have to go into another pot as there is not room with my other herbs. The cilantro is nip-and-tuck as to whether it will make it. I also have a pot of cat grass which the kittens are enjoying.
The three color geranium being quite happy.

Figuring Out the Weather

After all our time in the Caribbean and Bahamas, we are a bit weather shy. We want it to be perfect every day. Ha! Not realistic. But for sure, for our first day out we wanted good weather. The Chesapeake has it’s own set of issues to remember related to tides, currents and wind. As is true for all tidal bodies, it reverses twice a day. One has to be aware of wind against current/tides here as with the shallow waters it can make for a soupy ride. We’ve boated enough here that I THINK I remember the nuance rules once I started thinking about it.

The Life Raft

We have a dinghy, but we also have a life raft. This is the boat you get into when your boat is sinking or burning to the water level. It is to save your life and is equipped such. Rincon had one when we bought her and we had it serviced three years ago. It was 13 years old and last time it was serviced, the company said it should not be serviced again.

It was a valise version and thus, it lived in a banco on the bow of our boat. Weighing 60ish pounds, it would not be easy to lift this out of a compartment, tie the line to secure it to the boat and throw it over the edge. There is also a version that is packed in a container that you basically push overboard as it is mounted on the deck rail. A much better option for us! This is an expensive safety item that you hope you will never need to use. Fingers crossed.

We bought a new container raft in Annapolis while we were there 6 weeks back and we were able to get it before we left Deltaville. A bit of a miracle and a 6 hour round trip car journey to collect it. It came with a special mount for the rail which we installed and our new friend Ben from Moku helped us lift it into place. It weighs 87 pounds! and has to be lifted over the rail, put into it’s cradle and lashed on with it’s special harness. It was raining heavily when we did this, but we got it strapped in. We did not, however, complete all the details of installation. We’ll tidy up tomorrow. Next morning, Jim sees the “securing” strap hanging. The $3000 life raft has jumped ship and is missing! Normally the rafts have a line attached to the boat such that when it is deployed, it automatically opens into a life raft. Note that neither of these videos are of our exact life raft, l but will give you a good understanding of life rafts, perhaps more than you want to know!

Our incomplete installation, although allowing our raft to dive into the water, did not allow it to open when it hit the water as we had not attached the line that when jerked will cause the raft to inflate. But where is the raft? Jim is trying to find a diver as he thinks it sank. I scan the bay with binoculars and there it is floating against a wooden break wall not far away.

The life raft sitting on the bow of Rinconsito. I wonder if the raft should be named Rinconsitito or Saltadorita (to jump).

We needed to test the davit and dinghy before we left, so we do and go to collect the raft. We are able to get it out of the water fairly easily and return her to Rincon. It appears we did not have the clevis fully engaged when we installed it in the rain. There is a little drain hole so we let the raft drain and we remount it with an extra strap as we are now chicken.

The life raft is on the left. Jim added a tiedown around the raft in addition to the vertical strap that came with the harness and goes over the outside. The red line at the bottom is when pulled about 30 feet out will cause the raft to inflate. We also added a cheap little knife in case we need to cut the tie down. The item on the right is our line for a stern anchor and for stern ties to shore (a pacific northwest thing that came with the boat). The cover protects the lines from UV.

All is Quiet on the Boat

Those of you who have visited us on the boat know that our water pump was very noisy. It seems it used to be much quieter, but had gotten quite noisy. Unbearably noisy. Jim decided to research this and discovered that the wonderful, very pretty, PEX piping he had used to replace the tacky looking clear plastic tubing was causing the natural vibration of the pump to be transmitted back to the 400 gallon water tank which was acting as a speaker, amplifying the sound of the vibration. Solution, go back to the tacky clear plastic tubing and all is now totally silent when the pump runs. The best laid plans.

All the new plastic tubing. There is a bit of PEX in the front right of the pic. We have two water pumps, the small white one on the top left and the big black one below. We can choose as Jim loves reduntant systems. He just rebuilt the bottom one but it still seems to have a little drip. Hopefully the 3rd rebuild will be a charm. The new tubing does not look too bad. It just does not seem very professional from a plumbing perspective.

Our First Night at Anchor

We had a lovely, calm cruse up the Chesapeake to a little creek near the mouth of the Potomac. A six and a half hour run in very calm seas.

It took Tori a bit to figure out what was happening and to chill. Chicha stepped right into her old habits. Right back into her corner on the setee in the pilot house.

We are in a pretty little cove in Jutland Creek for the night. It is so nice to be at anchor again! The creek is tree lined, hardly any boat traffic or houses and very quiet. We could not ask for a better spot for our first night out.

Jutland Creek looks like this where ever you look, trees all around. Can you hear the quiet? We also just refinished our teak furniture so it is looking it’s best.

Tomorrow we are headed for Cambridge, Maryland on the eastern shore. A town we’ve not been to. The waters may not be quite as calm tomorrow so keep your fingers crossed.