So, 90% of the boating season ends up being at the wall at Georgetown Harbor or anchored at three-sisters island above Georgetown. The other 10% of the season is an occasional trip to Mattawoman, Tim's Rivershore, or Fairview Beach. Luckily, there is always a friendly face waiting to help tie you up and hand you a drink. Its pretty much a summer-long Friday night party with 90% of the boats going back to their marinas after the party. It is definitely the place to sit on your boat, people-watch and socialize. Saturday and Saturday night typically have a different crowd. I guess after the blow-out on Friday night, the majority of folks are in recovery mode. Sunday you will see a lot of the Friday night characters tied up together up at Three Sisters Island, with an occasional foray down to Georgetown Harbor.

The Captain and Crew of Livin' Nauti' typically do not go back to Washington Marina training session at Gold's Gym Saturday morning. If the cops haven't thrown everybody off the wall around 1 or 2 am, Livin' Nauti' will stay overnight on the wall. Otherwise, Livin' Nauti' will pull off the wall and throw anchor and spend the night on hook. You would think that the crew of Livin' Nauti' would be awakened earlier by people at Georgetown Harbor, but alas, the 'crew' boaters and the sculling canoe people seem to get up 4 hours before dawn. The best is that goofy guy on the megaphone at 6 a.m. Saturday morning while he ignores the no-wake zone zooming past us. Oh well, we didn't need more than 3 hours sleep anyway.

And the canoe people are just plain dangerous. One day a couple hours AFTER the sun came up, a woman literally ran right into the bow of my anchored boat near the shore across from Georgetown. I was preparing breakfast and by the time we got outside, SHE yelled at US that we should have warned HER! I guess she wanted us to warn her that we were an anchored, non-moving, non-swinging 47 feet long by 14 feet wide by 18 feet high motoryacht that happened to be in fairly close proximity to 5 other motorboats and a large outcrop of rocks behind us that she would eventually have hit if she hadn't hit my boat. Stupid me, I was expecting her to apologize for running into my boat.

So, other than a few folks that seem to live in oblivion, Georgetown Harbor and the surrounding anchorage spots are a great place to find your other boating friends or strangers that quickly become 'boating-weather' friends. Most of the boaters both at the 'wall' at Georgetown and at Three Sisters will not only welcome but also aggressively encourage you to come on board and socialize. The international flair is always ever-present at the wall. Plus if you want your boat in thousands of pictures across the world that would be the place to go.

Of course, you need to either stay close to your boat or take some precautions when you are at Georgetown Harbor. Some people will literally walk onto and into your boat for less than admirable or legal reasons. However, most of the damage and/or mishaps occur with both boaters and non-boaters that have obviously lost most common sense while intoxicated. My favorite: boaters jumping onto and/or walking across my newly waxed (slippery) 1/8 inch (thin) fiberglass swim locker top rather than walk on any of the '3' viable non-skid large walk areas RIGHT next to the locker. Since this is my first boat, I'm sure I will stop cringing after a couple of years.

One of the great things about Georgetown is that most of the boaters will let you tie up next to them and treat you like you were an expected guest. Most of us have figured out we just need some big bumpers and good use of spring lines to ensure that everybody gets a spot AND keep all the boats undamaged. And yes, there are some notorious jerks that do not allow anybody to tie up to them at the wall … but what goes around comes around. The other aspect that I find especially cool is that there is really not a 'class' system amongst most boaters in DC. We all know the value of the boats around us because we have all gone through that evaluation process before buying our own boat. Plus most boaters can't help but look at other boats in the magazines, in the boat shows and /or on the internet. I know I am just as concerned about damaging somebody's $25,000 boat as somebody's $1,000,000 boat and I believe most other boaters are the same.

Three Sisters and the anchorage areas across from Georgetown provide an avenue for both swimming in somewhat cleaner and safer water as well as a good atmosphere for sunning and socializing in a fairly quiet and tree-lined waterway. There is a bit of a current so you might want to tether your float to a boat just in case you fall asleep, but I'm pretty sure you won't be left out there floating alone long enough to fall asleep anyway. And typically somebody will even bring you a refreshing cocktail.

At the marina, there was always somebody around somewhere so I never felt 'alone'. There were several restaurants and bars on the premises, 2 of which are well known for outside bands. So there was literally something going on all the time if you wanted to partake of it. However, once I was on the boat, I could either be available for socialization or not. Living on the boat afforded the opportunity during the week to do those little chores that take up precious time on the weekend. I typically went back to my house in Alexandria on Tuesday and Thursday evenings because I had a personal fitness client that I trained those two nights plus I have cats at the house that haven't been trained to live on the boat.

Well, sometimes you just have to wonder. Our competition bought our company through a hostile takeover (in order to get our customers) and started laying us off. By the end of August, I was no longer employed in Baltimore and it's not the technology, quality, or regulatory mecca that DC is, so I took a position back in DC to start after Labor Day. I brought the boat back to DC on November 13th.

We took a few trips while I had the boat in Baltimore. However, my observation is that Baltimore is actually too far north on the bay to get to most of your destinations in a normal weekend. Therefore, you need to be able to leave on Friday morning or come back on Monday. Having a new job obviously did not afford that option. We went down to the Inner Harbor quite a bit with the boat, but people do not hang out on the boats like they do in Georgetown. It's more like a place to dock your boat while you do Inner Harbor activities. It's also a very long haul out of the Baltimore Harbor to get to the Chesapeake Bay.

I actually did enjoy living in Baltimore though. There is so much to do within walking distance. There are also lots of activities and festivals to go to all the time. There are also lots of places to go and be outside. In the DC area, that is limited to a few choice areas. I also enjoyed living on the boat and being around the boating community all the time. Baltimore is definitely better situated for more northern bay trips than mid-bay, so it definitely is a personal preference and lifestyle decision. If it is a weekend-only boating lifestyle, Baltimore is actually a little difficult because you can never pre-determine the commute. Some days would take an hour and some days would take 3 hours because of some mishap or construction somewhere. But I think it's a good destination for boaters and a good place to actually live on your boat and still be in the city atmosphere.

On the first trip, we stayed at a marina and took the shuttle trolley bus to and from the various destinations. It was 100 degrees and you could stay on your air conditioned boat, go sit in the pool, or go tour around Rock Hall on wind-only cooled trolley bus. We decided that we would take our chances that the trolley bus would travel fast enough for some wind movement on the inside. It actually was a very quaint little trolley with very large open windows and a very personable 'conductor' that must work 18 hour days.

On our second trip, we called Waterman's ahead of time to ascertain the current situation with the slips around Waterman's. On some weekends, the boaters get there early on Friday night, so showing up at 2 pm on Saturday is already way too late. But on other weekends, you may be the first one there at 2 pm on a Saturday. We had a slip right next to the outside deck area and we paid to spend the night. They even had electrical hookups. Within a few hours, the other slips were filled and we had new transient friends all around us. In addition, the atmosphere is one in which the customers from Waterman's felt comfortable stopping and talking for awhile.

In addition to conversing, eating or drinking with new-found friends, you can also dance under the stars on deck or on your boat to your heart's content. The band seems to play as long as people want to be entertained. In our case, we had the opportunity to enjoy both the atmosphere and our boat at the same time. Even if you did not get a slip at Waterman's, most of the marinas are within walking distance of every place that you want to get to.

On our second trip, we actually took our bicycles and traveled around Rock Hall via bicycle. The 'local' folks seem to be very aware of the 'transient' folks that are walking and riding around town, so in addition to watching out for you crossing the roads, they will also offer assistance on both locations and venues for activities.

The crew of Livin'Nauti' found this to be a very comfortable destination for a weekend trip.

We left late Friday afternoon and spent the night on anchor at Fairview Beach on the Potomac. Then we left early Saturday morning to arrive at Crisfield Maryland around 11 am just in time for the activities.

Crisfield is basically a destination for another reason. In our case, it was the destination for the Float-In. There are a few places to get food within walking distance to the marinas. But on the whole, there's not much to go see or do in the town. However, if you like to go crabbing or fishing, this may be the location. The Float-In has a combination of social events, classes/instructions, and competition between the Yacht Clubs. Some years are better than others and unfortunately, this year we had 100 degree weather and an already limp 3-year old. We left on Sunday for our first destinations as part of the NPYC Long Cruise.

Cambridge, Maryland

So far, Cambridge is the only 'resort' that I have visited on the Chesapeake Bay. There is a pool with a water slide, a pool geared towards people sitting around conversing, and a heated inside pool should you decide you are not an 'outside' person. There is also a small beach area with various water sports. There are multiple areas for eating both formal and casual. There are even facilities for getting some exercise, such as the workout center and playing golf …. although the latter isn't really exercise, but you COULD walk around the greens.

There are activities on the resort or it's a short ride into town for shopping. There are two problems with Cambridge. The marina is very far from the main hotel and it is a very long hot walk in the summer. You can ask the marina store to send a cart, but they were at least honest and told us that it probably will not happen as since both an underutilized employee and cart must be available. By the time you get to the main area for dinner you have walked a mile in 100 degrees. In addition, after two years, they still do not have a working pumpout at the marina.

Since it was 100 degrees, we spent most of our time mid-day in the pool. The yacht club got together several times for meals and had a great time. We did not go golfing but this would be the place to bring your clubs.

St. Michaels, Maryland

This quaint destination is a must for most boaters on the Chesapeake at some time or another. St Michaels provides various marinas all within walking distance of the various restaurants and shops. If you aren't in the mood to walk or ride your bike, they have made it pretty easy to get around with the air conditioned shuttle vans or the ferry boat. There are a multitude of quaint little shops for you to peruse as well as some good eating establishments right next to your marinas. Our marina had a small swimming pool and all the hotel facilities were literally about 20 steps from the boat. The only negative was that for some reason our Yacht Club decided this destination would only require one day. In retrospect, I would have opted for 2 days at St. Michaels and 1 day at Annapolis since I have been to Annapolis quite a bit by land.

Annapolis, Maryland

Annapolis has a lot to offer year-round to tourists. There are many restaurants and shops within walking distance of most of the marinas. Annapolis isn't necessarily quaint since it caters to both transient boaters as well as the land-based tourist industry especially with the academy in Annapolis. We stayed at the Annapolis Yacht Basin, which did not have a pool and since it was 100 degrees out, a lot of the boaters spent the afternoons in their boat. You do have a much wider selection of eating establishments and the area definitely has a lot of foot traffic even during the middle of the week, so it has that 'people-watching' perspective that some of the quaint destinations do not have. And, of course, there are more nightlife alternatives. We actually left this destination after one day as it was too hot to stay another day just sitting inside the boats. Theoretically, the other option is to sit in all the watering holes all afternoon but not really a great place for a 3-year old.

Baltimore, MD instead of Solomons Island

Solomons was supposed to be the last destination before going back up the Potomac. However, I had recently taken a new job in Baltimore and would be docking the boat at a marina 3 blocks from my workplace. So, we decided that we would not travel all the way down to Solomons since 1) we were already close to Baltimore, and 2) the weather was still going to be 100 degrees. My new marina, Baltimore Marine Center, had a nice pool area including the pool, Jacuzzi and children's pool as well as good restaurants both on the premises and within walking distance in every direction, so we decided we would be better off just going to Baltimore. Baltimore actually has a lot of activities for singles, couples and families even during the middle of the week. Between the tours and activities at the Inner Harbor, outdoor festivals or bands, eating and nightlife establishments, as well as children-oriented activities, you can keep pretty busy in Baltimore.

The day started out a little iffy as it was storming and both Livin' Nauti' and Colonel's Lady waited until late afternoon for the weather to clear before embarking on the trip. I have to give credit to Nancy as this was her first experience as first-mate and she did a great job of 1) taking in all the lines and fenders and stowing them on the aft deck, 2) helping to navigate, and 3) getting lines and fenders ready for raft up.

The National Potomac Yacht Club was also at Mattawoman but back at the Dunes. The Dunes is about a 45 minute very slow very careful trek where it is not marked for navigation and there is a very small channel. However, once you get back to the Dunes, you would have no idea that you are about 30 minutes outside of DC. There is a small beach area (Dunes) and you are surrounded by trees and quiet. The Livin' Nauti' crew and the other boat's crew were not too keen about going back to the Dunes since we had various people coming to raft up on and off all weekend, so we stayed in the third cove. We vowed we would do it 'another' time. Basically, I didn't want to do it unless I followed somebody else that had done it several times in a large boat with a lot of surface for wind to push.

The third cove is pretty quiet most of the time when there are a lot of boats rafted up or anchored out. However, there is the occasional speed boater that needs to fly by either to impress or piss off. In the third cove, we rafted up keeping our stern to the shore so that people could get in the water behind the boats, but you have to be careful that you aren't sitting in the mud when it's low-tide. People are able to swim and sometimes walk to the shore, so a lot of people will bring their dogs. There are places that you can take the smaller boats and water ski, knee board, etc. There is also a place in the second cove that you can get some groceries and some gas. You can also pick up people at this location for those that did not want to come by boat. And of course, you can also coerce somebody into coming back across the Potomac to Tim's Rivershore.

On the whole, we had a good weekend and only had a few stressful times. Livin' Nauti' was the anchor boat but we had one other boat throw anchor farther out which had kept us pretty stable. When all the other boats pulled off, that's when we found that the wench wasn't pulling up the anchor and chain and the wind now wanted to swing my boat. The other rafted up boats were VERY close by so I was pretty much stuck on the bridge trying to keep the boat from swinging into other boats. Luckily, the captain of Colonel's Lady was a knight in shining armor and swam over to Livin' Nauti' and pulled up the anchor and chain by hand. The trip back up to DC was pleasant and fairly short considering that it looked like it was going to rain behind us. However, the storm finally hit 10 minutes from the dock causing white caps on the Washington Channel. Then, I was docking a boat (with a lot of wind-sail surface) on a T-head slip with the wind and rain pushing us away from the dock … and a first-mate that had never been a first-mate before. No wonder Nancy never wanted to be first-mate again on a trip!

The next order of business was the main diesels. I had to remove all of the packing in the vents, remove the covers on the bilge blowers, check the batteries, check the fuel lines, and ensure all the valves were open. Once again, I cycled the engines without allowing it to start to circulate the oil and fuel. Both engines were cycled and rechecked for leaks. After getting thumbs up, I fired up the port engine – started on the first crank. There was a little bit of smoke but not much. The engine tune-up and oil/fuel filter changes accomplished last December were paying off. I ran the engines for about 5 minutes and then shut it down for a system check. I rechecked the engine for leaks or other visible problems – nothing noted.

I went through the same drill on the starboard engine. No problems noted other than a bit more smoke. We did put a stabilizer in the tanks during winterization and added some more today. The fuel bowls were showing clean fuel – much better than last year. We probably accumulated some algae last year which required treatment and a thorough cleaning of the fuel filter system. Both engines were brought back online and allowed to run for about 15 minutes. After clearing the pink stuff out the exhaust, the discharge was clear and a solid flow. The engines were rechecked for leaks and vibrations – nothing noted.

Next weekend, we plan to dewinterize the A/C units and start our safety checks.

If you're part of a club and would like to pass along any information, please contact us. If you're not part of a club, we can get you pointed in the right direction. We also welcome everybody to join our community and live the excitement of boating.

See you on the water.

The new canvas came with a bag of snaps – about a 1,000 of them, give or take a few. I tried to install the first snap – crack goes the snap tool. So, I grab the other snap tool, the one that looks like a pair of pliers. Snap! Maybe I squeezed too hard or something, but I don’t think tools like this should break in your hands. So, I grabbed the snap adapter kit that you use with Vise-Grips. Guess what? That one falls apart too. It must been the cold weather or something. So, we took a trip down to the local marina and picked up another snap toolset – actually we bought two of them.

Once we got back to the boat, everything fell into place. There were no problems and the whole installation took less than an hour. It’s all about the right tools. I must admit the new bridge canvas looks sharp. Just in time to unwrap the boat for this year’s boating season. It is just around the corner.

There are two lessons to be learned: First, put your winter covering (tarp or shrink-wrapping) on during November when it is still warm instead of keeping the boat available for the December Boat Parade. For the amount of money it will cost to outfit your boat with good decorations, you can have it shrink-wrapped. Second, pay somebody to shrink-wrap your boat. Unless your time is not worth anything and you are willing to spend a LOT of time trying to fit and grommet a square tarp over a very non-square object.

About half of the first 10 steps involve trips to the boat to actually perform some of the work because it seems like a very nice day to perform these duties...hmmm, why is it that all 5 of those trips ended up with us at the wall at Georgetown? The next 10 steps to winterization entailed making 10 separate trips to West Marine and Boat US - lucky for us we have both to waste our money in. I love the fact that neither West Marine nor BoatUS actually carry ANYTHING for diesel engines or generators, or that we could not have an intelligent conversation about what to order because they could not understand that it does NOT matter that the boat is a CARVER 444 and that their little computer application does not even list CARVER as a boat manufacturer, but it matters a LOT that they are CUMMINS 370B diesels and an ONAN generator and requires part number 999999 or an equivalent. BUT they had 50 million bottles of pink anti-freeze. About the time that I was ordering a case of oil filters and fuel filters online, I could think of 50 million things to do with that pink anti-freeze without it even leaving the store.

Finally the winterization begins - this plug isn't in the right vantage point, another hose clamp won't turn now that it hasn't been turned in 9 months, and amazingly the thru-hull seacocks and engine oil drain plugs are at the bottom of the engine (who knew???) requiring 9 foot long arms as the oil changers don't actually work on this because it won't pump out one tiny drop of oil, and a need for exactly 60 pounds of torque on one thing and exactly 24 pounds of torque on something else. Do we even know what torque is or did somebody come up with this so that you have to hire some type of marine expert who says just turn it until it stops?

And each activity seems to require 5 more trips to West Marine or Home Depot to buy or create some kind of tool to accomplish this one feat. Geez, whose bright idea was it to perform the winterization ourselves because gee, how hard could it be to put antifreeze in anything that can freeze? Well, that would be the same stupid captain that bought that $500 engine room heater.

Ten cases of pink stuff later and we have the water system, sanitation system, and air conditioning / heat system winterized, but still trying to figure out if we could possibly teach the three year-old how to get under that engine and unscrew that plug!!!!

Also during this time, Kimberly had prepared six gallons of 50/50 solution for the air conditioning units. My intent was to pull the single feed line from the seacock and feed the solution from this point. Yeah, fat chance. After loosening the hose clamps and moving them out of the way, I tried to remove the hose - it wasn't moving. It's not that it was stuck - it's just geometry and leverage. Carver engineers decided to put the A/C seacock right under the starboard engine with about four inches of clearance above the hose. The seacock is also set back about eight inches and is directly underneath the forward port engine mount. Due to the engine mount and various lines and hoses, it is near impossible to reach the seacock from the centerline or top. You can only get your hand (not hands) on it from underneath the front of the engine. The first length of tubing is about 12 inches long with two bends in it going from the seacock to the intake of the sea strainer. There isn't enough give in the hose to twist or lift up off the nipple on the seacock. Okay, on to Plan B.

I decided to replace the hose clamps and made sure the other three sets were secure. I did try briefly to remove the second line of hose aft of the sea strainer, but it is much shorter and definitely not going anywhere. I decided to attack the problem from the sea strainer. I pulled the strainer and did a complete evacuation of the strainer and the intake hose. Then I positioned the six gallons of 50/50 solution and proceeded to cycle each of the three units one by one. On the 444, there is one intake for all three units and one discharge port. I had Kimberly watch the discharge port and call on the walkie-talkie when the discharge was running pink. As each unit came online, I kept the sea strainer full of 50/50 solution - not an easy feat. This particular setup will gulp down a gallon of solution in about 30 seconds. After feeding six gallons through the system, we prepared two addition gallons to ensure the system was topped off. We cycled the units again and fed the two gallons through.

By now, it was starting to get late and I decided to forgo the genset and just concentrate on the diesels. I connected the hand pump and proceeding to pump out the oil through the dipstick. I thought it would be easy enough - nope. After pumping for about two minutes, I hadn't even gained a drop of oil. After playing with various hose combinations and set-ups, I decided that I needed to consult the manuals and see if there were any suggestions. Yep - Cummins suggests that you drain the oil through either the front or rear drain plugs. Hmmm...does anybody at Cummins own a boat? The front and rear drain plugs are less than eight inches from the hull and certainly not in reach or accessible. If the diesels were up on stands, it would be a no brainer. However, when they are mounted, it just is not going to work. After about hour of messing with this, I decided to call it quits and do some more research. I'm thinking that I might need a better pump and try using the dipstick like a big straw. Wait, didn't I try that in the beginning? Oh well, I will attack it on another day. Heck, we've got several more weeks before the first snow.

At least I winterized the ice maker without problems.

After a full day of walking and talking, we decided it would probably be best to wait and to see what other options were available. Besides, we have to get the boat first. We are still visiting the online sites and hope to find something soon – boating season is just around the corner.

The Silverton lines were much more convenient – not sure if it was due to less demand or that Silverton decided to put their boats in the back of the hall. Our intent for the visiting the show was to view the Silverton 453 Motor Yacht and the 410 Sport Bridge. Since the large boats were a rarity, we struck out on both versions. Silverton’s largest boat of the show was the 330 Sport Bridge. It gave us a glimpse of the 410’s layout and allowed us to preview the quality of the Silverton line. Still, it was a shame not to see some larger boats.

The show wasn’t in comparison to an Annapolis show or Miami Boat Show, but it was a good show to visit on a cold, winter day.