LAUNCHING AMERICAN PRIDE
Thursday night just before the start of the long labor day weekend, my wife, two dogs and myself left for Ridge, Maryland (Point Lookout Marina) where our Catalina 36' (American Pride) was in land storage. We were keyed up because after a long summer of working on the boat we were launching it on friday and going to enjoy the few upcoming valuable days of resting in some anchorage (St. Mary's river). American Pride was launched early on friday morning with my wife, our cocker spaniel, and mini-dauchaund looking on.After a quick look below and now apparent leakage or for that matter no visable problems the hoist straps were removed and I could start my engine!!!!Could is the operative word here because the engine would not turn over.Maybe the batteries were not fully charged? Maybe the starter was caput?Maybe, Maybe, Maybe!!!! After a quick charge on the batteries I still had not luck. Now the seas were building from Dennis and the dockmaster didn't feel it prudent to tow American Pride to its slip. We decided to put it temporarily on some kind of an angle next to the launching area so I could work on it.Pulling out my trusty sears craftsman flat head screw driver and my Wiggens volt meter, I began checking everything.I had 12.75V at both batteries, 12.75V at the starting regulator, 12.75V at the starter. So, what the!!!!! was wrong. With the flathead I tried an old trick. I placed it across the two terminals of the starter switch and low and behold, the engine cranked. Simplest fix of the summer $14.99 for the switch and away we went to our slip.The troubles of the weekend seemed well behind us as we entered our slip with American Pride's bow facing in. We were located in the third last of the slips on a very long pier somewhat grievously exposed to the now building wind and seas. Within an hour, our pier was underwater from the excessive high tide and 30kt plus winds and gusts.With a finger pier of about 12" to stand out at our boarding point, we were pretty much left stranded on the boat. WITH TWO DOGS WHO NEEDED TO GO!!!!OUCH !#*&*@ and a bunch of other fine american words I was able to go bare footed and somehow lift the dogs over the running rigging and carry them down the pier for a quick piddle. Made them walk back. Of course, this made the wife a bit angry having water tracked through her newly cleaned boat. Oh well her birthday was on Sunday so she needed some pain. This brought us to the wonderful experience we needed on saturday. Still pier bound because of Dennis and a high tide in the morning we were pretty much complacent with what needed to be done to get the dogs on and off and that our weekend anchorage was finished. But, I wanted to turn the boat around so the stern would be facing in and it would be easier to get on and off. To do this I had to start the engin....again! One crank and a bunch of clicks. No crank and a bunch of clicks. Now what???? Out with the wiggins and the craftsman again and back through everything. I was lost so I waited for the tide, took the wife and dogs for a walk (she needed to get off the boat) and located the marina electrician to find out what to do. BATTERIES, YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING, I JUST REPLACED THEM A ????? YEAR (YEARS) AGO. The weren't holding their charge and the refridgerator was drawing all the amperage. I turned off the refer for a few hours while we went to Wall-Mart a bought a few items (including two new marine grade high cranking amperage batteries) and when we got back the engine started up. Shut the engine down turned on the refer for a bit and the engine didn't turn. Replaced the batteries and everying went well. We decided, hay the engines running lets take it out for a spin and back it in. The weather was a bit calmer and we thought we could do it.Took out old American Pride for a quick spin and back to the slip. We thought!!Ran aground!!! Always happens when you are worried about the things that are finally working but you think shouldn't be. Turned to port and manage to get out of our grounding in short order.Backing into the slip went well and we were finally calm for the moment.Seems like there was an incredably high tide during the night on Saturday and our car was some what flooded out. Fortunately I left our sun roof open and the water had a place to run out. Believe it or not I did leave the sun roof open, the water came in about half way up the tires, but, IT DIDN'T rain.The birthday went great on sunday. Started out with a great breakfast that I made and an even better dinner. Enjoyed a little bit of sun and an easy time getting the dogs on and off.We left early on monday. Got out before something else could go wrong. One day of peace was all we though we would have and we got that on sunday.SO, HOW WAS YOUR WEEKEND???