Craighill Keeper’s bLog

Boy has that old adage proven true, however the actual phrasing goes. Just ask the marina owners where our boat has mostly sat waiting for the right person to come along and show it the love it needed. Our boat problems have become a thing of legend around those Miller Island parts! Murphy’s Law completely took over my relationship with that boat. And without a Howard, the wonderful gentleman who volunteers to ferry volunteers and supplies to Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse whenever necessary, we were left high and dry, relying on others to ferry us and potential contractors out.

But now, thanks to Bob Love of Love’s Boats in Baltimore (and the Boat US towing operator who I’ve gotten to know well!), we are up and running on our own power. I’m just hoping winter’s ugly head remains in hibernation as long as possible before I have to pull the boat out of the water and winterize it.

When I bought the boat last summer, we still hadn’t officially been awarded the Craighill lighthouse. The boat seemed to run okay at the time, although it had serious steering issues. I emailed the previous owner asking if he was aware of that and he replied that no he was not. I still find that hard to believe. Aside from zig-zagging due to having to seriously counter-steer the boat’s tendency to try to pull one way, then the other way, I was still able to tool around in it. I would zip out to the lighthouse from our dock (which has a fantastic view of the rear range light, aka Millers Island Light) and anchor just off it and admire it. That was soon-to-be mine! The boat seemed fine when I took it out by myself, although the steering problems made my already frazzled out-of-practice docking nerves electric. However, each time I loaded up my family to take out to admire the lighthouse, something always went wrong. The first time we were headed back to the marina and I swore someone was in the cabin pulling on the steering wheel because I couldn’t turn it at all from the flybridge. I muscled it when suddenly it broke free and spun 360* easily. One problem - the boat did not turn at all! I ran down into the cabin and could luckily steer (barely) from there and managed to return us to the dock.

So replaced steering cables to the flybridge and a new power steering pump later, we set out for attempt number two as a family. This time the engine died just before the end of the no wake zone and refused to restart while my daughter was demanding an apple be cut up for her (!!). This time a fellow marina person towed us back in. The local mechanic said he’d fix it over the winter and spring while the boat was out of the water.

In the meantime, we received the deed and the keys over the winter, and I looked forward to finally stepping foot inside the lighthouse as the new owner with a fixed boat in the spring (this past spring 2006). That didn’t come to be.

Now we’re making up for lost time and racing the winter clock. The only thing left on the boat absolutely broken is the water pump for the taps. It’ll be replaced when the boat is winterized. The electrical system needs to be rewired at some point, but for now if you jiggle the switch for the nav lights, they eventually come on. If you hit the wall behind the outlet, the rear starboard speaker starts to work again. But those are items that can wait and won’t hold us up any longer. Just gotta learn her quirks. I’m thrilled now that I’ve seen how the Baltimore Light folks tie their boat up at their similarly accessed lighthouse. It never occurred to me to let the boat drift off on a tether line. I was fretting about how to rig up excessive bumpers on the lighthouse side, when maybe I don’t really need to worry about that at all. With the flybridge, I think we can step right off the boat onto the platform and then push the boat off to drift. I’ll find out next weekend! I wonder if they leave anchor lights on all night when spending the night on the lighthouse? I’ll have to remember to ask.