A couple of additions to previous Blog Postings, when we were at Point Lookout Marina, another maintenance issue popped up. This was the marina where there were thousands of Jelly fish in the water. When we returned to the boat from the swimming pool, I noticed that we were not pumping any water through the air conditioner outlets, sure enough, when we got inside, the air conditioners had tripped their breakers. I reset them and checked the water flow, but no go. Dreading the worst, I pulled the sea strainer for the air conditioners and it was jam packed with sucked up Jelly fish. It was extremely disgusting. Anyway, I cleaned them out thoroughly and in the process of blowing out the water line with the shop vac, I blew nasty pieces and parts all over myself, mmmmmm. Once completed all was well. Also, in my reading of the Cruising Guide, I had read ahead to the Washington D.C. section and discovered that to operate a watercraft (boat) on the waters of the District of Columbia; the Operator (driver) must possess a Boaters Safety Course Certificate. Under the current laws of Kansas, only people born after a certain date have to have this certificate. (And I was definitely born before that date) Researching the Safety Course Information on-line, I discovered that for only $29.95 I could enroll and take the course on-line. This course is designed so that you cannot test out of it. Each section has a timer and you must take the minimum amount of time before you can go on to the next section. It is fixed so that no matter what you do it takes about 8 hours to complete. So I began. After two late nights taking this valuable course, I graduated and am now certificated.
Now back to today. It is Saturday, 24 August, the city is packed with attendees of the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington, and we have to go sightseeing. But, before we could go, it was discovered that we were out of fresh water. Well , we were not out, it just was not in the water tank, it was in the bilge. We had heard the water pump cycling off and on at odd times during the last two days. After refilling the water tanks and powering up the pump, the leak made itself known. One of the original "tees" in the water line had cracked and was emptying our tank. Now, this water line fiasco, has been plaguing us for over a year. I think this is the last piece of original water line left in the boat. So it was off to the Washington Marina, which fortunately was open on Saturday mornings. Of course they only had three of the four parts I needed, so I had to reengineer the design and buy about 10 more parts. Amazingly enough, putting it back together was simple and it worked. After repairs, we are off to Arlington National Cemetery, which I had never been to before. It was very somber. We visited the Eternal Flame of JFK, the Battleship Maine Memorial, and after huffing and puffing up the hill, made it just in time to observe the changing of the guard at the Tomb of The Unknowns.
Then off to lunch at the Pentagon City Shopping Mall Food Court. Hooray for Chipotle. Then back to the boat to prepare for dinner. We hopped on the Metro, and rode over to Crystal City to meet Sue and Bernie Kozosky at The Famous Hamburger Hamlet. After drinks we headed over to the Blue Indigo Restaurant which is waterside with a great view of the Potomac and aircraft landing at Reagan National Airport. A great dinner and conversation. We were going to ride the Metro back to the Marina, but Bernie cautioned us that we would probably not make it from the Metro stop to the boat in a serviceable condition, so they drove us to the marina doorstep.
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