Only twelve days of sailing in seven weeks; I guess I'm just slowing down a bit. But other events intervened: A two week trip to visit my Mom and Brother in Atlanta, and thence to Portland Oregon to visit my daughter, and her boyfriend and my granddaughter and to see the beautiful house they are building there. They plan to move is shortly after we leave for Grenada so we won't be able to see them in it until next summer. So here's some irony: our boat is down in the hurricane-prone Caribbean: but while I was on the west coast, Hurricane Irene visited New York. Fortunately, only one of the boats in our Club was damaged. Also, while I visited the other coast, home to the San Andreas and other earthquake causing faults, New York got hit by an earthquake. Go figure.
It rained here some and I worked at the New York Public Library's Map Room some, completing my first pass through the 6500 nautical charts that the US Navy Hydrographic Office published between 1860 and 1950. I commenced some cleanup work and wrote a memo explaining what I had done so that the project will be understandable to the professional map librarians. They want to digitize and publish my research via an electronic database of the library accessible to the public. I'm not sure I can finish the editing process before October 25, in which case the work will not be publishable until after next June. I also visited friends, went to several plays, concerts, museums, art galleries, debates and lectures -- in short enjoyed all the rich cultural life that urban life affords.
I did some Club committee work, and had the benefit of four hours of spoon feeding by Dick and Elle whose trawler, a Heritage East 36, "Summer Wind" has now headed back to Florida for the winter. They have traversed the Inter Coastal Waterway many times and laid out 30 good spots for us to stop between Boca Raton Florida, where we are likely to come in from the Bahamas, and Norfolk, north of which (the Chesapeake) we know our way. These thirty anchorages, mooring fields and marinas, with several choices at some points, will be part of our route home. They are each a days motoring apart in the ICW, but there are some inlets through which we can go out into the Atlantic, grab the Gulf Stream and do four or five of those stops in a single overnight sail. Other spots such as Savanah and Charleston can keep us interested for a week of tourism. Thanks Dick and Elle!!! Their adventures can be followed on summerwindjourney.blogspot.com.
Another day was spent helping at the Club's booth at the Norwalk Boat Show. We invite folks who keep their boats (or their future boats) at less convenient spots to visit our club for an open house -- "free wine and cheese" -- so they can fall in love with the place, like I did 21 years ago. We met two catamaran sailors whose boat are in Jersey City and Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.
And it took a lot of time to select and acquire the many little things (and some big ones such as new cockpit cushions and cabin floor coverings) that we want to pack up for ocean shipping to Grenada, and to arrange for that shipping.
But this blog is about sailing, so let's get to it. Four of the twelve sails were aboard "Aria", that sweet, sturdy, stout, little, tiller-steered, full-keeled, canoe-sterned Ocean Voyager 26, with Jim and others. Sometimes with the Old F___s Club and sometimes alone.
One of these sails had an exciting ending, -- the only truly exciting sailing in this time frame -- during which the winds had been all used up by Irene, leaving mostly doldrums. One of the things a boat owner must do is to clean the boat's bottom during the summer, either by diving under and around her with a scrub brush and scraper, or, as I and most of us do, engaging the local scuba equipped contractor to do this. The reason is primarily for speed, because the slime and barnacles that grow on the bottom unless scrubbed off make the hull less slippery and slower through the water. Racers do this weekly! The other reason for bottom cleaning is that the barnacles particularly like to grow on the blades of the propeller, turning then into crullers rather than blades. This happened to several boats this summer, including Aria, after the the contractor who has done the cleaning for City Island boats for years, suddenly stopped providing this service do to personal problems without adequate notice. The engine started up and ran fine, as did the transmission, and the propeller spun as usual. But its spinning did not propel the boat forward with enough force to fight the wind. In other words, we were fine until the stronger winds came up and we had to turn toward the wind to grab the mooring at the end of the sail. Appreciating this, we left Aria's small staysail up to provide added propulsion, but it was still not enough. So we called the Club's launch to stand by and when during our one shot to grab the mooring, we missed (by only about eight feet) the launch was able to throw us a line and tow us to the mooring. no harm done.
Two of the sails were on "Adagio", Vince's late-model cruising Benetau 34. I met Vince during the Club Cruise and he became convinced somehow that I was some sort of a great racer, despite my repeated protestations that he had vastly overestimated my racing skills. Our first sail together was with Lene and Vince's girlfriend, Suki, who went up the mast in a bosn's chair to fetch the jib halyard, which had gone skyward to the top of the mast. A game girl! We had a pleasant afternoon and there was enough wind that we partially reefed the Genoa before it ended. I learned that the boat could do six knots with enough wind and figured several improvements to the rig to permit optimum speed. Adagio has in mast furling for the main which diminishes the adjustments possible for that sail but I suggested that we attach telltalles to the leech (rear side) and that Vince remove as much weight as reasonable possible: water, tools and a gas powered generator. On the day of the race, the wind was light and got lighter. Our crew was Vince, Ron, who had done the cruise with Vince, me and Ian, who had done part of the cruise with Bennett and me. Well, to make a log story last, we came in third out of four boats in our division, and last when handicaps were applied. Ian put it best telling Vince "Now you have something to look forward to in future races!" The biggest mistake we made was tacking over onto a port tack soon after crossing the start line, to get away from the other boats. But the wind stayed stronger on their side of the racecourse so when we came back together again we were behind and though we gained, we never really caught up. "Pasta Night" took place that night, after the Club's membership meeting. This is a food orgy of pasta, braciole, sausages, meatballs, and oh yes, a salad, all served family style, and big portions of tiramisu with the coffee -- in short, no place for dieters. But with Suki's consoling companionship, Vince seemed cheerful at dinner. I have to learn more about how to trim in-mast furling mainsails to be able to help more.
The final six sails were on four other Harlem Boats. Two of them were Catalina 27s: Rhoda and Lloyd's "Jazz Sail" for two days and Morty and Clara's "Easy Living." Also Donnie's Bristol 35 "Dido", our Commodore Mark and Marcia's Hunter 30, "Leeds the Way" and a day sail on "Defiance" with Bennett.
A great summer season, so far, but Grenada beckons ever more loudly as our October 25 departure draws near.
