September 11-12 -- Two Days with Howard

Well the day after our arrival was Wednesday and that means sailing in the afternoon. So after about an hour aboard ILENE, mostly cleaning and taking things off the boat (more of that is needed) I headed to lunch at the Club. Five of us broke bread but only Howard wanted to sail. Howard was one of my two crew on the ill fated voyage to Point Judith, RI in the fall of 2010 that I mentioned recently. Howard is about 15 years older than me, a former pilot, vigorous, resourceful and spry. He is active as a fire commissioner for his town and is raising capital for a new infrared technology that he and a partner are developing.  His former boat, a Catalina, was totaled by Sandy and his new boat, is a rather clean looking Hunter 28.5, formerly owned by a stock broker and named "Covered Call". She is about the size of my first boat, "Just Cause", a Pearson 28, with few systems and a fun ride.

Next time I have to bring my sewing kit and whip the ends of some of her lines.

We had a couple of hours aboard; Howard steered and I trimmed. With full main and Genoa, it took me a while to find the right place for the genoa car lead. We were doing boat speed beating out of Eastchester Bay, though with no GPS speed is difficult to determine precisely. We circumnavigated Stepping Stones, counterclockwise. I located and pointed out both of the two red buoys that must be seen to do this so he can do it alone next time. The wind was well aft of the beam for the passage behind Stepping Stones and on the way home. Her steering wheel is small in diameter making it a heavy pull to steer. Howard noticed that the hub of the steering wheel seemed loose. He was correct.

What to do? In the bar after our return we spoke with Joe and others, one of who suggested Fenton Marine. I agreed to accompany Howard on a run over there the next day. In the bar I was asked a lot of Maine questions and retelling the stories of one's adventures is almost half the fun of having them. Rick, our Club's newest Board member, assigned the Restaurant, Bar and Catering portfolio, asked if next winter I would give a slide show to our members about the trip. "YES!"

Next morning, I went to the Club by public transportation, carrying black shoes and a suit and tie for the evening's prayers and hung them in the shower room before meeting Howard. We drove over to Fenton but no one was there so we checked out Consolidated Yachts and its proprietor, Wes, told us to bring the boat over which we did, leaving Howard's car at his yard, on the far side of the island, for the return trip. When we arrived and tied up, he assigned his newest mechanic, Bobby to check out the problem.

There is a piece of nylon piping, 1" inside diameter and 1.5" outside, which fits over the aft-extending shaft of the hub of the steering wheel. It is held in place by a split washer on the shaft. It acts as a bearing for the wheel and is held in place against the shaft by an Allen headed bolt, screwed down tight through its side onto the shaft. But this spacer bearing was too short by 1/2 an inch, Bobby found, after he pulled off the split washer using a special tool (that I do not have, yet) which is a pliers with a pin on the side of each end. Inserting the pins into the holes at the split of the washer and squeezing permits the washer's ends to be spread and the washer removed. While Bobby fabricated and additional 1/2 inch long spacer to fill the gap and drilled and tapped a new hole in the existing spacer for the Allen bolt, Howard and I cleaned the inner surfaces of the wheel, which had not been taken off in years. A rare thing in boating -- same day repair! After returning Covered Call to her mooring Howard bought me lunch at the club and then hoofed it back to Consolidated to pick up his car. I changed into dress clothes and Lene picked me up for a pre-fasting dinner at Harvest, a restaurant near Temple Beth El in Closter, New Jersey. We dined with Bennett who had prepared a beautiful photo book about our round trip from Bar Harbor to Eastport. A lovely gift. Two good days.