She's All Wrapped Up

ILENE's blue canvas winter coat does not fit as well as usual, sagging at bow,

because the bow pulpit had to be removed for repair and it forms part of the framing that normally holds the cover in place.but at least she is facing NE (through no decision I had any part in) where the strongest winter winds will come at her pointy end.

How did this damage occur?   Well, I sailed with a friend on a very windy day. Big waves in the mooring field made grabbing and attaching the mooring bridle to the boat more difficult than usual. I forgot to tell my friend to be sure to pull that bridle up through the space between the edge of the deck and below the lower rail. He pulled it up above the lower rail and down to the cleat. The next three foot wave that rolled through the mooring field lifted the bow of the boat, crunching the rail. The whole structure had to be removed from the boat to the shop, where it is now, to have the bent parts (both the former horizontal, now "V" shaped lower rail and also the aft diagonal which is also bent) cut off, new straight parts welded on and then the welds ground down and polished until you can't see the weld for the shine.

Enter Fernando, proprietor of Farol Yachts. Fernando has also been engaged to repair the aft end of the boat, where, during one night, when no one was present, something hard and big or fast crashed into ILENE's stern, broke the swim ladder, took the gel coat off the boat

and careened into the davit bar, putting a dent in the tube and bending it way out of line.

The biggest problem, other than ponying up the money to get this work done, was removing the bow pulpit. It is held onto the boat via three legs on each side that fit into receptacles on the boat. The four forward ones are attached by bolts through the inside stainless tube and the outside stainless pipe. I was able to remove these screws without help.  But the two aft most connection points were where the stainless tubes went through aluminum blocks, and they were each held in place by a stainless machine bolt. The starboard such block shows in the first photo. I sprayed this joint about ten times with a chemical that is supposed to ease corroded connections and used a vise grips pliers to grab the heads and try to wrench the bolts loose. This after hammering on it to shock it loose. Effect? The heads of the bolts broke off. Fernando drilled the bolts out with an electric drill. Still no budge. A blow torch was applied to heat the block because heat, like whacking with a hammer, can break free corroded joints.  Then we applied Fernando's car's jack to push the stainless tube up and out. No luck. Finally, Fernando asked me to figure out where the nuts that hold the four bolts that held the aluminum blocks to the hull came through inside the boat. This was behind the forward ends of the tops of the medicine cabinets in the forward head. One of the ways that Saga was quite ingenious in designing these boats is that almost everything inside is screwed together. The wood panels that seal this area off are each held in place by ten screws whose heads are concealed by removable plastic buttons. So: remove contents of cabinets, pry off the twenty buttons, unscrew the twenty screws, unscrew the eight bolts, apply the car jack, and --- voila, the bow pulpit is off!

I have also explored how to get all of the remaining paint off of ILENE's bottom so she can get three coats of grey "barrier coat" paint followed by three coats of ablative bottom paint. I can (A) hire a guy to blast it off, using small grains of baking soda, sprayed under pressure, (B) hire someone to grind it off using a random orbital sander with its discharge hose attached to a vacuum cleaner to protect the environment from the harmful dust, or (C) buy such a sander and do it myself. The first two options will probably each cost about $2K while the last will cost only about $120 for the tool, masks  and sanding disks, and four or five long hard days of my time. Then the new paint, all six coats, will probably cost another $1500 for materials.

But all of this work and expense is worth it, for the joys of sailing. Some may disagree with this but sailors know it is true.

Back to a more pleasant subject: The latest, December, issue of Cruising World magazine has a good article by Don Street, the guru of cruising in the Virgin Islands, which I am copying and sending to Bennett, who has two two-week stints down there. According to Mr. Street, the problem is that most cruises in the region are spent heading west and then east, running and then beating into the prevailing winds from the east.  By sailing more north and south, one can achieve glorious beam reaches. So he suggests heading for St Croix, forty miles to the south, and then back to Tortola.  With two weeks, one can also visit the Spanish Virgins, to the west, and then south to St. Croix. I have not been to St Croix yet.

ILENE Is Hauled; Winter Has Begun

Hauling was November 7 and uneventful. The bottom was filthy with clumps of mussels hanging from the barnacles. I should have had her bottom cleaned in September. No wonder the motor from the Harlem to the Huguenot was so slow. But all that was power washed and scraped off. For the interclub trip the day before, Lene drove the car while I motored -- to met me to take the lines. She helped me remove and fold the sails which are now in the locker at the Club. I changed the oil but in changing the oil filter, twisting it off while my arm was bent in an awkward position and my fingers getting greasy, I dropped the darn thing which spilled its contents onto the sole of the engine compartment and rolled to an awkward hard to reach place, but I got it out the next day when I removed the raw cooling water intake hose after the first filter, to pour in the antifreeze, which removal also gave me access to the empty filter.

Winterization, except for installation of the canvas cover, was completed after four more days (only about five hours per day, really), on November 12, just ahead of the first freeze of the season. I poured in 14.7 gallons of diesel to top off the tanks and noted that end of season engine hours were 2343.6, 215.8 more than this exact point last year. One of the big repair jobs this winter is to the bow pulpit, the stainless steel fence at the bow, which was accidentally damaged and has to be removed before the cover is put on. The removal is proving challenging because while four of the six fasteners came off easily, the last two are giving me quite a fight -- corroded in.

We enjoyed 121 days afloat this summer! The first eight were aboard On Eagles Wings in the Carribean in the winter. Then fourteen before the start of the Maine cruise, 92 during that cruise and seven after the cruise. But in addition to the 121, I have had 47 work days and 28 "Other" days such as hanging with boating friends, lectures on boating, boat shows, etc., for a total of 196, with more W and O days coming in the last six weeks of the year.

But in a sense, every day is a boating day because not one day goes by in which I am not thinking of boating, reading blogs, books, magazines, planning for the boat and for future cruising. For example, today I contemplated purchasing the latest Cruising Guide to the Florida Keys, where we plan to go next winter. But some such books are better than others so I will check it out in hard copy at a store before purchasing, though plotting out next winter's passages could be fun now. Also it is the 12th edition, published in 2006, so I'm hoping that a newer 13th will be available before next fall.

My list of major winter chores is only three pages long and many days of work and mucho dollar$ involved.

Fun? Well we saw the new Robert Redford film, "All Is Lost." It takes place starting on a Cal 36 in the Indian Ocean with the corner of a cargo container that had fallen off a huge container ship piercing the sailboat's hull.  While it contains many bits that, as ocean sailors we recognize are wildly unrealistic, I won't discuss them because to do so will spoil the story for you. It is a good story and an inspiring one and the acting is superb.

I am keeping warm this winter by reading the blogs of four cruisers who we have sailed with, following their adventures south this winter.
Furthest south now is Pandora, already arrived in Florida, at sailpandora.com. They will spend about two months up north around the holidays before returning to Pandora.
Next is Moonraker at sailblogs.com/member/moonraker, not yet to Florida as of this posting.
Autumn Borne is is sailblogs.com/members/auutnmborne and keeps us posted through daily emails.
And finally, Teepee,  does not have their blog running yet but keeps us posted ttime to time via email.

Hot Weekend at the Harlem

Both days of a recent weekend the Clubhouse was full of people, about 100 each day, for events that were quite different from each other.

Saturday was an "Open House" to attract new members. The place was all shined up and I was too, in blue blazer and tie, to meet new friends. Food and wine were provided. Later in the afternoon, Lene came by car, with three friends including Manu and Michelle who had been staying at our house for the past week while their boat, "Teepee" was moored off 95th Street at the 79th Street Boat Basin. A poor mooring place that is, with a strong current which dragged their boat with its mooring. And theirs is not a particularly big or heavy boat nor was there strong wind that day, only the tidal current. The Boat Basin provides no launch service whatsoever. Its advantage is that it is only a few blocks walk to the subway system at 79th Street, near midtown, and for those heading south from the Hudson, it is "on the way" as compared to a 20 mile detour to Long Island Sound and back. But the Harlem moorings are less expensive on a weekly basis,  come with launch service, are nearer the dock and not subject to tidal flow so strong that it drags the mooring. Next spring, I hope that Teepee will moor at the Harlem. Also with Lene came Christine, not a stranger to this blog.

I bought dinner for the five of us and thereby was able to use up the last of my 2013 "chits" ,i.e., minimum spending in the restaurant and bar. When I joined in 1990, before computers, they actually gave us chits, little pieces of paper in five or ten dollar increments which we turned in to pay the bill -- "Harlem Money" if you please --and the name stuck. The amount is quite low really and normally I spend much more than the minimum, but this year we were in Maine for most of the summer sailing season so there were chits to be spent. The restaurant had closed the week before, but was reopened for one night, for the open house, which provided the opportunity to spend down my prepaid food allotment. The dinner was not ideal due to its being the encore performance before the long winter: e.g., no bread, no Parmesan cheese -- but the cheerful friendly service and the homey friendly atmosphere made the event festive.

Sunday was a food and drink day as well. On the way to the Club, we picked up Manu and Michelle, who had walked to the new 2nd Avenue Fairway Supermarket and bought a whole lot of groceries and perishable provisions. We drove them and this cargo to West 79th Street, took the groceries out to the head of the dock and said our farewells until next spring. Then on to the Harlem for a memorial for Margaret, wife of our beloved Past Commodore, Irwin. He threw a big party for those of us who could not make the funeral in northern California this past summer. The spouse of a Commodore, frequently nicknamed "The Commodorable", is an active participant in planning and running two big dinner dance parties each year. Irwin was such a good Commodore that he was drafted to serve an unprecedented second consecutive annual term. There were loving speeches about Margaret, who cancer took from us too young, after only a few weeks of known illness, while we were in Maine. A square paving brick with her name engraved in it was placed at the foot of the flagpole. And oh that good food and wine. Luckily Lene does not drink so I always have a "designated driver". A solemn occasion but filled with brightness, and good humor.

From now on it is work days to get ILENE hauled, covered, prepared for winter and for repairs and maintenance -- the less fun filled winter season.