Did I ever mention that I'm a Corinthian? One of that word's definitions is "amateur". The Corinthians is a paper Yacht Club. A Paper Yacht Club? Yes: no club house nor mooring field or docks, so members must keep their boats elsewhere, such as at the Harlem. They run cruises, races, educational events and parties. What's not to like? Actually, with the Internet, it's more an electronic club these days than based on paper to notify members of events.
A cocktail party was announced at Rodney and Genie's apartment, on Park Avenue in the 80's. We were available so we signed up. We had not known our hosts before, but we learned that their eight month summer home is in Essex CT and they have sailed with Bob, whose "Pandora" I sailed to Hampton VA in October. Small world, the cruising community. (Bob is now heading for Cuba, see sailpandora, and has asked me to join him again for the north bound trip from Florida to Connecticut -- one non-stop passage -- in May; my only hesitation is whether I can find a ten day block of time then.) Meanwhile, here in New York, we enjoyed our hosts' lovely and elegant apartment, some wine, some nibbles and most of all, the company, which included some others I had not known and several people we did know from prior events, such as Harlemite CJ, with whom we sailed with L'Hermione on NY Harbor last Fourth of July and Boo, of City Island, a historian of the area. It was mostly a telling of sea stories and plans for future sailing adventures.
Also present was Larry, an officer of the club who lives near us in Greenwich Village and is responsible for organizing social and educational events for the metro area chapter. Lene and I got to thinking and I invited all present (and via email, all the rest of the Corinthians) to join the upcoming expedition to the Noble Maritime Collection at the Snug Harbor on Staten Island.
My work on the boat was on a rare warm day, brief (only about 2.5 hours) and not a lot got accomplished. The newly re-galvanized chain was slid from the SUV's trunk to a dock cart and dragged to a point under ILENE's bow, for hoisting up on deck. But so much zinc was galvanized to it that some of the links had to be hammered to break them apart. Then, most of it got hauled up over the remaining bow roller, onto the bow. I also pumped about ten gallons of icy dirty fresh water from the bilge into buckets and threw it off the swim platform. During all this, the battery charger was working to make sure those important cells maintained high voltage. The top hinge holding the door of the aft head had somehow gotten loose and is now tight. Some searches were conducted, alas, unsuccessfully. The Mifi receiver has not been located yet. I'll keep trying. One of the "collets", tiny crescent shaped pieces of metal that hold the pieces of a winch together, was missing at home when I cleaned the other parts there. I assumed I had left it on the boat so I conducted a thorough search. But it's gone, so I have to buy another, make that two, just in case.
Then a quick change into better and cleaner clothing and I participated in an open house for prospective new members at the Harlem. Remember that we went to the Boat Show to try to locate prospective members to invite? Well this was the second half of the process and I met a few nice folks, gave them a tour, told them of our history, how things work and our rules. The other half of the fun of such events was sharing some wine and cheeses and crackers with old friends from the Club. We do not see much of each other in the winter. But spring will be here soon.
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