Feb 22 to March 22 -- Mostly 13 Work Days.

It has been a whole month and readership has declined precipitously due to lack of new content. I have been busy with stuff that many of you consider boring.
One of the work days was a shopping trip to Landfall Navigation in Connecticut for cruising guides and a few of the paper charts needed for Nova Scotia, and Brewers hardware in Mamaroneck for a few small parts. I made the trip to decide which cruising guide to buy and ended up getting both of them because one is good for the Bras d'Or Lakes, our destination this summer, but does not cover the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia that we have to traverse to get there.
We had a dinner at our house one day with Bennett and Harriet and Sheila, all of whom have sailed with us. I took out the charts and showed Bennett and Harriet my proposed itinerary for this April's week on "On Eagles Wings": from St. Thomas to St. Croix and back to Tortola, so we would have a plan to think about, with lay days factored in. We had a lovely dinner and theater with Lloyd and Rhoda who we also sail with. And I attended a wake in the Bronx of the sister of Gene, a fellow Harlemite. So it was not all boat work, which makes Jack a dull boy, as the saying goes. Actually I enjoyed a very rich social and cultural life during this time period but that is not grist for this blog.

The other 12 work days involved 53.5 hours of work, plus five of them, one day, with Ed Spalina who did some electrical work, and another with Fernando who has started work on the sanding for spraying on Awlgrip decorative boot stripes to replace the old ones which looked very ratty. Fernando, with half of the old bootstripes sanded off.

You will note how white the bottom, below those stripes appears. This compares to the dirty bottom below with remnants of the old bottom paint remaining after 99% of that old paint was blasted off in the fall.

 I worked about 5.5 hours of per day. And what did I get done during this time you might ask:

+Hand pumped out the bilge and determined the new pumps needed to replace those that failed.








+Restored power to the FM radio reciever and removed cockpit speakers to be sent off to Bose for repair. The speaker is behind these grills.

+Disassembled, cleaned, regreased and reassembled the two coachroof winches, except I lost one tiny part, a "colet" and have not been able to figure out how to get the starboard winch put back together yet. Here's half of the inside of the starboard winch
followed by a picture of a collet and the black plastic ring which I have not yet been able to find where it goes.

The ring, top right doesn't fit back in and the collet is the flat brass piece in the lower right.

+Desoldered one tiny red LED indicator light that was burned out and figured out and ordered a replacement.

+Hammered apart the links of the anchor chain that were stuck together by excessive zinc in the regalvanizing process, painted white bands at 10, 20, 50 and each additional 30 feet of it, rethreaded it through the hawse pipe into the chain locker and attached its bitter end to the boat with a new shackle, installed the extension brackets and rollers to accommodate the new Rocna anchor, tied that anchor to the end of the chain and hauled it up into place, subject to replacement of the connection with shackles that I took the dimensions for. I did this twice because I saw after the first time, that i had done it wrong. The custom made extension bracket, the flat piece slanting diagonally down toward the left is the piece and here it hangs uselessly because the anchor is atop the roller held in place with the bolt that holds it to the upper flat bracket.

Next is the correct way, I hope, with the shank of the anchor running between the two rollers.

+Called the faux teak place -- twice -- to try to make an appointment to have them measure and install it on swim platform; but all phone tag so far.
+Sanded the bottom with the Fein random orbital sander, as described above. This was the most time consuming, about 20 hours. I also had to call Fein to figure out how to "relube the head after 50 hours" as it is written on the tool. You would think they would include an instruction for this as they include the tool and the grease. But it is simple one they explain how, and it is done.
+Reinstalled the new Spurs line cutter and the reconditioned three blade variable pitch feathering propeller. Actually I had four sources of help, in addition to using the instructions for this task. After dropping one of the blades on my thigh while trying to hold all three in place, I asked John for help for the minute needed; it definitely requires three hands to hold all the pieces perfectly in alignment while inserting them into place. Next I couldn't got more than two of the six allen bolts that hold the prop's end cap in place into their holes. Tom came by and saw that the six holes are not perfectly aligned at precisely 60 degrees from each other. We rotated it sixty degrees and then all six bolts fit. I called the manufacturer when after all that the blades did not easily swivel between forward and reverse. Whack it with a hammer was the answer, and that did the trick. Finally I could not get the grease gun to squirt in the grease through the zirc fittings. I tried to put a bit of paint thinner through the gun to loosen up whatever was dried stuck but it didn't seem to work. So early next morning I went  to the New Rochelle Marina's marine store to buy a new one and the proprietor did not have one in stock but played with mine and the passage of overnight let the paint thinner do the work I intended it to do and the old gun now works again and the prop is lubed and zincd and waiting for very expensive ($120 for 3/4 of a liter) two part Italian anti fouling paint, which came without instructions but with mixing pots. I called and no you do not mix the two parts; one is a primer for the other. Here is the prop, reinstalled and as clean as when ILENE was new, waiting for paint, which is the next step.

+I removed, folded and took away the winter cover, one half to Doyle sails for repair of two zippers and the other to my locker and restored the antennae, davit bar, whisker pole and running rigging to their summer positions.
+Repaired water hose by cutting out the six inch torn section and installing couplings to connect the two ends together, and used blue gel fiberglass stain remover (FSR) and rinsed with water to remove the orange rust and organic stains from the hull above the water line.

And there is still a lot to do.
I have also enjoyed reading Bob's posts from Cuba on Sailpandora.com.

Not A Book Review - Just a Paragraph

E. B. White, who wrote Charlotte's Web and, with Will Strunk, The Elements of Style, was an essayist for The New Yorker, and an avid sailor, our of New Rochelle, where ILENE is now, and Blue Hill Bay, in Maine, where we will be this summer.

My Book Group read a book of his essays this month and out popped this lovely nugget that should warm the hearts of sailors, especially cruising sailors.

"If a man must be obsessed by something, I suppose a boat is as good as anything, perhaps a bit better than most. A small sailing craft is not only beautiful, it is seductive and full of strange promise and the hint of trouble. If it happens to be an auxiliary cruising boat, it is without question the most compact and ingenious arrangement for living ever devised by the restless mind of man -- a home that is stable without being stationary, shaped less like a box than a fish or a bird or a girl, and in which the homeowner can remove his daily affairs as far from shore as he has the nerve to take them, close-hauled or running free -- parlor, bedroom, and bath, suspended and alive."

The Sea And The Wind That Blows, Essays at 259-60

White was my age when this was written and was contemplating giving up the sea. It has to happen to everyone with the passing of time. But I'm thinking that I need not think such thoughts for at least several years; I pray for more years at sea.