May 29 - June 4 -- More Of The Joys and Frustrations of Sailing

On the first and last days of this week two sail dates had to be changed to "other" dates due to rain. The first was with Debby and Peter, who have sailed with us over the years. Peter was one of the crew of ILENE's eight day passage from Hampton VA to Tortola, BVI in October 2010. It was dinner and a movie with them instead. And at the end of this period, a sail with Bennett and Harriet on "Ohana" was changed to a delicious home cooked lobster dinner, card party and movie at their home in Alpine NJ.

I did sail twice. The first was with the Old Salts on Mark's Catamaran "Deuce of Hearts" along with

Mark, the other Mark, Marcia, Sandy and Mike, on Wednesday afternoon for about 3.5 hours in very light winds. We did get up to 5 knots briefly in a puff. We sailed south slightly into Little Neck Bay before dying winds ahead caused us to gybe and go up the west side of Eastchester Bay to further up the Westchester River in the Bay's Northwest corner than I've ever been  -- close enough to see the Shore Road drawbridge. At high tide and with the cat's shallow draft, this was a nice trip with plenty of water under her keel. Then it was coming back out, rounding the Cuban Ledge buoy and heading for the mooring -- and the wine. Hot in the sun with such light wind.

The second sail was with Sandy, Danielle and Annette, shown here at the pre-sail lunch at the Harlem.
Annette had won a ride on ILENE at my synagogue's goods and services auction and had a great sailing day.

I got there early to clean up the boat and rig her for the sail, including putting the first reef in the main in anticipation of the continuation of thirty knot winds. A funny incident  that Annette, who was the organizer of the guests/crew has authorized me to tell you. We got to the launch and I directed them to step aboard. She thought that the launch was ILENE, for a few seconds which got a laugh from all. "What? Did you think the mast was going to rise up from the deck?" asked Danielle. Our course was out of Eastchester Bay and thence to near Rye, passing north of Execution Rocks on port tack. During which I "raced" and closed on a large blue Sloop with flat topped racing sails. This unnamed "adversary" started far ahead of us and held us off pretty well until she furled her headsail. Both Sandy and Danielle took a turn on the helm.

But with much lighter winds in Eastchester Bay, I had shaken out the reef and then the winds grew strong and gusty again. At one point the boat was rounding up and I had to take the helm. The trip back was all on starboard tack and we made a tide assisted eight knots for a while, giving the guests the thrill that I presume they wanted. We sailed past the Blauses, through Hart Island Sound, and through the  Kings Point channel, toward the Throggs Neck Bridge before tacking to head for the mooring. On the last tack the apparent wind came up to 30 knots so we furled the jib and then ran the engine after dropping the main. During this voyage I utilized the services of my guests/crew much better than usual; they became sail trimmers. Once under motor the heeling stopped and we broke out the wine. My guests are now my friends and plan to bid again at the next auction. I discovered a truth that had not occurred to me before: Goods and Services auctions, in addition to helping worthy organizations, and gaining a small tax deduction, are a great way to get crew and make friends.

Three other days involved work. One of the fasteners of the dodger was tearing loose so I removed that screen and brought it to the canvas shop for repair. The harder part will be putting it back on -- it is a very tight fit over its frames, requiring two people, one to haul it tight while the other inserts and twists the fastener. I also redeemed the outboard from the shop, wheeled it to the end of the dock and struggled to get it from the cart to the back of the dink. It is heavy and bulky to handle in a crouched position on a bouncing platform. Unfortunately, I did not have the kill switch, needed for to it to run so I tested it using a length of line in the groove into which the kill switch fits, instead, but had the dink towed back and hauled it up on the davit bar. Later I searched again for the cinching straps and the kill switch and found them all together, in the second search of the first place I had looked.

More time and effort, was spent with Ed, to remove the windlass, cover the hole in the foredeck temporarily with plastic, take it ashore and take it apart. Unfortunately, the grease with which it had been packed when new, was discovered to be largely greasy mud and rust.

I took the motor, not shown, to Bronx Ignition but they reported what Ed had suspected: that a new windlass is in ILENE's future. Then a search of the internet and calls with vendors and Ed ended with knowledge that Lewmar has ceased offering this model and that the replacement, by Maxwell, from Wolf's Marine, which is on order as of this writing, will undoubtedly require some sort of hard patching of the existing holes in the deck and drilling new and different ones of a new template. The windlass also takes the rose off the rose of my recent observation that this year's boat expenses will be well well below the average of prior years. Expenses, barring further problems, will still be below, but no longer "well below". Ive got to learn how to service and maintain the new toy so it will last more than nine years like the old one.
And yes, here is a view of our new fitted sheets for the pullman berth.