Nova Scotia Summer Revisited

This posting is way late; we got home on September 12 and here is after Thanksgiving, ten weeks later. Part of the reason for this is that I have had a lot to do and the other part is that I had to recreate the manual spreadsheets which my communications officer threw out! I still love her though. The data in those spread sheet is extracted from the 61 posts in this blog covering the period of the cruise. Im a counter and find the patterns that emerge from data interesting.

We departed on June 18 and returned to our mooring at the Harlem on September 11. Elapsed time: 87 days and 86 nights.

How many of those 87 days were we underway, as compared to lay days?
We had 63 underway days (on 60 passages, because three of the passages were overnight, i.e., two day passages). So 72 percent of our days we were underway for various periods of time. And the remaining 24 days were lay days, of which 20 were planned or desired -- to enjoy the pleasures of the land -- and four were due to bad weather. That we had only four weather lay days is pretty good, I think, though there were five more when we should have stayed put or returned to port when high winds or fog confronted us.

How many ports/harbors/coves did we visit?
Forty nine, though with 60 passages, one would expect 60 ports, one at the end of each of them. The difference is that we entered several ports twice (both on the way up and back) and in the case of Baddeck NS, three times.

How many of the 49 different destinations we visited were "new" ports for us, into which we had never sailed before?
Twenty five, including all of the 20 in Nova Scotia and five in Maine that we had missed on our last three cruises to that state.

How much sailing did we enjoy during those sixty three passage days?
For this analysis I divided the underway days into three categories. We always use the engine when getting underway and when we attach the boat to the bottom or the dock so I divided the 63 days into three categories:
--Sailing days, during which the motor is off most of the time:         28, or 45%
--Days with the motor on (with sails up or not) about half the time: 13, or 21%
--Motoring days, when the engine was on 51 to 100% of the time:   21, or 34%
So a lot of sailing, with the cup half full. More sailing going out when the wind was aft the beam than on the way back when the winds were stronger and confronting us, or absent.

Total mileage: 1947 NM. Divided among the 60 passages this means we averaged  32.5 NM per passage. But this statistic is rather meaningless because it includes three overnight passages of as long as 272 NM with short passages of less than five miles. If you weigh a blueberry and a watermelon and divide by two you get an average fruit weight that doesn't mean much.

I have divided the cruise into six segments described below, in order:
                                                      Days    NM   Passages  NM/Passage
1. Home to landfall in NS                    9       464         5            93
2. In NS to the Bras D"or Lakes         14      287         7            41
3. In the Lakes                                    19      189        15           13
4. After the Lakes in NS to Maine      12     438          5           88     
5. In Maine                                          21     228        18           13
6. From Maine back to the Harlem     12     341        10           34
                                                             87   1947        60 

As you can see. the most time was spent in segments 2-5, at the destination areas of Nova Scotia and Maine, especially segments two and five, with less time and more miles getting there and back.

What about the 86 nights (the 87th was on our mooring at the Club)?
As noted, three were underway.
The remaining 83 were divided as follows:
Anchored:                 21,    25.3%
Moored:                    36,    43.4
At a Dock                 26,     31.3
                                          100%

In addition to the 21 anchoring nights we were provided free dockage over four nights and free moorings over five, bring the total of "no rent" nights to 30 of the 83 on which we were in port.

And we had the pleasure of dining in great places.
87 days times three squares per day means 261 meals, minus the last supper, back home, so the total was 260. All but five (6%) of our 87 breakfasts were aboard ILENE, as were all but seven (8%) of the 87 lunches. It was dinner that we most often ate out, 33 of 86 (38%). Seven of the 33 dinners "out" were on other peoples boats or in their homes.

What of course is missing from this statistical summary posting are the  memorable highlights and rough spots. I'm planning to get together a slide show including them and this framework to be delivered at the Harlem some night this winter. Even if you are not a Harlemite, I'm sure I can get you in.

October 26 to November 15 -- ILENE Is Totally Ready for Winter

Seven Work days, including final completion of preparation for winter on November 7, just in time for the first solid frost of the winter season two nights later. A total of 28.5 hours, plus almost four hours with Lene one day and one hour with Ed Spalina on another.

Two of the days were not at the boat. One of them was at the Club, getting the outboard off of the dink, cleaned up and transported to Al and John's Marine in New Rochelle for service and storage. I could have saved $100 (the storage part after it was winterized) by storing it in my crowded locker. But that would have required lugging it up a nasty flight of stairs, and back down in the spring. I'm getting too old for such heavy stuff. Getting the dinghy itself up there (it is lighter than the motor but very bulky and need to go through a small space) after washing, deflating. and trussing it up like a Thanksgiving turkey took the help of Sheige and Pat. Thanks guys.

The other non-boat Work day was at home with computer, phone and credit card. 1. I created the winter project work list; now lets see it I can get it all done.
2. I contacted Mars Metals in Canada and Great Island Boatyard in Maine to organize the ordering, paying for, delivery and installation of the new lead "sole" to be fastened under the flat bottom of her keel to add weight at the lowest point which should reduce heeling and let ILENE fly a bit faster when close to the wind. The upshot of all this is that I have to wait until May to get this started; the good news is that the price of lead should be lower by then.
3. Tried to fix my DeWalt cordless electric drill and failing that, found a newer and better one at Home Depot for $99. More powerful (20V vs. 14.4V), with a light that shines on the bit, lighter weight with Lion instead of Nicad batteries that do not discharge as fast in storage and recharge faster, and in a bag that will fit more easily in its space on the boat.
4. Ordered a replacement impeller, from Bridge Marine on City Island. The business is run by a man and his twin adult sons. For years I thought that they were a power-boat store and did not use them. But over the last ten tears I have come to admire their friendly and knowledgeable service and decent prices.
5. After much time reading, and subject to answers from the manufacturer and Raymarine (to which this is supposed to hook up), I tentativelyselected Standard Horizon's Matrix AIS GX2200 (less than $350 at Defender in next spring's warehouse sale). This will make it easy to identify other ships by name and give me their size, course and speed, from the display of a VHF radio unit to replace the existing one at the helm.

The other five Work days were spent at the boat.
+Tied off all the running rigging lines so they would not interfere with the installation of the winter cover nor slap against the mast all winter.
+Cleaned out the raw water strainer and attached three funnels through which to pour antifreeze to all systems needing it -- the fourth one, for air conditioner, was not needed because that device was not used this year.
+Drained the hot water tank, bypassed it and pumped out all of the water it discharged.
+Lowered the two cockpit antennae so the winter cover would fit.
+Winterized the fresh water system, with Lene controlling the electric pump switch and the 12 faucets while I poured in the pink stuff.
+Another of Lene's tasks was to help me put on the winter cover, which also involves "trussing" -- at the bow -- though I have finally learned that the zipper at the stern has to be done before the trussing at the bow.

+The engine and salt water deck wash pump could not be winterized the day Lene was there to help me because problems prevented these machines from pushing the pink fluid through themselves. I took off the cover for the engine's water pump's impeller but could not get the impeller out. The special "impeller puller tool" did not work. My great mechanic, Ed Spalina, came a few days later and charged me only one of his under-priced hours to pull it, install the new impeller that I had on hand, and replace the cover. Note to self: though the location is damned near impossible to reach, use needle nose pliers and brute strength to out the old -- and dish soap to slide the new one in -- and don't forget the O-ring. With regard to the salt water washdown, the problem was that I forgot to remind Lene to de-kink the hose; once de-kinked the pump pushed the pink stuff straight through the hose.
+Poured the two gallons of gas from the dink's tank, via a boat funnel, into the car's tank.
+Put half a gallon of distilled water into the 24 cells of the seven lead acid batteries.
+Put padding between all the chafe points on the boat and the winter cover.

And it wasn't all work either. We had two Other days, theater and dinner parties with Bennett and Harriet of "Ohana".

So only nine boat related days in the 21 days of this period. Thus boating related activity has slowed down a lot. But we are not in hibernation because there will be some work and other days throughout the winter.