May 8 - 19 -- Launch, GIC and ILENE's First Sail of 2019!

And five work days (27 hours) sprinkled in and about the three main events.

Lots of taking off the winter stuff: ladder, hose, electric cord, painting and polishing equipment -- to the car and thence to the locker. I reinstalled the microchip containing all of the charts of the Atlantic coast of the US, Canada and at least some of the Bahamas into the MFD. When out of the MFD the chip is so tiny that it gets stored in the somewhat larger chip. That's my finger to show how small things are.
Also, I hosed down the deck, getting off 99 percent of the debris that accumulates there all winter, purged the fresh water lines of propylyne glycol, filled both of the tanks with seven minutes of hose water, and reattached the salon table.
The launch, assisted by the Huguenot's Orlando and Gus, was as uneventful as conceivable -- on time, with none of the various hitches of prior years involving salt water in the boat.

The  Huguenot let me tie up to their dock overnight, because had I driven to the Harlem I would not have arrived until after the last launch at 4 pm. Next morning I bent on the small jib, my favorite sail in case of engine failure in a tight spot. It is so easy to unfurl, regardless of the direction of the wind and its self tacking feature makes it easy to tack out of a tight spot. But this task, sadly, was not uneventful: first I forgot to roll the furling line into the drum. This was corrected by hand furling the sail at the foil, being that it was a light wind day in a well protected spot. But next I realized that I had led that furler line to starboard instead of port! I had planned to mount another sail that day but spent too much time with the small jib. I motored to the Harlem -- very fast on such a clean bottom. Bennett came, we had lunch and he drove me to the Huguenot where his Ohana was launched and my car awaited my drive home. Next day it was my turn to return the favor, to drive Bennett and his friend Ian from the Harlem to the Huguenot. Then we drove Ohana to the Harlem as soon as the tide rose enough to get her keel out of the mud. But instead of mooring there, we made a slow underway transfer of Mendy and his friend, Grace, from to launch to Ohana for a half hour sail before the launch shutdown for the night at 4:00. Well it was more of a drift than a sail, but gave Grace a wee taste of what sailing can be.
Then after two rest days of rain and a severe stiff neck I bent on ILENE's two large sails and eventually put in the reefing lines on my fifth try to get them right. Also mounted the blocks for the dinghy davits (at the cost of the pin of one shackle; they don't float!), the Lifesling, and the MOM-8 man overboard module, which is secure but not on right yet. The rest was interior cleaning which is now mostly done.
The Harlem's 136th Annual Going into Commission came off on a nice warm sunny Saturday afternoon.

I got this good photo by going to the sea wall, as unobtrusively as possible, to get the sun on the faces of our Flag officers backed up by all of our Past Commodores. This ceremonial raising of the flags at the start of the season is a time capsule. It hasn't changed during the 30 years I have been with the Club, and probably not during the 100 years before that either. There are never surprises during this ceremony and I think that's a good thing. In a world where everything seems to be changing rapidly all the time, this timeless ceremony gives a note of serenity. And we have had black, female and gay people in these lines, by the way, though, as I understand it, the Club did not admit females to membership until the 1970's. Bennett and Harriet had planned to attend but something came up so they gave their ticket to Mendy who enjoyed the abundant good food. The company was great - all sailors, and we were seated with, among others, Paul and Amy, who with their eight year old son, sail a Sabre 32 called "Farther". That's a good name for a cruising boat , which is how they want to use it. Thus is only their second season with her. I filled their heads with as much as I could.  I was authorized to try to plan a club cruise for this summer by the new Fleet Captain, Matt.
Next day was ILENE's first sail and Rhoda came along. I helped her install her boats batteries and we did not get off the mooring until after four, for a 90 minute romp. The wind had been predicted for the low teens all day but we saw gusts up to 30 knots. We used the full main but no head sail. It was a shakedown cruise and we moved fast, achieving 8.4 knots for about 30 seconds. We were on port tack to near Throggs Neck and then a long starboard beam reach to the eastern side of Manhasset Bay. Rhoda had the helm most of the day. A shakedown and the bowline at the bottom of the blue first reefing line blew out -- I had poorly tied the knot.  We picked up the mooring on our first try but I sort of fell from the gunnel of the launch onto its deck when departing. It took the wind out of me for a few minutes but nothing broken and so apparent bruises of excessive pains. Too much wind and the launch operator was straining to hold the launch to the boat's side, but not close enough.
I'm ready for more! The fun has begun!