November 8 to 22 -- Slowing Down After The End Of The Pre-Winter Rush

Three "Other" days, evenings, really, two for theater with sailing friends and the last for the final Membership Meeting of the year and of the current Commodore's second and last year in office. The meeting lasted longer than usual because of all the fully justified  congratulating and thanking that the board members did to each other for the progress the Club has made during the last two years.

And four Work days, three of them at home, total of sixteen hours. One hour was with Ed Spallina at the Club, during which we got the "lower unit" of the outboard engine winterized and I learned how to do it (and wrote it down in terms I can understand) so I can do it myself in future years. I find that a task done only once per year or two is lost to me if not written down. It involves changing the special  oil that is in the lower unit to keep water out of it.

The rest of the time was all at home with paperwork and studying and writing up my list of winter projects and shopping list. The list includes three lines including a new single heavy duty double braid mooring bridle and a spnnaker halyard. I am waiting a return call from Jeff Lazar, rigger extraordinaire, about what size lines I need. I think the boat came with over-sized lines which are, of course, a lot more expensive than thinner ones. I whipped a lot of new ends caused by cutting bad pieces out of old lines so the good parts can be used for other purposes. I have also asked him to reeve the line through the triple blocks with becket and cam cleat that are used to hoist the aft end of the dinghy to the port side of its davit bar. I spent a lot of time finding a detailed description on the net of how to do this, but following the instructions as best I could I still ended up with the friction causing twists I was trying to get rid of.

I have also researched, determined the need for and purchased for the ridiculous price of $79, a longer bar to attach to the existing bars which attach the MOM-8 man overboard box to the rails of the stern pulpit. This shows the horizontal rails from inside the winter cover.

The MOM-8  was mounted on the stern rails to port but it operates, in an emergency, by dropping its load into the water when released, and the dinghy, trussed up against the stern pulpit would block that action. So it will be attached to the starboard side rails of the stern cockpit. The only problem is that there is no vertical rail available on the side (as there is on the stern) and the two horizontal rails are 14" apart while the built-in bars on the module are only 11" long. Hence the need for the extension bar. It has arrived and all I now need do is to figure out how to attach it. Switlik must have instructions. Keep looking, Roger.

The other man-overboard device is the Lifesling 2. This is low tech device: one end remains tied to the boat, the rest to be dumped in the water from its bag on the port side of the stern pulpit rail. It is dragged in the water to the person overboard and then used to pull him or her to the boat. It works fine, remains buoyant, has never been used and needs so periodic recharging.

The only problem was that after fourteen years, its white oilcloth container bag has rotted away to extreme ugliness. I figured the manufacturer would sell replacement covers and while it does, in the process I discovered a woman out in Washington State, Misty McColgan of Standout Yacht Fittings, who sells replacement bags made of Sunbrella (the canvas of the dodger and bimini) with better fasteners and which should be looking good for years. I'll let you know how it turns out.






And then I looked at the big beautiful solid teak cockpit table and saw that the varnish of its top nine inches (when stowed in the vertical position), having been exposed to the elements because the hand made Sunbrella storage bag that came with the boat is nine inches too short and has no top cover, I sent it to Washington too, to be improved.

Sanding, preparing for painting the bottom and waxing the top and freeboard, repainting the stripes on the anchor chain are all on my list.

The fun part of the list is this item: Plan itinerary for Newfoundland cruise from July 1 to
September 15, 2020; discuss with potential buddy boats to synchronize; buy the charts needed.


Here, appropos nothing, is a nice unusual night view of our boat docked at the low dock from from the high deck of the Housatonic Yacht Club taken in about July 2016. I had not been able to download until now. The white vertical line under the American Flag is the MOM-8 mounted improperly on the stern rail.

Update on Cruiser

Readers will recall that our new orange tomcat, Cruiser, showed some improvement in terms of his acceptance of human contact during our cruise to Rhode Island this past summer. He did not like to be petted and with ILENE thankfully devoid of mice, he was a rather useless addition to our crew. After all, what are cats useful for.
But the cause of Cruiser's anti-social activity was discovered during his visit to our veterinarian after the cruise. For one thing the expert said he is most likely 8-9 years old rather than the 5-6 we were told by the adoption agency. But there were two significant reasons why he did not favor humans rubbing their hands over the sides and top of his head and under his neck -- the erogenous zones of feline-human interactions.
He was suffering from ear mites and tooth decay; he had constant earache and toothache pain. I would not want anyone rubbing their hands on my head in these conditions either. These problems were fixed with feline dentistry and medicines. With the pain gone Cruiser is a much more social animal.

Of course he remains somewhat leery of humans due to abuse by them that he must have suffered in the streets, but he has become a much better cat and we look forward to sailing with him and his sister, Alfie, to Newfoundland in 2020.

October 26 - November 8 -- End of the Season; Ten Work Days:ILENE Hauled and Winterized

Ten separate work days during this two week period, with a total of 45 hours, including almost two hours with Lene one day. This time  to do all of the separate steps to get ILENE loaded with her winter stuff, motored the five miles to New Rochelle, oil changed, all sails stripped and taken one at a time to City island, folded and stored in the upstairs locker (the main after minor repairs and refurbishment at Doyle Sails), hauling itself, all fresh water systems winterized and the canvas cover installed and secured. And just in time before the first frost of the winter. Here she is on the hard, with fenders over the side and headstays not yet reattached in photo by Dave from his apartment window.

The trickiest thing was winterizing the engine, which I finally learned after the twelfth year of doing this, how to do without a second person, Lene. Here are pictures of the top of the funnel-hose contraption tied to the D ring at the side of the companionway in the cockpit, followed by one of the bottom of the same hose, with its outside diameter enlarged by wraps of electrical tape, and then  inserted snugly into the big black hose taking seawater from the outlet of the raw water strainer to the engine. With this setup I can pour pink antifreeze into the funnel (some seen as pink in the hose near the bottom, turn the engine on and off and observe the outflow from the exhaust until it turned pink., all from the cockpit.

Now I have a lot of winter projects to think about and work on, but my baby is high and dry and safe.
One such issue is the status of the thick black hose. I saw a tiny leak at its side, probably caused by my effort with the heat gun and tools to get it off of the nipple of the raw water strainer. I'm thinking about whether that hole can be repaired with special tape held in place with another hose clamp of it I need to replace the whole hose, and if the latter, how will I get access to its other end, under the engine. Just one more thing to think about this winter.

The 2019 Sailing Season

The summer season during which ILENE floats (including any sailing on other boats near that season, also known as the "fun season"  has come to an end. So how did the 2019 sailing go?

Having launched on May 9 and hauled on October 29 (and adding the eleven days during late April and early May on a catamaran charter in St, Vincents and the Grenadines) my 2019 sailing season was 185 days, just a tad more than half a year.

Of those 185 days 91 were spent afloat, though 20 of those 91 were lay days on which I lived aboard without getting underway. I don't think this 91 was as many sailing days as I had in 2011 going to and from Grenada, but I had a goodly satisfying dose.

I have divided the 91 days into segments chronologically.
     A. St Vincents and the Grenadines the catamaran charter       11
    B.  From Bermuda to Halifax  on Russee de Jersey                 12    (incl  5 lay days in Bermuda)
    C. Day sails, before the summer cruise                                   17
    D. The summer Cruise to Rhode Island                                   41    A (incl 15 lay days in RI)
    E. Day sails, after the summer cruise                                      10

This analysis reveals that only 27 of the 91 days (segments C and E) were local near City Island, actually it only 26 because one day in segment E was on Athena I in Halifax.

How many of the 91 days were not aboard ILENE? Well, in addition to the total of 23 days for the Catamaran charter and the blue water passage from Bermuda to Halifax on a French aluminum sloop, (segments A and B) I also have to subtract the five following day sails.
     1 on Easy Living,          a Catalina,
     2 on Ohana,                   a Beneteau (twice),
     1 on Jazz Sail,               another Catalina and
     1 on Athena I                in Halifax, an Albin.
All except the last of these five were aboard boats of other members of the Old Salts. I sailed with them nine times, five of the nine aboard ILENE.

Adding these five days on other boats to the 23 of segments A and B means that 28 of the 91 sailing days were not aboard ILENE, leaving only 63 days spent on ILENE, and with fifteen of those being lay days, we only got ILENE underway only 48 times this summer.

We put only 97.2 hours on the diesel this year, about half the average of the prior nineteen seasons. and some of those hours were for refrigeration during lay days.   

How many different friends did I sail with aboard ILENE this summer?   Fifty!
In no logical order, each followed by the number of sails if more than one they are:
Bennett 3    Harriet    Mendy 3    Grace   Ilene  13    Rhoda  2   Lloyd 2  Morty  3  Clara 2  Mike 2  Sandy 2   Debbie  Virginia    Sheila    Babette    Jeff  2  Anthony   Heather  2  Christine  2   Pat    Don  Harry  Tom   Marie   Sacha   Irina   Sarah  Peggy  Devra   Vin   Dan   MaryJane  Ama  Sid  Jan  Linda  and  Joel   plus thirteen folks whose names I sadly do not recall: eight friends of Bennett and  five members of the New York Map Society.

And I sailed with Yves and Greg and Wanda on Canadian boats, so 53 souls, with them added.

While I did boat work on sailing days, I also enjoyed 27 Work Days on the boat during this summer's season - days on which I neither lived nor sailed, and 12  Other Days,spent off the boat at boating related activities. Adding these 39 to the 91 Sailing/Living days totals 130 days of the 185 in which I was engaged in some sort of boating related activities. But to be honest, not a day goes by without my thinking about the sea and perhaps writing for this blog or articles about sailing or reading about sailing. A very good sailing season indeed.
Here is a beautiful picture of the Fordham University Varsity Crew Team practicing in the early morning mist after launching from our club. I did not take this picture.

My winter work season began on October 29 and will last through next May's launch date, with less boat related activities, but they will be reported in this blog.