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.