December 10 - 31 -- Three Brief Work Days With Others; But Only 2.5 Hours Work On ILENE

Each of the three days was fun due to my companions and my accomplishing what little I had set out to do. The middle day was after the big snow; Lene was my chauffer on the pleasant drive, round trip, slow due to the snowy roads but no traffic to speak of. My mission was to shove the snow off of the canvas cover, while my chauffer sat in our warm car. The snow was all on the starboard side of the cover and its weight had distorted it way off centerline. Putting my back under it made fast work of causing the snow to slide off the cover except for the smaller amount atop the part of the canvas which pressed it down on the solar panels. I could not make much progress working between the panels and the cover and left the snow there to melt. Half an hour. The plastic sheeting which is shrink wrapped onto most of the boats that get covered these days has an advantage (in addition to allowing a trickle charge as discussed below): a lower coefficient of friction. This means the snow slides off more easily, perhaps without the need for human intervention. The downside is about $1000 per year for the non-reusable plastic sheeting and the labor of professional installers.

The other two days involved teamwork with David of "Hidden Hand", his 40 foot C & C, while interesting conversation ensued. I hope we will enjoy more such days as the winter progresses, though David will spend a good part of it out west in New Mexico and sailing with a friend who keeps a boat in the Sea of Cortez. (Am I a bit envious?) Our routine begins and ends at 96th St and First Avenue where I pick David up and drop him off. From there we go to Consolidated Yachts on City Island where his boat is and then after a brown bag lunch, to ILENE at the Huguenot.

The first day we could not gain access to David's boat because the inverted "U" shaped zipper-closing "door" had not been installed in the plastic cover. The starboard side of his boat is about 18" from the eave of a shed with a crenelated tin roof. David has a good ladder to gain access to the roof, from which we can step across the gap through the door and into the covered boat. Our second day was delayed because while the door had been installed, the yard had not attached a two by four on the eave of the slanting roof to prevent us from accidentally sliding off the roof, which could cause severe injuries. The yard workers bolted on the 2 x 4.  I gave David a four foot length of former genoa sheet  to tie the top of the ladder to the 2 x 4 so the ladder can't blow away. David used a batten and tape to snake the male end of his shore power cord down from the boat between the boat and its plastic cover, off its port quarter. Then I ran it up to the outlet box for shore power. He gave me a short piece of thin line and a short wooden stick which I attached to the tang of the zipper to make it easier to slide it up and over the "U" -- to lessen the need to lean over the 18" chasm from the slanting metal roof. David experimented and learned that a small amount of sunlight makes its way through the translucent white plastic cover creating a trickle charge to the batteries when he is not there and the sun shines. He gave me a couple of Velcro loops for use on ILENE, and gathered some fishing, communications and navigation gear for use on his winter sail. And we were off.

At ILENE, the first day David helped me with the electrical problems I identified a few posts ago. The radio could not be turned off unless I removed a fuse: The answer was simple! The AM/FM radio is powered by two different wires. The one that goes to its on/off switch on the breaker panel works fine. The other supplies constant power to keep track of preset stations and the clock in the radio. But this radio has no clock so that power source served no useful function and simply leaving the fuse out, as it has been since I have had the boat, is the solution.

The other issue was the fused wire that hung over the others behind the breaker panel. When fused it lit the backlights behind the labels of each breaker on the panel, whether the specific breaker called "Panel Lights" was on or off. Those tiny lights are useful at night. The answer was to detach one end of that wire from where it was attached (and David knew which end of it to detach). The next step was reattaching it to the specific breaker called "Panel Lights", fourth from the bottom in the second column from forward. David's first guess was to reattach it to the aft end of that breaker, which did not work. But the other end did. The problem then became unscrewing the tiny bolt which held existing wires in place, putting the loop at the end of the mystery wire around that bolt with the other wires already there,  it and screwing it back in. In no way do I blame David for dropping the bolt, which skittered off the outboard side of the tray into an unreachable no-man's hands land. I'm so clumsy, I'd have dropped ten of them! Eventually, after ILENE is tossed and turned by the waves in a storm next summer, that bolt will work its way down to the bilge for retrieval. In the meantime I rooted in my new trusty box of bolts of all sizes and found one of the correct diameter and thread, and a bit longer. Problem solved. The shiny new bolt is indicated by the blue arrow I have drawn and the wire runs up from the bottom indicated by the yellow allow. It looks like the fourth breaker form the "top", but when the hinged board if lifted up and closed, it is the bottom. The picture also shows the grey plastic sheet off of which the old bolt skittered.

Our other day on ILENE I wanted to install the new plastic liquid transfer pump ($13 from Amazon, including shipping.)  This has only 1/2" outside diameter flexible clear plastic tubing so it is way to slow to bail out the boat in an emergency. But the idea was simply to get out the small amount of water that the pick up ends of the much more robust electrical and manual bilge pumps cannot reach. My thought had been to afix the bottom end of the uptake tube to the bottom of the bilge with wire ties. But David had a better idea, to tape a wooden rod to the side of the hose so, like the attachment to his Zipper entry, it could be held to the bottom without reaching one's arm way down there. It worked and lowered the water level in the bilge from 1/2" to less than 1/16", pumping 3/4 of a gallon into an empty antifreeze bottle which was easily dumped. I'm just leaving the apparatus in the bilge so it will be handy for the next time. The other task de jour was figuring out where and how to hang the coils of newly laundered spare lines in the lazarette (instead of their laying on the inside of the hull at its bottom. Objectives were ease of installation and removal of the coils and that the coils would not impede my access to the places in that lazarette to which I need to reach or go. And this is where those Velcro loops will be used and I will buy enough more of them

This is the final and 47th post of 2020. I look forward to continuing to sail, and work on, think about and write about boating in 2021 and beyond. Happy New Year everyone!

November 25 - December 10 -- Six Work Days But Only Twelve Hours

 And what got done?

The prop and shaft: First I cleaned them thoroughly -- the tiny bits of old paint scraped off; I felt like my dental hygienist, working intensely in scraping small areas, not small compared to my teeth but certainly small compared to the hull of the boat. Then sanding with 80 grit to give the brassy prop and stainless steel shaft "tooth" for the paint to stick. A thorough wash with Acetone to get off all dust and oils is next and the problem, unsolved after all these years, is that the grease with which I packed the interior, the moving parts of the prop, emits greasy traces which need to be removed as best I can do so. Finally three coats of paint: first the green primer and then two coats of white paint. This picture shows the culprits after the brassy surface was primed but before the white anti-barnacle paint. One spring job done in the fall. I will paint the strut with regular (blue) bottom paint though it is brass, because it does not move.

I've also sanded about half of the port side of the companionway where the cherry wood veneer looked drab grey after 20 years of sun bleaching and occasional salt spray. I also vacuumed up the dust and other particulates in the boat that will work their way into the bilge if left unattended. and obtained the cherry colored stain that needs to be applied after all the sanding is done but before the top coats of polyuurethane. And I sanded down the brass light switch cover which likewise needs new poly before reattachment.

I learned of a way to get the last half inch of water out of the bottom of the bilge from the Saga Owner's forum and the cheap hand pump is en route to my home. The normal bilge bumps get most of the water but cannot reach down far enough to get that last half inch. Some of the guys suggested much more technically advanced electrical solutions but the volume of water to be sucked out is so little that a Roger-powered pump will suit my needs.

The only other thing I have done was to remove about 100 yards of old lines of various diameters and lengths from the bottom of the lazarette for processing. I did most of the processing at home on two of the days. I threw a few away and cut bad pieces out of others making more lines of lesser lengths. I whipped all the ends, laundered the lines in the big washing machine, untied the resulting not quite Gordian knot that the washing machine and drier had tumbled them into and coiled each.

While they are off the boat I will complete the cleaning of the lazarette into which they will be stored. But I'm trying to come up with a system of hooks from which I can hang them so they are each reasonably accessible but without denying me access to the lazarette.

Not a lot of progress but it gets me out of the house.

November 6 - 24 -- Work Continues, Slowly, But What's The Rush

 In addition to observing the "Reverberations" exhibit and paying my respects to Erwin at his internment in Mahwah NJ where half the mourners were Harlemites and the other half were friends and family, I had three work days totaling only 7.5 hours during this period. On two of them, David, a fellow Harlemite whose apartment window gives him a good view of ILENE, upon seeing that my ladder was up and thus knowing I was there, rode his bike over and we had nice chats. So far the old electric space heater has not had trouble keeping the chill out of the boat. Of the two areas of work in New Rochelle (in addition to errands on City Island) one involved scraping bare the propeller and shaft and lubricating the prop's internal parts via the  grease gun through Zirc fittings. Now all I need do is sanding the bare metal to give it "tooth" wiping away all external grease with acetone and it will be ready for primer and paint. On days when the weather is warm enough, this can be done in the fall, saving time in the spring. The other job, other than taking more water out of the bilge, is sanding the veneered interior plywood to stain it back to its original cherry wood color and coat it with polyurethane. It especially looks bad on the port side of the companionway ladder where after 20 years the wood has become a bit bleached out by the sun and weathered by salt spray. I don't think most people will notice but I do. (Also in cleaning out the bilge I discovered that one of the handy plastic tags, this one labelling a through-hull valve  "AC Intake" needed a bit of work. After 20 years in the bilge, the glue of the label strip had given way as had the wire physically letting it hang from the correct through-hull. I used the Dremel tool to "engrave" the  words into the plastic tag (not neat but legible and it won't come unstuck) and some new Stainless wire to reattach the tag it in place.

I have also occupied myself on the internet. Parts of an abandoned Saga are being sold off. My request for a $20 plastic cover for one of the cockpit instruments that I've been protecting from the sun by hanging a cockpit cushion from the port coach roof winch was rather ignored; it was the bigger pieces, costing thousands of dollars that got the attention. But one of the men who reads the Saga Net heard my plea and having upgraded to new instruments recently, has shipped me a cover. No charge. His boat is in  Salem MA and we will try to stop there to say hello and buy him some drinks. Thanks, Jeff.

   Another owner reported that a hinge for the heavy, well-insulated, top-opening refrigerator lid had broken and I remembered where we had bought ours in 2012 and sent him the name of the Fort Lauderdale chandlery which is still in business. But I also get several conflicting answers to my question to the Facebook Interest Group on Marine Electrical Issues.  Trojan, the manufacturer of the six six-volt golf cart batteries that comprise ILENE's "house bank", recommends that lead acid batteries be "equalized" from time to time. I had tried to research the issue, having never done this process. My batteries have been in use for ten years this month, and having otherwise been taken care of, they are still going strong. Apparently equalization involves overcharging the batteries (after taking off the fill caps) which cause the sulfuric acid water in them to boil which transfers sulfur that has accumulated on the lead plates back into the acid, thereby prolonging the life of the batteries. But how to do this dangerous sounding and hours long project. Several folks told me I'd need to get a stronger charger than the built in "smart" one, because the smart one has a controller designed specifically to prevent such an overcharging. And during this process I have to use a tool that I would have to buy and learn to use to measure the fluid in each cell of each battery until it measured just right. Another of my internet teachers (and I'm grateful to them all) told me what I really wanted to hear: "Just let it go and enjoy your existing batteries for as long as they last." And that is what I've decided to do.

Its always something.

REVERBERATIONS

So what is art doing in a sailing blog, one might ask. Reverberations is an art installation -- five bells strung  along the 200 yards or so on the East side seawall of the East River, at Brooklyn Bridge Park, opposite the South Street Seaport. Its proximity to salt water suggests the sea as does the color of the bells: international orange -- the color of life jackets so those in the water can be picked out  visually amidst the sea of blue, green, grey and white so they can be plucked out of the sea. The light spot on the bell occurred because two holes, on opposite sides of the bell, are lined up to the camera.

I attended a free Zoom interview of the artist presented by the Cooper Union, and then visited the installation the next day, a short round-trip subway ride to the first stop on Brooklyn.

Each of the five bells in the installation is identical in size, shape and color but their holes are drilled in different patterns, which the artist says give each bell a distinct tone, though my tin ears were unable to distinguish the differences. 

Each is in the shape of a parabola and cast in bronze by the ancient "lost wax" method. Then top and bottom are welded together, the weld smoothed, the holes are drilled and they are painted their distinctive color. Their clappers (seen in the bottom of the bell in the top photo) can be pulled via the chain by any passer by and their size can be seen in the next picture (with he Brooklyn Bridge behind)  by comparison to me, at 6' 2", pulling the chain.

The questions at the interview focused on the art, e.g., comparing the artist's work to that of other artists who have featured bells in their work and may have influenced her. My interest was more in their nautical imagery. For example, their shape and color is closer to the form of a buoy than a traditional church bell. And their clappers looked like those on bell buoys that chime 24/7 when the buoys are jarred by waves to ring out danger to mariners. There are several buoys in the waters of the east river, red or green to mark the sides of the deep channel. 

The bells are said to sound  a warning about the ravages that climate change is doing to the world, which reminded me of another warning bell in a different city we have sailed to and moored in. The good citizens of New Bedford Massachusetts rand a freedom bell to  warn its residents  of color to hide when runaway slave catchers were seen approaching that whaling town.

The final photo in this post is of a plaque providing further information about the artist and the subject. Sadly the installation is scheduled to be removed in mid April, making it unlikely that I will be able to il past the installation.

I have also had to sadly advise our Commodore that the Club's mostly annual Winter Land Cruisewill be yet another victim of Covis 19. Each year we go to an interesting nautical-related place with fellowship and followed by lunch and with a small fundraising component. Not in 2021.

 

October 24 - November 6 -- Two Other Days, Six Work Days and ILENE Is Winterized.

 The two "Other" days were 1) cooking, bringing, and sharing a dinner with Harriett and Bennett (Harriett's broken leg is very much on the mend) and 2) a free webinar on weather forecasting presented by the American Sailing Association. The webinar was disappointing (though I got a few tips) because it was essentially an "infomercial" selling a new course that would make me a meteorologist -- teach me more than I need or want to know. I'm glad I did not pay for the infomercial as many people who wanted to get rich in the property development business paid to Donald Trump's "school" in which they were taught that if they really wanted to learn his secrets they should pay even more money for a longer course. It cost me nothing (except an hour of my time) and one gets what one pays for,

The six work days (21.5 hours) related to winterization. One day I spent the four hours half helping Bennett on Ohana and half being helped by Bennett on ILENE. But I could not get the salt water deck washdown pump to run -- and it needs to run to pump the pink propylene glycol through a funnel and hose into its body of the pump and thence through the wash down hose that I discharge into the toilet bowl of the forward head. Turning on the pump's switch at the breaker panel caused the pump to run for half a second --and then it stopped stopped. After buying new fuses and checking all fuses (that I could find)  I tried again on a later date and the same result: half a second and then nothing. I searched the boat and found the Saga cross connection list.

Using it I identified the well labelled wires of this particular circuit from among the many other wires on the frame behind the circuit breaker panel. But seeing them did not help me solve the problem, and it turns out that the problem was not behind the panel at all. 

At that point I was compelled to ask my friend and competent mechanic, Ed Spallina, to come and fix it. He removed the pump from its attachment to the hull (four screws), screwed off the inflow and outflow hoses, and removed the outflow end of the pump from its chassis (six screws of two different types). Then, after pulling that end off, he was able to turn the shaft with his fingers and reported it was not "seized", and spun the impeller, which moved freely as well.

Reassembly was performed with testing at various stages to see if it purred, and it did. So I don't know why it refused to run for me, but it ran for Ed and we used it, with me turning on the switch and pouring the pink stuff in through the funnel and Ed holding the washdown hose in the forward head until it ran pink instead of white.  WINTERIZATION IS COMPLETE! It only took him half an hour -- time and money very well spent, though I wish I knew why the pump had not worked for me. 

I had drained the fresh water tanks in that no more water came to the faucets when the electric and foot pumps were pumped. But I thought that maybe some water remained. So I took the boards that are atop the tanks off (eight screws each) and the viewing ports (off six screws each) and pumped about four more gallons of remaining water, sadly a muddy color, out of the tanks before adding half a galon of vodka to each tank and reassembling.                  

Before Ed came, after checking every fuse of the boat -- that I know of -- I found three that were blown or missing and replaced them; in the process I learned two of  ILENE's electrical secrets.

First, one fuse, (the one to the right in the row of five in the photo) once it was replaced, meant that I could not turn OFF the FM radio, my constant companion during work days. When I disconnected the batteries "entirely" from sending current to the boat by turning the two battery selector switches to OFF, the boat got dark, but WNYC FM played on. Hmmm? So I turned the volume to as low as possible (very little electrical draw) and slept on it. Obviously the fused wire in question connects DC electricity directly from the ship's batteries to the radio even when the circuit breaker switch for that radio is off. The solution came to me in my sleep: I simply took the fuse back out, and the radio now turns off except when I turn its breaker on. 

The other secret concerned a fuse holder that hangs behind the upper forward corner of the breaker panel. It was empty. I held a piece of whitish paper behind it so you can see it in the picture.

When I put in a ten amp fuse, tiny backlights for each of the labels for the sixty circuits on the breaker panel came on. But while these lights draw very little juice, I only need them when night sailing which we didn't do even once in 2020. So I removed the fuse and will reinsert it when we night sail.

Fresh rain water accumulates in the bilge during the winter and freezes solid there. It comes in despite the canvas winter cover -- in two places, I think. And I finally thought of ways that I hope will stop this. The first culprit is the hawse hole and the anchor windlass which are holes through the deck near the bow for the two anchor chains. I took a large flat plastic box used I have to stand open cans of paint in the spring and inverted it atop the holes. The more likely route of entry is water running down the outsides of the mast through the "mast boot", the hole in the deck through which the mast passes. The mast has be able to move a bit when sailing so there is room for water to run. During the summer the bilge pump just pumps the water out but in winter it gets frozen in the ice which is not good for the pump or the boat. My experiment here was constructing a sort of tent, of plastic bags and duct tape, about ten inches above to deck, to divert the water running down the mast away from the mast boot. This will not work in the summer because the wind will blow it away and the running rigging needs to move freely in that area, but it may solve the problem during the winter when the tent is protected from the wind by the canvas cover. I emptied the bilge dry and will find out if my efforts are successful after the next hard rain. 

I checked the zinc in the refrigerator's condenser and it is good for the first month of 2021. Before draining the fresh water tanks I bypassed the hot water heater by disconnecting the hose that lets fresh cold water in and the one that lets hot water out, connected these two hoses to each other with a short piece of plastic pipe and drained the heater's tank by removing a drain bolt which somehow, I lost! So after a long fruitless search in the bottom of the lazarette I searched in the box in which small parts are stored and took out about thirty small bolts of various sizes and threads that have been collected during my 30 years of boat ownership. They are now in a new small special plastic box (making more room in the first box for other tiny things) and then found I  -- one that fit the drain hole. While in the lazarette I pulled out very many lengths and diameters of cordage and coiled each neatly. But before returning them I need Lene to come to the boat to throw out some that are too old, frayed or short to be useful; I'm horrible at throwing things away and she is good at this -- we complement each other. And then I scrubbed many years of accumulated grime form the bottom of the lazarette.  ILENE is ready for her winter projects.

Rest in Peace Hadley and Erwin

 Earlier this Fall, only a few weeks ago, I posted in mourning about the loss of Harlem sailor John Paskalis. And now death has taken two more giants, my friends, mentors and helpers. Three in one season and no, it is not Covid that has taken them. My pain is real. 

Hadley, was the father of Catherine, who met Craig at the Club and had married him before I joined. They survive him. They taught me some secrets about racing, namely: do not yell or lose it when things go wrong, as they inevitably will, but calmly make it right as quickly and efficiently as possible and keep going. But they are consummate cruisers, mentors to me. We visited with Catharine and Craig in Florida in 2015, where they keep "Sangaris", their Amel 47, after returning on it from several years of cruising her in Europe. They gave me the "helm" of one of their electronic joy stick/radio controlled  model boats one morning.

Hadley, an accountant, served the Harlem for many years, keeping track of our money for us.  He sailed "We Three," a Pearson, with his wife, Susan and son, Billy, who survive him. Hadley participated in several of the Club Cruises. Lene and I were honored to be invited and participated in Billy's wedding, thereby following the commandment to "rejoice with the bride and groom."  Hadley and Susan retired to Rhode Island and we visited them there several times during the last decade. Once our plans  accidentally brought us to Bristol at the Fourth of July Weekend. We had no idea about how big a deal that holiday is in Bristol. Yet Hadley had arranged to move his sloop, Vagula, to give us his mooring.  Our last visit with Hadley was after it was no longer safe for him to sail, even as a guest on ILENE, but we had dinner with Hadley and Susan in a French restaurant  in Tiverton. 

Erwin was the most terrific guy, an honored Past Commodore, expert and experienced at all aspects of sailing including boat making. When his passing was announced, the internet lit up with so many email tributes to him from the memories of Club members. Mine is here.

I joined the Harlem while still new to boating. I knew that I had to "fog off" the Atomic 4 gas engine, but had no idea how to do this. Everyone had told me, correctly, that "People will help you here at the Harlem". My Pearson 28 "Just Cause" had been hauled and the threat of frost was imminent. I was asking who will help me. One man, who I had not asked, came over and showed me how to do it, by doing it. That man was Erwin. That evening, at a Club party, one of the folks who I had asked for help came over and said "Did you get that help you needed with your engine yet?" I'm bad at names and had lost Erwin's. I said "Yes, it was that blond fellow." Later that evening Erwin came over and said "Thank You." "For what?", I replied. He laughed and said, "It has been decades since this white hair was blond!"

When the head gasket was shot on that engine, a few years later, Erwin spent two hot summer days on my boat taking off the engine's head which he then took to his shop, machined flat, and reinstalled, in time so I could participate in the Club cruise. At one point he directed me to go ashore and get some studs to replace the ones that had to be removed and a cold chisel. When I got back Erwin took a large hammer and WHAMed it to the chisel that he held against my engine -- to get the head off. "What are you doing to my baby, I cried?!?!" He just laughed. I say he helped me with my engine, but the fact is that did the job with me just handing him tools and learning -- and he refused any pay.

I had the pleasure of sailing with Erwin on his sloop, "Mother Goose", Muzzer Goose as he called her, with the Wednesday afternoon Old Salts Club of which he was apparently a founding organizer. I also enjoyed several of his "right after Thanksgiving," week-long charters from Conch Charters in Road Town, Tortola, BVI's, of which he was the guiding spirit. Hadley cruised with us at least one time, come to think of it. Erwin epitomized leadership, not from behind by telling people what to do, but by taking the laboring oar, setting the good example and exhorting us: "Follow me!"

He designed, fabricated and installed the unique cantilevered supports from the radar arch on which ILENE's solar panels have been installed since 2010. With his design, the panels are quite secure but hidden, in plain sight, above the bimini, but not relying on the bimini for support. And he refused to take any payment except for the materials.

I'm also grateful that he did his best to provide a father figure for my daughter's late husband.

Lene and I had a lovely lunch with Erwin at the restaurant of his club in North Palm Beach Florida in March of 2015 while we were returning from Key West.

Our Club has been blessed to find leaders to follow in Erwin's footsteps.

October 20 -23 -- Three Work Days And Covered

Three 0f the four days in this period were work days, totaling 13 hours by me plus four more with Mendy, who was great for the heavy lifting jobs, plus I enjoy his company and conversation. The two yard men needed my help to get the forestays reattached and tightened. The remaining two sails were stripped, transported, folded and stowed in the upstairs locker. (Mendy, my weight- lifting heavy-lifter, estimated the main weighs 75 pounds and it is bulky even when folded neatly.) Also, the dodger is removed so its zipper can be replaced at Doyle Sails. An innovation: I used the topping lift to raise the aft end of the boom so the dodger's stainless frame could be arced forward under it and removed one screw on each side. Now it lays flat on the coach roof and is no longer a hazard of head bumps. Also, I removed six stanchions and four lifelines, labeled them and stowed them in the anchor locker and removed the steering which I moved to the forward head for the winter. Then the framing for the winter cover was placed, i.e., the whisker pole, the boom and the wooden extension and its support beam. And all remaining running rigging was moved so as to not interfere with the winter cover. The electrical cord is placed for shore power and the salon table removed for access to the bilge. This picture, (photo credit: Mendy) was before the cover was tightened:

October 19 HAULED: End of the Fun Season And What Was It Like?

Fouled communications led to the "wrong" time to go to the Huguenot -- but no harm done. I was told to be there at nine for the high tide and expected to leave the Harlem at eight to motor there. But I had not checked the tide tables and upon arrival at the Harlem, which has essentially the same tides as New Rochelle, it was near low! And I had failed to note that the Harlem's launch service had been cut back so as to only start at nine AM so I had an hour to wait. I chatted with Jack who had taken his beloved stiff-hipped 15 year old pooch, Boots, for his morning constitutional. We reminisced about our passage, together and with others, on "Thai Hot" from Bermuda back to the Harlem, in about 2008. 

Once delivered to ILENE by the launch, I chased a gull, standing on the foredeck -- away from his breakfast -- two dead fish. not eaten enough to make as big a mess as usual. The gull flew circles around ILENE until I got underway. Then passing through Hart Island Sound, I put her on auto, threw the fish back into the sea, put up the dock lines and fenders and got out the air horn -- because the Huguenot does not normally answer on VHF. Entering through the western channel (past the NYAC) at near low tide I saw the many rocks that line it. But the lowest I saw on the depth meter, heard its beep actually, was seven feet, briefly.  Orlando and Gus were right in place to help with the lines so the air horn was not needed.   

From ten to two, after scrubbing off the fresh fish blood I took off the jib and the main, except for removal of the battens from the latter, and got ready for the lads to remove the headstays. I also took off the dodger for repair (replacement) of a zipper and staged the ladder and tarp in the area of the yard where ILENE now sits -- the same spot as last year, convenient for water and electricity. The actual hauling process was done easily and flawlessly but the best news of the day was that the power washing (Gus did the best job ever) showed that the bottom paint I had applied in the spring looked almost as good as new. I will put on another coat before relaunching, but except for the prop, there will be very little bottom work needed this winter. In fact, it looks like very few winter chores will be on my list for 2020-21 once ILENE is covered and winterized.  And for the first time, I left the boat before she transported from the launch pad and blocked. I took the two busses back to the Harlem and got home in plenty of time for showering, dinner and the evening's Zoom book club meeting.

                                       WELL WHAT SORT OF SEASON WAS 2020?

Having launched on May 27, ILENE spent only 145 days afloat, a relatively short season. (I note that including this one, I will have made only 40 posts to this blog so far this year, compared to the next least, for the entire 2016, 53 posts.

Nineteen of the 145 days of the season were work days, leaving 126. Six of the 126 were "Other" days, leaving 120.  Of the 120, only 74 were sailing days. Three of the 74 were day sails on Bennett's Ohana and three were on David's Hidden Hand, leaving only 68 days sailed on ILENE.  Adding back in the six days on friends boats gets us back to the 74 sailing days, which I've divided into three categories:

First comes Cruising days -- those on which ILENE began, or ended (or spent the whole day) away from her home mooring. There were 26 of these, some with Sammy and Mendy, were to Sheepshead Bay, Oyster Bay and Ziegler's Cove. and the rest were our two cruises, first, east, to the Shelter Island area and later, north, up the Hudson, almost to Albany.

The second category of sail days are Live Aboard Days, during which ILENE spent the whole day on her mooring and we lived, ate and slept aboard her with various ashore activities during parts of the day. There were nineteen of these and we would have had more except the intense heat drove us home to air conditioning.

Finally are the Day Sail days, 29 of them, 17 with Lene but all with friends: we drop our mooring in Eastchester Bay and return to it several hours later. The friends added up to 35 different individuals, some days with only one person and others with as many as four. So in retrospect, we took risks and made our bubble a big one. Most of the friends who sailed with us this year did so only once but several had more than one excursion. This year's prize winning guest was Mendy with a total of eight days aboard, three cruising and five day sails. Many such guests have sailed with us in prior years but for fifteen it was their first ride on ILENE.

So for a Covid truncated season, not too bad overall. I'm particularly pleased to have had the pleasure of my boat's namesake for all except twelve of the 74 days. 

And oh yes: We put 129.5 engine hours on the Yanmar (about 19 of them for refrigeration during the live aboard days) and 905 nautical miles under ILENE's keel plus enough more, during the six rides on other boats, to have had approximately a 1000 nautical mile season.

And now dear readers, the work season has begun.

Oct 7 - 14 -- Season's Last Two Sail Days, Two Work Days and ILENE Is Ready To Be Hauled

The two sail days could not have been more different. 

First, on ILENE in LOTS of wind (20 with gusts to 25 knots) with David of "Hidden Hand". We were only underway two hours and part of that was a delay near the start while I corrected the reefing of the main: (I had connected at the cringle for the third reef by accident and had to slack the halyard to reattach for the second forward reef point. I'm going to find a way to indelibly mark the three sets of rings. Once that was straightened out we were very fast --  to Ex. Rocks and back in less than two hours. Seven or more knots, peaking at 8.4; exhilarating!  David is good at electronics and both erased my track and recalibrated the wind speed instrument. He also saved the day when, on the way home, through inattentiveness I was heading for maybe 150 feet inside Big Tom's R 2. No harm done. I also gained a greater appreciation for Lene's skill in bringing the boat to very slow AT the mooring. I had criticized her for how she did this but it took me three tries to get it right. 

Next day I was with Lene and Bennett on his "Ohana". I "used" Bennett as bait -- to get an extra day afloat with Lene; she would not have come out for a day sail with me alone, but with Bennett.... And after sailing a good dinner at their home in Alpine cooked by Harriet whose broken leg is recovering.

 The wind was very light and we had problems with the sails. First, we could not unfurl the in-mast mainsail. I think it may have had to do with not releasing the vang which we had used in the race the week before, which changed the angle of the boom relative to the mast. Or it may have been that our other crew member during the race had furled the sail too far into the mast. Just theories. Bennett has purchased a brand new mainsail and the sailmaker will know how to get the old one out.  Without a main, we used his code Zero which is a rather powerful sail and I learned a little better how to rig it up.

Ilene liked the colorful and powerful nature of the big sail but using it is complicated and we ended up with one of the sheets captured in the furl; It can be fixed, by unfurling it on the Club's ballroom floor during the winter. Anyway, we rather drifted south to the north coast of Great Neck, east of Kings Point, and had to use the engine briefly to turn the boat for the drift back to the mooring. Not exiting sailing but good fun with good friends.

The first Work day was frustrating. My primary plan had been to winterize the water maker but an error symbol had come up saying 'check prefilters". Having replaced them I tried again with the same non-result. I gave up. I did use the new velcro dots that Zarcor sent to me, for free, to reattach the "CloZure" sliding shutter to the aft cabin port. Zarcor stands behind its products. I wish I could buy their cafe companionway doors, made of starboard, but no need because ILENE came with beautiful wooden ones. 

I consoled myself from the frustration of the day with a meeting of the Harlem Yacht Club, held outdoors, overlooking the water. It was the shortest (60 minutes), most productive and least acrimonious Club meeting I have ever attended. Literally, no one disagreed with anyone else about anything and reports were made on all of the progress that our Board is making on so many fronts. I  feared that the Treasurer's report could have a lot of red ink but while revenues this Covid year were down, so were expenses and we seem to remain afloat.

Next day involved a lot of time on the phone: with the insurance broker, and an email to the underwriter to explain, with pictures, that the keel modification made the boat safer rather than less safe, with the hope that they would relax the need for a full survey. The jury is out on this issue. And to Bryan of Headsync, up in Newport RI. They installed ILENE's water maker in 2010. He told me to let the work on the winterization go this year because the propylene glycol I put in two years ago is still good. But after ten years, I have to stop in Newport next summer and he will put in a new "membrane". 

My next day on the boat, was very satisfying. I took the winter covers, their cords and pads and the ladder and ground tarp from the locker to the boat. Then after scrubbing off the fish remains left by the birds (I think ILENE becomes a more popular dining spot for them in the fall when there are less alternatives.) I stripped off the genoa and bundled it coarsely for later transport to shore. A round trip motor drive to the fuel dock on the north side of the City Island Bridge to top off the tanks to avoid introduction of water to them by condensation during the winter was next. I cranked up the diesel as high as I could but after 2600 rpms, the rpms and speed did not increase when I pushed harder on the throttle. Enroute we passed the small orange death ferry transporting the remains of the unclaimed poor across Hart island Sound (The River Styx).

I screwed down the cabin sole and the board under my berth (over the watermaker). Ashore, after a restorative beer with the guys to rehydrate and rest, I laid the genoa out flat and folded and rolled it into a smaller neat package, tied it up securely and two of the guys helped me carry it up the stairs to its winter home. 

And in the evening, thanks to a tip from Sid, I watched "Second Wind: The SNOEK Refit" a PBS documentary on the life and accomplishments of Onne van der Wal, a noted boater and boating photographer, who has a photography gallery in Newport RI. There were many scenes in the New England waters and ports that we have come to know. It celebrated Onne's lifetime of accomplishments not least of which was his almost complete rebuild of a 1972 Pearson 36, a boat with "good bones".  He clearly spent more time and money than the beautifully restored boat is worth, but it was a labor of love and he took pride in it. Available on  You Tube. Thanks, Sid!

Sept 25 to October 6 -- Five Nice Sails in Summery Conditions

Usually by this time of year the air is cold and the winds strong. Reefing time. But none of the five excursions reported on were white knuckle sails. We never used the genoa but no need for reefs and easy sailing. Long sleeve shirts but not heavy winter coats.

1. Rhoda and Lloyd joined me for a sail to Execution Rocks. Both going and returning we went through Hart Island Sound, an unusual occurrence. We ran through outbound and  beat back on the return. Lloyd, who is the less sailing oriented partner of the couple, had the helm sixty percent of the time and all the way back. I think that for him, this may have been the most enjoyable sail of his life; I hope so.

2. I joined Bennett and his friend Jeff on Ohana in a Club race. Slow going, including a 90 minute delay while there was no wind as seen on the surface behind Jeff.

Due to Covid, instead of the traditional beer party on the Club's deck after the race, each boat was provided with a goody bag containing a bottle of wine and a lot of snacks. We had a pleasant day despite being completely out of the race from the start. The course was shortened due to light wind and involved going from the start at the Cuban Ledge buoy to the green can just before the Whitestone Bridge and back. Bennett had removed his dink to lighten the load, but not his dodger and bimini. And we forget to appoint a stopwatch equipped starter so we had only a general idea of when the start would occur. The other boats ranged from avid racers to those who race a few times a year. But they all crossed the starting line within a few seconds after the gun, trimmed and going full speed. We had a slower start and during the first few tacks we taught Jeff, who had raced sunfish several decades ago in his youth, how to release a loaded winch. But the biggest problem was that Ohaha's jib is too small for such a race compared with the genoas on the other boats. We had a great time sailing together but while all the other half dozen boats finished, on corrected time, within between 60 and 100 minutes, our sail lasted 160

3. Lene joined me and our friends, Sid and Jan, for a sail in winds that kept us in the five knot range. We went to the moored boats at the south end of Little Neck Bay and then out through Kings Point Channel and continued all the way to Larchmont on the same tack. On the return we had one tack on the south side of Execution Rocks and a couple more to home. We would normally have had dinner with our friends of 30 years or so, but we had to retrieve Cruiser from the Vet's office where his final remaining 14 teeth were extracted. Our orange tabby is literally a toothless tiger, poor guy, and had pain for the next few days which we sought to relieve. But once his perpetual toothache is removed, he will have a happier life.

4. With David, the Club's House and Locker Chairman (left), and Phil and Diane, a couple of brand spanking new social (non-boat owning) members who I had met and worked with at the Club Work Party that Dave had organized and led for three hours in the morning on the dock after sailing. My tasks included pulling monstrous weeds in the storage area we call "The Farm", enough to fill a dumpster!, and then consolidating toxic wastes from the hundred or so small containers of waste oil, diesel, paints, polishes etc. into a few large ones to facilitate transportation of the stuff to the County's hazardous waste disposal depot in Valhalla New York. We work for the benefit of the Club, for the fellowship and for the "free lunch" that the Club provides us worker bees. Very light winds so my crew did not experience the thrill of ILENE at eight knots. Phil used to sail and Dave has his own boat and those two shared the helm.

5. Lene (her second outing of the five), our friend Jeff and nephew Mendy joined me. Jeff had never sailed west toward the City and with wind from the NNE and tide timing adequate, we gybed (a very perfectly controlled gybe if I do say so myself) on the way to the Throggs Neck Bridge and then a starboard reach to the turning basin just to the east of The Brothers and long tacks, about five of them, beating back out to the Sound. We had favorable tide outbound which diminished when we beat back into it. The only excitement was the crash of a seaplane announced by the Coast Guard as a POM POM via VHF channel 16. The location was announced: between the Throggs Neck and Whitestone Bridges, where we were heading on the way back. We thought we might have been able to render assistance.  But we saw a cluster of boats with lights flashing off the Queens shore and heard the Coast Guard ask the police to keep pleasure boats away so they could do their rescue work. Later came the Coast Guard's all clear of the POM POM. We were just a bit too far away to be able to render assistance. The NY Times reported next day that two or three people died after the plane hit a concrete pier.   

ILENE now has a tentative hauling date during the period October 12-16.

September 17-24 --- Only Two Day Sails And A Work Day

The two sailing days, totaled 7.5 hours underway. The first was with Mendy and the second with Eduardo, who I met on David's Hidden Hand recently.  He described the nice ten day cruise from Providence RI to Nantucket on a friend's catamaran this summer that he and his wife and two teenagers enjoyed. I even enjoy hearing about other people's cruises! He is shown here framed by both the Throggs Neck and Whitestone Bridges, a lucky shot on a day with good clear visibility.

There is no rule against "poaching" of a friend's crew; rather it is a matter of enlarging the circle. Eduardo is a "Club Boat" member of the City Island YC. We at the Harlem have a similar program which is a membership incubator. For a fee much lower than full dues, after the person is admitted to membership and checked out as an able sailor, subject to availability, he or she can use any of the Club's small fleet of 23 to 25 foot boats. The "subject to availability" rule has never actually been operative because so far there has always been enough availability. The purpose of the program is to create new sailors who will eventually want and be able to own their own boats and will join the Club, where they have made friends, to become "Active", full dues, members. This has worked for us at the Harlem but interestingly, in Eduardo's club an unexpected adverse consequence has occurred.  Senior Active boat owning members of the club, who feel that they can no longer maintain their own big boats, sell them and reduce their membership category down to "Club Boat" status.

Both days we cut generally similar wakes with winds out of the east but varying in strength and direction: into Littleneck Bay, and out past the Throggs Neck Bridge, with variations of course. Both days we passed the same string of barges with tug attached, anchored out in the Sound. With Mendy we passed a large catamaran with nine folks sitting on the foredeck which had full sails up but was moving incredibly slowly: we passed her three times!  I am so pleased with Mendy's progress in the art of sailing. With Eduardo, I put up the genoa on port tack for the long reach from the Harlem to the moored boats at the south end of Little Neck Bay. I did it to demonstrate that sail to Eduardo; it was one of the relatively few times the Genoa was used this season.

The work day was one on which, again, I did everything I had hoped to accomplish, at least mostly accomplished them. With the help of our Marine Chairman and the Club's forklift, our dinghy, partially deflated, is sitting, inverted, on the top of the Club's dinghy rack for the winter. It could be seen as a tempting target for thieves, but they would need a fork lift to get it down. The cheapest hour of free skilled labor imaginable and it is always fun working with friends. Thanks Dan. I also removed 99% of the fish guts and scales that were spread around in a five foot diameter pattern on ILENE's foredeck; gosh those birds have lousy table manners! It was too windy on the foredeck to work comfortably and I need another pass at it with stronger soap and a stronger brush to complete the removal of the stain. 

The last problem was diesel in the bilge. I used a 3M pad (that miraculously absorbs diesel but very little water) in my rubber-gloved right hand to mop up the pink liquid and squeeze it out into a plastic one quart tub set is a large flat plastic tray. Then poured the tub into bottles with secure caps and cleaned up the spills in the tray. I got about 1.5 gallons and I think that next time I will get the final 1% when it shakes down to the lowest portion of the bilge. 

Ah, but the most important thing is that I finally figured out how the diesel was getting there and was thus able to prevent a recurrence. I chalk the problem up to my absentminded stupidity. The fuel runs down from the deck fill into the tank though a rubber type hose about one inch in inside diameter. At the bottom end the hose is pushed onto an aluminum tube that protrudes from the aluminum tank. And the hose-tube connection is secured by two hose clamps that press against the outside of the hose against the tube. Everything was in place but I had not tightened the clamps! They were in place but just hanging there uselessly. very easy to fix.

September 9 - 16 -- Three Fun Day Sails On Three Boats

 Two wannabe sailing days during this period were thwarted by weather: the first too calm and the second too rainy. But September usually brings good winds (between the hurricanes) and this year has not been an exception. Each of the three days we went out to or past Execution Rocks and back. Each was on a different boat, all soon to be hauled at the Huguenot.  Each of the three voyages  were with reefed sails except for the first, on Ohana with Bennett and Rhoda.  Rhoda had planned to sail back from Croton with us on ILENE but that plan was foiled by the threat of rain. Lene did not join us because she was doing a good deed, visiting Harriet and her broken leg, and thereby freeing up nurse Bennett to sail with us. More wind had been forecast, but we had enough to move the boat at about five knots.

Next time it was with Lene, Linda

and Joel on ILENE. the longest sail of the three, to the Matinecock buoy (four miles past Execution Rocks) and back, 21 NM according to the Chartplotter's track function.

 Both outbound and back, with southerly winds. We needed only two tacks the way back -- off Hart Island and off the coast of Long Island. And this, alas, is the only trip on which I remembered to use the camera.  We passed this unusual junk, It has the form of a junk but looks like fiberglass, which spoils the illusion, in my eyes.  

Come to think of it we passed most everything that day, making up to eight knots for a while with small jib and reefed main.

And the third and last sail was with David and his (my new) sailing friend, Eduardo, both of the City Island YC, aboard Hidden Hand. David's jib having been torn up by the hurricane, he replaced it, with a spare sail pending repairing it this winter with his sewing machine. So we were under an 80% jib, smaller, and we  reefed the main and still got up to 6.5 knots. We beat back through Hart Island Sound, a pleasure working with stong eager men who know how to sail. Taking turns with one of us releasing while the other winched in and the third steered, our tacks were executed in crisp smooth mid-season racing form, getting the sail taut on the new leeward side as we completed the turn. I moved the jib cars back a bit for the upwind part of the journey.

And there are still a few sailing weeks left in 2020. But obtaining new boat insurance because ILENE's current insurer has decided to exit the marine market in the US, and getting a reservation for her at the Huguenot for this winter have taken many hours of paperwork and on the phone.

Goodbye Yanni

John Paskalis, at the center of the picture taken when we were scattering the ashes of our mutual friend Nick Lecakes a few years ago, passed away last week from a sudden unexpected massive heart attack. His ever smiling face will be missed by many. A carpenter/woodworker, a boat builder, a sailor of his beloved sloop "Hearts Content", an Broadway set designer and a respected alumni member of the Harlem Yacht Club, he moved down to Maryland's Eastern Shore following the 9/11 attack, to a safer locale.

Whenever Lene and I passed through the Chesapeake, we stopped to hang with him and occasionally he came up to New York to hang with his circle of friends here. He was amazingly talented mechanically and always helped his friends and opened his home and his heart to us. When ILENE had a too close encounter with a dock piling which ripped out an aluminum hoisting loop welded inside the dingy, he knew what to do and did it: a new U shaped hoop bolted inside and out after careful grinding the surface smooth, measuring and drilling. On our way back north he visited with us in DC and helped attach the new interior shade/screens for the hatches. When we got back to the Eastern Shore, he lent his car to Lene! She drove it back to New York in a few hours and John accompanied me for the next few days in sailing ILENE back here. He was a thoughtful and cautious sailor, taming the tendency toward daredevilry in me. When I had to put bungs into ILENE's cabin sole to eliminate dings and blemishes a few winters ago, he had the specialized expensive imported bits needed to do the job cleanly and mailed them to me.  When he visited New York we tried to take him to cultural events which are comparatively scarce on the Eastern Shore.

Our hearts are heavy because of his loss. Rest in Peace Yanni!

Addendum:  The man steering ILENE in the first picture, Patrick, who embodies "Love thy Neighbor...", caused the Harlem to prepare the paver to be inserted in the flag pole patio for John:

September 3 - 8 -- Mostly Living Aboard with One Day Sail and One Work Day

Having returned to our home mooring on September 2, we did not decamp with the kitties until the Seventh. The day sail was with Tom and Marie and a very pleasant one. We served my cold stone fruit soup with yogurt and with store bought hero sandwiches for lunch and then sailed for about 2.5 hours in the afternoon when the wind built. We sailed under main and small jib and got good speeds of around seven for a lot of the time with a peak of 8.0. We went about two miles past Execution Rocks before tacking to head back, after which the only two tacks were near the the coast of Hart Island and of Long Island. Back on the mooring, a social hour and dinner at the Club on interesting dishes: 

boyant

Lene had Paella but with crispy Chinese noodles rather than rice and I had Tikki Masala but with cauliflower and chick peas rather than with chicken. Sunset from the Harlem's deck where the food is served during the pandemic.

The work day was the last and for once I actually got everything on my list done -- in less than four hours: replacing the vertical cafe screen doors with the heavy horizontal plexiglass New York ones, wire tying a  plastic noodle to the central part of the mooring pennant so it will float, changing the engine's lube oil and filter without making much of a mess and  properly disposing of the waste oil, getting the fuel in the lines of the outboard burned out and that motor to the dock,to a cart and then to the upstairs locker and dragging the dink to the seawall and getting it out of the water and onto the lawn (at high tide) for removal to atop the Club's dinghy rack by fork lift later. A pleasant satisfying day.

Much of each of the other days was spent off the boat, but returning each night to feed the kitties and sleep aboard. Lene had a dental appointment and I got a haircut. We shopped and cooked, went through the mail, ordered filters, played miniature golf and shot skeet in New Jersey with Ken and Mendy, had work done on the car, visited Sid and Jan at their home in NJ and lazed around on the boat a lot, though we did do about an hour and a half of cleaning after breakfast on the day we departed at 11:30 am.

September 2 -- Closing The Loop; Croton Bay Back To The Harlem -- 47 NM

The Hudson, being a river, is relatively narrow compared to Long Island Sound. It's wider at it's southern mouth -- the Battery -- and much narrower north of the furthest we get on this cruise, but still narrow. Our chart plotter draws a pink line in our wake which it calls our "track". This is useful in tricky narrow passages because if we got ourselves in, then, subject to lower tidal height, we can get ourselves back out by following the trail of the pink breadcrumbs. This is not to suggest, however, that there is nothing new to see on the return trip. In fact, nature presents an ever changing view. It had rained during the night and we dried off the cockpit as best we could and left at noon in light drizzle, which cleared shortly, leaving things a bit foggy. The fog rolled over the edge of the Palisades.

Due to my distraction while outbound I failed to capture pictures of the architecturally interesting "new" twin Tappan Zee Bridges which were built only a few years ago to replace -- not supplement -- the "old" bridge of the same name which had been built recently, in the 1960's.

Manhattan's Upper West Side with the tall.skinny 57th Street residential spindles.

Barge with tug, but on anchor.

Classic large cruiser under Riverside Drive.

Motor vessel "Lionesse V" anchored mid-river in about 45 feet of water. she is available for charter and can be yours, for a group of up to twelve friends, for a week of luxury; only $450K to $750K, depending on the season. For you perhaps; not me.

Battery Park City, residential, built on land fill from the excavation of the World Trade Center with the Freedom Tower looming above.

Tide timing was perfect today. If we had left an hour later, we would have arrived only half an hour later, but at 7:30 it was getting dusky and it was a pleasant cool ride, with foulie tops and bottoms keeping off the cold at first until it warmed and dried up. With the Yanmar constantly at 2000 RPMs almost the whole way and no sails up into the southerly winds, the only variable factor in our speed over ground was tidal flow. We started at just under six knots sped up to more than eight, declined a bit before the Battery and then started up the East River at 4.8. But this quickly built to 5.5 until. at about 34th Street, on a lark, I put up the small jib which shot us up to 6.1 and climbing to more than 8 through Hells Gate and between the Brothers and under the two Bronx-Long Island bridges. Approaching our mooring field we greeted the Wednesday Night Racers who were coming out to do their thing for the last race of the series..

I love cruising, but it is always great to get home safely.

We plan to live aboard for the next few days before transporting our crew to their land base and reverting to day sailing for the remainder of the 2020 sailing season.

September 1 -- Poughkeepsie to Croton 35 NM

First, after breakfast, was the Yanmar diesel. Aided by Lene and a "lifeline" call to Dean I replaced both the Racor and the Yanmar fuel filters and bled the air out of the fuel system. I used Q-tips to get the gunk out of the small places in the Racor's clean plastic bowl. That bowl which starts with all pure pink diesel fuel, filters the fuel and traps water from the fuel tank which appears as a white liquid in the bottom of the bowl and can -- and SHOULD -- be drained out, frequently. I had not done that and the bowl was mostly water with a thin layer of lighter weight fuel floating on top. The next filter is attached to and part of the engine itself. It had mostly fuel but some water too. We used the hand pump to draw clean fuel out of the aft fuel tank up into a very dry bottle, from which we poured it into the filters to fill them and then attached them. Then came bleeding the lines. We partially open a specific bolt and then I reach for a small lever that I can't see, because it is behind the engine, which hand pumps fuel. We pump and pump and pump until (A) the blister comes up on the pumping finger and (B) the bubbles of air stop coming out from around the loose bolt. We tighten the bolt and if we did it right, thanks Dean,  the engine starts right up! All told it was two hours which an experienced technician could have done in a quarter of the time. We left at 12:10, an hour before the high tide, because we had a stop at West Shore Marina to fuel up. (A hundred yards south of the Marlboro YC where we had spent a night on our way north.). Fifty three gallons to top off both tanks. That is a very big purchase for a sailboat, the Marina staff noted. ILENE's tanks carry 70 plus the five in the yellow plastic Jerry can. They charged a very decent price for fuel. 

Then we were off with the tide. It gradually increased our speed over the ground from 6.5, to over eight knots   We passed an old warehouse, Bannerman Castle, on Popiel Island to port, and

 this big merchantmen and other commercial shipping.

But the most impressive views were of Storm King mountain and several "Hudson River School" painting scenes with dark stormy skies. J. M. W. Turner would have liked to paint this scene too.

The passage was dry. With the wind from the south we did not put up any sails for the first time on this Hudson cruise. But for the last hour, the "light wind" forecast proved inaccurate: 25 knots of apparent wind kicked up big waves into which ILENE plowed -- the roughest conditions so far in 2020. The crew did not like it at all and their meow's told us so. But our anchorage, even closer to the north side of Croton Point than on our first night of this cruise, proved excellent shelter from the expected southeasterlies and the wind subsided for a peaceful night's sleep on 60 feet of snubbed chain in 12 feet of water at high. ILENE was the only boat in the huge bay.

August 30-31 -- Catskill to Poughkeepsie and Day Sail There -- 34 NM

 

Rip van Winkle Bridge, just north of Catskill. This was a quick passage with favorable tide except for the first hour. We left earlier than high tide to be sure to arrive at Shadows on the Hudson Marina by 5 pm -- to have the assistance of its friendly manager with the handling our dock lines. We sailed under reefed main and small jib in big winds from the west for that first hour for a thrilling sail at excellent speed. But then, when the tide turned favorable, the wind subsided so we motor sailed the rest of the way. Averaging 6.7 knots overall. We passed long stretches of the river lined by forest on both sides, without signs of humanity save the occasional buoy. When the river bends, the same forests seem to close the "end" of the river as well. Beautiful!

We met some interesting folks along the outside of the long dock, parallel to the river's currents where we were tied.

Power boaters with a big friendly dog who had moved from inside the marina for the day  "to get a better view and some air". 

A man using his parents' 39 foot Hunter to operate a day charter business taking folks our for river cruises for a fee gave me a beer, thank you,

And an extended family on a 46 foot catamaran that lives here in the summer invited us over for wine and cheese and what turned into an hour and half of excellent conversation. Vassar is here in Poughkeepsie and so it has the vibe of a "college town." "Destiny"  sails to the Caribbean each winter so lots of sharing of sea stories too.

The marina has three heads with showers all located in a trailer ashore. Not the most luxurious accommodations. It is at the foot of a large expensive restaurant/catering hall but breakfast is available only by delivery by the manager from Dunkin or a coffee shop, which we declined in favor of Lene's excellent omelettes. The $1.50 per foot fee is reasonable and includes free electricity though we did not use it. Big, clean, newish docks. We did use the water to give ILENE a bath and took walks north to the railroad station next day and had a bite and coffee at a local storefront eatery on Main Street.

Elevated view from the restaurant:

ILENE is the tall mast at the right.

The day sail was with friends from our congregation.  Eve is the adult child of my deceased mentors there, David and Gloria. Sadly, boating was never their thing. Eve, an architect, her husband, Bruce, a physician, and two of their three teen aged children, Hanna and Hadami, joined us for a few hours on the water.

Hanna handled the helm.

Their son had soccer practice. and did not join us until dinner at their home after the sailing. I failed in my photographer duties and hence no pictures of Eve or Hadami either. 

The sail started well, with motoring upstream about five miles. The building I had  thought might have been FDR's Hyde Park, was actually one of the Vanderbilt's mansions. Bruce pointed out the Culinary Institute, which is huge. My plan was to sail back, with the current and into the light winds, which by adding our current produced boat speed would provide enough apparent wind. But the wind was too light, at first, so we turned the engine back on. And a minute later, the engine turned itself off. After I removed the cabin sole, Bruce helped me pour the five gallons of diesel from the yellow reserve jug into the aft tank. (The forward fuel tank was later proved empty.) But without bleeding the engine, she would not start. Lene was afraid we would hit the rocks at the shore but we did not and once we put the small jib out again to supplement the main we gained steerage. Bruce is an able sailor, albeit inexperienced, and a quick learner. The wind got a bit stronger and we were able to tack back and forth across the width of the river, almost to our Marina. But sailing onto a dock in current, while possible, is not something we wanted to try so SeaTow met us near the marina towed us the last bit and took us "on the port hip" to push us to the dock under control. Lene was fearful but not our guests. A lovely day all in all, followed by a delicious home cooked meal, with the bleeding of the engine deferred until the morrow.