May 15 -- 19 -- My Misadventure Up The Mast and Cleaning

Two days at the boat, about seven hours of work, with Lene helping and Mendy as well on the first day for two hours. So a total of 16 person hours. The first day's primary mission was to run the new spinnaker halyard up through the mast. I had bought 35 feet of sash chain and then securely sewed 30 feet of strong line to its end. I put tape around the joint so there was no rough edge to get snagged. The genious of this (I learned it from others) is that gravity pulls the weight of the chain straight down inside the mast.

Mendy controlled the electric winch, held the clutched main halyard and  pulled me to the top. There is no one I'd rather have holding the line by which I'm suspended 70 feet above the ground than Mendy and with Lene backing him up I felt secure. 
       Many friends have reacted to Lene's facebook post of these pictures with comments to the effect that I must be crazy. But the main halyard, securely shackled to the bosun's chain in which I sat, is only two years old, in great condition and tested to held thousands of pounds --  clearly secure against my 193.
The trick is to insert the chain/line tool at the top and let its weight pull itself to the deck. The next step is to fish the chain out of a narrow slot near the base of the mast. Then comes securely sewing the new halyard to the chain, taping that joint smoothly, and then to use the tool to pull the halyard up inside and the top of the mast. Simple, right?  (I had pulled a messenger line up through the mast using the old halyard itself when I removed that old halyard last fall, But that messenger had broken during the winter!)
Well I got up there, expecting to see the sheaves in the top of the mast, but they were covered by a sheet of metal. Good idea actually -- to keep out the rain. Our mini-SUV is just to the right of my right heel. If you expand the photo, you can see the new blue halyard laying on the deck, Mendy standing and casting a shadow on the starboard side of the boom and a piece of the sash chain hanging down on the left side of the picture.

       I asked Mendy to tie a Phillips head screw driver to the line I had lowered down and after he did so, I pulled up the driver (which I should have taken with me in the first place). But the screw was too tightly secured for me to unscrew it. Then in looking around I saw a block hanging off the side of the top of the mast, a smooth pad eye below it and a slot below that. I assumed that this block, pad eye and slot are for running the spinnaker halyard so I lowered my 60 foot long "tool" through the slot to the base of the mast for my crew to fish out. I had a very narrow needle nose pliers, a magnet and a bent wire coat hanger as fishing tools but none of them worked. That is because the entry for the tool and the halyard near the top of the mast is near the forward end of the mast and the "fishing hole" for its exit near the bottom is near the aft end of the mast, maybe four inches away. Ultimately, I tied off the tool aloft and was lowered to the deck, carefully and slowly, thanks guys!. So it was both an adventure and a misadventure.
Since then I have called expert rigger Jeff Lazar; this was not a task for an amateur like me. Maybe a very long, curved needle nose pliers?
During the rest of the time Lene cleaned and I put things away, reattached the antennae, tied off the lines so they would not slat against the mast, took the lids off the five gallon pails (not an easy job), etc. And while there is more cleaning to do, it will await another day.
Because ILENE was "ready" on time, the Huguenot is not charging me storage and I'm content to do the remaining tasks, which could be done after launch, before then. I took some aerial photos of the grounds and clubhouse which I have sent to the Huguenot.

April 20 -- May 14 --- Getting ILENE Ready To Launch; And She Is!

So, to shorten a long story, I enjoyed sixteen work days during this 25 day period. That is sixteen daily escapes from lock down -- to work, mostly in isolation, and masked when others were present. ILENE was thus my lifesaver, or at least my sanity saver!
I worked 68.25 hours, about 4.25 per day. Plus another fifteen hours for two round trips to Bristol RI to drop off and pick up the aft fuel tank for the correction of its size. Mendy accompanied me on these long drives which made them fun for both of us instead of an ordeal for me. Interestingly, we were questioned by police at the Rhode island berder about why we were crossing and whether we planned to stay overnight.

I paid Mendy for working with me for about twelve hours on compounding and waxing the freeboard. It is an area about 90 feet long by about 4.5 feet high -- so a lot of surface -- about 400 square feet. Wipe on; wipe off for compounding fluid and wipe on; wipe off for paste wax. Having Mendy share the job with me, well lets face it he did more than half, made it go fast, not only because of the extra hands -- and strong hands they are -- but also because he keeps me working -- instead of loafing, though I call it resting. We use two random orbital polishing machines, one for putting on and the other for taking off, so the job goes quickly.

I also got four more hours of help from expert mechanic Ed Spallina and as a result two of the inoperative bilge pumps now work again. Actually, it was not the pumps themselves, but their float switches, one of which was replaced, and a fuse.
Mendy has developed a spring boat work business, with two customers besides me: Bennett's "Ohana" from the Harlem, which was recently lunched and David's "Hidden Hand", which is moored at the City Island Yacht Club in the summer. A bit of  hard earned pocket money for the college boy. ILENE's freeboard has not looked this good for several seasons.
Mendy also helped me pour the 35 gallons of diesel fuel from the seven five-gallon pails that Bennett gave to me into the new fuel tanks, with minimal spillage, picked up by those miracle pads made by 3M. somehow, they absorb diesel but not water. Pouring was a hard job because of the weight of the pails that have to be held just so during a long pour period. I used a two funnel system that I held, one above the other, to catch most of the pink liquid. Here I'm on my toes, waxing:

The Huguenot has caused a potential problem with its proposed fine of $.50/foot/day for boats kept in the yard in a condition of "not ready to be launched" after Monday, May 11. I told them about the coronavirus and their response was "Well we gave you all relief since April 1". But they always give relief from that ridiculously early date so not a lot of sympathy and the huge yard where the boats are stored in the winter is not used for any purpose during the summer -- so boats staying a bit longer are not harming the club. It is worse if they have to move a boat because it is blocking in another boat that is "ready". For that service, less than an hour's work by two yard men and the Travel Lift, they charge $250.

ILENE is the boat at the extreme left in the next picture and each of the three boats to its right need to be moved for the Travel Lift to gain access to ILENE. David's "Hidden Hand" is closest to me and David got caught out west by the lock down. I was "Ready" on time and told them of this status but that they should not move David's boat on my account. Let's see what happens.

Those of you who have been reading this blog since 2010 know the spring drill. It is a lot of little tasks and several big ones that all have to get done, or at least checked, every year. My gift to my readers this year is to spare you from having to read them all. Anyone who is interested can check out the blog postings at this season in prior years. There, that was not so hard, was it!

Well, but I can't resist telling you about a few problems and innovations this year.

Each of six stanchions, three on a side, are removed each fall for the winter cover and reinstalled each spring. They hold the two lifelines per side and are bolted (without a nut) through the outboard side of the aluminum castings which are their bases. I label each and them and the lifelines themselves when I remove them, e.g. "Port Top", so there is no question where each piece goes. And the stainless bolts lay in their stanchion bases during the winters. But this spring, I could not align the forward port stanchion hole to accept its bolt. I tried many times and used the ice pick to completely line up the holes but could not get the bolt, after passing through the side of its base, to enter the hole of the stanchion. Frustrating! What to do? Ah, the trusty Dremel tool. I filed down the end of the bolt to a point and the problem was solved.
The other "innovation was the use of brightly colored tough plastic wire wraps to further mark the anchor chain at ten foot intervals after repainting them white where the old paint was wearing off.
I held the old barrel zinc in one hand and the new one in the other. They weighed about the same. o for the first time, I put the old one back on around the propeller shaft and the new is a spare.

The only things left to do now are put away the electric cord and sew up a tab used to hold one of the five battens in place and put the ladder in the locker.

After launch I will put up the other sails and Lene will have her day to help me further clean the interior.

The problems caused by the virus will then manifest for me. Sailing is a social activity. The Old Salts cannot meet on a boat with social distancing. It will have to be Lene and I and perhaps one other couple at a time. I've heard a report that Block Island will permit anchoring but will not permit non-residents to go ashore, even by their own dinks. So how to enjoy our boat this summer remains an issue to be resolved.
Meanwhile, I am very pleased to report that Cruiser, the newest member of our crew, semi feral when we got him, keeps gradually transforming himself into a better and better cat.