June 2 - 12 -- Season Not Yet In Full Swing But In Swing

Three And A Half Work Days, One Half An Other Day And Three Sailing Days.

On the Other Day, Lene joined me and the Grounds and Lockers Committee for a three-hour mini-work- party: the dirty work of cleaning out lockers in the Club's locker house. Grounds and Lockers is the least satisfying position on the Board and I give a lot of credit to Chairman David for his courage in corralling a half dozen of us. The Club rents the lockers to us but some folks use them but are not on the rent rolls. They just put their stuff into empty lockers! To be fair, some of the problems result from loyal former members who just have not gotten around to moving their stuff out. Making David's task near impossible is the order from the Board: "But don't throw out anything of value." And it's good advice -- prevents lawsuits for the value of the junked "treasures". Don't laugh, it has happened!  I reached two of my "former member"  friends who said "Just let anyone take what they want and throw out the rest" which we did. We post a placard on the doors of the empties with "Cleared by the G&L Committee on date" and sort of semi-seal the hasp with a wire tie. It is fun to work with colleagues for the common good.

One task of the Work Days involved the dink. The hardest working committee in the Club, The Marine Committee, had used our forklift to pluck her down from her winter home -- upside down high atop the dinghy rack, and placed her on the lawn for me. I inflated her and she floats. I dragged her to the dinghy dock. Mendy helped me get her outboard down from my locker and placed on the dink. I have done this myself, but it is getting heavier and heavier (or am I getting weaker and weaker?). The hardest part is transferring the heavy, awkwardly shaped outboard from the edge of the dock to the transom of the dink without dropping it in the drink and without a stable place to stand during the operation. The final part of this was the most frustrating and is not quite complete. Despite all the TLC I gave her this winter, the outboard refused to start! Pat, the most helpful member of the Club, who has helped me so often, ambled by while taking a break from working on his boat, which is not yet launched, and suggested I remove, clean, regap and reinstall the spark plugs. David offered to lend me the special wrench, I have a gaping gauge and have been watching You Tube videos. I got out the outboard's manual, found out what type plugs are needed and another member of the Marine Committee, Peter, advised "For three bucks a piece, why not just buy new ones?" And the local Chandlery, Bridge Marine, told me that all I need by way of tools is a 5.8" socket wrench, which I have, so my next task will be replacing spark plugs, something I have never in my 77 years done before. It amazes me how many helpful people are needed for me to sail.

Diesel in the bilge is potentially bigger problem. It happened for the second time, and I check it every day, and several other times it has not happened. If I can find the source, I can fix it so I have unscrewed the cabin sole sections to gain access to view it. 

One day Lene and I were aboard, working on the mooring, when a front passed with big wind and heavy rain. you can barely see the nearby boat to the left side of this picture due to the rain.

But fronts usually pass quickly and this one was not an exception.

Mendy also hauled me to the top of the mast again, this time for but a few minutes, and the new spinnaker halyard is inside the mast. I looked up how to tie the halyard hitch again, by which the shackle is to be attached to the forward end, but the shackle, which I had in my hand a few days ago, is currently misplaced. Sigh. I used the metal ribbon snake to pull the other end of the halyard under the coach roof deck to its clutch. 

And I have already applied the first two coats of polyurethane to the lovely cherry wood behind the galley sink, and it awaits only its third coat. I also got off a blob of blue bottom paint that the yard men had accidentally tracked onto the port deck, tightened up the life lines and wisely tested the genoa while on the mooring and thereby discovered two small mistakes I had made in mounting that sail and fixed them, before they manifested themselves when out their in a gusty wind. And the plastic sides of the dodger are reattached as is the aft section of the rolled up cockpit enclosure at the top of the bimini. ILENE is almost ready!

The three sailing days:

The first and last were with David. First on his boat, s/v "Hidden Hand", on which Mendy worked a few weeks ago, and the last on ILENE. On his boat we were joined by Debbie's son, Jon and David's parrot, Shaeyne Foigle (Pretty Bird in English); virgin sails for both. Jon is a quick learner and fun to talk with and the bird kept quiet in his cage on the cabin sole.

Good wind and the boat, as expected of her C&C racing heritage is fast. With her seven foot keel she provides a stiff comfortable ride. We had 2.5 hours underway and some wine at the CI Y, after..  We spent four hours on ILENE but only about 1.5 of them with sailing wind, during which she got up to seven knots at times. The rest of the time the wind was absent or barely present and we drifted about in Little Neck Bay before motoring through the channel off Kings Point. The channel is a new place for David. Lots to talk in pleasant company and we shared some chardonnay before I headed for home and David for his boat, aboard which he is living.

Between those two sails Lene joined me with Mendy and our friend Jeff for three hours cutting back and forth in northerly but variable wind on beamy reaches between Throggs Neck and the eastern shore of Manhasset Bay. The wind was strong enough to persuade Lene to persuade me to put a reef in the main and we made pretty good speed with that sail and the small jib. There were only a few minutes that I was pleased with the reef; otherwise we could have had more sail. Lovely clouds. Picture is aboard the launch where masks are required.

Plans are filling in for a fun summer to replace the cancelled cruise to Newfoundland. We will move aboard on Sunday, June 14 with our two fur- balls. Two of Lene's brother's grandkids, from Texas -- Trevor, who is entering medical school and Samantha, a junior in college -- will separately, be cruising with us for a few days. We plan to head up the Hudson to Croton to rendezvous with Tom, a power boat friend, and perhaps further, to Catskill, to meet up with Dean and Susan of s/v Autumn Borne, who we met eight years ago off Beaufort SC and several times since.