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.