Jan 10- 24 --- Three "Other" Days and Two Work Days

The three Other Days first. One very nicely done memorial service for our late member, Hadley, presented by his widow and three adult kids. There was no minister and no religious ritual of any faith. Rather the so-called Sailors Psalm was read and John Masefield's poem: "I Must Go Down To The Sea Again".  And each of his family spoke about how much they loved, missed and had learned from him. Also, one of those slide shows that are de rigueur these days, over sailing music, again very well done. Then open discussion  in which I shared my many warm memories of him as did many others. 

The two other Other Days were Sunday walks in the woods. One along the ridge of the Palisades from the Stateline Lookout north to the state line

and the other in Westchester County at the Kensico Dam and nearby Cranberry Lake where the quarry from which the stone for the dam was cut (which reminded me of Maine). Both days were chilly and the later breezy as well but we all bundled up and the exercise kept us warm. The crew is becoming more regular, about seven to ten folks who gain masked outdoor exercise and sailing fellowship. Bravo to David for organizing these events week after week.

The two Work Days, totaling 5.5 hours of work, were mostly electrical. Before I get to that, I did attach a longer piece of wood to the cylinder of the new plastic hand operated bilge pump to permit easy uptake from the bottom of the bilge, but the damn thing then fell apart and needs to be fixed.

I got the water out using old fashioned methods.

 The good news is that the ILENE's seven lead acid batteries are not ruined after all. The reading I had gotten was a false one. But they are ten years old and the big bill for replacing them will be coming up soon. In the meantime, by temporarily joining both battery banks I can get the diesel started after which its attached alternator charges the batteries. And I'm planning to get a portable jump start battery for when the batteries get weaker.

After cleaning the oxidation form the lugs, I tried to reattach the wire ends that had been joined at the junction box pictured in the prior post.  But the thing sort of fell apart and Mr. butterfingers dropped a few of the screws which fell under the 300 feet of the anchor line for the ort anchor so I came up with a plan B. A nut and bolt will hold the loops an the ends of the wires to each other, and the juncture will be sealed in a shrink wrap tube, then wrapped in electrical tape for insurance and attached to the bulkhead in the form of an inverted "U" so that any water (there will be water) will, hopefully, flow down past the ends of the "splice" rather than into it. But I had only one heat shrink tube of large enough diameter, so the job is still not done.

Finally to the batteries again, after clearing out and moving all of the "stuff from the aft berth to the pullman berth, forward. Sandpaper scraped off all the corroded oxidized material that grows on the copper battery cable lugs. After greasing them and vacuming up the dust, they are reattached to the batteries. But only half of the lugs are done so far. The benefits of a long winter--time to get these pesky tasks done.

2021 At Last --- Jan 1 - 9 --- One Work Day And A Walk In The Park

 The walk was organized by Dave, of the sailboat "Lady Kat", for Harlem members and their friends. Eight of us showed up for this inaugural winter walk, which was enjoyed by all. More of these events will be planned. An opportunity to get some socially distant but social outdoor masked exercise with your fellow sailors and swap sea stories in this not so cold but very cruel and deadly winter.

The site was the parkland at the northeast end of Orchard Beach, our route essentially the crudely drawn blue line on the chart. Orchard Beach, the yellow sandy crescent, is just northeast of City island, and northeast of the hike is the part of New Rochelle where the Huguenot is.

The red dot I drew in the water is roughly near where we turned back, and marks an off shore rock that the group jokingly called "Roger's Rock" over my protest. Rocks are named after the boats that go aground on them and my groundings have not been near this rock. Here is me sitting in front of "my" rock. Later examination of the nautical chart for the area shows plenty of deep 12' water at low tide almost to the edge of the rock. It is a place to anchor to shelter from a westerly storm.

 Finally here are seven of the eight of us on a crude wooden boardwalk over the marshy land, Lene leading and me next to last.

The work day. less than three hours, was timed so I could order and pick up $100 of takeout food that the Huguenot requires winter members to buy each winter. And I plugged in to shore power to charge both ILENE's and Ohana's batteries. But we only got about one and a half hours of charging because the Club's circuit breaker tripped, shutting off shore power. During that first part I had the electric space heater on and turned on a burner of the galley stove with a reddish clay pot inverted over it to act as a radiator.

I got 1.5 gallons of new rain water from the bilge but the stick cleverly used to hold the pickup hose for the new hand pump is too short to permit the operation to be easily worked with only two hands so I will bring a longer and stronger stick to the next work day. I coiled up a length of two strand electrical wire so it will take up less space, pondered how to get the new pump to pump air into fenders, and examined a junction box that I had installed on the port side of the bulkhead of the anchor locker six winters ago in Florida. I had read on the internet about a new, allegedly easy to use, all plastic, enclosed box for outdoor use. The anchor locker is not outdoors, but it is not exactly dry either. I had coated the terminals of the wires with vaseline, installed them horizontally so water would not run down them, hooded the box with a stiff piece of plastic bag to drain the water off the connection and forgotten about the matter for six years. Well the connection was still secure, but not at all pristine looking.

So I disconnected everything, sanded down all four of the the terminals to good red copper and reassembly will be for next time. 

But another problem is the possibility that one of the battery banks has died. To be investigated.