Well the first sail was with Bennett and Dave, bringing “Ohana” from the Huguenot to the Harlem. But with a stop along Island, in Port Washington for lunch at Louie’s. Thanks, Bennett! Thirty years ago that restaurant sold good fish at low prices with a salty unambitious ambiance. It keeps upgrading its ambiance, its service and its prices. But it still offers free dockage while you dine. During the season they have a man on the dock to catch your lines and tie you up. But the season has not started. Bennett did a good job without him.
The only other sail was the inaugural convening of the Old Salts aboard ILENE, her first sail of the season. There was great wind from ten to noon, while I provisioned, put out flags and cushions, took off instrument covers cleaned a bit and put in the first reefing line, in case of high winds. But during our lunch the winds died, so while we sailed for ninety minutes, it was generally a slow day out there. But everyone was happy to be out on the water.
I had experienced crew aboard so I put Dave at the helm on a safe course while motoring and tried to find out where the salt water was coming in. It definitely is coming in from in or near the engine, but I could not find the source. Until Pete, the new mechanic, comes on the 26th, I have to use the engine as little as possible, remember to close the seacock that admits seawater to cool the engine when it is not running, AND most importantly, remember to open the sea dock before running it to avoid letting it burn itself up. So I’ve been going to the boat frequently and will continue to do so — to pump out what comes in before too much of it builds up. Pete will also be installing a new bilge pump with built in float switch, to pump out the water as it comes in, at the nominal rate of 1500 gallons per hour, almost half a gallon per second. Actually a bit less because the pump has to pump the water up before it pumps it out, which reduces the pump’s effective capacity.
Here, on the launch at the end of the day, from left to right: Mike, Richard, Janet, Beau, Dave, Christine, and Sandy.
For several days high winds had prevented my trying to mount the sails, and the mounting occurred on four separate days thereafter. First came the Mainsail, in which task Dave volunteered to come over and help. Thanks, Dave! His help was most useful in connecting straps, one on each side, from the top front of the stack pack to loops attached to each side of the mast. Someone has to lift while the other one clips on; I’ve done it alone, but it was so much easier as a two man job.
Before that lifting I almost caused a catastrophe by pulling the working end of the outhaul line through its clutch and into the tunnel under the main deck. I pulled to loosen the outhaul to make it easier to attach the clue of the sail to the outhaul but I pulled it too loose, causing me to lose the working end of the line. This gave me the opportunity to demonstrate to Dave how snake tape works. We fed in the stiff metal tape, attached it to the line and pulled out it’s missing end. No harm done, just a preventable waste of time.
Another calm day I attached the two head sails to their furlers. But at the end of that I day realized that the smaller one had been coiled backwards, with its blue protective canvas coating on the inside rather than doing its protecting. So the third day, again in very light wind I unfurled and reran the furling line around the furling drum the correct way and was able to furl that sail properly.
With the help of Rear commodore Doug, who ran the technology, I chaired a meeting of about ten boaters of the Harlem and City Island Yacht Clubs who are interested in a summer cruise, as a club (with the fellowship such cruising permits) of longer than two days. They selected an eight day duration to start on August 2, and left it to me to fill in details. I love cruise planning.
Another day was a full one at the Club, without a visit to ILENE. After complimentary bagels and coffee we got started at about 9:15 and worked until almost 3:00 before the complimentary lunch. Who says we don’t work for food. But in reality we work for the good of the Club and the opportunity to bond with our coworkers. Several big and small projects got accomplished. I joined a team of about ten men who put up a fence along the south side of the Club’s parking lot.
It involved providing a straight level surface to attach the five by eight foot panels of posts, strengthening each panel by glueing and screwing additional horizontal boards across their backs. To make them stronger and more rigid. Others with more skills lined up the mounting boards to existing posts. Those are 4.5” long hex head screws I’m screwing in with a powerful electric drill.
I also drove in about 400 shorter screws to hold the bracing boards together using a less powerful portable electric drill. The learning curve that the team climbed made the job much faster for the later panels than the earlier ones.
My safety taboo in this picture is not the risk of my accidentally swallowing the screws, but that I averted my eyes from the work.
And the Harlem’s 139th annual Going Into Commission Ceremony and Party was another success. The weather cooperated with a nce sunny afternoon and evening and the party is always timed for a Saturday with high tides when the club looks its best.
The highlight of the ceremony was the announcement of the new name of the newly refurbished launch, after our late honored and beloved Past Commodore Fred Haymon. During the winter our Luanch Chairman had spent months completely refinishing it’s underwater hull, it’s brilliantly gleaming dark blue freeboard and the multi layered coat of varnish or poly on its teak rails. It literally looks better than it did when it was launched some 40 years ago.
Changes to the ceremony and party since COVID, however. The new additional deck (for outdoor dining mandated by COVID) at the north side of the lawn reduced the lawn area making for several ranks of uniformed honored past and present commodores and Flag officers. But more significantly we finally came to grips with the reality that the full sit-down multi-course dinner in the upstairs ballroom with several entree selections could never be successfully accomplished in a timely fashion out of our small kitchen. And the hot and cold hors doeuvres during the cocktail hour between the ceremony and the dinner were better than the dinner itself. So we they eliminated the sit down entirely and extended the duration, quality, variety and quantity of the foods in the cocktail hours. A new cash bar will inhibit alcoholism and drunk driving. A lovely party except that I put on a few pounds.
I was on City Island during nine of the twelve days reported on in this post — summer has arrived.
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