August 19 - 26 — Work and Play

The work involved fresh water of two types, and my solutions to the problems with them are not yet complete. The first is the rain coming through the mast boot. I took the amidships portions of the cabin ceiling down, waited for rain, saw where the water was flowing through my prior attempt to plug the gap between the mast and the hole in the deck through which it passes, and smeared silicone into the gap. Whether this has been successful awaits the next rain. Meanwhile, with the two ceiling panels down, I have sanded their rough and hidden top surfaces and those of the cherry molding strips that get screwed in to hold them up. I will put a thin coat of polyurethane on them to try to seal the wood against moisture before reinstalling the ceiling.

Dried bilge, exposed mast boot and ceiling panels removed; the nasty spots mostly concealed when you are aboard.

The second fresh water problem is what is now believed to be a small slow leak from the starboard fresh water tank. Not the port tank because it is filled with water and having dried the bilge, nothing is flowing into the bilge. So then I drove ILENE to the dock and filled the starboard tank.  If, in fact, the leak is from that tank I have to try to locate it along that tank’s six sides (five when you exclude the top). These include its bottom to which I have no ready access. If indeed the leak is from the tank I have to seal the hole. The ever helpful Pat, of “Panacea” suggested I use of JB Weld, a two part epoxy  metallic “glue”. I have the glue but the hard part is to find the hole. If the leak is not from the tank, then it is from the hoses that convey the water from the tank to the fresh water pump and thence to the faucets. So this mystery is more mysterious than the rain. But in fact, for the short term cruising we have planned for the rest of this year (only twelve dats) one tank full of water is all we need.

Three days (about seventeen work hours) on these issues — so far.

And then three sail days. The first was with the Old Salts on Wednesday. An experiment with the timing. Instead of convening at noon for lunch before sailing, we met at three pm for sailing before dinner. This made for a much more relaxed dining experience, for me because the long lunches cut into the sailing time which gives me agita. Also, the winds almost always comes up stronger as the afternoon progresses, promising sailing instead of drifting. Nineteen people showed up including eight passengers plus me on ILENE, and the rest on Dave’s “Lady Cat” and on a Club boat. My group were Mike and Helen, Clare and Ginny, Audrey and Kathy and, Phil and Louise —  all repeat sailors. And the dinner after was jolly and served in the Continental manner (the only way they do it at the Harlem, i.e., very slowly) but no one was in a hurry. But the experiment was a failure, weather wise. An inversion of nature caused the wind to be lighter in the 3-6 time frame than what God had provided in the early afternoon. Go figure. So it was slow but all had a good time.

Thursday I sailed again with Andrew and two of his friends on “Saltatempo”. This photo taken after, back on the mooring. The wind was up and provided a good ride. I love Andrew’s cell phone GPS display which shows our route, speed and average speed so much more accurately than my finger drawn attempts to estimate that data. Since we sail on and off the mooring it is accurate while my data includes a bit of motoring at the beginning and end of the voyage.

We started from the mooring in the north and you can see the slight curve passing north of Cuban Ledge, to give that rock a little more room as part of the zig zag tacking course into Little Neck Bay. Andrew preferred close reach to close hauled but that took us just to the Big Tom 2 buoy. On the broad reach back there is a short piece of running before 47:50degrees north latitude while we prepared for the gybe. And just east of the words “Cuban Ledge” is a barely noticeable slight tick which is where we very briefly turned into the wind in order to lower the main before returning to the mooring under the jib. Then in the picture below is the speed and course, minute by minute and the summary: in two hours and thirty five minutes we went 9.04 nautical miles making for an average speed of 4.6 knots. No guesstimating; the computer does it all!

And Friday I sailed with Patrick and his friend Nancy. They came down from Dutchess County. Nancy sailed with her father on a Catboat many years ago and more recently on Pete Seeger’s Hudson River environmental campaign Schooner “Clearwater”. But her experience was with a tiller rather than a wheel and she gave up the helm to me and to auto. My Chart Plotter lays out a thin pink (or is it lavender) line in our wake. This works like Andrew’s cell phone, except that in the waters where we day-sail the entire area is painted after so many trips. So I have to tell you where we went instead of showing you a picture. To Throggs Neck on to first tack and then a long tack to the red and green pair marking the passage between Ex Rocks and Long Island. This was under Main and Genoa on a rather broad reach and slow.  Once we started back we were on close reaches and used the self tacking small jib instead of the Genoa. Three tacks brought us through Hart Island Sound where Nancy demonstrated very superior eyesight in the game I play: Who is the statue of on Rat Island?” I did not even know there was a street sign (there is no street) in that Island. But the street is named for the man in the statue. Then we continued until be were in the shade created by the Throggs Neck Bridge. From then it was a broad reach becoming a run back to the mooring, with a lot of wing on wing. Sixteen NM in four hours. Some very good sailing this week for August.

August 10 - 18 — Old Salts, Tom and Marie, “Saltatempo”, And Four Folks From My Congregation

Four very different days with different people, one on a VERY different boat.

It looked like no wind at all on the day after we arrived back at the Club from the Eight Day Cruise, but after lunch seven of us Old Salts went out on ILENE (and four more on Lady Kat).Wind was very light but we managed to sail down to the mouth of Little Neck Bay and back, six miles for the round trip, in about 2 1/3 hours, i.e., very slowly. From the left: Don, me, Audrey, Mike, Louise, Phil and Kim.

It was cooler on the water than ashore, in this summer of ceaseless excess heat. One “innovation” that I’m not sure I like is that instead of libations aboard once back on the moorings, we have begun to congregate in the Club’s lovely, friendly and air conditioned bar. Here is the photographer of the day, David. Thank you.

Lene and I attended a wedding at a former golf course on a hilltop up near Fishkill, New York. Not a water related activity at all except for the wide view of the Hudson Valley, with glimpses of the beautiful river we had sailed a couple of summers ago. We were guests of the bride’s mom, Ellen, widow of Ricky. Ricky was part of the crew on ILENE’s first passage into Long Island Sound (from Baltimore) back in June of 2006. We were five men including Ricky. He was the only one who knew nothing of sailing at the start. Eager and willing to learn and do all that he could; he was a star. At the reception a man I did not know approached me, introduced himself to me as Ricky’s son, and told me that Ricky had several times told him about that pre-blog passage and called it a highlight of his life. That was a high for me and brought back memories of the cruise. 

I love being married but weddings are a nuisance that have been weaponized by the “Wedding Industrial Complex” into events that extract what should be the down payments on their homes from couples to be lavished on a party. But as they go, this one was a lovely one. Ellen is second from left; Lene on the right.

Next day was with Tom and Marie. After lunching aboard, we raised the main and set off at three pm, again in zero wind. Outside the mooring field very light air allowed us, with main and small jib, to creep across Eastchester Bay, tack and sail part way up through Hart Island Sound through a group of racers who were also creeping along and assured us we were not in their way.  I changed the jib for the Genoa for another half a knot. But then the wind died completely, we furled the headsail and motored up to The Blauses, the rocks off the far end of Hart Island. There a mild breeze came up which permitted us to turn 180, unfurl the Genoa again and make it to five knots on a beam reach back through Hart Island Sound and sail most of the way back to the mooring. Tom told me how much he liked seeing his picture in this blog after prior excursions, probably pulling my leg, but making me feel bad because of my failure to shoot him this time. Sorry Tom! He said that he loved the no-drama serenity and tranquility of this day (which two knots of boat speed will give you). Dinner at Artie’s finished the day.

Andrew, a relatively new member of the Harlem, had invited me and others to sail with him. I had a delightful sail on a very different boat on Monday. “Saltatempo”, new to him this year, is a 27 foot 96 year old wooden S Class sloop built by the famous Herreshoffs in Bristol RI — in 1926!

She is a beauty, her brightwork gleaming under five coats of freshly laid varnish,

her fittings bronze,

Her Captain and his crew both happy.

The boat has no 12 volt battery. The bilge pump is operated by hand, to pump out the water that will rain into the cockpit. She has no refrigeration, running water,  and no running lights yet. A tiller rather than a wheel, which was fun after all those years. No autopilot, no built in Multifunction Display. She is elegant yet rugged. And with a bit of wind, she is fast.

I have a lot to learn about how to sail her, such as her running back stays that are needed when sailing downwind. We never used her outboard, sailing off and back onto her mooring. Between those events we were underway for about three hours getting to the east side of Manhasset Bay and back, slower in light winds outbound and at about six knots once the wind came up on the return. 

Andrew has a very neat app on his cell phone which provides data on the day’s trip that I do not know how to obtain from the Raymarine MFD on ILENE.

These pictures shows the day’s track, and minute by minute her course and speed plus average speed. I will not have to take notes and guess with this system.

Four people from my congregation joined me on Thursday. We sailed deeply into Littleneck Bay under main and Genoa. Tacking brought us through the passage off Kings Point and through Hart Island Sound before rounding that island. Two tacks using the small jib brought us back to the mooring. Underway three hours (24 minutes of that time with engine, half of those minutes on the mooring before and after) and we tracked 14 NM.

The Star of the show was Dana, from Romania via France, who had the helm about 95 percent of the time. She had done some sailing out of Cannes and loved the experience of ILENE. I had the wheel only while she cast off and picked up the stick and while on a dead run in the Kings Point Channel.

Some of the voyage was slow and stately, but as you can see from the horizon behind Dana’s head, we got up to speed. Dana gleefully noted a moment of 7.8 knots.

Dana had said she would “bring lunch” and I told her we had full kitchen equipment, beverages and ice. I did not expect the champagne, or the huge varied full course dinner. We met at one pm and did not get off the mooring until 3. Her generosity embarrassed me! Dr. Professor Dana as also an artist. As you know, I like to give every guest a shot at the helm, but the others, seeing Dana’s enthusiasm, declined. 

The others among our happy lot were Dana’s husband, Tom, who does admiralty law, Sue, who sailed with me (with her late husband and my ex) on my first boat, the 28’ Pearson, “Just Cause” about 30 years ago, and Bette, also a long time member of the our congregation, a first time sailor.

Not all is perfect in paradise however. Our seven month cruise to Florida and the Abacos, scheduled to begin this October has been adjourned, at least for this winter. My mate’s mutiny, was of the most gentle sort, I will not go without her. Solo sailing is not just difficult but unfulfilling to me. A two week vacation in Spain by air is the consolation prize. I really must quit crying in my beer over the minor disappointments in life and count my blessings. I have a lot to be grateful for.

August 9 - HYC/CIYC Eight Day Cruise. - Day 8, Zieglers Cove to Eastchester Bay 25 NM and Recap.

 We dropped our rent free mooring in Zieglers  at 11:15 but it was traumatic because Lene stubbed her toe on the cleat and thought it was broken. She had to limp back, go below and lay low all day. It was kind of like our first date in May 1997, when she also had a severely stubbed toe. I did try to console her, but not till we got out of Zieglers, the sails (main and small jib) were set and autopilot was holding the course. We had some ice left from the blocks we had taken on at the Harlem the day before departure. Wrapped in a dish towel and tied to the toes with a piece of short stuff, was all I could do —  and Tylenol and sympathy. She is much improved as of this writing.

We tacked back and forth across the Sound into the SW breeze. Gypsy Jake had left before us and was about 1 1/4 miles ahead of us. On the fifth tack, heading northwest toward Greenwich, we saw a rain cloud ahead but I though it would pass well ahead of us along the coast of Connecticut, moving east. BAM! It was an estimated 35-40 knots with driving rain that stung when it hit me. Not much volume of falling water.  GJ told me later that they had hove to for the duration, an option not available for ILENE with her self tacking small jib because the hove to maneuver requires that the headsail be sheeted down on the wrong side— backwinded. Hmmm? I might have tried to do that with the auxiliary jib sheet, but didn’t think of it at the time. Autopilot cannot handle that much wind so I stayed at the helm. The wind heeled our boat a lot. We were very overpowered. I turned on the trusty Yanmar, gave it enough fuel to maintain headway and tried to steer directly into the wind. Whenever the wind got even a bit to either side it heeled the boat sharply and a lot. How long did the squall last? Maybe about five minutes, Lene says ten. I did not time the squall or take photographs. During this storm we were headed in a good westerly direction toward home.

Then, as is usually the case after such violent storms, it had absorbed all the energy in the area. The wind was quite light so we continued motoring for home. We were about ten miles from Execution Rocks. But after a mile or so the wind started to came back, allowing us to shut the engine and sail toward home on starboard tack. Boat speed varied from 2.5 to 6.5 knots. We needed only one set of tacks to clear through the passage between LI and Ex Rocks. We were able to sail home after all, arriving at 5:25.

Gypsy Jake got home at 6. All boats safe home!

What kind of Club Cruise was it?  A good one I think, though too short. We were fortunate that we got along so well with Serge and Julia, who are no longer strangers. When there are more boats participating, it is easier to find friends among them and not get stuck with potentially incompatible folks. But Serge and Julia’s style of cruising melded very well with ours. 

Of the seven nights away from home we went ashore first in Oyster Bay for dinner with Roger L. of “Restless”  from the CIYC. (We also went ashore in Guilford but only to visit the shower house and dumpster. So six evenings we dined aboard, three times together and three apart (plus two breakfasts together). Guilford was our only dock. In Hamburg Cove and Zieglers Cove we took moorings but were not charged. The other four nights our anchors held us in place. (One night’s rent for the seven away.)

The chart plotter computer measures the length of the pink “track” line, a measure of the miles under our keels. For the eight passage days, we traveled 202 NM. And we put 24.8 hours on ILENE’s Yanmar (including idling and slow going near the anchoring points while setting and hauling anchor), so a little more than three hours per day. For ILENE that’s about 14 gallons of diesel for the cruise.

August 8 - HYC/CIYC Eight Day Cruise — Day 7 - Charles Island to Zieglers Cove, 25 NM

 A day of interesting sailing. This screen shot from our chart plotter tells the story. I’ve marked Charles Island with a red “A” near the NE corner of the display.

ILENE is the white boat in the center of the five-mile concentric black range rings. She is heading a bit south of west. The dotted line from ILENE to the blue box with an “X” toward the left is the course to the waypoint, which is a buoy about about two miles from the orange “B” I marked at the extreme left - Zieglers Cove.  So our passage was from “A” to “B” but not a straight line.

Serge taught me how to make Gypsy Jake a “buddy boat” so not only does his triangle, about five files directly behind me (down below the “A”) appear at his position on the chart, but her name appears above it. This only appears when Serge has his Automatic Identification System (AIS) turned on. The other green triangles are other boats, not all of them, but those broadcasting AIS. ILENE has only passive AIS, because I don’t like to spend money and dreaded hooking up another electronic component. We receive the triangles of broadcasting boats through our cockpit VHF radio, but ILENE cannot transmit so no triangle appears on Serge’s screen.

The blue lines leading from the bow of each boat shows its course over the ground and, the length of the blue lines represent each boat’s speed; the end of the blue line is where that boat will be in one hour. None of the other boats shown appear on courses coming close to a collision with ILENE. (When that happens the green triangles flash red and a beeper would sound, except that in LI Sound there are so many other boats that the beeper becomes a frequent distracting noisemaker so I have turned the audible warning off; it is useful in the ocean.) GJ is making better than 5 knots, based on the length of its blue line. . ILENE, the star of her own show, has a darker bolder blue line with “6.1” in an arrow at its tip, signifying that she was making 6.1 knots.

Behind ILENE is a thin lavender (or maybe pink?) line showing her track:  where she has been, like Hansel and Gretel’s trail of breadcrumbs. There are so many tracks that I have identified today’s with thin black pencil marks just beside and below it, showing a big curve, first south and then curving slowly to west. And that curve is part of the story. We were sailing as close to the wind as we could to keep up speed. Coming out from Charles Island our track was a bit east of south, with the wind coming from 45 degrees off our starboard bow, from a bit south of SW. The curve occurred as the wind clocked gradually, a bit at a time to more from the west. As we got to the north shore of long island we would have had to tack 90 degrees and sail a lot more northerly - back to Connecticut - rather than west. But then the wind died so we started motoring to our destination for a while. But before this screen shot was taken, the wind came back. There is an “11” in a tear shaped symbol below and to the left of ILENE. This is not accurately calibrated but says that  the wind is blowing toward us from the direction the tear is pointing and at 11 knots.

At this point we are still motoring and heading south of the shortest distance along the dotted line to the waypoint. I did this to give us room when the wind came up, to sail to the waypoint. The wind did come up, BIGtime, to twenty knots from just a bit west of due south, resulting in a great sail the rest of the way to Zieglers. That cove is well protected from winds from that direction. Here is the lighthouse at the western entrance to Norwalk Connecticut.

After a swim we cooked an informal dinner for ourselves and Serge and Julia on ILENE, based partly on what was left over. The change from Mattituck to Duck Island on Day 3 had one negative consequence: failure to reprovision at Mattituck meant we had a canned vegetable for dinner, beets, Harvardized. Our last meal with our new friends because tomorrow we head for home.

August 7 - HYC/CIYC Eight Day Cruise — Day 6 Guilford to Charles Island Anchorage, 24 NM

 An early start at 8 a.m. today, before the tide ebbed any lower. At one point on the way out the depth meter showed only about one inch under ILENE’s keel. (5.9’ of water v. 5’ 10” keel) Once out in the Sound, that same ebbing tide created an adverse current. Our choices were to head west along the Connecticut coast, or to head south and pass east of Faulkner Island and its outlying reefs before heading west. The wind was the prevailing one in this area — from the southwest. Serge preferred the later option and why not— to gain more “sea room” before being pressed against the coast. ILENE flew main and small jib and was doing about four knots on the southbound starboard tack. But after the tack I found that the waves, the wind, my own doing something wrong and especially the adverse tidal current made for only two knots over the bottom with great difficulty in holding her head close hauled. 

At two knots we would not get there until dark and though I knew that the tide would turn favorable, eventually, I motorsailed for a couple hours at about four knots. Then I sailed the last eight miles, on a strait line directly into the anchorage, starting at about two knots and building to over seven. And again, though on a close reach, not much wave action or heeling.

The anchorage had many small power boats on anchor for a nice Sunday afternoon in or on the water. The top view shows the boats closer to the island, it’s west end to the left, and the bottom shows the boats further from the island. To the right, north of its east end the island has a shoal which protects anchored boats from waves from the west.

But there was plenty of room for us. We dropped directly north of the eastern side of the Island in 18 feet of water. The chart plotter says we are about a thousand feet from the shore; we could have gotten closer.

Gypsy Jake got here about an hour later, the crowd having already thinned out a bit, and anchored well off our starboard side. I have been here half a dozen times, always in calmer seas. Today it was rough, causing pitching. Serge suggested prudence could call for letting out more scope and it was a good suggestion. After dinner but before dark I increased to 100 feet of snubbed chain. Here is Serge on Gypsy Jake’s bow.

These storm clouds are dropping rain, the darker vertical orange bands are sunset rain. But it most all passed on land, behind us and the farmers need the rain more than we do.

 The dark threatening grey bands are rain waiting to fall. Before nine a squall passed with much stronger winds. They turned all the boats, briefly; we were headed north. We closed up hatches but only one drop of rain fell! And then calmer winds from the southwest again.

August 6 — HYC/CIYC Eight Day Cruise — Day 5, Hamburg Cove to Guilford - 25NM

But first breakfast. This time Julia supplied apples which I diced and sautéed with cinnamon to fill the pancakes. When we got from the Cove into the River it was blowing 18 knots from the south, which opposed the current rushing south to make it quite choppy. Added to this, it being a Saturday, tons of power boats churning up wakes in all directions. But south wind would make for a great beam reach once we got out to the Sound, we anticipated.

As we passed Essex in the Channel a fleet of smaller boats was racing to port and the Committee Boat, via VHF, asked the “spectator boats” to keep clear of the line. I identified ILENE and asked if we would be interfering  — I can never tell at first glance where a race’s marks are. “No, just stay in the channel.”

But once in the Sound the wind got turned off. Gypsy Jake had a pocket of wind and continued to try sailing. We motored a ways toward Guilford. Eventually, however, pursuant to the ancient maxim: “ If you don’t like the weather, just wait— it will change”, the wind did come up and we had an hour and a half of tide assisted seven knots of boat speed under Genoa alone on a gentle port close reach without significant waves.

Guilford Channel is well marked with thin white poles on each side with stripes of red or green paint — ILENE’s depth sounder screamed at us at seven feet, but the water did not get much shallower and it was nine feet at our dock, at half tide. 

I have to put in a good word for the manager and dock hands at the Guilford YC. On the spot and helpful. When Lene asked where she could buy a head of lettuce and a dozen eggs, they apologetically told us that the grocery in town had closed, that Uber to the Mall was ridiculous and that due to potential liability issues they no longer lent out bikes to sailors. An hour later, the smiling dock hand showed up with a brown paper bag containing the sought foodstuffs. Now that’s customer service. It is not a Yacht Club as such, but a privately owned marina with a pool and clean showers. There was a wedding reception going on in the upstairs hall.

We had run out of fresh water in the morning and elected to leave Hamburg Cove with the sink full of dirty dishes. (There is some sort of leak in the fresh water system that has to be sorted out.)  But that made filling the fresh water tanks the first order of business at the Guilford dock. The last order of business was the use of their showers. In between, another delicious dinner aboard Gypsy Jake. Thanks, Julia.

Sorry no photos in this post.

August 5 - HYC/CIYC Eight Day Cruise — Day 4 - Duck Island Roads to Hamburg Cove 16 NM

 The night was warm, calm and dry. The night winds that had been forecast absented themselves. Cabin fans cooled the air, somewhat. Heat is a problem this summer on land and afloat.

In the morning, Gypsy Jake said that they would like to follow us and they did. But it was another “all motor” day and Serge said that GJ’s Yanmar runs best at five knots. This is s bit slow for us but it was fun to lead, and I know the fun they had of entering a new harbor for the first time. Visiting an old friend again, while great, is just not quite as thrilling. Here is GJ following us through the upraised bascule railroad bridge at Old Saybrook.

I was hailed twice during the passage. Both by yells. The first was out in the Sound by a sailboat passing us port to port. I could not make out what she said so hailed  on Channel 16 and we switched to 72. It was “Sha Ka Ree” (phonetic) with our intermediate member whose name I do not yet know but who recognized “ILENE”. She was heading west in the last few days of a two week cruise in the Sound with her other Club. So the way I see it, another Harlem boat did “join” the cruise, if only for a pleasant few seconds.

The five knot speed was diminished in the Connecticut River due to strong adverse tidal and river current.

The narrow channel between the river and the Cove, well marked by small red and green buoys, was the site of the second yell of the day. This one was helpful rather than social. We were in the channel passing the port side of a sailboat anchored to starboard, or so I thought!. The depth meter was showing less water, down to just a bit more than seven feet.  A yell from a stranger on a power boat on our port side: “Turn to port; that boat is aground!”  We did; she was. But she just waited and floated off the sand when the tide came up.

None of the four of us wanted to see the sights of “downtown” Hamburg Cove. It’s one store having closed during Covid. The waters of the outer cove where we were moored were quite warm, not like a bathtub but cool with no chilling effect. Everyone enjoyed a leisurely swim and boat visitation before dinner on Gypsy Jake. Her huge cockpit made a lovely setting and what a dinner it was. We provided the appetizers and some wine and some of the chops: Serge grilled all of the chops and Julia put out potatoes, salad, marinated Russian eggplant and a excellent zucchini with dill and garlic dish etc. I haven’t eaten that much at any meal on this cruise and it was all good. Here is ILENE, in the evening, from Gypsy Jake, with the passage from the Cove to the Connecticut River to the left. The small buoys can be seen in the Chanel if you look carefully. Up close they are much easier to see.

At the end of the dinner we all looked up the data again, together, to confirm my preliminary evaluation of the tidal situation for the next day:  leave at about 11 so we will not arrive at Guilford before 3:30, when the tide will be half way up and rising, giving us enough water under our keels to safely get to the docks.

Another hot, calm night.

Aug 4 — HYC/CIYC Eight Day Cruise, Day 3 — Port Jeff to Duck Island Roads 34 NM

 Hold it a second!  We are supposed to be in Mattituck, right. Yes, but one has to be flexible on a cruise. Despite the advantages of Mattituck, it is at the end of a 2 mile Bayou heading south into Long Island from its north shore and hence windless. And on a hot day and night wind was desired. So, we went to Duck Island Roads where we would be protected from any waves but the winds would cut across the seawall to keep us cool. (I did notify both clubs to please tell folks who might want to join us that they are welcome but because we are not following the itinerary, call first so they won’t be disappointed in going to a place where we were not. We added about ten miles to the day’s passage, but they will shorten tomorrow’s sail. We anchored a bit east of where the chart shows the purple anchor.

But before that we all had a leisurely breakfast of blueberry/mango pancakes. We had forgotten the bacon but Lene came up with fried rounds of hotdogs, an acceptable substitute. 

We weighed anchor at 11:50 for what was six hours underway. The course was a bit north of east and the first few hours it looked like a repeat of day two — no wind. I left the main up but no wind was propelling the boat. Then a glorious light apparent wind came up at about 12 knots from 110 to 140 degrees off the starboard bow. Pushing us along at 6 and 7 knots. No big waves, no engine noise, no fuel costs, just delicious wind propulsion.

The anchorage area is huge with only one sailboat there when we arrived and one more coming in after Gypsy Jake. There were a dozen power boats out for the day in the shallower water near the sea walls but as expected they left before evening.

Again, due to Gypsy Jake’s later arrival, we deferred our dinner together on her until the next day. Due to going farther today, tomorrow’s passage to Hamburg Cove will be shorter.

August 3 — HYC/CIYC Eight Day Cruise — Day 2, Oyster Bay to Port Jefferson

 There was less useful wind than yesterday for ILENE. We put up sails but took down the Genoa, leaving the Main up as a stabilizer. The glassy sea show this, passing the Northport towers.

We had a hitch hiker for a few minutes; luckily our boat’s tigers were below and did not notice him.

Roger L of Restless toured Oyster Bay on his folding bike and reported he made it back to City Island after a pleasant afternoon sail into headwinds, that built as the afternoon wore on.

Gypsy Jake, beautiful, new and shiny, started after us. A Beneteau 38.1, she is shorter in length (though she has greater volume due to wide beam, and hence slower, and Serge and Julia are more devoted to actually sailing — purists, I call them than we have become, more willing to use the engine in light wind when we have 25 miles to go. So they came into Port Jeff later than we did. Their generous offer of a delicious dinner had to be deferred; no one wants to start cooking A big dinner so late in the day after sailing and the heat suppresses appetite. 

The mooring field behind the barrier beach west of the cut has room for many boats but was virtually empty on a Wednesday. Many moorings that fill the larger area just south of the channel were likewise vacant. Both our boats anchored. We lowered the dink and went for a swim. During which I noticed how fouled ILENE’s waterline, her bootstripe  and twelve inches below, had become with marine growth in the brief period since Barnacle Buster had cleaned her. So brush in hand I made my way around her and she gleams again.

Hot dry night. Tomorrow, Mattituck.

Aug 2 — HYC/CIYC Eight Day Club Cruise — Day One: City Island to Oyster Bay

 Cruising is essentially ending the day in a different port from where you set out. It’s that simple to define. ILENE cruises every year. She and we love it, and most of our cruises are much longer than the current eight days and we normally sail alone, subject to occasionally meeting up with old friends and making new ones in the ports visited. 

Club Cruising is cruising in company with boats from home; so it requires a minimum of two boats. It involves compromises among the participants, more planning and less flexibility. But the trade off for these inconvenience is the friendships it creates.  The first year that I joined the Harlem, more than 30 years ago, I took my little Pearson 28 on the 16 day Club Cruise. I was like the new kid in class; the participants on the other boats were all strangers to me when we set off — but became friends. In those days they helped me a lot more than I helped them and taught me the sailing ethic: help other sailors! We had our common interest in boating, and the time together permitted that initial common interest to grow into friendship. But time, with the aging process and other circumstances have taken those friends from sailing and in some cases from this world. And new converts to the love of cruising have been hard to find. Most sailors these days prefer either the thrills and adrenaline rush of competitive racing, or just hanging out in their mooring and day sails.

This year our neighbors on City Island, the City Island Yacht Club, offered to cruise jointly with us and despite this the number of participants has proven to be quite small. Only two boats, “ILENE” and “Gypsy Jake” (Serge and Julia), are planning to go the circuit, representing the Harlem and the Morris Yacht Clubs on City Island. For this first day, “Restless”, sailed by Roger L. who chairs the cruising committee of the City Island YC joined us, making us three boats, one from each of the three clubs on the western side of the Island. Several others boats plan to join us for a few days out on the cruise or toward its end on a “maybe” basis.  Problems of vacation time scheduling (for the un-retired as I call them), of crew, of boat mechanical problems and of family emergencies sadly forced others to scratch.

We each got underway at the time of our own choosing in the late morning and the only problem was lack of wind on this hot and sunny day. What wind there was came from where we had come from, reducing apparent wind with its propulsive and cooling properties. Yet each boat sailed on broad reaches or wing on wing for substantial periods of time, before giving up the day’s dream and powering. For example, ILENE was underway about 4.4 hours, but with engine on only 2.2. The rest of the hours we were “speeding”along at about two knots over the ground, with average boat speed for the 19 mile track of 4.5 knots. Normally we go faster on passages by using sails, motor or both, but we all made it to our destinations by 4:45, except Roger L. on Restless, who took advantage of a bit of late afternoon breeze to sail a bit more, at the entrance to Oyster Bay

We anchored with sixty feet of snubbed chain about a hundred feet from Gypsy Jake. Restless, who was sailing solo, his crew having abandoned him, took a mooring of the Sagamore YC. We shared our dink with Serge and Julia, met Roger L. at the dock, and walked perhaps half a mile to Autentico, a restaurant none of us had ever patronized before. Good innovative Italian cuisine: Serge, Julia, Lene, Roger K. and Roger L.

It was on the dink ride home that the problems emerged. The first was that the tide had dropped so far at the dock where they had directed us to tie up that the outboard stopped us on a low underwater cable of some sort. Not a significant problem: we tilted the outboard out of the water, paddled fifty feet and then resumed with the outboard. We had caused the other problem, earlier, because neither boat is yet in mid season form: failure to light our respective anchor lights not only made us liable in the unlikely event that another boat hit us, but made our boats hard to find in the dark. An extra fifteen minute dink ride in the darkness. It was cool, relatively, out there. Tomorrow: Port Jefferson.

July 27 - Aug 1 — Four Day Sails, Moving Aboard And Ready To Cruise

Wednesday was Old Salts day. In last week’s outing of this group, aboard Ohana, the dramatics occurred at the end of the sail with the inability to furl the mainsail. This time, aboard ILENE, the problem occurred at the start. The main was up and we were ready to sail off the mooring in light wind when a call came in from another passenger. I said we would wait, my mistake and I made the further mistake of leaving the main up, it’s sheet loose, waiting for ten minutes in the light air. But unattended, the boat sailed over the mooring ball which got stuck with the bridle stretched down and back, taut, so we could not pull its eye off the cleat. When chief launch operator David dropped off the final member of our group he tugged us in various directions until we finally sprung clear. There is probably a scratch in the bottom paint where the hardware of the ball passed the keel. The sailing itself was not extraordinary, everyone who wanted to 

took a turn on the helm.

Thursday Lene and her friend Sharon were aboard for what urned out to be a brilliant day of sailing. After lunch aboard, the wind was rather light, and we made speeds of about three knots for the first two hours. We headed further into Manhasset Bay than ever before — to the point where the chart plotter said the depth was only six feet. But that is at low tide and at the stage of the ride cycle when we were there the depth sounder noted nine feet. We went into that Bay to avoid a broad reach out toward Execution Rocks, it was a hot day and the broad reach would have diminished the apparent wind. But the wind came up getting into the six and seven knot range. Coming out of the bay we headed for the north end of Hart Island and beat back through Hart Island Sound.

Friday was “moving aboard” day for us and the kitties, who seemed rather non plussed by the move. They knew where their box was and their water bowl. We left our apartment at 2, arrived at the Club at 3, got all fourteen bags of stuff (two of them containing felines) plus blocks of ice aboard by 3:45 and everything stowed by 4:30 followed by repacking everything in logical places in the aft cabin (warehouse) by 5, and dinner at the Club. Not the most comfortable night of sleep with the rain forcing the closing of hatches, but the fan helped.

Saturday afternoon we sailed with David on his “Hidden Hand”. First I helped him run his reefing lines through the boom using Gorilla Tape to attach each to its messenger line which had been pulled in last fall. It is an ultra strong tape, worked well and is now on my shopping list. We also inserted one final baton into the mainsail and measured that it is only two inches too long, which excess Dave will cut off soon. Reefing seemed in order when we arrived but the wind calmed down by the time we were ready to go. Dave’s mooring pennants are of super strong but super thin and super expensive high tech fiber. Underway, we sailed with full sails to Kings Point, eastward through the channel off the Point, almost to Ex. Rocks and back via Throggs Neck. With her seven foot draft, HH is wicked fast like the racer she was designed to be. David treated us to dinner on the lovely verandah of his Club; good food but the place was almost empty. We gave David a ride to the end of the Pelham Number 6 line, shopped for more food, and were delighted that we did not get stuck in traffic on the way back to the Island. I’m delinquent in not having photos of this day.

Patrick, Steven and Matt were my guests on Sunday. Lene took in the movie Elvis in New Rochelle. Matt, not in photo, was an aircraft mechanic on an aircraft carrier. Another good day sail, after our lunch aboard. Light wind at first but it came up and made for a good sail. We were underway from 1:30 to 5. We heard the radio chatter on VHF channel 16 about a Pilot coming aboard a ship, and looking around saw a large merchantman in the Sound off zNew Rochelle. Later it made its way around Stepping Stones Lighthouse and we gave it a wide berth. I saw the guys onto the #29 bus but could not drive them it’s route to the subway because Lene had the car. Patrick is the newest member of my book group.

Monday was the last pre-cruise visit to the city, to pick up mail, some things we had forgotten, more groceries and home showers. Back at the Club we brought ILENE to the dock at high tide for a couple of hours for water. The water in the port tank had gone sour so it was drained, the tank cleaned and both tanks filled. Low water volume at the faucet was caused by the usual culprit: crud in the metal mesh of the filter. It was removed, cleaned and put back into service. And the “no hot water” problem was also easily solved. In the fall I had removed from the hot water heater the hoses bringing cold water to the heater and taking hot water from it, and stuck a short length of pipe into the ends of each hose thereby bypassing the heater. But this spring I had forgotten to remove the bypass and reattach the hoses to the heater. I love it when problems have five minute fixed. A lot of city grime was scrubbed off too.

Dinner aboard with Lene back on the mooring was quite a simple one: franks, beans, sauerkraut and corn on the cob. Simple but delicious. 

ILENE is loaded up, ready and excited— waiting for the club cruise to begin.