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.