Sept 13 - Cruise 2, Day 7 — Second Lay Day in Block Is. , Zero NM

 

The calm before the storm. It arrived on schedule at 10 with very heavy wind as the front passed, followed by heavy but intermittent rain, occasionally accompanied by thunder claps, until two. Terrific privacy in heavy rain because sensible people hunker down in their cabins. But it was warm and so clad in very little but a thin foulie top and armed with a stiff brush I used the abundant fresh water pouring down from the heavens to get rid of the rest of the bird mess.    

Lots of those hard-to-get-in-the-season green moorings available all around us after (as before) the storm:

Lots of dialogue: should we start back today, after the rain - get closer to home without fighting strong head winds in the future? But the winds were very weak. And if we stayed in Block on the mooring we had already prepaid for, we could have dinner at The Oar, right at the dock, after pumping out the water in the  dink. The Oar serves popular non-gourmet cuisine in a nautical ambience. And staying would perhaps provide a chance to mail that check to the Huguenot. The Admiral suggested an early start tomorrow. 

In the afternoon I made a lot of progress in fixing the forward diesel fuel tank. It is the larger of the two but has not been used because in the first year it was installed, being an idiot, I put a bit of water in the fuel tank with the water hose. I suspect it was no more than a gallon in a 40 gallon tank. But since then we have not fed the engine from that tank. Water is heavier than diesel and hence will lay at the bottom of the tank. Fuel is drawn from tanks to the engine through pick up tubes that feed from the bottom.  So my method (I’ve done two batches of this before) has been to open the plug in the top of the tank, insert a battery operated fluid transfer pump and turn it on to discharge the liquid into a clear plastic one gallon former Poland Spring Water bottle. Once filled I let it sit for a few minutes to let any water settle to the bottom. The water is, uh, the color of water while marine diesel is dyed bright pink. I think that dying process has to do with preventing tax avoidance but it comes in handy. So far I have not seen a level of clear water at the bottom after letting each successive gallon settle for a few minutes. Next step is pouring the diesel from the bottle into the aft tank, the good tank, through a funnel with a “Baha filter”. I don’t know the science of how it works, but it lets the diesel through while keeping any water out. An the end of today’s operations there is plenty of pure diesel in the aft tank to get us home, and only about half an inch of fluids in the forward tank. It is so shallow that the fluid transfer pump is not picking it up. So this winter, before the freeze, when the boat has been hauled onto solid ground, I will take off the nine inch square cleaning port and get the rest of what is in there out, with sponges squeezed in my rubber gloved hands. When the tank is bone dry, I can reseal it and fill it next spring with diesel.  That’s the plan.

During the afternoon a dinghy with four people approached us. Alphie Girl was posing and Lene asked “So, are you cat people?”  They responded “No, we are Saga people. Peter and Cathy were of “White Star”, another Saga 43, and were home bound toward Annapolis from Nova Scotia with Curt and Kathy on “Five & Dime” a Beneteau First 42, on which they have lived without a land base for twenty years. They were headed south and Lene asked “Do you know Dean and Susan of Autumn Borne.” “Sure, they are so helpful to others.” We asked them to come aboard for a beer but they had plans. It turns out that ILENE is a newer boat than White Star — but not by much: their boat was the 22nd Saga 43 to come out of the mold and ours is hull number 23.

Dinner at The Oar was disappointing. Lene had expected more. But the charm of the place is its bar and it’s ambience, not the food.

The dink is hauled and we are ready to go tomorrow.