Yeah, the propane was not yet fully fixed. When I came back to ILENE After about a week, the pressure was down from 100 to 80. And I got a wee sniff of the stuff in the locker. During my next two visits during the period of this report (less than six hours at the boat) I removed the connection to the propane tank, disconnected the loose connection between the pressure reduction valve and the solenoid, applied plumbers tape, fully tightened with wrenches, reconnected the tank and retested. The gauge shot up only to 75, which may be the “new normal”, and hopefully will hold that pressure till next time, which may be a while from now with a strong cold snap coming on us.
Also, I called Bronx Ignition who reported that while they had tested the Auto pilot’s motor and found that it worked, they were not competent to truly test all aspects of its functioning (the transmission gearing) and hence were not willing to try to do so. So I called the Florida repair firm that had checked out the two electronic components and made arrangements to ship the motor to them for test ($100, plus expensive shipping — because it is heavy). They also noted that I might need a newly rebuilt one for less than $500. Defender Industries sells new ones for about $2300.
I just couldn’t see reinstalling all the components each of which “checked out” without finding the problem that I know exists somewhere in the system. Jamie of Harvard said he had taken his apart and blown out a lot of carbon from the brushes with compressed air which improved its functioning. My unit has been in service since 1999, and steered a lot of miles, but I don’t want to play around with its guts.
As to the nick high on the trailing end of the keel created when I ran the boat over its mooring ball and its huge top shackle: I took the claw hammer and whacked the lead that had been pushed to the starboard side in and back, so that side is smooth; now I need only to apply some filler to fill in the port side before painting. No need for barrier paint here because the keel is solid lead, not capsulated in fiberglass. Barrier coating protects fiberglass from water incursion and subsequent “rot”; lead does not rot.
Also, for the last two seasons the rudder turned with some stiffness and the top of it, which forms a line parallel to the hull bottom above it was canted aft a bit; wider at the forward end and narrower aft. See photo below. A very tiny bend in the shaft. How it got there, I do not know. The rudder had been pulled backward maybe a degree or two out of alignment, a big plastic collar around the exposed rudder post between the top of the rudder and the hull was pinched on the aft side. What to do? A friend’s blog reported, many years ago, that he fixed a similar problem by driving his boat slowly in reverse into a gradual sand bank. He said it worked for him but to me his method sounded ridiculous then and ever since. We are talking about an object that weighs almost six tons and has a lot of momentum moving slowly, but how slowly? We don’t want to over bend it in the opposite direction. I thought that applying a slow steady very gradually increasing pressure could work. I led a long spare line from forward of the big wooden blocks on which the keel sits, back along both sides of the keel toward the rudder. And I used the heavy ratcheting strap that is normally used to snug the dink, hanging on its davit dar, to the transom of the boat. I led the strap forward around the aft edge of the rudder on both sides of the rudder. After joining the line and the strap to form an adjustable loop, I ratcheted away, very slowly, once tension was achieved, 1/4” at a time until I think the problem is solved.
Pumped out bilge water and a bit of sanding around the galley and measured the circumference of the mast boot to order the right sized rubber piece from Defender to finally, I hope, seal the leak there.
I had looked up the Bronx municipal hazardous waste disposal site and drove to it, in the bowels of the lower South Bronx on my way home with about 1.1 gallons of the contaminated diesel I had removed from the diesel tank into empty antifreeze bottles in the fall. Mission: to properly dispose of them. But: “Oh, sorry, we don’t take that”. I searched the net but could not find a commercial site and pay for proper disposal. But the Harlem’s Environmental Compliance Officer, Walt, found the solution: patience. In the spring, the City will have a one day event at Orchard Beach to accept such hazardous waste. Until then, I have tied my jugs to a stanchion (to prevent them from tipping over, leaking and requiring me to pay for the stained soil to be professionally removed.
Fun for me, was a map infused slide lecture by a History professor from Queens College Kara Murphy Schlicting, at the South Street Seaport Museum one rainy night. Her area is the 19th and 29th Centuries, and her topic, the subject of her book, was how the waterfront changed my city. she focussed on individuals who used private and public money to develop the port. The first key figure was Robert Fulton, whose steamboat cut the time and cost of transporting goods between Albany and Manhattan to a fraction compared to land travel. Next, Dewitt Clinton was responsible for the Erie Canal, linking the city to the nation’s developing heartland by water, making NY the greatest city in the world. Then waterfront development itself, exemplified by Steinway, of pianos, who invested wisely in waterfront property, created a huge factory and lumber yard where LaGuardia Airport came later. Finally both Robert Moses and environmentalists who developed the waterfront, including Orchard Beach “The Riviera of New York”, and the Triborough Bridge, and those cleaning up Newtown Creek. The audience was small and I got there early and told Dr. Schlicting about the NY Map Society and later suggested to its leaders that we invite her to speak to our group.
I read the e-book version of “Sailing To Newfoundland: A Solo Exploration of the South Coast Fjords” by Paul Trammell, an account of his 2022 cruise, published on January 10 of this year. Jim, a City Island YC member who wants to cruise there this summer, put me onto the book which was very interesting. The author acquired his 1972 Cartwright 40 sloop “Wildflower”, in 2019. She was built in New England about half a century before with a full keel, as characteristic of that period, a 5’ 8” draft and an 11.25’ beam. Not a racer but a stable seaworthy boat.
The author’s seamanship and anchoring skills, which he described, seemed right. The first few chapters described his eight day nonstop solo passage from Florida to Maine and his stops in six coves in Maine and Nova Scotia. (No cities: he is a nature lover.) His accounts of those ports jibed with my memory of my visits to them, further giving me confidence in the accuracy of his account. Once he arrived in the fjords of Newfoundland, I had no memories, but I read his book, which includes small black and white photos that cannot do justice to the majestic unspoiled beauty of the places visited, with my CCA Cruising Guide open before me. The guide included chartlets of the places he went, making them interesting. Without the chartlets, I fear the book would be a bit boring to a reader who has never been or does not plan to visit Newfoundland. While each port is unique, there are similarities between them. He travelled solo and was deeply in love with nature including hiking in the woods over steep terrain without trails and fishing, with fish being the dominant part of his diet. I was inspired to order the 17 large paper charts from the Canadian Hydrographic Service through Landfall Navigation in Stamford CT, thus further committing ILENE to this summer’s adventure.
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