Feb 2 - Mar 7 — Winter Has Been Mild But Soooo Looong

During the time since my last report, I have visited ILENE only five times and worked on her only fourteen hours! That’s pathetic, but I cannot lie to you. A lot more evening performances of shows and concerts so my priority has been out of whack.

I retightened the propane tank apparatus and the hose is holding the gas pressure firmly; I installed the new AA battery for 2023-24 in the ship’s brass wall clock.

I returned the two bottles of diesel-water mix from my car for safe storage tied upright under the boat — so as not to subject myself to a fine for earth removal if they leak.This storage is until an event to be scheduled in the spring at nearby Orchard Beach for environmentally sound disposal, not into The Sound! 

Two of the lower halyards, not those that hoist the sails, became unsecured, blew down, and have been coiled and secured to be raised to their proper places once the winter cover is removed.

I spent a lot of time both at and off the boat figuring how to rig up a “low friction ring” to be hung a few inches below the level of the bowsprit, off the bow, through which to run the snubber line.This picture shows such a ring on a sister boat, so I did not invent the idea, but a whole lot of figuring went into adapting it for ILENE and getting the correct sized parts.
The snubber, line is 37 feet long, of strong, stretchy, shock absorbing nylon. It has been in use for 20 years but does not look worn or abraded. It attaches a hook at its lower end to the anchor chain under the water and the other end inoffensive it is attached to a strong cleat near the boat’s  bow. It takes the load of the wind trying to push the anchored boat away, and it’s stretchiness gives an easier and quieter night’s sleep than unsnubbed chain. Such chain, when a link of it rolls over from side to side on itself as the boat is pushed from side to side by the wind, called “hunting”, the click sounds like a hammer blow!  The problems all these past years have been twofold.  First, attaching and retrieving the snubber with a boat hook while hanging over the side, involves danger, especially if it must be done at night in a storm in a hurry. But also, the cleat to which the top end of the line is cleated is not at the bow, but about four feet further to the right of the right side of the photo. This aggravates the boat’s hunting while moving the connection point at the very tip of the bow will reduce hunting. Also, the snubber line currently runs from deck level, an inch above the top of the bowsprit, down and forward to the chain, below sea level. This caused the snubber line to rub against the stainless steel rod, shown running from just aft of the slippery ring down and aft toward the right side of the photo. And occasionally rubbing past the second anchor, adjacent to the first, which the owner of the pictured boat had removed. Leading the snubber through the ring will eliminate these hazards because the snubber line will not lead down until it is forward of all of the boat.

And while I was at it I purchased a new hook for the underwater end of the snubber line. The first hook is shown:

The problem was that while the hook held to the chain nicely in wind (under pressure),  it had the nasty habit of falling off the chain in calm air, with no tension on the line. It had a second bad habit as well. Well, you really can’t call it a habit because it only happened once. In strong wind, the wind was so strong that it straightened out, i.e.,  unbent the hooks, and hence fell off, dangling from the line and not working.  

This is what the current hook looks like, with the chain fitting into its slot. It never unbent but it did fall off, dangling uselessly on the end of the snubber.

The newly purchased expensive, heavy Mantus hook shown below is a massive casting, will not bend, and will not fall off because of a rubber strap seen trailing off below my pinkie toward the right. That strap has no role  in big wind but in light wind it is strong enough to keep the hook from falling off. And with the slippery ring will be easy to launch and retrieve:

I measured, ordered cut and fit a new rubber mast boot, the intended final solution to the leak of rainwater into the boat from the top, around the mast. But this has not YET worked either. Very frustrating. Perhaps more glue to fill gaps can do the trick. I hope so. If not, I’ve got to call in a professional.

But the biggest project so far, in terms of time,  has been sanding down the cherry woodwork around the galley for the application of several coats of  new polyeurathane. Slow going and I partially disassembled some of the the wooden pieces to give myself a better angle to sand on it and to get into corners. But alas, the next problem is figuring out how to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. I’ve not given up on this either.         

And having reinstalled the touch pad and the computer of the Autopilot in the boat when they came back from Florida, I had to take them out again after the techs   next  tested the motor, and asked me to send back those two previously tested parts, plus the electro compass so they can test all four parts together to figure out what is wrong. This meant cutting a black wire from the compass, leading to a lot of thought about how to reconnect  the four thin color coded wires within it. Too many butt connectors too close together. The solution will be a terminal block and I’ve figured out where to place it, high above the water in the bilge.

The compass is held on place by the two screws in the notch in the strong transverse stringer that holds up the cabin sole above the bilge on the right side of the photo with the wire seen running up from back aft under it. Each of the tiny plastic cooler cored and covered internal wires in it will be fastened to one of the four lower screws of the connection block it will be fastened to the same board to which the compass will be reattached, and then the color coded internal 

Wires get screwed to one of the four top screws, the one with the same colored wire leading in from the bottom.

I’ve done a few things for the Club. The date of the Club Cruise has been selected as well as a weekend jaunt to Oyster Bay. I went to the Brooklyn Navy Yard to scout out an event for one of our Club’s winter “land cruises” — the museum there: free admission, easy parking and several options as to places to eat. I also read an article in Points East magazine by a guy who in 2004 created a series of social events in the bitterly cold cabin of his docked sailboat in Salem MA, under its snow covered canvas cover. His concept was simple: BYOB and tell each other sea stories. This does not require a lot of planning, preparation or equipment. We can adopt it and do it in front of a cracking wood fire in the Clubhouse living room. If it catches on it can also give our bar and restaurant some patronage. I love both telling sea stories (as readers of this blog know) and listening to them as well. Let’s see if we can make this happen.

I attended a meeting of the New York Map Society, in a member’s living room, with refreshments. I did not present a chart and the other presenter’s charts were not particularly interesting to those who love the water. (I did enjoy the fellowship and learned the name of the river that runs through Berlin and a lot of geographic history.

Also related to water are oysters. Lene and I had lunch in the historic Oyster Bar under Grand Central station on our way home from a Doctor’s visit, and coincidentally I attended an excellent free slide show on current methods of oyster cultivation in the recently cleaned up waterways of this nation at the National Arts Club, complete with free samples shucked while we were hearing about them. I thought I knew everything there was to know about oysters after reading Mark  Kurlansky’s excellent book, “The Big Oyster”,  about oysters and their role in New York’s waters and economy. But that was 1997 and a lot has changed since then.

Speaking of eating, we have had three dinners with sailing friends, two with Bennett and Harriett, who we have known since 2010, and one with Jim and Wijnanda, new friends who want to cruise to Newfoundland in their boat this summer with us.  Very interesting people who are currently invited to our house, with others, later in March.

But and the Doctor visit that brings up a sad subject. Lene has had a number of mysterious ailments recently and until the remedies are applied and prove effective, uninhabited fjords deep into the coastline of Newfoundland, with potentially iffy communications, and at least a day’s sail from medical attention, is just too risky. So while we will go back to Nova Scotia, to some places there we passed on last time, and possibly to St. Pierre, off the Newfoundland coast, this summer’s itinerary has required abridgment.