Oct 18- 24 — End of Season, GOC, and Beginning of Winter Work

The final sail of the Salts was on Lady Cat and ILENE. I had five souls with me but skipped the apres sail dinner because Lene was home on a Wednesday.  The sail was after I had stripped off the Genoa and one of the Salts had helped me lug it to fold and store it in my locker.

Next day I motored to the Huguenot, solo, light wind made the only potential hard part, tying up to their dock, easy. Then after stripping the small jib, Ubering back to the Harlem to get our car, and loading the jib into the car, I helped the Huguenot yard men haul and power wash ILENE

and move her to her winter spot and block her there on chained Jack stands.

She is right next to Ohana:

Good news and bad here. The good was that ILENE’s bottom was remarkably cleaner than last year. The bad is the need for two repairs that I will have to figure out how to go and get done. There is a nick (maybe 1.5 inch by 2.5 inches)near the bow end of the bottom edge of the port side of the keel.

This was the result of the close encounter with rocks at Wreck Island in July. This cannot affect watertight integrity because the hull is solid lead. The other scrape is possibly more problematic. After a scrape through the gel coat on ILENE’s port side, below the waterline, in About August 2010 in the channel leading into Point Judith Harbor, Consolidated Yacht Yard fashioned a good patch. Now, thirteen seasons later that patch is coming loose which will allow blistering through the hull at that point if not repaired. A winter project for me. 

GOC was Saturday night at 5 pm. With yet another rainy weekend in the City, the club head erected a canvas top, plastic sided tent over the deck for us spectators. The rain had let up before the event but the strong wind chilled the officers who massed outside and blew into the microphone making the sound system inadequate to the Commodore’s excellent speech.

The ritual is the same as it has been for the last 39 years that I have attended. A welcoming,  reassuring ritual. Then the food; let’s just say that this is never an event for dieters.

And my first day of post season work, preparing (1) for the displacement of all fresh water in the four hot and cold faucets and the salt water in the deck wash system and the engine with pink propylene glycol and (2) installation of the blue canvas winter cover. This is two days of work after our week of non-watery activities at Ranchi la Puerta, a spa in the desert if Baja California; then ILENE will be ready for her hibernation.