July 2 - 17 — Home With Covid and then Getting ILENE Ready For Canada

 Yes the dreaded Covid! No worse for us than the common cold, but it kept us away from the water quite a while.

The windlass is fixed. The third day of working on it, alone, I gave it the acid test: it  passed.

The first of the three days my new mechanic, Pete, who I recommend (516-807-5340), (petemarine27@outlook.com) worked with me. (Well let’s be more accurate: he worked and I watched and helped) I’d seen him working under a power boat at the Huguenot and after chatting with him, figured he knew his business so took his number. He removed the electric motor which I took to Bronx Ignition for what turned out to be a free bench test. Five minutes. The problem was not the motor. The motor is to the right in the photo. I’ve cleaned the corrosion off of the aluminum attachment plate and will coat it with grease to prevent recurrence. Those are seriously large wires to carry the heavy electrical power that the Windlass requires.  I also purchased two 150 amp buss fuses and installed one, the other a spare. These are 15 amps higher than recommended, which I learned is OK. Pete did not leave until we saw that the motor turned the windlass to raise when the up button was pushed and lower it when the other button was pushed. Great. We’re done, but for the test. 

Next day I reattached the anchor to the chain and discovered two mechanical problems I had caused.

First, three strands of chain were hanging down out of the bottom of  the chain pipe through the upper portion of the anchor locker: (the white fiberglass tube in the background left of the photo) the correct one and two more representing a loop of chain that had somehow been pulled up into the pipe and jammed it. I tried to free it from the top but my tool (dentist’s pick taped to the side of a long screw driver) was ineffectual. How about from the bottom?  I had a piece of 3/8” dowel, almost four feet long left over from making bungs for the cabin sole project a few years ago. Just the sort of scrap that the Admiral is always after me to throw out. But I get it inserted from the bottom, twisted and the extraneous loop of chain fell back down! Hooray!  But not so fast, mister!  Yes, with chain attached, the windlass raised and lowered the anchor all right,  but only about two inches each way, followed by a loud “Clunk!”  A telephone consult to Pete. He said to check out the “stripper” — but ONLY AFTER you make sure the breaker is off — we don’t want mashed fingers. I tried to describe what I did to cause and then fix this problem to my mechanically astute friend Jim, in words, but failed, so here is a picture:

The stripper, that I have circled in orange, rotates on the central shaft, between the upper and lower plates of the capstan arrangement, marked in blue. (The chain runs around the gap between those plates - their ridges grip and their rotation lowers and raises the anchor chain.) Well I knew that the stripper could not be to the right of the vertical orange Allen bolt through the upper housing, labeled 34 in the diagram, so I put the stripper to the left of the bolt and it was the stripper that was causing the Clunk. Taking that vertical bolt out, I noticed the vertical hole through the stripper, and reinserted the bolt through that hole, locking the stripper in its proper place. No more clunk!

The third day, I motored to deeper water, lowered the anchor, got it set and used the windlass to kedge (pull) the boat to the anchor, putting maximum strain on the windlass. It works!

Also poured more than three pints of distilled water into the eighteen cells of the six house bank batteries, and closed up the aft cabin so that Lene can store our stuff where she wants it.

ILENE IS READY FOR NOVA SCOTIA AT LAST!  But a change in plans. All this Arctic, Covid and repair work made for a very late start and Lene had to be back early for a wedding and family visit in August. So Canada must wait until 2023.

But Eastchester Bay is not a bad spot in which to be stuck. We can go on the Eight Day Club Cruise that I organized, other local club cruises and some solo ones plus day sails with friends and the Wednesday Old Salts sails. We plan to bring our kitties aboard next week and live aboard, with access to our car in the Club’s parking lot this summer and New York’s cultural attractions.

June 20 - July 1 — Arctic Adventure

 This vacation was canceled for a year, twice, due to Covid. Exotic locales are sometimes difficult to get to. Our flight out was to Munich, to Copenhagen, to Oslo, and finally to Longyearbyen, capital of the Svalbard Archipelago. It has two thirds the land mass of Iceland, is located above the Arctic circle between Iceland and Norway and is part of Norway. The Germans named Svalbard Spitsbergen, “sharp mountains” as the scenery attests. The area was exploited by man, first for whales, then for walrus tusks, then for seal skins, then for the furs of land mammals and finally for coal until each was commercially extinct. Now it has come to depend on tourism.

[Before Svalbard, an afternoon in Copenhagen which featured a thorough docent-led canal boat cruise through the harbor on a brilliant day. Better not stick your neck out going under the bridges, though.]

The French luxury cruise liner Le Boreal, operated by Ponant cruises, was our home. With 156 passengers and 146 crew we were pampered and fed lots of delicious French food. The cruise organizer, for the US  passengers, was Gohagan which does alumni association travel. And the English speaking passengers on this boat were educated, interesting, and entertained by learning rather than by nightclub acts (though Le Boreal had nightclub acts). Two professors and several of the 14 naturalist/guide/armed guards taught us about the cosmos, aspects of nature  and global climate change and a Ukranian pianist played a concert of Mozart etc.

More than half the passengers were French speaking and all announcements and most programs were presented in French first followed by English. The focus of the cruise was the excursions: to land or afloat in Zodiacs. The fleet of about ten such inflatables were lowered from the top deck to the water and raised up again, twice on most days.

One day, with no zodiac excursions, we sailed the ship to the polar ice cap and into the first hundred yards of the ice there. We were at 81° 16 minutes north latitude which I calculate was 601 miles from the north pole. Further north than I expect I will ever be again. Pictured is different Ponant ship, in the ice, taken from Le Boreal. From here on north the ice gets solid.

The most magnificent animals were the polar bears. Svalbard has more of them than it’s human population   and the males amongst them (and the mothers when threatened) are the most dangerous animals around. That’s why whenever we went ashore our naturalists had high powered rifles to kill them with if they threatened us. I believe this signifies “Welcome to Svalbard; beware of polar bears,”

The naturalists knew where the bears had been the week before and look for them from the bridge of the ship with very high powered binoculars. From the zodiacs, at about 300 yards, the mother and two cubs looked rather like yellow smudges in the white snow. My cell phone, fully zoomed, captured them, but not well. With ILENE’s binoculars, which we took along, after 22 years of sea service since our wedding (thanks Jim) this scene of domestic tranquility, was clearly visible. But the best pictures were taken by professional photographers with long telephoto lenses. (Thanks Jan!)

The bears were staying where they were because mama had killed a walrus; it’s carcass kept wedged among some nearby rocks, the meat kept fresh by natural refrigeration.

We made several stops for different herds of walrus. They lie about on beaches, snuggled together for warmth, but these two were out playing.

This seal was lying out on a fresh new iceberg calved off one of the magnificent glaciers we observed. 

The scale of the height of glacial front is suggested by the zodiac in a bit closer.

The last of these three pictures shows the aftermath of what our guides called a “submarine calving” ; we saw a huge iceberg at the face of the glacier break off underwater and hurlitself upward before settling back down.

We saw reindeer, though they were not pretty, with their winter coats half shed off.

And antlers when we walked on a section of tundra, only its top inch unfrozen in the 24 hours of sunlight in this era of global warming.

Birds, Kittiwakes and Gulls, nested en masse in wee clefts high on cliff faces

except when they come down to take a swim from an ice raft.

A hike to the top of a ridge separating two huge bays gives a sense of the scope of things, with Le Ponant below.

These pretty purple flowers, Saxifrage, were everywhere, never growing more than a few inches high, and fauna grew higher.

The cruse ship fitted us with boots, life preservers and gave us, as souvenirs, the bright red foulie tops that we wore with waterproof trousers we had brought from home. 

The ketch in this picture (maybe 50 feet long and hauling tourists, went further into the protected but shallow bay of the former whaling station. The navigation team held Le Ponant in place with her props and thruster for several hours while we explored the shore, it being too deep outside to anchor.

We stored our boots, preservers and hiking poles on mats outside each cabin.

A nice feature of this ship, not allowed, or only by special permission, on some other cruise ships, was that the bridge was open for passenger observation whenever the sun was shining, which was 24/7.

At one anchorage we checked out this wooden wreck, about 45 feet long.

An interesting stop was at a former Russian coal mining ghost town, Pyramiden, once home to 700 men, 300 women and 100 kids, with its communal mess hall, gym, swimming pool and concert hall with bust of Lenin. It is now maintained, somewhat, by a force of ten caretakers after mining operations stopped several decades ago.

One relatively warm afternoon the air temperature got to 50 degrees and the ship pumped its pool full of clean salty Arctic ice water. I got a chance to swim in a wee part of an ocean I’ve never swam in before, for a brief few seconds. The rest of the swim team, professors at UP, may come sailing on ILENE this summer after a session of their work at the UN on climate change.

A happy camper:

All told a very interesting adventure and it’s good to be back home, even with a touch of Covid.

June 15-18 — Two Short Work Days Between Two Short Sail Days

 I had the benefit of nephew Mendy’s strong arms one day and we did two jobs on the boat. First was to disassemble, as best we could and only part way the problematic windless. Removing the chain from the anchor after securing the anchor took two applications of the roster numerous whacking with a hammer and Mendy’s strength. And then on the way home he help me get the outboard from the second floor locker to the dinghy on dark and placed it on the dinghy. Both are tasks that I would not have been able to do by myself. 

The next day I return by myself, bought a few gallons of gasoline for the outboard, attached the hose ends to the tank and the outboard, started it up (like a brand new engine on the second pull!), drove it to the boat and hoisted the dink to it’s davits. The broken “stripper ring” on the port coach roof winch has been replaced. They sell them in pairs so I have a spare part for next time. And then, while applying lots of zipper grease, I reinstalled the three rolled up plastic enclosure sheets at the stern and on both sides.

During the day I was in communications with s/v Shearwater. The Captain had read my Points East article on favorite Maine ports, which mention the Harlem, looked up the club and found my Fleet Captain email address, and written to me as Roger, asking about moorings at our club on his way there. I told him and had the VHF on when he called the Harlem launch; and made a stop at his boat on the launch ride back to the dock. I tried to give him and his wife a ride into Manhattan, but they were not ready, more interested in doing laundry and taking showers after cruising up from Virginia. If we get ILENE to Stonington when in Maine this summer, we can get to know each other better. He has long has a summer home there and now has a boat.

The first of the two sails was aboard ILENE, with a crew of happy Old Salts. It included Harry, at the helm in the top picture, who had been a friend of Nick, whose Ashe’s we scattered a few years ago, and a couple of new Harlem Social Members, in the second picture, who told me “We have never been on a sailboat before!”

The route included passage west through what I call Kings Point Passage and under the Throggs Neck Bridge. The computer says we traversed 11 NM during our two hours underway. Several others joined us for the après activities from the other boat.

The last sail was with Bennett aboard Ohana for 2.5 hours going out past Ex Rocks and back. There was good wind of 15 to 30 knots near the beam most of the way and we rarely were below six knots. I was not dressed warmly enough for the wind chill and Bennett lent me some clothes. He has finally come up with the equipment needed to keep the gulls from using his boat as their head; always a mystery why they choose one boat over another. We untie and remove a long strip of line with metallic fringes from around the shrouds and take them up by wrapping them on storage boards, and redeploy them to the shrouds before calling for the launch. Dinner at the Club with Bennett.

A lot of my attention has been devoted to preparing for our Arctic cruise, which will be the subject of the next post — with lots of pictures.

June 6-13 — Mixed Activities

 Tuesday we had planned to sail with my former coworker, Sid,  and Jan, who usually come out once a year. The wind was forecast too strong for a social sail so they were given a wind check and the result was a delicious dinner at their house in New Jersey.

Next day was Old Salts. The usual rigmarole; a very pleasant time on the water for all. Out to the mouth of Little Neck Bay and back: then repeat, but not so far out. On first northbound tack I rolled out ILENE’s big Genoa to give the folks the feel of its power. The tab ring between the jaws of the self trailer in the starboard coachroof broke. 

 The replacement part is winging its way to me from Defender, based on the part number given to me by Lewmar. Eleven souls, four on “Lady Kat”— most of them joined us après.

Saturday, ILENE served as the committee boat for the race that the Club sponsored. The photo shows the start of the third bivision, big boats with serious racers who elected to start at the pin end of the line, far from a potential collision with ILENE, thank you.It was a long day because Lene took our car up to Massachusetts to visit a friend so I used public transportation. The kitties were home alone for more than twelve hours and eager for their dinner when I got back. I motored to the start line and anchored  as directed by Roy and Ellen, expert racers of a J-24 named “Panic Attack”. Assisted by Rose and Tomas, they set the course,  ran the race, signaled the starts, recorded the finish times and calculated in the handicaps to determine the winners of each division. About nineteen boats participated divided into three divisions. 

They had decided to move the finish line closer to the Club during the race, which meant pulling up the anchor to reset it in the new location. That’s when the problem occurred. The windlass had nicely lowered the anchor and chain, but blew two fuses, one at a time, when asked to retrieve it. The problem is probably rust. But in the moment it required hauling in the chain and anchor by hand. Tomas helped and the job got done. To make it easier at the location of the second anchoring I deployed the port anchor, lighter in weight and with only 20 feet of chain followed by abundant line. In the light winds, this anchor worked well and was easier to retrieve. I had gotten the US flag back from the tailor with a new hem on its “stripes” end, but she put in only one row of stitches so I sewed in an adjacent set, through seven of the 13 stripes. Then Ellen said “Why don’t you let me finish that on my sewing machine at home?” Thank you Ellen!

I also finally did something about the ruined green sheet that controls the small jib. But I noticed that there was more than enough of a tail in the cockpit so I cut off the bad part, which had been chewed up by the blocks, forward, whipped the new forward end and were good as new.

The first signal for the first division was at 11:05 am, and the light winds made for a slow 16 mile round trip with the last boat finishing at 5:02, two minutes after the deadline. Once back on the mooring we went in for the post race party with free food and drink and a terrific rock and roll band. I mentioned serious racers: one team (not from the Harlem) hired and paid a professional racer who had been in the Olympics; they won their division, but this is craziness!

And Monday was a four hour work day before the heat got me tired so I went home. I cleaned fish guts and scales from the starboard deck left behind by messy gulls, stained interior woodwork to cherry, scraped and sanded off all the residues from the mast, wiped it with acetone and spread a bead of silicone that hopefully will stop the leaking through the top of the boat, retrieved the mooring pennant to the deck with the boat hook and slid the fire hose anti chafe sleeve from the far end, by the ball, up to near the eye, where it can do its sacrificial chore and secured it with wire ties, threaded the second reefing line through the mainsail and read the manual for the windlass which convinced me that I need help for that repair job.

A quiet week. It is a good thing that these mechanical problems are happening here at home rather than off Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia.

May 28 - June 5 — Including Four Day Sails And Three Days In New Hope PA

 The New Hope trip was for the wedding of our friends, Heather and Christine, at which Ilene officiated. The ceremony was on the west bank of the Delaware River and a lovely wedding it was for the small wedding party consisting of six adults plus one infant. The only water-themed event in the three days, and on a non-navigable part of the river — above waterfalls and low fixed bridges — at that.

The day sails:

1. With Patrick, a new friend (and drat, I forgot to take his picture!). We were underway for four hours in light wind, a good opportunity to get to know each other and we enjoyed the Club’s cuisine after.

2. With Lene and our friends, Tom and Marie, who we visited in Las Vegas in March. Again, unexciting sailing in good company. It being Monday, when the Harlem’s Restaurant closed at the end of a huge loud afternoon barbecue celebrating our veterans, we resorted the Artie’s, which never fails us. The acid test: Marie, who cooks and appreciates Italian cuisine, liked it.

3.With the old salts. Half on ILENE and the rest aboard Dave’s “Lady Kat”, with everyone together on ILENE  after we got back to our moorings. We sailed up through Hart Island Sound and then through the channel off Kings Point before heading across to Throngs Neck and back.

From the left: Dave, Beau, Barry, Anne, Ginny, Clare, Sandy, Mike, Rich and Todd.

4. With four actresses: Andrea, Aleeza, Lene (in mufti seeking shelter from the sun) and Sasha.

Again four hours underway after a brown bag lunch in the cockpit, followed by a good friendly dinner on the Club’s deck overlooking the water and the NYC skyline before we drove most of them back home toManhattan. This was the first use of the Genoa this season — on the long starboard beat out to directly north of Execution Rocks, and the best of the outings so far in terms of the sailing. Without sustained wind over time, when the wind did come up, the seas were still flat. Though we were almost drifting for a while, yet as seen by the angle of heel in the photo, in good wind we were making six knots against the tide while beating inbound under small jib and main. Again the Club’s chef, Anne, won favorable reviews, and the group enjoyed each others’ company so much that the customary slow service (in France it is the expected pace) was not a problem.

I also enjoyed a Zoom meeting of the joint-City Island and Harlem Yacht Clubs Cruising Committee. I’m pleased to be able to make a contribution to their plans. They are planning to adopt several of the Harlem ideas. Unlike the Harlem, the CIYC provides a budget to its cruising committee, with which they plan to procure wine for the parties on the cruises. I’ve used the wine to try to bribe Harlemites to attend. They have asked me to continue to plan the eight day cruise, though it will be small in the number of boats participating.

At ILENE, work is progressing on two fronts (a third if you count the stowage of vast quantities of cat food for longer cruises). 

For one thing, our hard working skilled officers used the Club’s fork lift to pluck our dinghy from its perch atop the dinghy rack and placed it by the sea wall. I pumped it up and did a lot of cleaning, but not all of it. Then with help from the ever helpful Dave, we shoved her into the sea, dragged her around the dock and pulled her up onto the floating dinghy dock, inverted her and tied her down. Next comes getting the outboard from the locker, to the dink and mounting it on her transom. Soon. Another day.

The other problem is that for years water has been dripping into the cockpit through the hole in the coach roof through which the mast is lowered to stand on a platform above the keel. In heavy torrential rain, it becomes quite a flow. Nothing that the bilge pump cannot handle but a nuisance that detracts from the “comfy” nature of the snug cabin. More than a dozen years ago we solved the drip from around the fixed windows at the sides of the salon but this overhead problem has persisted. The “gap” between the sides of the mast and its hole were covered with a sheet of rubber, held in place with hose clamps, but I tore it away to look inside and found a large collar of rubber or plastic, seemingly molded onto the mast. But it is severely canted, lower aft and higher forward. I’ve sent the photos below to expert rigger, Jeff Lazar, seeking advice. This problem will finally be solved.

May 22 - 27 — Two Sails and the Solution of the Water Problem

During neither of the sails was the wind strong enough to be exciting. The first was with Sheila, Lene,  Christine and Heather on ILENE. We sailed off the mooring to avoid exposing the the boat to the engine area leak and sailed until the last 90 seconds when we used the engine during our second attempt and successfully grab the mooring. Our track was back-and-forth across the mouth of Eastchester Bay with a long trip of the Eastchester River and back down again. It was a hot day and by keeping the wind at or forward of the beam most of the time we achieved enough apparent wind to cool off. The clever launch operator maneuvered the launch so I could capture a pleasing background as well as the beautiful crew.

The second sail in this period was aboard Bennett’s Ohana with him and five other Old Salts, joined by four more who sailed with Dave on his Lady Kat and who joined us on Ohana for the libations. Bennett was contented to let me try to keep the boat moving in light air with dead patches. A good time was had by all. Thanks, Bennett!

From the left: Mike, Dave, Virginia, Clare, Janet, me, Bennett, Sandy, Rich and Beau. Photo credit: Social Member, Anne, thank you.
The next day I spent 2.25 hours with a new, to me, diesel mechanic, Peter, who I met while he was working on someone else’s boat at the Huguenot this past Winter. He seemed like he knew what he was doing and mine was his first job at the Harlem. I was mindfull of the time because I’ll be paying him for it. It took him two minutes to find the leak associated with the diesel that I had not been able to see. The black hose transmitting water from the sea, through the seacock to the raw water strainer providing cooling water to the engine is taken off the input pipe each fall to permit the entry of antifreeze the the engine and then replaced and its hose clamps tightened. After more than 20 years of this the clamps had cut a slit in the hose. Bottom of the next picture. This was temporarily fixed using the clamps and new replacement hoses were purchased the next day, to be installed soon.

Similarly, it took no time for him to figure our that the old Rule 1500 bilge pump was kaput, to install the new Rule 1500 automatic one, with built in float switch. It fit into the existing base without the need for new screws and the existing discharge hose attached to it. A test wire from the battery showed that it works well, but most of my time with Peter was spent trying to find out why it did not work through the existing wiring and the the electrical control panel. I knew there was a fuse back behind the panel and that it worked, but the culprit was another one, chased down (by the control number in the book and the color of the wire to it behind the control panel) to an in line fuse near the batteries under the aft cabin berth. Missions accomplished. Then an hour and a half putting the boat back together and putting all the tools away, and the salon table reattached. Like with some many other toys, the time and expertise goes into finding the problem; once found, fixing it is easy.

Next day I picked up the new custom made aft cabin mattress from our upholsterer and brought it to the boat and put it in place. I also measured and purchased from Bridge Marine the two replacement hoses. Installing them will be the next job. I’m planning to keep the new mattress covered in sheets, i.e., ready for its intended use. This for two reasons. First to keep it from getting stained by folks, including me, traipsing in and out of the aft cabin and second because the new fabric is slightly more “nubby” than the old and hence a slightly more attractive target for the kitties razor sharp claws.

May 10 — 21 — First Sails, But The Water Problem Is Not Yet Fixed, Though Managed Through A Sail and The 139th Annual GIC.

 Well the first sail was with Bennett and Dave, bringing “Ohana” from the Huguenot to the Harlem. But with a stop along Island, in Port Washington for lunch at Louie’s. Thanks, Bennett! Thirty years ago that restaurant sold good fish at low prices with a salty unambitious ambiance. It keeps upgrading its ambiance, its service and its prices. But it still offers free dockage while you dine. During the season they have a man on the dock to catch your lines and tie you up. But the season has not started. Bennett did a good job without him.

The only other sail was the inaugural convening of the Old Salts aboard ILENE, her first sail of the season. There was great wind from ten to noon, while I provisioned, put out flags and cushions, took off instrument covers cleaned a bit and put in the first reefing line, in case of high winds. But during our lunch the winds died, so while we sailed for ninety minutes, it was generally a slow day out there. But everyone was happy to be out on the water.

I had experienced crew aboard so I put Dave at the helm on a safe course while motoring and tried to find out where the salt water was coming in. It definitely is coming in from in or near the engine, but I could not find the source. Until Pete, the new mechanic, comes on the 26th, I have to use the engine as little as possible, remember to close the seacock that admits seawater to cool the engine when it is not running, AND most importantly, remember to open the sea dock before running it to avoid letting it burn itself up. So I’ve been going to the boat frequently and will continue to do so — to pump out what comes in before too much of it builds up. Pete will also be installing a new bilge pump with built in float switch, to pump out the water as it comes in, at the nominal rate of 1500 gallons per hour, almost half a gallon per second. Actually a bit less because the pump has to pump the water up before it pumps it out, which reduces the pump’s effective capacity.

Here, on the launch at the end of the day, from left to right: Mike, Richard, Janet, Beau, Dave, Christine, and Sandy.

For several days high winds had prevented my trying to mount the sails, and the mounting occurred on four separate days thereafter. First came the Mainsail, in which task Dave volunteered to come over and help. Thanks, Dave! His help was most useful in connecting straps, one on each side, from the top front of the stack pack to loops attached to each side of the mast. Someone has to lift while the other one clips on; I’ve done it alone, but it was so much easier as a two man job. 

Before that lifting I almost caused a catastrophe by pulling the working end of the outhaul line through its clutch and into the tunnel under the main deck. I pulled to loosen the outhaul to make it easier to attach the clue of the sail to the outhaul but I pulled it too loose, causing me to lose the working end of the line. This gave me the opportunity to demonstrate to Dave how snake tape works. We fed in the stiff metal tape, attached it to the line and pulled out it’s missing end. No harm done, just a preventable waste of time. 

Another calm day I attached the two head sails to their furlers. But at the end of that I day realized that the smaller one had been coiled backwards, with its blue protective canvas coating on the inside rather than doing its protecting. So the third day,  again in very light wind I unfurled and reran the furling line around the furling drum the correct way and was able to furl that sail properly. 

With the help of Rear commodore Doug, who ran the technology, I chaired a meeting of about ten boaters of the Harlem and City Island Yacht Clubs who are interested in a summer cruise, as a club (with the fellowship such cruising permits) of longer than two days. They selected an eight day duration to start on August 2, and left it to me to fill in details. I love cruise planning.

Another day was a full one at the Club, without a visit to ILENE. After complimentary bagels and coffee we got started at about 9:15 and worked until almost 3:00 before the complimentary lunch. Who says we don’t work for food. But in reality we work for the good of the Club and the opportunity to bond with our coworkers. Several big and small projects got accomplished. I joined a team of about ten men who  put up a fence along the south side of the Club’s parking lot.

It involved providing a straight level surface to attach the five by eight foot panels of posts, strengthening each panel by glueing and screwing additional horizontal boards across their backs. To make them stronger and more rigid. Others with more skills lined up the mounting boards to existing posts. Those are 4.5” long hex head screws I’m screwing in with a powerful electric drill.

I also drove in about 400 shorter screws to hold the bracing boards together using a less powerful portable electric drill. The learning curve that the team climbed made the job much faster for the later panels than the earlier ones.

My safety taboo in this picture is not the risk of my accidentally swallowing the screws, but that I averted my eyes from the work.

And the Harlem’s 139th annual Going Into Commission Ceremony and Party was another success. The weather cooperated with a nce sunny afternoon and evening and the party is always timed for a Saturday with high tides when the club looks its best. 

The highlight of the ceremony was the announcement of the new name of the newly refurbished launch, after our late honored and beloved Past Commodore Fred Haymon. During the winter our Luanch Chairman had spent months completely refinishing it’s underwater hull, it’s brilliantly gleaming dark blue freeboard and the multi layered coat of varnish or poly on its teak rails. It literally looks better than it did when it was launched some 40 years ago.

Changes to the ceremony and party since  COVID, however. The new additional deck (for outdoor dining mandated by COVID) at the north side of the lawn reduced the lawn area making for several ranks of uniformed honored past and present commodores and Flag officers.  But more significantly we finally came to grips with the reality that the full sit-down  multi-course dinner in the upstairs ballroom with several entree selections could never be successfully accomplished in a timely fashion out of our small kitchen. And the hot and cold hors doeuvres during the cocktail hour between the ceremony and the dinner were better than the dinner itself. So we they eliminated the sit down entirely and extended the duration, quality, variety and quantity of the foods in the cocktail hours. A new cash bar will inhibit alcoholism and drunk driving. A lovely party  except that I put on a few pounds.

I was on City Island during nine of the twelve days reported on in this post — summer has arrived.