The 2023 Fun Season — How Much?

With Launch on April 27 and Hauling on October 19, this season lasted 176 days, almost half the year, spread over seven months.

Its heart was the 67 day cruise to Canada, reported earlier, July 8 to September 12. Second best was another big chunk, from May 21 to July 7, 48 days of living aboard and sleeping aboard while our apartment got new flooring installed and ILENE obtained a new mainsail. Together those two big chunks consumed 105 of the 176 days, leaving 61 days for the shoulders at the beginning and end. During those shoulders I sailed six days during the 25 in the spring and six during the 36 in the fall, plus 10 during the pre-cruise live-aboard period, for a total of 22 days plus the 67 on cruise (though some of the cruise days were lay days) for a total of 89 “underway or away” days. A satisfyingly full summer.

All of the days were aboard ILENE except five: three aboard Ohana and one each aboard Court Time and Jazz Sail. Six were with members of the Old Salts, two before we moved aboard, two, while the main was “broken” (on Ohana and Court Time) and the last two after the cruise.

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.

September 30 — October 11– Three Sail Dates, a Funeral And a Full Day At the Club

 The first sail was the last outing of the Salts, five plus me on ILENE and five on Bennett’s Ohana. We used the new time frame, depart at noon, return at five and then dinner at the Club. I got to the boat early and rigged her so that we could cast off the minute the others arrived. We had light air so used the Genoa, with only three furls. The first was when the light wind died completely. The second was near the Whitestone Bridge when we tacked to head home, and only the last was a problem. Between the bridges, we were making six knots, both ways. The last furl was from wing on wing when the Genoa got wrapped around the furled small headsail. I lowered the main, started the Yanmar, put us very slowly on a good course and bulled the big sail right, so it could be furled. About five minutes of physical and nervous energy and all was restored. That has never happened before. Dinner on the porch:

I sailed with Rhoda, Lloyd, their son, Jonathan, and his two sons, aged three and five, for a couple of hours. Again, I got there early to be prepared. But I put in a reef because of the kids — to not scare them. We were underway only two hours, again, for the kids. In the early part of the sail I was regretting the shortened main and small jib, but then the wind came up to 20 knots and I was happy with the sail plan selected. 

The third outing was aboard Ohana with Bennett, Rhoda and Mike and Sandy. All of us are Salts, and this an ad hoc session organized by Bennett with with our normal organizer, Dave, on a cruise ship to Bermuda. Fall temperatures have arrived but it was a lovely blue sky day. We circumnavigated Execution Rocks, clockwise, but on the way back the wind  abated and with adverse tide we were making only 1.8 knots so used the diesel.

The funeral was for our Commodore’s Father in Law, who died at about 90. It took place in St.Mary’s By The Sea Church on City Island, in which I had never before set foot. A lovely church in which the deceased had experienced all of his life cycle events, from baptism to funeral. I was very pleased that I had the morning available to show support for our Commodore who has done such a great  job for our Club these past two seasons and helped me personally for years,

Saturday was a long full day at the Clubhouse. It began before nine with the club providing bagels, coffee, juice and danish for the Fall  “work party”. Outdoor activities could not be done as planned because of the rain so the biggest projects involved white, water soluble latex paint in the ballroom upstairs. The nine big Adirondack chairs were brought up, placed on tarps, very lightly sanded, had their loose boards re-screwed, and given a fresh coat of paint. Paint, it seems to me, has some caulk-like qualities. I would prefer more prep work, but the Club has done things it’s own way for more than 140 years and they work tolerably well.

Also, the ballroom’s window frames, doors and base moldings now gleam more brightly. Next came the very varied, filling, tasty and free buffet lunch served to all of us  worker bees - soup to the nuts in the cookies, wine, beer, coffee. I ate too much. Following lunch was a meeting of the docks committee to decide how to replace existing broken ones. P.C. Mark had done an amazing job of getting bids from a variety of venders using a variety of materials: wood, aluminum and plastic. I thought they were talking about the docks that I need to use to get to my boat — the most essential thing that the Club has. But the issue saw the lighter weight dinghy docks that are parallel to and along the north side of the main dock. A less critical need. Yet replacement will be at a cost of several tens of thousands of dollars. My dink sits on these docks for a few days in the fall and spring but otherwise live on ILENE’s davit bar for the summer and on dinghy racks, ashore, deflated, during the winter. Other folks situate their dinks on these docks for the summer and do not use them. I had no engineering expertise to add to the decision about which vender to use, but asked a less technical question: Why do we need to spend this money and can we charge those of our members who use this dock space (like we do for lockers)? But I t seems that a significant number of the newer members have kayaks and want to keep them on the docks, and that was a persuasive reason for the expense, in my opinion. Next up was the membership meeting in the newly repainted ballroom with good enough attendance and good news about slightly improved membership numbers and finances. A revised point-of-service system for us to use to pay for food and drink was reported as was Nominating Committee’s slate of officers for 2024. The final event (my third meal at the Club that day), at which Lene joined me,  was the Octoberfest Party, after changing out of work clothes. Lots of good German style foods and conversation with old and new friends. We left for home more than twelve hours after I had arrived.

ILENE’s Summer Vacation — Fun in Fundy— July 8 to September 12

 This post is compiled from the 54 posts to this Blog describing our 2023 summer cruise to, from and in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Canada. We were out from Eastchester Bay starting July 8 for 67 days and 66 nights., returning September 12.

Our quartet of felines and humans visited 55 different harbors, 27 of them, mostly in Canada, new ones for us. We visited two harbors twice - they were natural stopping places both coming and going - Scituate MA and the Royal Kennebecasis Yacht Club in the St John River, in New Brunswick. The 67 days consisted of 58 passage days and 9 lay days. At the end of one passage day, to Vineyard Haven on Martha’s Vineyard, we took guests out on a brief, low-wind day-sail, so we got underway 59 times.

Because we did not go to the Atlantic Coast of Nova Scotia or Newfoundland, as our friends, Jim and Wijnanda and also Jamie and Laurie did, our aggregate mileage was only 1493 NM, which averages 25 3/4 NM per passage. The shortest passage was only 5 NM from Little Cranberry Island to Northeast Harbor, both within the Great Harbor of Mount Desert Island. The longest was outbound from Stonington CT to Mattapoisett MA, 61 NM. The distribution:

NM    #of passages

1-10           4

11-20        20

21-30        18

31-40          9

41-50          5

51-61          2

Somewhat ironically, though we love Rhode Island and spent most of our cruise in that tiny state in 2019, we completely (unintentionally) bypassed RI this year, both outbound and returning. New Hampshire, while much larger than RI, has a very short coastline which we also blew past, unless one considers Isles of Shoals (one night outbound) part of New Hampshire. Well, part of it is.

How were our ports sorted by state or Canadian Province? We stayed six nights in NY Stat, three each way, at the beginning and end, though the fourth of the six, on the way home, was in Fishers Island, which, while nestled close to the east end of Connecticut, is part of NY State.  So while it sounds illogical, we cruised west from New York State to Connecticut. Think about it. Our first and last nights out were in different coves both within Huntington LI. In Price’s Bend outbound and in Lloyd Harbor at the end. Next after New York came two nights in Connecticut, each way. Thirteen nights were in Massachusetts, four outbound and  (with a great detour into Vineyard and Nantucket Sounds to visit two sets of friends) nine on the way home.

Adding these up we find that before and after Maine and Canada (our destination areas) we used up 23 of our 67 days. Maine took 24 days, coming and going, (11 outbound and 13 on the return. Half of them new harbors for us — and there are still a lot of Maine harbors we have never visited!

And that leaves only 19 nights in Canada, NOT equally divided between New Brunswick, 17 nights and Nova Scotia, 2. New Brunswick had been our goal and we got through the mighty, terrifying  ferocious “Reversing Falls” at the mouth of the St. John River, both ways! Downstream the falls are easy to explain- a river running over rapids. But upstream? Yes, the huge tide, building momentum in the wide Bay of Fundy and getting funneled into a narrow river flowing between rocky cliffs. There is plenty of depth,  even at low tide, but the forces of nature turn it into swirling white water — except at slack. It was actually quite easy after all the anxiety - just a matter of careful timing, which the cruising guide patiently explains with diagrams of where to circle, waiting, for the precious ten minutes of rather slack water, twice each day and twice each night.

One confusing factor that I still don’t understand is that high and low tides at nearby St. John, are more than an hour different from slack at the falls. I don’t have to know why, just be there on time! Then four days travel up stream to Frederickton, The Provincial capital,  and four more coming back down a total of almost 160 miles in the River and its adjacent lakes. But once past the falls the water is calm and

warm, about the same temperature, perhaps, as in a swimming pool at home.

 All of our Canadian ports and anchorages, twelve in New Brunswick and one in Nova Scotia, were new to us. Digby, on the west side of Nova Scotia, was the only one in Nova Scotia, on its west, Fundy coast. Greg and Wanda, the friends we made in Halifax on our cruise there in 2017, drove the width of the province to meet us and drive us around the huge and historic Annapolis Basin area. We actually spent one night ashore there with them in a two bedroom suite at a Digby Country Club. We hadn’t planned to visit Nova Scotia this cruise, but they made it so easy and our passages across the Bay of Fundy, with a stop in Grand Manan Island on the way back, were among the best. We got to Digby during the 48th annual Digby Scallop Days, the and tarter sauce on your toasted hot dog bun! Fifteen bucks! Digby has a huge tide. One side of the long, heavily strengthened aluminum brow between town and dinghy dock is ramp — the other side is 45 steps!

We spent most of our nights on moorings this year (including two floating docks - which are actually big moorings that take less acreage - in Northeast Harbor ME and Rockport MA): 41 of the 66 nights. One third of our 66 nights we trusted our Rocna anchor: 22 nights. And three nights we were tied at docks — where such was the only alternative available: at Oromocto, NB and Fallmouth MA, and rafted to a docked fishing boat in Chance Harbor NB.

Did things break? Sure. A persnickety brass pin holding the rudder angle indicator of the Raymarine auto pilot, fell out of the vinyl plastic it was imbedded in — several times —  early in the cruise. Glue did not help. Raymarine fedexed a replacement part, free, but it did not hold either. Finally I devised a “cage” of half a paint stirrer held in place with bolts, washers and wire ties, to keep the pin pushed into the hole where it belongs but able move back and forth.  Rube Goldberg anyone? Testing it in the Cape Cod Canal I asked my helmswoman to turn the boat in a 360 degree turn while I was down in the lazarette looking at the contraption. VHF shrieked a call from the Canal Authority: “ILENE, do you need assistance?” Fortunately, not any more! Another problem was the Spectra Ventura Watermaker. We never really did get it to work, but unlike the Caribbean for which it was installed, we got free water and did not need the machine. A shackle broke but we carry spares. 

A potential problem on Grand Manan Island with the dinghy’s Yamaha outboard. Without it we are stuck on the boat unless we go to docks or marinas with launch service, and launch service is a rarity.  To keep folks from trying to start the machine while it is in gear, there is a spring loaded bead on a wire in the head  of the engine out of which pulling the rip cord starts the engine. The bead must adjusted to be in the right spot for the engine to start. I’d gone for water and when the outboard would not start on the way back I canoe paddled and drifted over to a big beautiful blue French aluminum cruising boat that was tied to a fishing boat on the big pier. The owner lent me tools (Angel # 1) but in trying to adjust the spring loaded bead it’s spring flew off, dived into the water and swam 20 feet straight down to the bottom. A retired gentleman standing above us on the pier (Angel # 2)  said “I know a great outboard mechanic, but not his name or phone number — but I’ll drive you there”. Angel # 1 called Lene to explain why I was late in returning, because I’d left my cell phone aboard when I went off for the water. But Angel # 2’s truck was at the end of the pier and two huge tractor trailers loaded with 500 or more pound canvas bags of fish food for the aquaculture operation nearby were blocking him from getting off the pier. They were waiting for the work boat onto which the load was to be delivered. “Could you move off to let us out?” “Sure!”  said Angel #3. At the shop from which the mechanic worked, the lady at the desk gave me his name and number with instructions to call back at 8 am. Now the only problem was getting back to ILENE in the dink. Along came Angel # 4,  a aquaculture worker in a small work boat; he towed me in the dink back to ILENE. Angel # 1 said we could come in and raft up to his boat to facilitate Angel #5 (the mechanic) getting off the pier to the dinghy. He made me promise to be careful to not start the outboard unless it was in neutral and disabled the idiot proofing bead mechanism. (The outboard is now in the shop in New Rochelle for winter servicing and reinstalation of the spring and bead. It took five angels to get me out of that mess, but only the mechanic accepted payment. $20 for (including travel time)  more than an hour’s time. And that’s $20 Canadian which is worth only $15 US dollars. Don’t worry, we gave him a lot more.

That’s the thing about Canadians — they are universally helpful and friendly. We were just sorry that the rainy weather kept us from meeting more of them. We were told that Douglas Harbor in Grand Lake was a lively spot with a beach, barbecue pits, games, etc. But it was raining when we arrived and took our mooring, and it was still raining when we headed out the next day. Yes, there were a lot of nice boats around, but their crews were hunkered down aboard and we did not meet any of them. So we were in the harbor but we did not experience its joys.

Tied to commercial fishing boat in Chance Harbor

On the long Oromocto dock

Using Fenderboard to protect the boat from pilings in Falmouth MA

All told there were 23 of our 66 nights where we remained aboard, did not go ashore, and had a good time with the kitties. Some were places where we were the only boat and others less alone. Several of the coves in which we anchored were not listed in the comprehensive cruising guides as potential places to anchor. An example: Scotch Bay, off the Bay of Fundy, in Canada, en route to St. John. My mate worried: can we anchor there? But the chart gave it a name and showed plenty of deep enough water and the chart plotter permitted us to skirt the reefs and fish farms. Ah solitude! We also used lay days to visit cities, by ground transportation: Boston,  MA (by train from Manchester by the Sea), Portland, ME by hitchhiking there and a cab back to South Freeport, and St. John and Frederickston, both in New Brunswick, by bus, cab and hitchhike from our mooring. 

Less rain and fog

could have made for a better cruise, as would have been the case had we not gone out in two memorable storms, but a good cruise, overall.

September 23 -29 — Rain, a Good Book and The Watermaker

      The story of the week has been rain. Only one clear day. The salts outing had to be adjourned. String but not unduly strong wind threatened the Harlem fleet but we were spared. Lene and I had planned a dinner with her brother and nephew, part of a plan to use up some of the required minimum restaurant bill, but the Club was closed and the road to City Island impassible except for vehicles with extra large wheels.

      I was very worried about the watermaker. It is supposed to be flushed every five days and we had been unable to do this. Such flushing, with fresh water, required the machine to turn on when a button was pushed. But pushing had no effect. It will require cleaning of its innards with both an acid and a base cleaner, before it will resume turning seawater into drinking water through reverse osmosis.  But I don’t foresee the need to make water during the period we will continue to own ILENE. The more pressing issue was the need to replace the seawater in it with pink propylene glycol antifreeze, to prevent it cracking during the winter freeze. The installer and repair firm is in Newport RI and had worked with us this summer but to no avail. I was losing sleep with worry over the fate of this expensive piece of equipment. I called many potential repairmen who turned me down for one reason or another. Finally, Lene suggested I call Ed Spalina, who had helped me with so many problems over the years. Ed is always a pleasure to work with, comes quickly when needed and charges an hourly rate so low that I always pay him a lot more than he asks. He is not a “certified” or an “authorized” repairman for Yanmar diesels, Raymarine electronics, or Spectra Ventura water makers. But with expert mechanical skills he figures out how to do it and gets the job done. He came on the same rainy day I called him and within a few hours had read the manufacturer’s manual, skipped a step, and used a manual on-off switch instead of the button. The job is done! I saw the pink antifreeze coming out of the salt water discharge into the sea with my own eyes.  The filters were removed and the body of the machine is full of antifreeze. I got a good night’s sleep. Thanks again, Ed, you are a lifesaver.

      I completed reading and wrote my book report on “The Wager” by David Grann. (He is also the author “Killers of the Flower Moon” about the murders of Native Americans who were getting wealthy because they had been placed in a reservation which was located above a rich oil deposit. A movie with a lot of big name starts will be coming out in the next few months and no doubt The Wager will also be filmed because of the huge amounts of characterization and action.)

The Wager will be discussed at by Book Group next week. It is the non fiction story of an ill fated expedition by the British Admiralty in the 1740’s to attack and capture a Spanish ship loaded with the riches the Spanish had plundered from the orient. It describes the construction fitting out, provisioning, manning, navigation, operation, and fighting of wooden ships of war in easy to read and understand chapters. Many men died in storms and of diseases, including scurvy before The Wager was shipwrecked on an island on the coast of Chile. More of the castaways died on that island, which they called Wager Island from starvation, disease etc. There was a massive “Lord of the Flies” style loss of social order. There were factions including some loyal to the Captain and others who sided with the Gunner in Mutiny. Both sides and others maintained extensive diaries which became the source materials of Historian Grann. They believed that if they made it back to England, (a lot more men died on the Island and on the way back) these diaries would prove that they were right and save their lives at the inevitable court martial. If you like sea stories, you will enjoy The Wager.

September 13 - 22 — Two Work Days, a Salt Day and A Dinner With Cruisers

 Yes. Things seem to go slower at home. There was a lot of mail to read and respond to in a mailbox that has not been opened for more than nine weeks. And unpacking and reorienting to a land based environment. For example. I am a very geolocated person; I generally have an interest in and know where I am. But upon wakening in the morning aboard, I quickly realize I’m aboard and afloat, but where is the boat this morning? It sometimes takes a few seconds for me to figure that out. And the first few mornings at home it has taken a few seconds to figure out that I’m in our apartment.

We had a productive day of cleaning part of ILENE’s interior. Swabbing the walls and ceilings with Fantastic, Chlorox, and or vinegar/water to wipe off accumulated grime. We also took off four more bags of stuff, but somehow I managed to forget to take off the foulies. Lene is an organizer and likes to throw stuff away. I appreciate her organizational skills but the hoarder in me wants to keep everything. In his “Inferno”, Dante had one of his seven concentric rings of hell reserved for both hoarders and wasters: they were buried in ice and condemned to gnaw on each others necks for eternity. Lene and I are not that bad. Lots of stuff: tools, parts, bits of wood, dowels, prods, plastic bits etc. are stored in rather large spaces behind and under the starboard settees. We did throw some stuff out but mostly organized it. Now wires, electrical tools, wire ties, butt connectors, switches and two boxes of fuses, are gathered in a heavy duty two gallon ziplock bag next to the electrical tool box, for example. And to make it easier to find things the big yellow box of flares was removed to the aft cabin freeing up real estate behind the settee. The second work day I spent some time trying to find a mechanic who can fix our water maker, without success so far, and took off the dink and outboard. The later is in the shop up in New Rochelle and the dink is deflated, trussed up, plug removed and on the seawall, tied to the big anchor so the wind can’t blow it away, awaiting the Club’s use of the fork lift to put it away for the winter.

With Lene’s conclusion that this summer was her last multi-month cruise, I had thought about selling ILENE and buying a smaller, simpler, easier to maintain boat. But no, for now we are keeping the old girl.

The old salts convened at a different time on Wednesday:  2 pm, with dinner after the sail at the club. We were underway for only two hours, and tracked eight miles, with 0.3 engine hours. The folks at the left in the dinner picture came with me, and those to the right with Dave.

Last spring I had mentioned to Jamie and Laurie, and to Jim and Winjanda that the other couple was headed up to Newfoundland. Well, as luck would have in they ended up tied on opposite sides of the same floating dock there and in talking during dinner up there quickly discovered that I was their missing link.

Jamie and Laurie, at the far end in this next photo, drive from Boston to NYC for their subscription to the NYC Ballet and we sometimes dine with them. This time they invited Jim and Winjanda as well and the six of us saw the Ballet.

Sept 12 — Day 65 — Lloyd Harbor to Eastchester Bay, City Island — 21 NM

 All good things must come to an end. Alas, our cruise is over. 3.75 hours with our Yanmar generated speed over the earth turning the light northerly winds into a close starboard reach for the main and Genoa. Ten minutes of gusts let the Yanmar rest but she had to be turned on again when the wind abated. An uneventful passage. I had to draw the blue dot on this time, at the left edge of the picture —  our home mooring. It did not get much use this summer as a guest mooring given the amount of sea growth that I had to hose off with the salt water deck each pump.

Lene did a great job of using up almost all of our remaining perishables.

I took the bus and subway to our apartment, drove back to the club through a traffic jam, loaded most everything up into sixteen bags, including one each for the kitties, got them to the launch, to the dock, to carts, to our car, and home, by 6 pm.

A bite out, a bit of grocery shopping (what else?), showers  and a good night’s sleep in our own bed.

There is a lot to do on the boat, but not for a few days. This blog will continue. Thanks for reading.