Wow, it took three weeks after launch date to go sailing. This does not count flying the sails to test them out, during the short motoring passage from ILENE's winter home in New Rochelle to her summer home at City Island.
Well I did work on the boat (or for the boat) for five days. Sanding the teak cafe doors in anticipation of installation of so called "cat proof" screening (we will see how accurate that claim is) before a re-varnishing job, while sitting on a park bench in Washington Square Park was one of those work days). I visited Staten Island to look at a 35 foot Beneteau center cockpit sloop that Bennett was considering and attended the annual Going into Commission ball at the Club, where an engraved paving stone in memory of Donnie Cahn was installed at the flagpole with nice eulogies by Irwin and Rhoda.
And speaking of varnishing, I am very pleased with myself for having finally found the best spot to fly Old Glory. There was an antenna atop the radar arch, to port. I took it down each fall and put it back up each spring. But it had never been attached to any radio or other device; it just got in the way. So I cut off the plastic wand, used the Dremel tool to ream the plastic out of the metal base, sanded down the base of the stock of the new teak flagpole, and, after several coats of varnish (yet to be applied) -- voila! a great appropriately placed and raked flagpole. Why didn't I do all this teak work in the dead of winter? Could be it's because I am not as smart as I'd like to think I am.
Most of the last three weeks however was devoted to family -- a six day trip to Texas to attend niece Barbie's graduation as an RN followed by an eight day visit in our apartment by Barbie's parents, Lene's California brother and sister in law, Mike and Linda, who sailed with us in the Chesapeake in 2006.
And the first sail of the season was with KC. Jim introduced me to him in 2002. He and Jim and I sailed our old Tartan 34 back from Boston at the conclusion of the Honeymoon in Maine that I enjoyed with Lene that August. One day of that trip was an all-day driving torrential rain on a run, but KC and Jim were willing to come back for future sails - including Maine to NY and Baltimore to NY. KC has sailed with me a few days each year since then. He is not only a solid sailor, but an expert fisherman, gourmet, oenophile and excellent carpenter His was the tool that fixed the cabinet doors, subject of a post this last winter. His smiling face is in the 2012 Club Cruise post: he sailed the second half with me and Bennett. This time he brought along cubes of aged gouda, piave and cheddar, jumbo spiced shrimp, prosciutto and melon and papadem peppers and olives which we washed down with a nice Shiraz in plastic cups -- fresh water has not been restored to the Club's docks following Sandy, preventing my flushing out the anti freeze and obtaining fresh washing water, hence plastic. This lack of fresh water has deterred some of the needed cleaning. Very soon, I've been promised.
The sailing was not as great as the companionship, in an overcast cool fog with light wind. We did exceed six knots for a while, under Genny and full main, but it was mostly about three knots. We circled Hart Island and dipped into Manhasset and into Little Neck Bays before heading back to the mooring. After four hours of sailing we did three and a half hours of of repair work.
This started when I asked KC to cut some rectangles out of some boards of cherry-veneered plywood I had to the dimensions I had measured, for patches over some holes and dark stains in the back of the most aft port side salon cabinet -- where we store cans of cat food. This was sort of under the deck fill that I had installed three years ago (so I could pour fresh water into the port water tank). KC said: Sure, but first we have to know where the water came in that rotted the wood; you can't patch over rot. See, I really am not as smart as I'd like to think I am. The edges of the wood were black and spongy soft, and I puled and cut away the parts that were easy to get to. Then it was a matter of unscrewing a whole lot of stainless steel screws with which the boards that comprise the interior of the cabinetry and their bracing pieces are held together. What a mess.
But how to know if the water entered around the deck fill? Pour water over it, KC said. I had a better idea: lay a towel over the area before pouring the water -- sort of like waterboarding. KC had an even better idea: coil the towel and lay it around the deck fill to hold the water over it. I had the fourth, best and final idea: we constructed a collar of duck tape on the deck to hold the water. Yep, the water came in from around the deck fill, and had been doing so for three years, a little at a time.
Removing the three screws that hold the collar of the deck fill revealed why: one of the three holes missed the deck and half of it was in the hole for the deck fill itself, not having proper down-pulling power. We searched the boat's screw collection but could not find a bolt and nut that would do the job. KC came up with a piece of plastic, tough but soft, used to attach wires to the boat so they do not hang loose. He drilled a hole in this and held it in place with a scissors clamp while, after smearing bedding compound so it beaded all around, it became a nut with enough force to hold the errant screw in place. Then it was a matter of tying the cabinet door open so that air can dry out the remaining soggy wood before cutting the bad parts away, and taking all the loose pieces into the forward head pending a solution as to how to cut them and patch them to restore the cabinet. Maybe we will not use that particular cabinet this summer; or better yet, put a piece roughly across the open back end and store big things in there.
Also, Bob brought his "Pandora" back from the Bahamas yesterday. While driving south on the east side highway from the Club, I spotted that very familiar boat, headed north in the river at about 48th St. I have been following his blog all winter and enjoying his adventures vicariously and called Bob.
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