October 20 - 22 — Two Work Days with a Great Final Passage In the Middle

 The work days were for applying acid to remove the above waterline biological growth, hosing it away, washing down the topside and installing the winter canvas cover. That last task is getting more difficult and dangerous each year. The danger consists of the risk of my falling twenty feet to the ground as I stand on the very top of the ladder —  the step with the instruction”DON’T STAND HERE” —  and hanging off the sides of the boat struggling with zippers. Next year I will hire some help. But the job is done save for a few more lines to be tied from side to side under the hull and the fastening of anti-chafe materials to prevent the hard spots of the boat from wearing through the 23 year old canvas.

The passage was another great outing on Andrew’s 1926 wooden Herreschoff S2 sloop Saltatempo, my third of the season. (All photo credits to Andrew).

It was a long day of travel starting when Andrew picked me up at 7 am and ending when I got home at 10:30 pm. 

The only tricky parts of the voyage were at the beginning and end. When the mainsail is furled and covered, as it was most of the way, the helmsperson, me in the photo, is seated on the starboard side with a view of the compass, but he cannot see what is to port without standing up. It was high tide, Saltatempo draws only 4.5 feet and Andrew directed me to sail through the comparatively deep spot on the “wrong” side of The Blauses, i.e., between those rocks to port and Hart Island to starboard. I have never gone that shallow way before and will never go that way again! And I did not actually see what was happening but Andrew gave good instructions while reading from his iPhone screen chart.

At the other end of the day, we had been directed to tie up bow in, port side to pier “Yellow 25”. No other explanation. What we later found out, after blind luck got us onto the correct dock, the only unoccupied one we saw, was that the section of docks we were on had their numbers marked in yellow paint rather than paint of a different color. But while it was not pitch black when we got on the dock at 6:45 pm, it was too dark to distinguish the colors. 

The computer says we traversed 34.43 miles at an average speed of 3.3 knots. This speed over ground graph shows a slight rise from just above 3 to almost 4 in the middle, which represents the increase and then decrease in the favorable tides current.

If I could walk on water, I could have walked faster, but not for 10.5 hours, non stop. Another great post season sail, definitely my last for the season. I’m pleased to report that in the following two days, Andrew made it safely to his destination. Our destination for the first of the three days, as shown on the computer chart below, was the Cedar Marina in the NE corner of Black Rock Creek in Fairfield CT.

My next post will quantify the 2022 season.