Feb 2 - Mar 7 — Winter Has Been Mild But Soooo Looong

During the time since my last report, I have visited ILENE only five times and worked on her only fourteen hours! That’s pathetic, but I cannot lie to you. A lot more evening performances of shows and concerts so my priority has been out of whack.

I retightened the propane tank apparatus and the hose is holding the gas pressure firmly; I installed the new AA battery for 2023-24 in the ship’s brass wall clock.

I returned the two bottles of diesel-water mix from my car for safe storage tied upright under the boat — so as not to subject myself to a fine for earth removal if they leak.This storage is until an event to be scheduled in the spring at nearby Orchard Beach for environmentally sound disposal, not into The Sound! 

Two of the lower halyards, not those that hoist the sails, became unsecured, blew down, and have been coiled and secured to be raised to their proper places once the winter cover is removed.

I spent a lot of time both at and off the boat figuring how to rig up a “low friction ring” to be hung a few inches below the level of the bowsprit, off the bow, through which to run the snubber line.This picture shows such a ring on a sister boat, so I did not invent the idea, but a whole lot of figuring went into adapting it for ILENE and getting the correct sized parts.
The snubber, line is 37 feet long, of strong, stretchy, shock absorbing nylon. It has been in use for 20 years but does not look worn or abraded. It attaches a hook at its lower end to the anchor chain under the water and the other end inoffensive it is attached to a strong cleat near the boat’s  bow. It takes the load of the wind trying to push the anchored boat away, and it’s stretchiness gives an easier and quieter night’s sleep than unsnubbed chain. Such chain, when a link of it rolls over from side to side on itself as the boat is pushed from side to side by the wind, called “hunting”, the click sounds like a hammer blow!  The problems all these past years have been twofold.  First, attaching and retrieving the snubber with a boat hook while hanging over the side, involves danger, especially if it must be done at night in a storm in a hurry. But also, the cleat to which the top end of the line is cleated is not at the bow, but about four feet further to the right of the right side of the photo. This aggravates the boat’s hunting while moving the connection point at the very tip of the bow will reduce hunting. Also, the snubber line currently runs from deck level, an inch above the top of the bowsprit, down and forward to the chain, below sea level. This caused the snubber line to rub against the stainless steel rod, shown running from just aft of the slippery ring down and aft toward the right side of the photo. And occasionally rubbing past the second anchor, adjacent to the first, which the owner of the pictured boat had removed. Leading the snubber through the ring will eliminate these hazards because the snubber line will not lead down until it is forward of all of the boat.

And while I was at it I purchased a new hook for the underwater end of the snubber line. The first hook is shown:

The problem was that while the hook held to the chain nicely in wind (under pressure),  it had the nasty habit of falling off the chain in calm air, with no tension on the line. It had a second bad habit as well. Well, you really can’t call it a habit because it only happened once. In strong wind, the wind was so strong that it straightened out, i.e.,  unbent the hooks, and hence fell off, dangling from the line and not working.  

This is what the current hook looks like, with the chain fitting into its slot. It never unbent but it did fall off, dangling uselessly on the end of the snubber.

The newly purchased expensive, heavy Mantus hook shown below is a massive casting, will not bend, and will not fall off because of a rubber strap seen trailing off below my pinkie toward the right. That strap has no role  in big wind but in light wind it is strong enough to keep the hook from falling off. And with the slippery ring will be easy to launch and retrieve:

I measured, ordered cut and fit a new rubber mast boot, the intended final solution to the leak of rainwater into the boat from the top, around the mast. But this has not YET worked either. Very frustrating. Perhaps more glue to fill gaps can do the trick. I hope so. If not, I’ve got to call in a professional.

But the biggest project so far, in terms of time,  has been sanding down the cherry woodwork around the galley for the application of several coats of  new polyeurathane. Slow going and I partially disassembled some of the the wooden pieces to give myself a better angle to sand on it and to get into corners. But alas, the next problem is figuring out how to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. I’ve not given up on this either.         

And having reinstalled the touch pad and the computer of the Autopilot in the boat when they came back from Florida, I had to take them out again after the techs   next  tested the motor, and asked me to send back those two previously tested parts, plus the electro compass so they can test all four parts together to figure out what is wrong. This meant cutting a black wire from the compass, leading to a lot of thought about how to reconnect  the four thin color coded wires within it. Too many butt connectors too close together. The solution will be a terminal block and I’ve figured out where to place it, high above the water in the bilge.

The compass is held on place by the two screws in the notch in the strong transverse stringer that holds up the cabin sole above the bilge on the right side of the photo with the wire seen running up from back aft under it. Each of the tiny plastic cooler cored and covered internal wires in it will be fastened to one of the four lower screws of the connection block it will be fastened to the same board to which the compass will be reattached, and then the color coded internal 

Wires get screwed to one of the four top screws, the one with the same colored wire leading in from the bottom.

I’ve done a few things for the Club. The date of the Club Cruise has been selected as well as a weekend jaunt to Oyster Bay. I went to the Brooklyn Navy Yard to scout out an event for one of our Club’s winter “land cruises” — the museum there: free admission, easy parking and several options as to places to eat. I also read an article in Points East magazine by a guy who in 2004 created a series of social events in the bitterly cold cabin of his docked sailboat in Salem MA, under its snow covered canvas cover. His concept was simple: BYOB and tell each other sea stories. This does not require a lot of planning, preparation or equipment. We can adopt it and do it in front of a cracking wood fire in the Clubhouse living room. If it catches on it can also give our bar and restaurant some patronage. I love both telling sea stories (as readers of this blog know) and listening to them as well. Let’s see if we can make this happen.

I attended a meeting of the New York Map Society, in a member’s living room, with refreshments. I did not present a chart and the other presenter’s charts were not particularly interesting to those who love the water. (I did enjoy the fellowship and learned the name of the river that runs through Berlin and a lot of geographic history.

Also related to water are oysters. Lene and I had lunch in the historic Oyster Bar under Grand Central station on our way home from a Doctor’s visit, and coincidentally I attended an excellent free slide show on current methods of oyster cultivation in the recently cleaned up waterways of this nation at the National Arts Club, complete with free samples shucked while we were hearing about them. I thought I knew everything there was to know about oysters after reading Mark  Kurlansky’s excellent book, “The Big Oyster”,  about oysters and their role in New York’s waters and economy. But that was 1997 and a lot has changed since then.

Speaking of eating, we have had three dinners with sailing friends, two with Bennett and Harriett, who we have known since 2010, and one with Jim and Wijnanda, new friends who want to cruise to Newfoundland in their boat this summer with us.  Very interesting people who are currently invited to our house, with others, later in March.

But and the Doctor visit that brings up a sad subject. Lene has had a number of mysterious ailments recently and until the remedies are applied and prove effective, uninhabited fjords deep into the coastline of Newfoundland, with potentially iffy communications, and at least a day’s sail from medical attention, is just too risky. So while we will go back to Nova Scotia, to some places there we passed on last time, and possibly to St. Pierre, off the Newfoundland coast, this summer’s itinerary has required abridgment.

Jan 26 - Feb 1 — Not So Fast On “Everything is Fixed”

          Yeah, the propane was not yet fully fixed. When I came back to ILENE After about a week, the pressure was down from 100 to 80. And I got a wee sniff of the stuff in the locker. During my next two visits during the period of this report (less than six hours at the boat) I removed the connection to the propane tank, disconnected the loose connection between the pressure reduction valve and the solenoid, applied plumbers tape, fully tightened with wrenches, reconnected the tank and retested. The gauge shot up only to 75, which may be the “new normal”, and hopefully will hold that pressure till next time, which may be a while from now with a strong cold snap coming on us. 

          Also, I called Bronx Ignition who reported that while they had tested the Auto pilot’s motor and found that it worked, they were not competent to truly test all aspects of its functioning (the transmission gearing) and hence were not willing to try to do so. So I called the Florida repair firm that had checked out the two electronic components and made arrangements to ship the motor to them for test ($100, plus expensive shipping —  because it is heavy). They also noted that I might need a newly rebuilt one for less than $500. Defender Industries sells new ones for about $2300.

 I just couldn’t see reinstalling all the components each of which “checked out” without finding the problem that I know exists somewhere in the system. Jamie of Harvard said he had taken his apart and blown out a lot of carbon from the brushes with compressed air which improved its functioning. My unit has been in service since 1999, and steered a lot of miles, but I don’t want to play around with its guts.

       As to the nick high on the trailing end of the keel created when I ran the boat over its mooring ball and its huge top shackle: I took the claw hammer and whacked the lead that had been pushed to the starboard side in and back, so that side is smooth; now I need only to apply some filler to fill in the port side before painting. No need for barrier paint here because the keel is solid lead, not capsulated in fiberglass. Barrier coating protects fiberglass from water incursion and subsequent “rot”; lead does not rot.

       Also, for the last two seasons the rudder turned with some stiffness and the top of it, which forms a line parallel to the hull bottom above it was canted aft a bit; wider at the forward end and narrower aft. See photo below. A very tiny bend in the shaft. How it got there, I do not know. The rudder had been pulled backward maybe a degree or two out of alignment, a big plastic collar around the exposed rudder post  between the top of the rudder and the hull was pinched on the aft side. What to do?  A friend’s blog reported, many years ago, that he fixed a similar problem by driving his boat slowly in reverse into a gradual sand bank. He said it worked for him but to me his method sounded ridiculous then and ever since.  We are talking about an object that weighs almost six tons and has a lot of momentum moving slowly, but how slowly? We don’t want to over bend it in the opposite direction. I thought that applying a slow steady very gradually increasing pressure could work. I led a long spare line from forward of the big wooden blocks on which the keel sits, back along both sides of the keel toward the rudder. And I used the heavy ratcheting strap that is normally used to snug  the dink, hanging on its davit dar, to the transom of the boat. I led the strap  forward around the aft edge of the rudder on both sides of the rudder. After joining the line and the strap to form an adjustable loop, I ratcheted away, very slowly,  once tension was achieved, 1/4” at a time until I think the problem is solved.

Both left (aft) and right (forward) the gap between the bottom of the hull and the top of the rudder blade are about equal.

       Pumped out bilge water and a bit of sanding around the galley and measured the circumference of the mast boot to order the right sized rubber piece from Defender to finally, I hope, seal the leak there.

 I had looked up the Bronx municipal hazardous waste disposal site and drove to it, in the bowels of the lower South Bronx on my way home with about 1.1 gallons of the contaminated diesel I had removed from the diesel tank into empty antifreeze bottles in the fall. Mission: to properly dispose of them. But:  “Oh, sorry, we don’t take that”. I searched the net but could not find a commercial site and pay for proper disposal. But the Harlem’s Environmental Compliance Officer, Walt, found the solution: patience. In the spring, the City will have a one day event at Orchard Beach to accept such hazardous waste. Until then, I have tied my jugs to a stanchion (to prevent them from tipping over, leaking and requiring me to pay for the stained soil to be professionally removed.

      Fun for me, was a map infused slide lecture by a History professor from Queens College Kara Murphy Schlicting, at the South Street Seaport Museum one rainy night. Her area is the 19th and 29th Centuries, and her topic, the subject of her book, was how the waterfront changed my city. she focussed  on individuals who used private and public money to develop the port. The first key figure was Robert Fulton, whose steamboat cut the time and cost of transporting goods between  Albany and Manhattan to a fraction compared to land travel. Next, Dewitt Clinton was responsible for the Erie Canal, linking the city to the nation’s developing heartland by water, making NY the greatest city in the world. Then waterfront development itself, exemplified by Steinway, of pianos, who invested wisely in waterfront property, created a huge factory and lumber yard where LaGuardia Airport came later. Finally both Robert Moses and environmentalists who developed the waterfront, including Orchard Beach “The Riviera of New York”, and the Triborough Bridge, and those cleaning up Newtown Creek. The audience was small and I got there early and told Dr. Schlicting about the NY Map Society and later suggested to its leaders that we invite her to speak to our group.

       I read the e-book version of “Sailing To Newfoundland: A Solo Exploration of the South Coast Fjords” by Paul Trammell, an account of his 2022 cruise, published on January 10 of this year. Jim, a City Island YC member who wants to cruise there this summer, put me onto the book which was very interesting. The author acquired his 1972 Cartwright 40 sloop “Wildflower”, in 2019. She was built in New England about half a century before with a full keel, as characteristic of that period, a 5’ 8” draft and an 11.25’ beam. Not a racer but a stable seaworthy boat.

The author’s seamanship and anchoring skills, which he described, seemed right. The first few chapters described his eight day nonstop solo passage from Florida to Maine and his stops in six coves in Maine and Nova Scotia. (No cities: he is a nature lover.) His accounts of those ports jibed with my memory of my visits to them, further giving me confidence in the accuracy of his account. Once he arrived in the fjords of Newfoundland, I had no memories, but I read his book, which includes small black and white photos that cannot do justice to the majestic unspoiled beauty of the places visited, with my CCA Cruising Guide open before me.  The guide included chartlets of the places he went, making them interesting. Without the chartlets, I fear the book would be a bit boring to a reader who has never been or does not plan to visit Newfoundland. While each port is unique, there are similarities between them. He travelled solo and was deeply in love with nature including hiking in the woods over steep terrain without trails and fishing, with fish being the dominant part of his diet.  I was inspired to order the 17 large paper charts from the Canadian Hydrographic Service through Landfall Navigation in Stamford CT, thus further committing ILENE to this summer’s adventure.

December 25 To January 25, With Only Two Afternoons On ILENE

 Damn, a whole month since last I last posted! Sorry, folks.

Work accomplishments on ILENE included tightening up the 2 x 4 aft “ridge pole” from the aft end of the boom to the radar arch that holds up the winter cover. I saw too much movement in the cover from whipping strong winds, so I braced it better against the two sides of the grab bar at the aft end of the dodger frame. Also, after a few hours of You Tube videos at home I figured out what each of the components of the system do that transport propane within its locker from the tank to the hose leading to the galley stove, and how to determine if there is a leak. Basically, the valve on the tank lets high pressure propane from the tank into the system. Next is a gauge. Its needle always pointed to 100 until the tank was empty, whereupon it pointed to zero. I never knew it’s purpose, which I learned is to test for leaks. I’d noticed a very faint odor of propane in its exterior locker last summer and based on the small amount of cruising we did in 2022, the tank ran dry way too soon. I tested the joints of all the other connections in the system, brass on brass,  connecting to and from the pressure reducer and the solenoid (which shuts off the flow to the galley unless electrified from the electrical switches near the galley). One was ninety degrees loose and I  hand tightened it. After taking out the tank and getting it filled in New Rochelle ($12) I reattached, opened the valve, saw the needle jump from zero to 100, closed the valve, and waited. If it still had a leak, the pressure would have crept down from 100. But it did not, so the potentially explosive problem was solved. 

I also tried the new mast boot sealing tape, supposedly self adhesive, but it adhered to nothing so yet another method must be used to prevent fresh water incursion into the cabin from around the mast.The two electronic components of the auto pilot came back from Florida with a charge of only $100 plus $30 shipping. Significantly less than I had thought I would be billed. Unfortunately, the experts found nothing wrong except for a bit of calibration so I’m now afraid that after all the effort the autopilot is still not fixed. I reinstalled the two components with lots of tiny wires that I could have screwed up, but in testing, the unit turned on and the buttons on the control pad seem to work. The motor, it’s heaviest unit, was to be reinstalled, but I had let the flashlight on and its batteries were dead so that task awaits me. I pumped out the bilge and did a bit of interior woodwork sanding with the new B&D Mouse sander too. But not much progress for two afternoons, and the fact that I only put in two of them in a month reminds me that I have a lot left to do.

At a Zoom meeting of the Joint City Island and Harlem YC cruising committee, they adopted my plan for a seven day cruise to depart on a Saturday in July. It is basically the same itinerary as last year’s eight day cruise, that none of them used, with Hamburg Cove and the two passages to and from it cut out, and a lay day added in Mattinecock, during which a tour of local North Shore wineries will be had. CIYC has several oenophiles who had a lot more info on the wineries than I do and will take care of the winery tour. Once the specific Saturday departure is selected, all I have to do is figure out the times of the favorable tides for each of the six passage days.

At the meeting I was introduced to a new member of their committee, who has a cruising boat and plans for Newfoundland. I have yet to meet him but that is in planning and we found we have a lot in common. In short, ILENE may have a  “Buddy Boat” for part of this summer’s cruise, which will be fun. He put me onto a new book by Paul Trammel “Sailing to Newfoundland: A Solo Exploration of the South Fjords”.  I said “new” and with a publication date of January 10, 2023, it is nothing if not that. Acquired by Kindle, I’m half way through and learning a lot about what we will experience this summer.  We should take our time on the way out, to not get to Newfoundland before July 1; let the place get warm after the winter. Additional clothing is also needed and Garmin In Reach to be explored as a better means of communications from deep in 1000 feet high fjords. Trammel, who has written several other books, began his blow by blow narrative in Florida and after 1200 NM made landfall in several ports in Maine and Nova Scotia. His description of them jibed with my recollection of our visits to them. Once he got to the fjords of Newfoundland, I had no personal experience of his anchorages, but the CCA Cruising guide has chartlets of them which enhanced my understanding of his descriptions of where he went. Reading the book put me in mind of my need to get the list of the Canadian Hydrographic Office Charts that I need to buy from Landfall Navigation in Connecticut soon.

Additional helpful info from Jamie and Lori, of Harvard snd the Manchester by the Sea YC, who have been to Newfoundland many times, during a dinner with them before their ballet. Other notable dinners with sailors included one with Bennett and Harriet in their Alpine home and with my book group at my house with a Polish themed menu to discuss a Mexican book “American Dirt”. My view is that the author, Ms. Collins, tried to win sympathy for the desperate Latin Americans fleeing north for freedom from the brutal drug cartels, as Harriet Beecher Stowe had done with considerable effect in winning sympathy for desperate black slaves fleeing north from the brutality of slavery in the US south.

Visits with others who sail with us (1) to the Players Club on Gramercy Square with Dana and Tom where her art was exhibited, (2) to the adjacent National Arts Club with Rhoda and Lloyd, for a showing of three excellent one act plays, (3) dinner with Elaine, an actor friend of ours (a colleague of Lene) after a movie and lunch with her after a visit at which she selected a rescued cat to adopt and (4) four two days with Tom and Marie including the New York Historical Society, while they were back east from their winter place in Las Vegas.

The first membership meeting of the Harlem of 2023 included reports on our successful efforts to increase membership and that our finances are also improving. Most of our hard working Board:

The meeting was followed by International Night, my favorite annual Club social activity, a modest fund raiser to which each family brings a dish to serve ten and our board does the serving.

All was not pleasure: I made a sad two day visit to the Chicago hospital bed of a friend and colleague since 1970, Harvey, a brilliant and honorable lawyer, who is quite sick. I may never see him again.

Another sad day was the New Jersey memorial service for Diane, wife of Past Commodire Bruce.

Nov 27 - Dec 24 — Only One Day Aboard But Other Events

 Well the day aboard was three hours and shared with David who has moved, making a new rendezvous point for us from his public transportation. David lent to me his meter that measures water in fiberglass. I tested my rudder which showed that it had water in it. So I drilled four 1/4 inch diameter holes into various spots near the bottom of the rudder for the water to flow out. I did not see a rush of water, but it was cold and maybe more will come out during the month before I have to plug the holes before painting and launching.

I confirmed with Raymarine that my thinking about the two plastic covered wires inside the third black wire from the motor of the autopilot was correct. I need to strip that plastic and butt connect each of them separately with smaller butt connectors than the two I crimped onto the red and black. The big two are for power, the naked ones are for small control voltages.

I also removed the autopilot’s touch pad control panel from the cockpit and it’s computer from inside the lazarette, and have received word that Sea Tronics of Pompano Beach, Florida has received them and will be checking them out. Each of the two boxes was held in place with only two screws, but the tricky part for me was with the heavy computer shown on the left.

You will note tiny squares of various colors in a strip at its bottom. For most of them a tiny wire coated in plastic of the same color was inserted. I did not know how to remove (or reinstall those wires without potentially wrecking the system.    Raymarine’s tech support is great. Each wire came from and will go back into the tiny black hole above its colored patch. Insertion and removal requires pressing down with a tiny “eyeglass frame” screw driver on the tiny white lever above the hole. While at the boat I checked out the varnish work I had done on the battens that hold up the cabin ceiling; they looked good.

At home I ordered a B+D corner cat sander, for use on wood at home and on the boat.

A zoom meeting of the joint Harlem and City Island Yacht Clubs’ cruise committee took place. They delegated to me responsibility to plan a six day cruise in LI Sound this summer, including rental of a van from the anchorage in Mattituck LI to visit some of the North Shore’s wineries. An  easy and fun task;  too bad we can’t attend, because we will be cruising to and in Newfoundland, Canada.

A visit by the Harlem’s Winter Hiking Group to the Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn on a nice winter day, followed by Mexican food nearby.

I made a presentation to the NY Map Society about US Navy Hydrographic Chart number Zero, the first it published, a Sketch Chart of Cultivator Shoals, and how it was discovered and charted.

First, it involves no dry, or even damp land, even at high tide. It is an underwater shoal quite a ways off of Cape Cod. (There is a restaurant and bar by that name in New Bedford MA.) The Shoal was named after the ship that discovered it— fortunately the easy way — rather than by going aground on it. Finding the Cultivator involved research but I found a picture of her: she was a three masted British packet boat engaged in transporting over 300 souls per passage, mostly Irish and mostly poor, from Liverpool to New York, during and after the great potato famine.

I had found the passenger manifests which listed each passenger, his or her county of origin, age, gender and occupation: mostly “domestic servant and “laborer”.

Cultivator’s Captain, the same man who signed off on the passenger registry, had notified the Navy of the latitude and longitude of the discovery. The survey was by the USS Don. The Navy keeps records of all of its ships. Don was also British but had been captured by our navy while engaged in smuggling cotton out of the Confederacy and she was armed and pressed into US naval service. The survey, one of her last missions before she was decommissioned in 1868, shows her track, searching for the shoal around and finally directly over the location reported by Cultivator. Not finding it there, Don apparently widened the search and ultimately ran directly over the central portion of the shoal to take soundings. Don’s draft was only six feet, but still taking a big ship directly over an uncharted shoal to find out how deep the water is seemed like a foolish dare devil mission. I speculate that the ship’s boat was used for that run. Of course this is a shortened version of my talk but I found it interesting and fun.

Lene and I enjoyed a lovely tree trimming party at the home of a fellow Harlemite,  Roy, whose  ketch I helped him bring down from Maine last spring. He lives in Edgewater NJ, with a breathtaking view of the Hudson and Manhattan. About forty folks, mostly from Asia, Europe and Latin America, many of them sailors, lots of delicious food and drink and two musicians who played and sang quietly enough so as to not interfere with conversation. Thanks again, Roy,

Not much boating during such a long period, but two days involved a trip to my college in Ithaca and four were for a visit by four of Lene’s relatives from Austin. Our living room became a dorm and I love being a tour guide. And now hard winter has set in but there is work to do.  See you next year!

November 2022 — Mostly Spain, With a Splash of Water

 Two three-hour work days on  ILENE. I used the “L” shaped angle iron to secure the dozen bolts that hold the viewing port to the top of the forward fuel tank. Worked like a champ! Now the tank is both bone dry snd air tight. I charged the batteries and planned other work, applied more rubber to the mast boot gap and ordered a roll of self adhering four inch wide rubber tape. The water in the bilge was low but frozen. I removed the motor that drives the autopilot and delivered it to the care of the always helpful nearby  Bronx Ignition for diagnosis and whatever surgery may be needed.

The hard parts of that job were, physically: getting into the port aft corner of the huge starboard entry lazarette with tools, and emotionally: cutting the three wires that feed the unit electricity. If it works fine, then I’ll reinstall it next and remove two electronic components to be dealt with in Florida. 

We attended a lovely reception at the Club welcoming new members. Good food and wine. But before that, an opening of a local art gallery on City Island which was showing the photographic art of one of our new members. And surprise! One of her pieces was a scene that, at the right edge, included ILENE’s unmistakable shape:

But most of our activity in November related to our trip to Spain, my first. Lene had been there 50 years ago. We started in Barcelona, and we visited Columbus on his pillar,

the larger Marina,

with its  Scandinavian visitor

the architect Gaudi’s fantastic Gruel Park, overlooking the Med

and the fishing village Sitges with rocks and a beach at which I rolled my trousers and waded in the Med.

My only disappointment was that a half day bareboat charter of a 31 foot Beneteau, my first and last chance to ever sail in the Med, had to be cancelled because the prior charter party had wrecked the boat’s sail.

Our next stop was landlocked Madrid with mountains nearby and we did discover and get out on the water in a smaller, non-wind powered craft in a lake in El Retiro, the municipal park near the Prado Museum. 

A good trip, but not restful.

2022 “Fun Season” Wrapup and a Bonus

First the bonus: a second sail on Lennie’s wooden gaff rigged sloop, “Kocha” with his friend Hal, on November 2! November is normally characterized by raw cold damp weather, but we enjoyed sunshine at near 70 degrees; I should call it a blessing rather than a bonus!  The only drawback: no wind as can be seen behind Hal. The 5 to ten predicted were only five and when we got out of Mamaroneck  Harbor it died completely. But a lovely float with follow boaters who talked about their boats and their adventures.

THE WRAPUP

The perennial question I ask is: How much sailing did we get in this summer? And while the answer is always “Not Enough”, this summer it was less than usual. The fun season is defined as the period from launch date to haul date inclusive. This year with launch on May 5 and hauling on September 8 the fun season was only 145 days long. The fact that three sail dates, on two different friends’ wooden boats (including the bonus) occurred after the haul date, just sweetened the pot a bit. 

A late launch this year because I thought why rush, we will have plenty of time on the Canadian cruise, except it got cancelled, shortened the season. An early haul out because the winter storage site had to get all boats out of the water early to perform a dredging operation before spring cut off the end of the season. And a cruise ship adventure in the Arctic waters of the Svarlbard Archipelago in June and a Covid attack and relapse in July took a big bite out the middle of the season. The best way to rack up large numbers of sailing (and live-aboard while cruising) days is by cruising. This year all told I had four excursions that qualified: a day that begins and/or ends at a location away from Eastchester Bay.  But all four cruises were short ones:  the one-day one-way passage to Fairfield CT on Saltatempo, the solo two day excursion to Rye Playland with folks on boats of the City Island YC,  and two other short cruises, mostly in Long Island Sound: the first - the eight days with “Gypsy Jake” to Hamburg Cove, and the second, eleven days without any other boats to Block Island.  All four of these cruises aggregated only 22 cruising days, far less than in summers with cruises lasting months. A few other  weeks when we would have racked up some days living aboard with the kittys were scrubbed due to the extraordinarily brutal heat this summer.

The first bottom line is that there were only 67 boating related days this summer, a woefully low percentage of use. But I put in thirteen mid-season work days on the boat at our mooring — no sailing and no living aboard. And there was one water related museum day with Winslow Homer at The Met, another serving as the Committee boat for Club racing and a third living aboard at the mooring without sailing. These aggregate 16 and when subtracted, leave only 52 actual sailing days. So in addition to the 22 cruising days I had only 30 day-trip sails. Ten of those 30 were with the Old Salts (eight of them on ILENE and two aboard “Ohana”. So there were 20 non-Salts day sails.

And of the 52 sailing days only 41 were aboard ILENE. The other eleven were on five other friends’ boats, as a guest. Four were with Bennett on Ohana, three with Andrew on Saltatempo, two with Lennie on a Kocka and one each with Dave on Lady Kat and with David on Hidden Hand. So ILENE got underway only 41 times this summer, 39 actually with the two lay days in Block Island knocked off the total.

There were about twenty five different people who sailed with me on ILENE as Salts, some of who also sailed with me on non-Salt days as well. My beloved mate, Lene was on the two longer cruises — 19 days — and five other days with me and various friends, so only 24 days for her all summer. She sailed with me and nine of her friends, two of them, Tom and Marie, twice. And I sailed ILENE four times with no Salts and without my mate, with eight other friends. So altogether a whole lot of folks, but no record.

And for the record, according to ILENE’s GPS computer, her 39 days took us only 682 nautical miles and put only 70 hours on the Yanmar, though about eight of those hours were in neutral, on the mooring, to charge her refrigeration. So only about 27.5 NM  per outing.

A short sweet season. Also, as of October 29, ILENE is fully protected against the winter’s cold and winds. Nothing to do except a whole lot of repairs during which shore power will keep her batteries charged. And next year a summer cruise to Newfoundland for three or four months is promised.

I really have to stop crying in my beer. I’m extremely grateful to have a seaworthy boat, a mate who likes to accompany me, good health and the time, after retirement, to sail. Thank you, God!

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.