Frogs in Cat Boxes

Sorry for the delay: the laptop was broken for about two weeks, hence no postings. It is now fixed, thanks to help from Lene's relations from home, UPS, local customs and a very clever local computer guy, Garvey, who installed the new screen to replace the old, which was cracked.

"Six days shalt thou labor and do all that thou art able; and on the seventh, holystone the decks and scrub the cables."
This doggerel, if Roger's memory serves him faithfully, is the beginning two lines of "Two Years Before the Mast," Richard Henry Dana's memoir of his apprenticeship on a wooden merchant vessel in the Pacific Northwest in the 19th century, which Roger read in his teens.
Holystones were large flat bottomed stones that the sailors, working in pairs, would slide back and forth across the massive oak beams that made up the decks, thereby sanding down the soiled outer layer of the oak. Heavy work and on the Lord's Day. It is a twist on Genesis's seventh day of rest, which the sailors did not get.
Holystones do not work on fiberglass boats and our decks are not pristine, but last Sunday was our 11th consecutive day of dog work, and we launched Monday a week ago for more days of work while we are on a mooring, where we have escaped the oppressive land heat in the blazing sun, the fun part of the adventure can finally begin, probably on Friday, November, 18.
Roger did get to "scrub the cables", however, if you define cables as the lines (ropes) that lead out from the top and bottom of the mast that haul the sails up and control their angle to the wind. If anyone had advised us to run up thin "messenger" lines to replace the lines that control the boat, Roger forget to do that. We don't do it in winter in NY, and I didn't do it in the summer in Grenada. But ILENE has its famous "cat boxes" in the forward ends of the gunnels, side walls of the cockpit. As noted last winter, the cats each like to hide and sleep in those boxes, while we are underway. Rain flows into these boxes but seeps out of what are called weep holes low at the outboard side. When the boat is on land, the level of fresh rainwater in those boxes is about 1/2 inch deep. Algae grew on the cables. But when Roger removed the lines to scrub them with a stiff brush and soap and Clorox, he found families of tiny frogs in each. (First a photo of Tee Pee, with our french speaking friends, Manu and Michelle, who were such good help and good friends as we shared our yard experience.) Tee Pee is on route to the water, where she launched before us but we got away before she did.

Here are two frogs. the little hole, top center, is about one inch in diameter, to give you an idea how small the frogs are. Roger thought he had chased them all away but when we were underway, from St. David's to Prickly Bay, Alpha Girl emerged with frog legs hanging out of her mouth. Roger eventually disposed of the carcass.

How did these tiny tree frogs climb from the ground up about 15 feet? We are not sure. Roger believes that the black stuff, associated with the algae consisted of tiny bits of froggy fecal matter. Cables duly scrubbed,
Roger does most of the heavy lifting and Lene is resting him to avoid potential heat prostration, and giving him lots of liquids. Flu like symptoms plus heat sap energy, which may be why progress has been so slow.

Roger smiling after scrubbing off the outer layer of the old bottom paint into a slurry, some of which seems to have landed on him. Another rag for the rag bag.


Another problem has been the solar panels,which have not been working. We did get the anchor windlass rebuilt and are awaiting an Herve, a great electronics tech, who can hopefully get out chartplotter and autopilot to work again. Apparently the problem is in the wiring by which the components of this system talk to each other. We had been in Prickly Bay before and hence were able to navigate there without the benefit of electronics, but we would rather not make a habit of it.

The kitties stayed with us in an air conditioned bungalow for the first 12 days. Here is Whitty on the veranda.

They have transitioned rather well to their new floating home, where they lived for six months last winter: Oh yeah, this again. They do suffer a bit in the heat -- wearing fur coats. Lene jumped in to save a loudly mewling strongly swimming Alphie a couple mornings ago. We think she tied to jump from the Bimini (sun shade) to the dinghy, whose big rubber tube, hanging off the back of the boat, was slippery with the morning dew.

October 26th---Our Departure Date, Through October 31 in St. David's Grenada

     Flights down--JFK to Miami to Grenada -- were on time and uneventful. The dynamic duo made not a peep nor a pee from their 7:30 am entry into the carrier they share, until released into our bungalow at 10:30 pm. They seemed to be hot and a bit sweaty in that small confine under Lene's first class seat; Roger travelled coach. Well, each kitty had a five minute release -- a lap top petting break -- in Miami airport. We could have smuggled in anything because the only thing customs was interested in was valuing the cats: they were adopted at no cost, but the agent accepted Lene's explanation of the cost of their initial adoption vetting and asked us for $50EC (about $20US; 2.7 to 1).

     Our room here at Bel Air Plantation is quite nice and air conditioned with kitchen facilities, and they honored Lene's request for a cabin nearer sea level to spare us the steep climb up the hill to the one we had in April, but that room was larger, with a jacuzzi and a better kitchen. Actually it is a bit pre-season here so they have only four rooms rented, and the restaurant is not open yet, so they stocked our kitchen with a few staples and hired a van to taxi us to a local market -- no fresh fruit or meat --to get more. And Saturday Lene went, as part of a group of other boaters, to a big first-world supermarket in St. George's to more fully stock us.

     Many of the other boaters are staying on their boats on the hard, using buckets for heads (latrines), and thus saving $120 US per night. These include Manu and Michelle, aboard their aluminum "Teepee". These are  the two French speaking ladies who hitch hiked with us from St. Martin to Antigua last winter. They spent their summer renovating a chalet near Lake Geneva in Switzerland which one of them inherited. While St. Louis was beating Texas in game 7 (which, unfortunately, will do little to reduce the Lone Star state's insufferable swaggering -- oops, Roger is a bigot) we dined with them at the restaurant of the hotel La Sagesse, on the next bay, on swordfish and king fish with our waiter also serving as our taxi driver for their free pickup and delivery.

      Our boat does not have water yet but electricity was restored on Friday with the installation of the seven new batteries that were delivered Thursday night (Taking out the old and carrying up the new at about 100 pounds a piece, was Roger's daily calisthenics.) Roger took the opportunity, with the spaces vacant, to clean the battery spaces for the first time since 1999, after emery boarding off the corrosion on the cables' terminals. He also made a wiring diagram before removal and hence was able to put the new batteries back properly. They are held in place against bouncing around when the boat sails by an ingenious system of hardwood bars that are screwed to the floor, the walls and to each other. Some of these bars are somewhat "charcoalized" and will have to be removed, replicated and the new ones reinstalled -- next winter. We wonder if it was heat or chemical exposure or some combination that caused this.

     Our planned launch of November 1st will not happen. One reason is work that the yard started but has not finished yet, specifically the creation of a cabinet to match the existing ones, in the space above the refrigerator where the microwave was. The microwave is out, but the cabinet is not yet in. One job was only half done, though paid in full so we will have to negotiate a price reduction. This was a refinishing of the woodwork of the companionway ladder and top rail of the galley, which is done; but they failed to do the groove into which the hatch boards fit, which we had specifically ordered, and there is no time left for the several coats of polyurethane for this to be done.  We also got our bimini back from the sail loft where it had been taken for application of four leather patches to its top surface where the bolts that hold the solar panels to Erwin's rack were chafing through. It is a good thing Roger inspected it because they had only done two of the four, but all is right, now and we thus have shade.

     The other reason for our anticipated delayed departure will be customs: the boat was to have arrived on Thursday, and our paperwork was given to the agent who clears shipments though customs that day, but we are told it will take "several days"; and our bottom paint is in the shipment so while the bottom has been prepared, we won't get our shipment until, at the earliest, this Thursday the 3rd.  We are now scheduled to be launched on Monday, November 7th, because they do not perform launching on Fridays or weekends.  This is similar to last year when Roger was supposed to leave Norfolk on 11/1 for the trip to the BVI's but couldn't leave until 11/7 because of Hurricane Tomas.  This year it is customs that is our delay, but at least we're here and have an air conditioned bungalow for us and the furry felines.

      Work so far has included polishing the prop, lubricating it through zirc fitting and sanding it as smooth as it has ever been and applying its three zincs. Lene is set to paint it with special underwater metal paint tomorrow. We have wet scrubbed all and sanded the rough spots of the bottom. Roger did the scrubbing and Lene was the "hose man": to wash the slurry of the spot just completed and wet the next spot to be done. (Want to see how dirty a person can get?  Try wet sanding a black painted bottom of a boat!).

     Internet access has been poor until recently, but our Blackberrys mostly work. Roger had a nice blog written at home covering our last month of summer, but he left it in NY so you will not get to read about our October, 2011 in NY until July of 2012!

After the Club Cruise Aug 8 --September 25

     Only twelve days of sailing in seven weeks; I guess I'm just slowing down a bit.  But other events intervened: A two week trip to visit my Mom and Brother in Atlanta, and thence to Portland Oregon to visit my daughter, and her boyfriend and my granddaughter and to see the beautiful house they are building there. They plan to move is shortly after we leave for Grenada so we won't be able to see them in it until next summer. So here's some irony: our boat is down in the hurricane-prone Caribbean: but while I was on the west coast, Hurricane Irene visited New York. Fortunately, only one of the boats in our Club was damaged. Also, while I visited the other coast, home to the San Andreas and other earthquake causing faults, New York got hit by an earthquake. Go figure.
     It rained here some and I worked at the New York Public Library's Map Room some, completing my first pass through the 6500 nautical charts that the US Navy Hydrographic Office published between 1860 and 1950. I commenced some cleanup work and wrote a memo explaining what I had done so that the project will be understandable to the professional map librarians. They want to digitize and publish my research via an electronic database of the library accessible to the public. I'm not sure I can finish the editing process before October 25, in which case the work will not be publishable until after next June. I also visited friends, went to several plays, concerts, museums, art galleries, debates and lectures -- in short enjoyed all the rich cultural life that urban life affords.
I did some Club committee work, and had the benefit of four hours of spoon feeding by Dick and Elle whose trawler, a Heritage East 36, "Summer Wind" has now headed back to Florida for the winter. They have traversed the Inter Coastal Waterway many times and laid out 30 good spots for us to stop between Boca Raton Florida, where we are likely to come in from the Bahamas, and Norfolk, north of which (the Chesapeake) we know our way. These thirty anchorages, mooring fields and marinas, with several choices at some points, will be part of our route home. They are each a days motoring apart in the ICW,  but there are some inlets through which we can go out into the Atlantic, grab the Gulf Stream and do four or five of those stops in a single overnight sail. Other spots such as Savanah and Charleston can keep us interested for a week of tourism. Thanks Dick and Elle!!! Their adventures can be followed on summerwindjourney.blogspot.com.
     Another day was spent helping at the Club's booth at the Norwalk Boat Show. We invite folks who keep their boats (or their future boats) at less convenient spots to visit our club for an open house -- "free wine and cheese" -- so they can fall in love with the place, like I did 21 years ago. We met two catamaran sailors whose boat are in Jersey City and Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.
      And it took a lot of time to select and acquire the many little things (and some big ones such as new cockpit cushions and cabin floor coverings) that we want to pack up for ocean shipping to Grenada, and to arrange for that shipping.
     But this blog is about sailing, so let's get to it. Four of the twelve sails were aboard "Aria", that sweet, sturdy, stout, little, tiller-steered, full-keeled, canoe-sterned Ocean Voyager 26, with Jim and others. Sometimes with the Old F___s Club and sometimes alone.


     One of these sails had an exciting ending, -- the only truly exciting sailing in this time frame -- during which the winds had been all used up by Irene, leaving mostly doldrums. One of the things a boat owner must do is to clean the boat's bottom during the summer, either by diving under and around her with a scrub brush and scraper, or, as I and most of us do, engaging the local  scuba equipped contractor to do this. The reason is primarily for speed, because the slime and barnacles that grow on the bottom unless scrubbed off make the hull less slippery and slower through the water. Racers do this weekly! The other reason for bottom cleaning is that the barnacles particularly like to grow on the blades of the propeller, turning then into crullers rather than blades. This happened to several boats this summer, including Aria, after the the contractor who has done the cleaning for City Island boats for years, suddenly stopped providing this service do to personal problems without adequate notice. The engine started up and ran fine, as did the transmission, and the propeller spun as usual. But its spinning did not propel the boat forward with enough force to fight the wind. In other words, we were fine until the stronger winds came up and we had to turn toward the wind to grab the mooring at the end of the sail. Appreciating this, we left Aria's small staysail up to provide added propulsion, but it was still not enough. So we called the Club's launch to stand by and when during our one shot to grab the mooring, we missed (by only about eight feet) the launch was able to throw us a line and tow us to the mooring. no harm done.
      Two of the sails were on "Adagio", Vince's late-model cruising Benetau 34. I met Vince during the Club Cruise and he became convinced somehow that I was some sort of a great racer, despite my repeated protestations that he had vastly overestimated my racing skills. Our first sail together was with Lene and Vince's girlfriend, Suki, who went up the mast in a bosn's chair to fetch the jib halyard, which had gone skyward to the top of the mast.  A game girl! We had a pleasant afternoon and there was enough wind that we partially reefed the Genoa before it ended. I learned that the boat could do six knots with enough wind and figured several improvements to the rig to permit optimum speed. Adagio has in mast furling for the main which diminishes the adjustments possible for that sail but I suggested that we attach telltalles to the leech (rear side) and that Vince remove as much weight as reasonable possible: water, tools and a gas powered generator. On the day of the race, the wind was light and got lighter. Our crew was Vince, Ron, who had done the cruise with Vince, me and Ian, who had done part of the cruise with Bennett and me. Well, to make a log story last, we came in third out of four boats in our division, and last when handicaps were applied. Ian put it best telling Vince "Now you have something to look forward to in future races!"  The biggest mistake we made was tacking over onto a port tack soon after crossing the start line, to get away from the other boats. But the wind stayed stronger on their side of the racecourse so when we came back together again we were behind and though we gained, we never really caught up. "Pasta Night" took place that night, after the Club's membership meeting. This is a food orgy of pasta, braciole, sausages, meatballs, and oh yes, a salad, all served family style, and big portions of tiramisu with the coffee -- in short, no place for dieters. But with Suki's consoling companionship, Vince seemed cheerful at dinner. I have to learn more about how to trim in-mast furling mainsails to be able to help more.
      The final six sails were on four other Harlem Boats. Two of them were Catalina 27s: Rhoda and Lloyd's "Jazz Sail" for two days and Morty and Clara's "Easy Living." Also Donnie's Bristol 35 "Dido", our Commodore Mark and Marcia's Hunter 30,  "Leeds the Way" and a day sail on "Defiance" with Bennett.
      A great summer season, so far, but Grenada beckons ever more loudly as our October 25 departure draws near.

With The Harlem Yacht Club's Annual Sixteen Day Summer Cruise

       This post is largely a compilation of a series of daily emails that I sent from the cruise to every member of the Harlem Yacht Club as part of the fun of performing my duties as Fleet Captain (Cruise Director) of the Club’s annual 16 day cruise. My job is an appointed one, and this was my second year in it. I am grateful to my friend Bennett for offering me a ride on his 30 foot “Defiance”
which, while not as new, big, fast, clean or well-equipped as “ILENE,” is a seaworthy boat that got us there and back and a bit of wind can move her. I am also indebted to Assistant Fleet Captain, Ken, of "Sunrise" for having done most of the itinerary planing (herding the cats) while I was in Grenada.

Friday July 22  --  On the hottest day of the year we were out scampering about to provision our boats. Aboard Defiance, we have everything we need except: (1) somehow, the eggs were at the end of the checkout counter and did not get rung up, but we can get some in Port Jeff and (2) we ran out of time before the stores closed and did not bring alcohol for the stove, but Ken gave us a can.

      Many of us, even those who are joining us for the second week of the cruise, had a send-off dinner at the Club.  Our restaurant Chairman, Dave, had scored a bushel of soft shell crabs that, after Rutillio's expert sauteing, everyone thought were delicious. The club served up a lot of dinners.

      Commodore Mark Leeds volunteered to leave the Club's air conditioning on at night so those who wanted to could bunk down in the clubhouse to avoid the heat. I'm not sure who used that heat beating strategy; we of Defiance: Bennett, his friend, Ian and I, slept aboard. It was warm, but not too hot, and dry and calm. And we're off!

Saturday July 23  -- City Island to Port Jefferson      The slower boat division: “Tively” (Dan & Mary Jane), “Pas de Deux” (Mike and Sandy), and “Sunrise” (Ken and Camille), took a shorter destination and arrived safely at Norwalk YC. Captains and crews of Tively and Sunrise tried to recover from the intense heat by spending some time in wicker chairs at the Norwalk club house. Though not air conditioned there is a cooling breeze, and a shower was very welcome indeed.  Pas de Deux visited friends in the Norwalk area and stayed with them in air conditioned luxury. The journey to Norwalk was marked by no wind - therefore no sailing - and nasty black flies in abundance. They have had happier days on the water, but no one was griping, and they were looking forward to resuming the cruise next day, when more wind was expected along with slightly cooler temperatures.

     Among the faster division, at least three of our boats are already in Port Jeff – “Blast” (Ernie and Camille with grandkids) and “Northstar” (Bruce and Dianne) are on moorings of the Seatauket YC where we will all be tomorrow.  Defiance is about two miles from that YC on anchor in "Conscience Bay", the bay extending west after entering the Harbor.   On Defiance, we adopted a different strategy for seeking heat relief on this windless fly-infested day: engine off and jump into the Sound. It cools, and while we were at it, we scrubbed as much as we could reach of the boat's bottom. We also tried sailing for less than an hour, but at 1 knot over the ground, we did not persist for long.

Once anchored we dinked over to explore and learned that the beachy area that separates the Sound from the Bay (where I used to walk my dearly beloved late dog Jesse) is now roped off as a sanctuary for Plover, except for a path at water's edge, so we walked around the point on that path for another refreshing Sound swim. Fortunately those nasty biting black flies sleep at night and it was calm, dry and warm.

Sunday July 24 -- We are in Port Jeff for a lay day -- in force -- ten boats plus one.  Blast and Northstar, the two power boats in our fleet, were here on the yellow mooring balls of the Seatauket YC Saturday night. Interestingly, this club places its guest moorings nearest the dock -- it is their revenue source and their club house has no big dining facility.  Defiance motored the mile and a half from its anchorage after applying about one and a half coats of Cetol to its exterior teak. The three Norwalk boats motored over, as described in Ken's report, below. ”Kerry Ann” (Jerry and Joan),”Grace” (Lloyd and Tia), “Sly Fox” (Tim and Steve), Pas de Deux and “Acquarius” (an Island Packet 35 sailed by Jan and Jo Ann -- former, and possibly future, Harlemites),  bring us to ten.

      The eleventh is “Laughter” with Barbara and her two sons aboard with Dave having to go back to work. Barbara grew up in Port Jeff and has family here; the boys are enrolled for two weeks in the local sailing school.

      In the morning  we had a brief conference chat on channel 72. Tively would leave a little later in the day, while Pas de Deux and Sunrise departed for Port Jeff shortly after 8 AM.

     While crossing the glassy Sound, Sunrise was happily overtaken by Grace,

sailing from Noroton where Lloyd & Tia spent Saturday with friends, and acquired a handsome dinghy, which they are now proudly towing. The two boats pulled up quite closely midway to Port Jeff and we had an old time ship-to-ship conversation without the benefit of electronics. Sunrise took photos which have been sent to the Club.  The two boats successfully shared warnings about keeping an eye out for the Port Jeff - Bridgport ferry.

     We invited Laughter to join the cruise for dinner but they had other plans.  Grace dined aboard. The rest of us ended up in two restaurants:  Costa de Espagna fed about 16 of us and the other 6 to 8 dined at Lotsa Pasta.  The night was dry, calm and cool enough that we used top sheets or quilts.

Monday July 25 -- Port Jeff to Mattituck - A cloudy day with a steady light rain in mid to late afternoon but WIND!

     Sunrise stuck with the original plan for the slower boat division and crossed the Sound heading NE on a single starboard reach to Branford CT. The rest of us beat east to Mattinicock. Defiance sailed off her Port Jeff mooring on a run out of PJ, with a motor assist in the channel when the ferry was entering and an accidental gybe would have been most untimely. Having run north out of the port, we expected a beamy reach once we turned easterly in the Sound. But no, the winds were from about 120 at about 10 to 15 knots. (We do not have a wind speed instrument aboard.) Our passage started at about 9 and motoring the last hour we were docked at 5:30 after transiting the bayou like channel leading south into the north fork of Long Island, from the Sound.

The Marina left it to our early arriving power boaters to serve as dock hands for the later arriving sailers.

     Highlight of the evening was the communal barbecue at the grill amongst the picnic tables nested under some massive trees.   

Northstar brought a big bag of charcoal and ingredients for a samores desert. Kerry Ann made pina coladas. Everyone cooked their own meat with some sharing. Among the many other dishes shared by all were: pate, salami, peppers and sausages, dips, manchego y membrillo, spanakopita and a few more, plus lots of wine.  We started at about 6:30 and the samores were cooked after dark. The fellowship was almost as warm as the fire.  

 We lacked only the vegetable component of a balanced diet and it was definitely an "off diet" feast for all except those of us with iron clad will power.

     The night was cool, dry and calm. here is our fleet the next morning:

Tuesday, July 26 –- Most of us transited from Mattituck to Shelter Island today. Some decided to stay behind in Mattituck for another day. They, like Sunrise, which had gone to Branford, will be arriving in Shelter Island tomorrow.

      The trip here, starting in the morning so as to get through Plum Gut before the tide turned adverse at about 1:30, was sadly without wind power, though tide power gave us an extra knot or more.  The weather was nice until late afternoon and early evening, when we had a couple of downpours.

      At Shelter Island, we are divided, with Blast, Pas de Deux, Defiance and Sly Fox in Coecles Harbor and Tively and  Aquarius at the YC in Dering Harbor. The cost is about the same with Dering closer to town and at a very nice YC with launch service, while Coecles lacks these but has a quieter feel, a bike rental facility, gives rides to town and has a swimming pool. They are two miles apart as the crow flies, perhaps double that by road or 6-8 miles by boat, around the northern part of the island.

     Defiance was met by our wives, who drove up, and we are spending two nights ashore in the home of a friend of Ilene, which has a swimming pool.  The Ceocles boats plan to spend their third night on this island at Dering.  We found that the Ace Hardware store in town sells a lot of the little bits that sailors find they need.

     Another Harlem cruising boat, Dave's "Electric Ladyland,"reports that they left as we did on Saturday, and  plan to join our fleet toward the end of the cruise but are traveling farther than the rest of us. So far they have been in Milford at the YC, Mystic at the museum, Wickford RI, where our cruise put in last summer, and have plans to visit Newport, Martha's Vineyard, and possibly Provincetown, on the Cape, before heading west to connect with us for the last few days.

     I got an email from “Rally Point” (PC Tom and Gail) , asking whether our itinerary included, Mystic, near his summer home on Masons Island. No, but Noank is quite near there and we would love to meet him.  Unfortunately this will not happen, but for a good reason: Tom is also a PC (They call their Commodores "Masters") of The Corinthians, (a club without a clubhouse that organizes cruises, social events, races and educational events to which about ten Harlemites belong) and will be on participating in the one week Corinthian cruise in the Martha's Vineyard area while we visit Noank.

Wednesday  July 27 -- This was a lay day here on Shelter Island, with no planned group activities; I believe every boat did as they pleased.    Sunrise was anchored behind the sea walls of Duck Island Roads in CT and got hit with a squall with very strong winds. By motoring to relieve pressure on the anchor, they "weathered the storm". Another boat suffered probable damage to portable non-marine electronic devices which got wet in the rain the day before.

 Thursday July 28 – Another lay day in Shelter Island --A few boats have headed for home as planned: Tively, Pas de Deux and Aquarius, soon to be replaced by “Leeds The Way” (Mark and Marcia) and “Adagio” (Vincent and Ron). 

     Electric Ladyland, after a night in Cuddyhunk, has reached Vineyard Haven on MV, and Sly Fox, which will rejoin us in Block Island is temporarily detached.

      The rest of us have gathered at the Shelter Island YC in Dering Harbor. Sunrise came here from Duck Island Road, CT and the boats that were in Coecles Harbor made the much shorter passage here around the north end of this island.  Plans for a longer sail today, e.g., around the southern end, were scrapped due to light winds.  The much shorter northern route filled a pleasant afternoon's slow sail for Defiance.

      Grace and Sunrise dined in town; the rest of us at the Club which has an elegant dining service.  Blast enjoyed the company of three of their grandkids for an earlier dinner time. Defiance, with our wives, treated the woman in whose house we stayed. Kerry Ann and North Star enjoyed each other's company after a day trip to the more bustling town of Greenport, by 1/4 mile ferry ride.

     The weather was great again. We are blessed to be enjoying it in such a lovely spot.

Friday July 29 -- Most of us left Shelter. Is. at about 8 am and experienced a hard shower in Essex after arrival there. Northstar was hauled here briefly for a bit of mechanical work on her bow thruster and is now OK. The boats are in slips in a marina that appears to be reached through a narrow passage, and set well back from the Connecticut River's western shore. Sunrise visited the riverside maritime museum and dined aboard.  Blast, Kerry Ann and Northstar had dinner, but not at the historic Griswold Inn.

      Because (a) we had slept late ashore with our wives, (b)  we needed to buy some diesel and (c)  poor tide timing on my part, Defiance did not leave S.I. until after 11 and after favorable tide to Plum Gut, we were slammed by the ebbing tide the rest of the way --  across the Sound and up the River.  We did see a number or participants in the Around Long Island Regatta. They overtook us at a distance and then beat west toward the finish near Seacliff YC.

     With a moderate wind, we had to steer quite westerly, 300 magnetic, to lay red buoy 8, off the River's entrance. In the River we sailed up on almost a dead run until an approaching temporary cloud bank caused us to seek manoeuverability and speed by motoring the rest of the way to our mooring out in the River. It was a grey and drizzly day, but we had no heavy rain during the passage..

     A threatened heavy shower had caused the postponement of the planned pot luck dinner until tomorrow, when good weather is predicted to return. After dinner at the Essex YC, the complement of Defiance changed.  Bennett had to get home and drove there in the car in which Ian, who had been with us until S.I., drove here. Ian brought his two children, Ashton, going into 8th grade and Lila, going into 6th. They will be here for two days until Bennett drives back and meets us in Noank.

Saturday July 30 -- Lay day in Essex CT. Ian and the kids went ashore by dink to swim in the marina pool.

  I stayed aboard and did some boat polishing.  A delicious pot luck dinner at the marina’s picnic tables.Chicken, ribs, a salad of cubed chicken, avocado and halved red grapes, tomato salad, three bean salad, and several other items. And then the ice cream stand was nearby. Another warm sunny delightful day.

Sunday July 31 --  Essex to Noank.  A warm, dry, sunny day with light but sailable winds from the south characterized the first day of the second half of our cruise.

      On Saturday, when Leeds The Way and Adagio crossed the Sound heading NE, they were pushed by the strongest winds any of us have experienced so far. Each captain used only one of their two sails. Leeds The Way is now here in the Noank Shipyard with us while Adagio is in nearby (by car) Stonington enjoying the land hospitality and company of a friend.

     Most of us left Essex near 10 am and used the main only to stabilize the boat while motoring down the Connecticut River against the tide. Some of us got delayed for about 15 minutes by two Amtrak trains which caused a long closing of the railroad bridge. This was Blast's only day without guests -- they were joined by PC Marty and Ghennie (who did not sail “Equity”) at Noank.  On Defiance, young Ashton was assigned to check off each buoy against the chart and he did a fine job. Other boats were concerned for our well being, not because of Ash's navigation, but when listening to VHF transmissions between TowUS and a different sailboat named Defiance.

     Once we turned east at the Red "8" marking the end of the shoaly waters off the mouth of the river, the genoa was deployed but we kept the engine running until we caught up with Sunrise, apparently sailing without engine at about four knots over the bottom. (This speed gradually increased as the ebb tide got stronger.) We turned off our noise maker and sailed the rest of the way to the entrance to Noank, albeit a tenth of a knot or two slower than Sunrise, which gradually pulled way ahead of us and thereby won the "race". (Well they have an auto pilot which can steer straighter than a thirteen year old but talented new helmsman; but no one wants to hear excuses, do they.)

      We were all docked or moored in Noank by about 1630. Ian and his two children left us, replaced by the returning Bennett.  We had time to check in, shower, get ice, have a drink or whatever before the 6:30 dinner hour at Abbott's.

     I had sailed past this place several times but never eaten there. To paraphrase what Gerbers used to say about their baby food: Lobsters are their business, their only business.  What we had not anticipated was standing in line for half an hour in order to place your order,

pay for it and get assigned your number, and then waiting  a much shorter interval to pick up your tray. Fortunately, someone in our group had the foresight to lay claim to two adjacent picnic tables where we partook of our shellfish which everyone enjoyed.  A calm, cool and dry night topped of yet another lovely day.

Monday Aug 1 -- Noank CT to Block Island RI – We fought the current in Fisher’s Island Sound but once through Watch Hill Passage at its eastern end, the wind came up a bit, enough to motorsail and finally to sail. Defiance sailed into and through most of the Great Salt Pond before starting the engine – but it would not start, until Bennett applied car thieves skills to short across the key to the starter by applying a screw driver to the correct two points at the engine, whereupon the engine purred to life: it had fuel, electricity and air and both the starter motor and the engine work fine, but there must be a short in the wiring of the key driven starter motor switch. We called the harbor master at 3 pm (a few minutes after we got the sails down) and were assigned to a private mooring.  Defiance and Sunrise dined at Eli’s, a restaurant  ½ block off the main drag that I had overlooked until now. Quite good food and service but no reservations and unless you go unfashionably early you will wait. They are well reviewed, well patronized and need no advertisements.

 Tuesday Aug 2 -- Lay Day in Block -  The  good weather continued. At night, a quilt was in order, in addition to the top sheet.  The men of Sly Fox enjoyed visits by their wives, via car and then ferry. The wives will go home and Sly Fox will continue east, to Cuddyhunk, tomorrow when we will turn toward home, reducing our group to seven boats.

      The B.I. mechanic frustrated us by telling us that we should have Defiance towed to Point Judith and buy and install a new engine! He was most uncooperative and the only advice he was willing to give to a cruising sailor was quite impractical.  So we have rigged a bypass of the starter switch which should hopefully last until City Island. 

     Those aboard Blast obtained a local temporary license, went clamming and enjoyed the fruits of their labors with linguini for dinner aboard. Other dine aboards were Sunrise (after biking and exploring by dink) and Defiance (after boat cleaning while waiting for the local mechanic, creating a temporary fix to the electrical problem, and then biking the southern half of the island). Others of us patronized The Oar, again.

Wednesday Aug 3 -- Block Is. To Fishers Is --  Weather report:  gloriously boringly similar, with another quiet quilt night after a few minutes of light rain after dinner.

      Most of us left Block at about 8 am but Kerry Ann left two hours early to successfully get a sump pump fixed at Dodson's in Stonington, en route, and Blast was delayed by the unexpected non-departure of her neighbor, whose close proximity prevented the hoisting of Blast's dink until 10:30 -- not that such a delay is a problem for Blast with her speed.

     Several of us, including Adagio and Leeds The Way took the longer route to our dock at the FIYC toward the western end of the north side of Fisher's Island -- through The Race and clockwise around the western end of the island. The rest of us took the shorter route: back through Watch Hill Passage and through Fishers Island Sound.

      Defiance sailed from channel to channel except for about two hours in Block Island Sound when the wind was too light, giving us only two knots, during which we motored. We were on a single tack until entering the wide mouth of the bay of the YC through which we made several tacks.

      We all arrived in the 2 to 3 pm time frame and are tied to the sides of a single long dock. Many of us had wine and cheese aboard North Star before walking to the Island's only grocery store, taking showers etc.

      At four we assembled on the dock for a stroll to the Henry L. Ferguson Museum.  Its Director, Pierce Rafferty. by prearrangement, opened it out-of-hours for us. He is a historian who knows all there is to know about the history of the island, but, as he said, little about the history of anywhere else. He was our voluble docent and would gladly have stayed much longer than the agreed time.

      The Island is part on New York State though it is much closer to CT than to NY. It went through various cycles of big old hotel tourism, sheep and cattle ranching, and service as a large military base, before becoming an enclave of privacy for a rather small number of very wealthy old money people who are not very famous and want to avoid celebrity for themselves and tourism and development for their island.

      Our dinner arrived at seven: a big white styrofoam box delivered to the club containing a bright red steaming hot soft shelled lobster for each of us. This was a BYO dinner:  bring your own plate, utensils, paper towels, melted butter, lemon, side dish, beverage and a glass to drink it from.

     After dinner, a few of us visited The Pequod, the island's only hotel (six rooms) with one of its few restaurants and bars -- a hangout for the young crowd.

 Thursday Aug 4 -- Fishers Is. to Clinton CT -  Hard to believe that the weather is so good; except that for sailors, the wind from the south became so light that even with a favorable but waning tidal  current we were going less than 3 knots SOG and elected to motor for the last 90 minutes. Our day’s passage was from about 9 to 3.  Several of our boats spotted sea turtles of various sizes. Others spotted a very large tree, mostly underwater, with some branches raised put of the water on which birds were perched; one would hate to run into that at night.

      Here in Clinton, we are only five boats, with Kerry Ann having gone ahead to Milford to obtain a lay day there tomorrow while we travel to join her. We are all tied up starboard side to the outside of the outmost dock.  Several of us ate lunch at the marina's restaurant, Aqua, went shopping by use of the marina's free van service and/or soaked  in or lazed by the pool.

     Dinner, our last pot luck, was in the marina's club room, with a weak air conditioner in which we set up their tables and chairs in a long row for the twelve of us. The room's ambiance was not that great but its privacy fostered our conviviality.  Among the offerings were guacamole with tortilla chips, antipasti of cheeses, stuffed olives, salamis, bread sticks and marinated mushrooms, chicken with rice and olives, barbecued pulled brisket, soft hot flour tacos with all the fillings, tomato and onion salad and yellow beans with blue cheese, bacon and walnuts. And for desert, in honor of  Leeds the
Ways' wedding  anniversary –  candle-lit cupcakes. No one went to bed hungry.

  Friday Aug 5 --  Clinton CT to Milford CT  - We received word that Adagio, who left us at Fishers Island yesterday, had made it all the way to Port Jeff  by 6 pm. Vince recommended Pace Steakhouse there as "phenomenal" which we can check out for next year's cruise.

       In the early dawn at Clinton, it was quite cold and I was considering a very fast sail with the possibility of the need to reef. But after breakfast and by our 9 am departure the air had warmed to pleasant summer ordinary and the wind was off our port quarter but light.

      Our most determined sailors, Sunrise, sailed the whole way and hence got to Milford last. Leeds The Way had to set up for the cocktail party which they hosted on their boat and adjacent dock, so they started motoring earliest. Defiance motored for about 90 minutes in the middle of the passage and returned the genoa to action and shut down the engine at the first hint of a whitecap to experience the best sailing of the cruise, so far. Not exciting sailing, but four knots of boat speed.

      PC Stu and Barbara (of “Pretty Special”) and PC Dick and Elle (of “Summer Wind”) drove up to Milford to join us for dinner. With their arrival, we were 18 folks at the party, and among  them, six of our past and present Commodores. We congratulated Elle, who reported that she had obtained permanent resident status and will be eligible to apply for US citizenship next summer.

       Then we packed twelve of us (three boats elected to try to use up some of their perishable provisions by dining aboard) into the two available cars for a brief ride to the Chinese restaurant out on Route 1. They set up a round table for all twelve of us. After the return drive to the Marina we patronized its excellent multiflavored ice cream stand and experienced another cool, dry, calm night.

 Saturday Aug 6 --  Clinton CT to Centerport YC, LI - Most of us were awakened by raucous squawking of a caucus of geese swimming and squabbling behind our boats.

      We set out at about 9:30 with high hopes for wind. But after a while, during which we achieved 5 knots through the water, the wind dwindled and finally died. Plus, the wind was from the mouth of Huntington Bay, lengthening the allotment of miles to be covered.

      As boat speed gradually diminished, eventually to zero, sooner or later each boat switched to its engine. On Defiance this caused a delay when we discovered that the genoa furler line was tangled in its drum; Bennett went forward and de-tangled the line so we were able to furl the head sail.

Some of us were further delayed by an event called "Swim Across The Sound". As we neared an imaginary curving line between Port Jeff and Bridgeport, we noticed a lot of boats. From a distance they seemed engaged in fishing --  but some were sailboats with all sails furled -- abnormal fishing platforms. Then police boats engaged us, blue lights flashing, and yelled that we could not cross the line because there were "swimmers in the water. Go south, around the end of the line." "What? You mean you've closed the whole Sound to east-west traffic?" I asked. "Yes; but what do you care, you are just out for a day sail," was the erroneous reply. So we motored about three miles SSE, back toward  Port Jeff, before resuming our passage west.

     As it turned out, this was not  bad for us because when, under overcast skies, the wind came up at about 2 pm, our more southerly position permitted us to beat toward the entrance to Huntington Bay on a single port tack.  The final three hours of the day's passage, including tacking south through Huntington Bay, reaching east through Northport Bay and ending at 5pm at red "8" at the mouth of Northport Harbor (where the Centerport YC is located) was the peak sailing experience of the entire cruise; a glorious exhilarating romp at boat speeds which averaged about 5.5 knots -- faster than our engine can take us -- the kind of experience that reminds us why we are sailors.

     Almost all of us had dinner in the elegant dining room of the Centerport YC, our last communal activity before we head

    Sunday  Aug 7 -- All boats returned safely home, except Sunrise, who by design, safely stayed an extra day to enjoy the Centerport YC’s lovely pool.

      OK; It rained this morning, steady and hard, thereby breaking up the otherwise near perfect weather we had enjoyed for the entire cruise. And with the meteorological prognosticators calling for this to continue all day and get worse, and winds of 10 to 15 knots, we left right after breakfast, about three hours before the favorable tide window started, and hence bucked an adverse tide for the first half of the trip home to the Harlem. The rain stopped after an hour and the winds were much lighter than predicted so we motorsailed  our of the Bay and thence tacked over to the Greenwich islands and back to Mattinicock before the wind totally died. It came back enough to slowly sail past Hart island, and then died again so we motored back to our mooring.  The benefit of the erroneous weather report: smooth seas, unruffled by disturbing wakes of other boats who made other plans to avoid the expected bad weather. We arrived shortly before 3 pm and had the dink and outboard put back into the locker and all foodstuffs removed and were off the boat by 4.

Local Peripateticisms

Since my return from Florida, my sailing related activities have been more local.

One trip was from Norwalk CT to Mystic Ct over two days on “Pandora”, a Saga 43 like ours, owned by Bob and Brenda, who we met in Maine in 2008. This boat’s adventures are the subject of Sailpandora.blogspot.com . Pandora is just like ILENE, except for about a hundred improvements, large and small, that Bob has made. Pandora spent her winter in Norwalk and will summer in Maine.

We had to leave Norwalk at dead low tide to pass under the fixed Route I-95 bridge, which has only 61 feet of vertical clearance at high tide—not enough for Pandora’s 63.5 foot mast. Here is the Railroad bridge opened for us:

As a consequence of leaving at low tide, the tide was then flooding into Long Island Sound, flowing west against our eastbound direction for the first six hours of the trip. At low tide we held our breath and crept along at half a knot in an attempt to minimize the damage that would have resulted had the instruments at the top of the mast hit the bridge.The sailing was uneventful with not enough wind for most of Friday afternoon, so I whipped some lines, and learned how to use Bob’s new and improved chart-plotter display with AIS. We got enough wind to motorsail for a while but then this changed to 20 knots of wind on our nose, so we powered through it using the engine to get to the anchorage behind Duck Island and its sea walls (called Duck Island Road) which provided great protection from the waves. The rain came and left in the early morning, before we got up, so we did not get wet, but the wind was strong and in our face again on Saturday, and with more rain scheduled, Bob changed his plans for Brenda to drive up to Watch Hill RI (which had been our destination anchorage) to meet him and another couple from New Jersey. In the cold and rain, the partying they had planned would have been dampened and it was postponed; we went directly to the mooring in Mystic instead.

An interesting aspect of the trip was the rail transport, which we use so infrequently these days. I got to Norwalk by a MetroNorth train out of Grand Central Station from which Bob picked me up. At the other end, 28 hours later, a cab took me from Mystic to nearby New London, where I took an Amtrak train back to Penn Station in New York, where Ilene met me by car with a change of clothing for our evening’s party on Long Island. I had always assumed that trains from Connecticut to New York City’s Penn station passed through the Bronx (part of the North American mainland) and then down the west side of Manhattan, close to the Hudson River. But no: the train leaves the Bronx via the Hellsgate Bridge to Queens on Long Island and thence to midtown Manhattan by a tunnel under the East River. I’ve lived in New York almost my entire life but never knew that.

Two days later I joined with Past Commodore of our Club, Brian (right) and his friend Kenny (left) in sailing with Al (center) aboard his classically designed Hans Christian 38 cutter, “Cappuccino.” They don't look like happy campers here, but looks can be deceiving.

Kenny and Brian are regulars among the Harlem men who charter for the first week in December in the BVIs, including last year when we sailed with them there aboard ILENE. This voyage was from Cappuccino’s winter home at the Minisceonga Yacht Club on the west bank of the Hudson River in Haverstraw, New York, to her summer home at the Harlem Yacht Club in City Island, New York -- what I have called “The Route of the Ten Bridges”:
Tappan Zee,

George Washington,

Brooklyn,

Manhattan  (wrapped in white for maintenance-- too close for a good shot, sorry), followed by Williamsburg,




59th St,

Triboro (now renamed the RFK),

Hellsgate,

Whitestone,

and Throggs Neck.


I drove to Al’s house in Bergen County NJ and we all drove in Al’s car to the destination. Another car had been staged at the Harlem in which we drove back to Al’s house and then I drove home – a lovely 14 hour day. We bent on the foresail during the voyage and sailed a bit but in light wind. Al heated up what I call Italian-spiced coq au vin with yellow rice, apologizing for his lack of originality, because I have enjoyed this dish the other years that I have sailed this trip with him; but no apologies are required because it is a wonderful dish so eating it once a year is no hardship, but rather an event to be looked forward to. Al’s wife Jeanne, who does not accompany us on watery part of these trips, is a master of the calculations that get us out of the starting point near high tide (which is needed to get out) thereby catching the southbound flow in the Hudson River, and get us to the Battery at just the right time to catch the northbound tidal flow in the East River.

I spent about six days -- well only a few hours each day -- cleaning and polishing the freeboard of Jim’s “Aria”, another classic cutter rigged, double-ender Voyager 26. One of my all time favorite sails was when Jim and I brought Aria from Baltimore to the Harlem, about fifteen years ago. Jim had missed last season due to illness so Aria needed more work than usual this spring to get her into shape. Yesterday, having been launched, we bent on her three sails, but not without mishap: opening the bag that contained the mainsail and dumping its contents into the cockpit, I inadvertently dumped two of its four short battens into the Bay – they do not float! So I got new ones from Doyle Sails and, when the work was done, we sailed for about an hour and a half- a lovely day. Since then I have enjoyed two more delightful day sails with Jim, once a clockwise circumnavigation of City Island's neighbor, Hart Island, formerly a prison and now New York's "potters field", where the bodies of persons who have no relatives or friends willing to bury them are buried, and the other to Mamaroneck and back.

Ilene and I almost sailed aboard “Defiance” Bennett's Seafarer 28. Bennett is another of the BVI chartering group and he became our friend in December and introduced us to his wife, Harriet, last month. The four of us almost sailed but Bennett had taken the tiller home to repair the delamination of its wood and inadvertently left it home; no steering means no sailing. So we ate, talked and checked out the boat. Defiance will be my home during the last week in July and the first of August – for the HYC Club Cruise. I am the Fleet Captain at the Harlem, which is the fancy name they assign to the person responsible for coordinating the planning of the Club’s annual two week cruise. As I have said, I control and direct nothing, but at best I’m a trusted servant, and sometimes not trusted either. Our Club’s members are a very independent lot and each Captain does as he wishes, not necessarily staying with the itinerary we plan together. The Fleet Captain's job is hard to perform without a boat, and while others offered me a berth for part of the trip, Bennett is going the whole way and needed a crew; so I’m set. Our inspection of Defiance was costly for Bennett because I pointed out several improvements that were needed. We also corrected a few things about the way the mainsail had been bent on. I bought a new block for the outer jib lead as Bennett's birthday present. Ilene knows a lady who has offered the use of her house on Shelter Island for a few weekdays and The cruise will be putting in there for three weeknights so Bennett and I may have the pleasure of the company of our wives during the summer cruise if things work out.

Down in Bequia we had met Bob and Sue, aboard their Najad (pronounced "nayad") 40, “Mawari”. The photo is of the 41 foot model. They are built in Sweden and this one was sailed from her home in England to the Caribbean and came to New York, enroute to Maine, a slight northern detour on their continued westward trajectory to the South Pacific via the Panama Canal. See their blog. We had the pleasure of offering them the use of our mooring and enjoyed some meals together, especially on Sunday, when they accompanied us on a hike of New York’s newest and perhaps the world’s skinniest park, The Highline. It was created on an abandoned elevated industrial railroad trestle that runs along the west side of Manhattan from 14th to 30th streets in a former alley between Ninth and Tenth Avenues, and then to a modern dance performance at the Alvin Ailey Theater.

And what its members continue to insist on calling by its original name, The Old Farts Club, had the first of its weekly Wednesday afternoon sails, (between lunch in the restaurant and Gin and Tonics aboard one of the boats) this past Wednesday afternoon. I helped Donnie and her friends Helen and Dolores and Rhoda sail "Dido" a beautifully maintained Bristol 38.  It was good for me to be along with the four women, most of them older than me, to do the sail handling and mooring grabbing tasks.  We sailed with main and genoa and were the fastest in the flottila. The other participants were four people aboard Erwin's Endeavour 37, "Mother Gooose" (Erwin is a master mechanic who has helped me out so many times, is the organizer of those BVI trips and was our host for the G&Ts) and another four aboard Morty and Klara's Catalina 30, "Easy Living".

So, all told, I have not suffered from sailing deprivation syndrome so far this summer.

Fabulous Sea Leaf -- May 11 - 19 -- Florida to Atlantic City

     Just because our boat is 2000 miles away doesn't mean that there will be no boating activities to report this summer. Yes, it is not sailing, and true, it was not with either of the Ilenes, but I, Roger, enjoyed a great cruise from Royal Palms (near Boca Raton) Florida, to Altantic City, NJ. This was thanks to our friends the Leafs, the owners of Sea Leaf, a magnificent new 69.7 foot long,  Ocean Alexander Flybridge 65 motor yacht. Words cannot do justice to the boat, so I took some pictures. But I moved them from my camera to my home desktop computer in ADOBE Photoshop Album Starter Edition 3.2, and have been unable to move them from there to here. If I ever learn how to accomplish this, I will edit this post by adding them and let you know. In the meantime, the photos in the attached link, offering an older and smaller version of the boat for sale, can give you an idea of the boat's opulence.
     Sea Leaf cruises along very comfortably at 10 knots with only 1300 rpm in each of her two engines (a mellow purr compared to ILENE's higher pitched sound at 2400 rpms to motor at six knots. Sea Leaf can go faster, up to 14 knots but would be burning almost three times as much fuel per hour, so to avoid aiding the OPEC nations we cruised at a stately pace, comfortably.  Comfort is enhanced by stabilizer fins -- underwater hydraulic, omputer controlled wings on each side that flap down when that side of the boat wants to roll down and vice versa. I learned that ILENE, despite its tiny relative size and absence of such fins and the electric power to operate them, is more stable in big waves because of her keel; she will give you a bouncy ride, but has much less risk of toppling over.
     Everything on the boat is controlled by a computer, which is controlled by  buttons on panels mounted in about five strategic places in the boat. Comfort is also enhanced by air conditioning that is always on -- either heating or cooling each cabin -- powered by 100 amps of shore power or one of the two big generators that produce plenty of juice. Docking is easy: you pull her up near the dock, stop and ten push her sideways to the dock with the bow and stern thrusters.
     Each of the four sleeping cabins has its own large,satellite-antenaed, flat screen TV and its own head and marble shower. I slept in the guest stateroom with a queen size bed. The rooms have mirrors but they are superfluous because the beautifully matched wood and bulb paneling gleams under many coats of high gloss varnish. The smallest stateroom is for the paid captain, aft, and it is none to shabby either, larger than the one Lene and I share on ILENE, with its own TV and rerigerator. No one has to sleep in the living room/dining room/galley/indoor steering station, which is a huge indoor space with an outdoor promenade deck all the way around,  and located above the sleeping level. The levels are connected by beautiful spiral staircases. Both the living room level control station and the one on the fly bridge above, have two large TV screens, each perhaps 20 inches across, on which the chartplotter, the radar, the depthsounder and various data are displayed.  The chart plotter is controlled by two separate computer programs. Each has many options as between raster and vector charts, straight above view or on-a-slant view, with or without a satellite photo of the land and its features, etc. 
     One very nice feature is a display of the NOAA government radar display of storm activity, tidal flow direction and strength, overlaid upon the chart and updated every five minutes.  So when we hit our one big storm out in the Atlantic, well actually it hit us, with sustained 35 knot winds and a gust to 50, we got very usefull current information to confirm the data from our own radar -- big ugly red splotches -- where the heavy rain and associated winds were. These were confirmed by our own observation as the storm was quite visible coming up our port side. We used this overlay to try to steer between the heaviest spots in the passing front. Bob is an excellent sailor with Atlantic crossings on his sloop under his bent before he, as we sailors say, went over to "the dark side" of power boating, though Sea Leaf is such a great boat that she almost wants to make one not use that slanderous term. Bob took the helm in the storm and praised his "big girl" for how well she handled  the storm.
       After provisioning the boat, Bob took me to a Musical Review put on by the Royal Palm Yacht Club; luckily I had brought a pair of long khakis because shorts and denim are prohibited in the dining room of the club, which used to require residence in the gated Royal Palm community for membership. After the passed hors d'oeuvres and coctails and before the desert table, we were entertained by a jazz orchestra and singer who did Duke Ellington, Cole Porter and George Gershwin. The final number was a song written and played by a member of the Club who was our MC. He gave brief entertaining bios of the composers.
      Because of rough seas, we stayed inside the Intercoastal Waterway except for the 400 mile stretch described below and from Hampton Roads north.  From Boca Raton we went to  (1) Vero Beach FL, (2) New Smyrna FL, (3) Beaufort NC (this was a 40 hour romp in the ocean -- 400 nautical miles), (4) Belhaven NC, (5) Coinjock NC, (6) Little Creek VA, (7) Ocean City MD, (8) Atlantic City NJ and (9) New Rochelle NY. I had to get off in Atlantic City to make another engagement. The rest of the gang, Bob, the owner, Dave, the professional Captain, and Bill, a retired Army Colonel and realtor who belongs to the Royal Palm YC, successfully completed the transit without me.
      We averaged about 90 miles per day inside and 240 miles per day in the ocean. Why the difference?  (A) In the ocean the path is straight, not curving along the coast, and not wiggling along the curve, (B) there is no need to wait for bridges and canals to open and no "no wake zones", (C) we got a boost from the Gulf Stream that added 25 percent to our speed and most importantly (D) we had the opportunity to motor around the clock rather than only in daylight. Night time travel in the narrow constants of the Intercoastal Waterway would be difficult, even with a chart plotter showing our location.
     Some highlights: 
++A sparrow sized land bird, grey with white belly and bolts of yellow on its wings and tail, alighted on our boat about 40 miles off the coast and stayed with us for over 24 hours, including during the storm. The bird helped us clean off the last few of the thousands of "love bugs," those slow moving harmless types that get squashed on your car window, which had alighted on the boat in the ICW for an orgy of tail to tail procreative activity. They were very easy to catch by hand in a paper towel and to dispose of.
++The restaurant in Coinjock NC is not particulary high on ambiance but noted for its prime ribs with its reputation well deserved. We each had the small 16 ounce variety and took half of them back for the following day. None had ever had a better prime rib. And their soft shell crabs for an appetizer were great too. Bob and Bill had been disappointed in the restaurants we had patronized earlier, preferring our shipboard dinners, but Coinjock made up for it.
++The boat has two bicycles and I took rides in several of the ports, searching for local postcards to send to my grand daughter. In Belhaven NC I found a sailmaking needle and twine and whipped the ends of the few lines (compared to a sailboat) that Sea Leaf has. They were not in danger of unraveling due to a heavy fusing or cauterizing of their ends by the heat blade that had been used to cut through the plastic, but they look more nautical now and I would hate to break my tradition of whipping the lines into shape on boats I sail.
      Thanks, Bob, for a great boating experience.



    

How Much Sailing Did We Do and Where Did We Spend Our Nights?

People have asked so, based on our log book, here is the answer. Our voyage began on Day 1, October 22, when we left City Island, New York, for Hampton Virginia, and ended on Day 179, when we hauled ILENE in St. David’s, Grenada on April 18, two days before flying back to New York.

110 of our 179 days were lay days, in which we did not move the boat at all. We laid over in 30 of the 52 ports or anchorages that we visited, in eleven different nations, with our longest layovers being twenty two days in St. Martin, thirteen days in Hampton Virginia, eight in Tortola, six each in Prickly Bay Grenada and in Falmouth Antigua, and less, to as little as one day, in the other twenty five places where we stayed over. We also had two days of day sailing where we returned to the same port at the end of the day and hence did not move the boat to a different port.  Adding these two to the 110 lay days and subtracting them from 179 day total means we made at least one “passage" (we sometimes stopped in two ports in a single day), or part of a passage (an overnight involves two days in one passage), on 67 days.

How long did we sail (or motor) during the 67 passage days? Thirteen of them were overnights; we ended the passage a day or more after we set out: Three of these were the trip from New York to Virginia; eight were moving from Virginia to Tortola; and one each were the passages from Tortola to French Saint Martin and from Dutch Sint Maarten to Antigua. By subtracting the thirteen overnights from the 67 passage days means we devoted only 54 days to shorter passages, ranging from eight hours to as little as half an hour.

Also, by day number 78 out of 179, we arrived in Antigua and had completed our night time sailing. 

Was this enough sailing for us?  Yes, even for Roger, who loves to sail.

And how did we spend the 178 nights of our voyage?   We were at docks in only four ports, for a total of thirty nights, and most if them toward the beginning of the voyage: fourteen days in Bluewater Marina in Hampton Virginia, nine in Nanny Cay Marina in Tortola, three in Rodney Bay Marina in St. Lucia and four in Port Louis Marina in St. Georges, Grenada. So 23 of our 30 dock nights (77%) were during the first 35 of our 178 nights (first 20 %).  Subtracting the 30 dock nights and the thirteen overnights from the 178 nights of the adventure leaves 135 nights on a mooring or our anchor.

These, it turns out, were very evenly divided, with 68 nights on mooring and 67 on anchor. But an interesting pattern emerges, not intended. We mostly took moorings during the earlier part of the trip and mostly anchored when we got further south. Moorings in the south were relatively less plentiful, we gained confidence in our anchor and the winds slacked off. To illustrate this pattern, our first night on anchor was after day 53 in Marigot Bay, Saint Martin and our second such night was after day 79 in Falmouth, Antigua. So the remaining 65 of our 67 nights on anchor all took place during the final 99 of our 178 nights.

Of the eleven nations we visited, eight were English-speaking; on the other three, French was the native language. The restaurants are generally better on French islands but shopping for food in markets is more difficult because of the language barrier with the types of foods sometimes unknown and  their names and the cooking instructions, if any, in French.

While we will stop briefly in some of the eleven nations we visited while outbound, most of our northbound stops will be on islands we have not visited yet.

Roger has been asked by a friend to help him bring a 65 foot luxury motor yacht from Boca Raton, Florida to Westchester County, New York. So stay tuned for more waterborne adventures.