December 10 - 31 -- Three Brief Work Days With Others; But Only 2.5 Hours Work On ILENE

Each of the three days was fun due to my companions and my accomplishing what little I had set out to do. The middle day was after the big snow; Lene was my chauffer on the pleasant drive, round trip, slow due to the snowy roads but no traffic to speak of. My mission was to shove the snow off of the canvas cover, while my chauffer sat in our warm car. The snow was all on the starboard side of the cover and its weight had distorted it way off centerline. Putting my back under it made fast work of causing the snow to slide off the cover except for the smaller amount atop the part of the canvas which pressed it down on the solar panels. I could not make much progress working between the panels and the cover and left the snow there to melt. Half an hour. The plastic sheeting which is shrink wrapped onto most of the boats that get covered these days has an advantage (in addition to allowing a trickle charge as discussed below): a lower coefficient of friction. This means the snow slides off more easily, perhaps without the need for human intervention. The downside is about $1000 per year for the non-reusable plastic sheeting and the labor of professional installers.

The other two days involved teamwork with David of "Hidden Hand", his 40 foot C & C, while interesting conversation ensued. I hope we will enjoy more such days as the winter progresses, though David will spend a good part of it out west in New Mexico and sailing with a friend who keeps a boat in the Sea of Cortez. (Am I a bit envious?) Our routine begins and ends at 96th St and First Avenue where I pick David up and drop him off. From there we go to Consolidated Yachts on City Island where his boat is and then after a brown bag lunch, to ILENE at the Huguenot.

The first day we could not gain access to David's boat because the inverted "U" shaped zipper-closing "door" had not been installed in the plastic cover. The starboard side of his boat is about 18" from the eave of a shed with a crenelated tin roof. David has a good ladder to gain access to the roof, from which we can step across the gap through the door and into the covered boat. Our second day was delayed because while the door had been installed, the yard had not attached a two by four on the eave of the slanting roof to prevent us from accidentally sliding off the roof, which could cause severe injuries. The yard workers bolted on the 2 x 4.  I gave David a four foot length of former genoa sheet  to tie the top of the ladder to the 2 x 4 so the ladder can't blow away. David used a batten and tape to snake the male end of his shore power cord down from the boat between the boat and its plastic cover, off its port quarter. Then I ran it up to the outlet box for shore power. He gave me a short piece of thin line and a short wooden stick which I attached to the tang of the zipper to make it easier to slide it up and over the "U" -- to lessen the need to lean over the 18" chasm from the slanting metal roof. David experimented and learned that a small amount of sunlight makes its way through the translucent white plastic cover creating a trickle charge to the batteries when he is not there and the sun shines. He gave me a couple of Velcro loops for use on ILENE, and gathered some fishing, communications and navigation gear for use on his winter sail. And we were off.

At ILENE, the first day David helped me with the electrical problems I identified a few posts ago. The radio could not be turned off unless I removed a fuse: The answer was simple! The AM/FM radio is powered by two different wires. The one that goes to its on/off switch on the breaker panel works fine. The other supplies constant power to keep track of preset stations and the clock in the radio. But this radio has no clock so that power source served no useful function and simply leaving the fuse out, as it has been since I have had the boat, is the solution.

The other issue was the fused wire that hung over the others behind the breaker panel. When fused it lit the backlights behind the labels of each breaker on the panel, whether the specific breaker called "Panel Lights" was on or off. Those tiny lights are useful at night. The answer was to detach one end of that wire from where it was attached (and David knew which end of it to detach). The next step was reattaching it to the specific breaker called "Panel Lights", fourth from the bottom in the second column from forward. David's first guess was to reattach it to the aft end of that breaker, which did not work. But the other end did. The problem then became unscrewing the tiny bolt which held existing wires in place, putting the loop at the end of the mystery wire around that bolt with the other wires already there,  it and screwing it back in. In no way do I blame David for dropping the bolt, which skittered off the outboard side of the tray into an unreachable no-man's hands land. I'm so clumsy, I'd have dropped ten of them! Eventually, after ILENE is tossed and turned by the waves in a storm next summer, that bolt will work its way down to the bilge for retrieval. In the meantime I rooted in my new trusty box of bolts of all sizes and found one of the correct diameter and thread, and a bit longer. Problem solved. The shiny new bolt is indicated by the blue arrow I have drawn and the wire runs up from the bottom indicated by the yellow allow. It looks like the fourth breaker form the "top", but when the hinged board if lifted up and closed, it is the bottom. The picture also shows the grey plastic sheet off of which the old bolt skittered.

Our other day on ILENE I wanted to install the new plastic liquid transfer pump ($13 from Amazon, including shipping.)  This has only 1/2" outside diameter flexible clear plastic tubing so it is way to slow to bail out the boat in an emergency. But the idea was simply to get out the small amount of water that the pick up ends of the much more robust electrical and manual bilge pumps cannot reach. My thought had been to afix the bottom end of the uptake tube to the bottom of the bilge with wire ties. But David had a better idea, to tape a wooden rod to the side of the hose so, like the attachment to his Zipper entry, it could be held to the bottom without reaching one's arm way down there. It worked and lowered the water level in the bilge from 1/2" to less than 1/16", pumping 3/4 of a gallon into an empty antifreeze bottle which was easily dumped. I'm just leaving the apparatus in the bilge so it will be handy for the next time. The other task de jour was figuring out where and how to hang the coils of newly laundered spare lines in the lazarette (instead of their laying on the inside of the hull at its bottom. Objectives were ease of installation and removal of the coils and that the coils would not impede my access to the places in that lazarette to which I need to reach or go. And this is where those Velcro loops will be used and I will buy enough more of them

This is the final and 47th post of 2020. I look forward to continuing to sail, and work on, think about and write about boating in 2021 and beyond. Happy New Year everyone!

November 25 - December 10 -- Six Work Days But Only Twelve Hours

 And what got done?

The prop and shaft: First I cleaned them thoroughly -- the tiny bits of old paint scraped off; I felt like my dental hygienist, working intensely in scraping small areas, not small compared to my teeth but certainly small compared to the hull of the boat. Then sanding with 80 grit to give the brassy prop and stainless steel shaft "tooth" for the paint to stick. A thorough wash with Acetone to get off all dust and oils is next and the problem, unsolved after all these years, is that the grease with which I packed the interior, the moving parts of the prop, emits greasy traces which need to be removed as best I can do so. Finally three coats of paint: first the green primer and then two coats of white paint. This picture shows the culprits after the brassy surface was primed but before the white anti-barnacle paint. One spring job done in the fall. I will paint the strut with regular (blue) bottom paint though it is brass, because it does not move.

I've also sanded about half of the port side of the companionway where the cherry wood veneer looked drab grey after 20 years of sun bleaching and occasional salt spray. I also vacuumed up the dust and other particulates in the boat that will work their way into the bilge if left unattended. and obtained the cherry colored stain that needs to be applied after all the sanding is done but before the top coats of polyuurethane. And I sanded down the brass light switch cover which likewise needs new poly before reattachment.

I learned of a way to get the last half inch of water out of the bottom of the bilge from the Saga Owner's forum and the cheap hand pump is en route to my home. The normal bilge bumps get most of the water but cannot reach down far enough to get that last half inch. Some of the guys suggested much more technically advanced electrical solutions but the volume of water to be sucked out is so little that a Roger-powered pump will suit my needs.

The only other thing I have done was to remove about 100 yards of old lines of various diameters and lengths from the bottom of the lazarette for processing. I did most of the processing at home on two of the days. I threw a few away and cut bad pieces out of others making more lines of lesser lengths. I whipped all the ends, laundered the lines in the big washing machine, untied the resulting not quite Gordian knot that the washing machine and drier had tumbled them into and coiled each.

While they are off the boat I will complete the cleaning of the lazarette into which they will be stored. But I'm trying to come up with a system of hooks from which I can hang them so they are each reasonably accessible but without denying me access to the lazarette.

Not a lot of progress but it gets me out of the house.

November 6 - 24 -- Work Continues, Slowly, But What's The Rush

 In addition to observing the "Reverberations" exhibit and paying my respects to Erwin at his internment in Mahwah NJ where half the mourners were Harlemites and the other half were friends and family, I had three work days totaling only 7.5 hours during this period. On two of them, David, a fellow Harlemite whose apartment window gives him a good view of ILENE, upon seeing that my ladder was up and thus knowing I was there, rode his bike over and we had nice chats. So far the old electric space heater has not had trouble keeping the chill out of the boat. Of the two areas of work in New Rochelle (in addition to errands on City Island) one involved scraping bare the propeller and shaft and lubricating the prop's internal parts via the  grease gun through Zirc fittings. Now all I need do is sanding the bare metal to give it "tooth" wiping away all external grease with acetone and it will be ready for primer and paint. On days when the weather is warm enough, this can be done in the fall, saving time in the spring. The other job, other than taking more water out of the bilge, is sanding the veneered interior plywood to stain it back to its original cherry wood color and coat it with polyurethane. It especially looks bad on the port side of the companionway ladder where after 20 years the wood has become a bit bleached out by the sun and weathered by salt spray. I don't think most people will notice but I do. (Also in cleaning out the bilge I discovered that one of the handy plastic tags, this one labelling a through-hull valve  "AC Intake" needed a bit of work. After 20 years in the bilge, the glue of the label strip had given way as had the wire physically letting it hang from the correct through-hull. I used the Dremel tool to "engrave" the  words into the plastic tag (not neat but legible and it won't come unstuck) and some new Stainless wire to reattach the tag it in place.

I have also occupied myself on the internet. Parts of an abandoned Saga are being sold off. My request for a $20 plastic cover for one of the cockpit instruments that I've been protecting from the sun by hanging a cockpit cushion from the port coach roof winch was rather ignored; it was the bigger pieces, costing thousands of dollars that got the attention. But one of the men who reads the Saga Net heard my plea and having upgraded to new instruments recently, has shipped me a cover. No charge. His boat is in  Salem MA and we will try to stop there to say hello and buy him some drinks. Thanks, Jeff.

   Another owner reported that a hinge for the heavy, well-insulated, top-opening refrigerator lid had broken and I remembered where we had bought ours in 2012 and sent him the name of the Fort Lauderdale chandlery which is still in business. But I also get several conflicting answers to my question to the Facebook Interest Group on Marine Electrical Issues.  Trojan, the manufacturer of the six six-volt golf cart batteries that comprise ILENE's "house bank", recommends that lead acid batteries be "equalized" from time to time. I had tried to research the issue, having never done this process. My batteries have been in use for ten years this month, and having otherwise been taken care of, they are still going strong. Apparently equalization involves overcharging the batteries (after taking off the fill caps) which cause the sulfuric acid water in them to boil which transfers sulfur that has accumulated on the lead plates back into the acid, thereby prolonging the life of the batteries. But how to do this dangerous sounding and hours long project. Several folks told me I'd need to get a stronger charger than the built in "smart" one, because the smart one has a controller designed specifically to prevent such an overcharging. And during this process I have to use a tool that I would have to buy and learn to use to measure the fluid in each cell of each battery until it measured just right. Another of my internet teachers (and I'm grateful to them all) told me what I really wanted to hear: "Just let it go and enjoy your existing batteries for as long as they last." And that is what I've decided to do.

Its always something.

REVERBERATIONS

So what is art doing in a sailing blog, one might ask. Reverberations is an art installation -- five bells strung  along the 200 yards or so on the East side seawall of the East River, at Brooklyn Bridge Park, opposite the South Street Seaport. Its proximity to salt water suggests the sea as does the color of the bells: international orange -- the color of life jackets so those in the water can be picked out  visually amidst the sea of blue, green, grey and white so they can be plucked out of the sea. The light spot on the bell occurred because two holes, on opposite sides of the bell, are lined up to the camera.

I attended a free Zoom interview of the artist presented by the Cooper Union, and then visited the installation the next day, a short round-trip subway ride to the first stop on Brooklyn.

Each of the five bells in the installation is identical in size, shape and color but their holes are drilled in different patterns, which the artist says give each bell a distinct tone, though my tin ears were unable to distinguish the differences. 

Each is in the shape of a parabola and cast in bronze by the ancient "lost wax" method. Then top and bottom are welded together, the weld smoothed, the holes are drilled and they are painted their distinctive color. Their clappers (seen in the bottom of the bell in the top photo) can be pulled via the chain by any passer by and their size can be seen in the next picture (with he Brooklyn Bridge behind)  by comparison to me, at 6' 2", pulling the chain.

The questions at the interview focused on the art, e.g., comparing the artist's work to that of other artists who have featured bells in their work and may have influenced her. My interest was more in their nautical imagery. For example, their shape and color is closer to the form of a buoy than a traditional church bell. And their clappers looked like those on bell buoys that chime 24/7 when the buoys are jarred by waves to ring out danger to mariners. There are several buoys in the waters of the east river, red or green to mark the sides of the deep channel. 

The bells are said to sound  a warning about the ravages that climate change is doing to the world, which reminded me of another warning bell in a different city we have sailed to and moored in. The good citizens of New Bedford Massachusetts rand a freedom bell to  warn its residents  of color to hide when runaway slave catchers were seen approaching that whaling town.

The final photo in this post is of a plaque providing further information about the artist and the subject. Sadly the installation is scheduled to be removed in mid April, making it unlikely that I will be able to il past the installation.

I have also had to sadly advise our Commodore that the Club's mostly annual Winter Land Cruisewill be yet another victim of Covis 19. Each year we go to an interesting nautical-related place with fellowship and followed by lunch and with a small fundraising component. Not in 2021.

 

October 24 - November 6 -- Two Other Days, Six Work Days and ILENE Is Winterized.

 The two "Other" days were 1) cooking, bringing, and sharing a dinner with Harriett and Bennett (Harriett's broken leg is very much on the mend) and 2) a free webinar on weather forecasting presented by the American Sailing Association. The webinar was disappointing (though I got a few tips) because it was essentially an "infomercial" selling a new course that would make me a meteorologist -- teach me more than I need or want to know. I'm glad I did not pay for the infomercial as many people who wanted to get rich in the property development business paid to Donald Trump's "school" in which they were taught that if they really wanted to learn his secrets they should pay even more money for a longer course. It cost me nothing (except an hour of my time) and one gets what one pays for,

The six work days (21.5 hours) related to winterization. One day I spent the four hours half helping Bennett on Ohana and half being helped by Bennett on ILENE. But I could not get the salt water deck washdown pump to run -- and it needs to run to pump the pink propylene glycol through a funnel and hose into its body of the pump and thence through the wash down hose that I discharge into the toilet bowl of the forward head. Turning on the pump's switch at the breaker panel caused the pump to run for half a second --and then it stopped stopped. After buying new fuses and checking all fuses (that I could find)  I tried again on a later date and the same result: half a second and then nothing. I searched the boat and found the Saga cross connection list.

Using it I identified the well labelled wires of this particular circuit from among the many other wires on the frame behind the circuit breaker panel. But seeing them did not help me solve the problem, and it turns out that the problem was not behind the panel at all. 

At that point I was compelled to ask my friend and competent mechanic, Ed Spallina, to come and fix it. He removed the pump from its attachment to the hull (four screws), screwed off the inflow and outflow hoses, and removed the outflow end of the pump from its chassis (six screws of two different types). Then, after pulling that end off, he was able to turn the shaft with his fingers and reported it was not "seized", and spun the impeller, which moved freely as well.

Reassembly was performed with testing at various stages to see if it purred, and it did. So I don't know why it refused to run for me, but it ran for Ed and we used it, with me turning on the switch and pouring the pink stuff in through the funnel and Ed holding the washdown hose in the forward head until it ran pink instead of white.  WINTERIZATION IS COMPLETE! It only took him half an hour -- time and money very well spent, though I wish I knew why the pump had not worked for me. 

I had drained the fresh water tanks in that no more water came to the faucets when the electric and foot pumps were pumped. But I thought that maybe some water remained. So I took the boards that are atop the tanks off (eight screws each) and the viewing ports (off six screws each) and pumped about four more gallons of remaining water, sadly a muddy color, out of the tanks before adding half a galon of vodka to each tank and reassembling.                  

Before Ed came, after checking every fuse of the boat -- that I know of -- I found three that were blown or missing and replaced them; in the process I learned two of  ILENE's electrical secrets.

First, one fuse, (the one to the right in the row of five in the photo) once it was replaced, meant that I could not turn OFF the FM radio, my constant companion during work days. When I disconnected the batteries "entirely" from sending current to the boat by turning the two battery selector switches to OFF, the boat got dark, but WNYC FM played on. Hmmm? So I turned the volume to as low as possible (very little electrical draw) and slept on it. Obviously the fused wire in question connects DC electricity directly from the ship's batteries to the radio even when the circuit breaker switch for that radio is off. The solution came to me in my sleep: I simply took the fuse back out, and the radio now turns off except when I turn its breaker on. 

The other secret concerned a fuse holder that hangs behind the upper forward corner of the breaker panel. It was empty. I held a piece of whitish paper behind it so you can see it in the picture.

When I put in a ten amp fuse, tiny backlights for each of the labels for the sixty circuits on the breaker panel came on. But while these lights draw very little juice, I only need them when night sailing which we didn't do even once in 2020. So I removed the fuse and will reinsert it when we night sail.

Fresh rain water accumulates in the bilge during the winter and freezes solid there. It comes in despite the canvas winter cover -- in two places, I think. And I finally thought of ways that I hope will stop this. The first culprit is the hawse hole and the anchor windlass which are holes through the deck near the bow for the two anchor chains. I took a large flat plastic box used I have to stand open cans of paint in the spring and inverted it atop the holes. The more likely route of entry is water running down the outsides of the mast through the "mast boot", the hole in the deck through which the mast passes. The mast has be able to move a bit when sailing so there is room for water to run. During the summer the bilge pump just pumps the water out but in winter it gets frozen in the ice which is not good for the pump or the boat. My experiment here was constructing a sort of tent, of plastic bags and duct tape, about ten inches above to deck, to divert the water running down the mast away from the mast boot. This will not work in the summer because the wind will blow it away and the running rigging needs to move freely in that area, but it may solve the problem during the winter when the tent is protected from the wind by the canvas cover. I emptied the bilge dry and will find out if my efforts are successful after the next hard rain. 

I checked the zinc in the refrigerator's condenser and it is good for the first month of 2021. Before draining the fresh water tanks I bypassed the hot water heater by disconnecting the hose that lets fresh cold water in and the one that lets hot water out, connected these two hoses to each other with a short piece of plastic pipe and drained the heater's tank by removing a drain bolt which somehow, I lost! So after a long fruitless search in the bottom of the lazarette I searched in the box in which small parts are stored and took out about thirty small bolts of various sizes and threads that have been collected during my 30 years of boat ownership. They are now in a new small special plastic box (making more room in the first box for other tiny things) and then found I  -- one that fit the drain hole. While in the lazarette I pulled out very many lengths and diameters of cordage and coiled each neatly. But before returning them I need Lene to come to the boat to throw out some that are too old, frayed or short to be useful; I'm horrible at throwing things away and she is good at this -- we complement each other. And then I scrubbed many years of accumulated grime form the bottom of the lazarette.  ILENE is ready for her winter projects.

Rest in Peace Hadley and Erwin

 Earlier this Fall, only a few weeks ago, I posted in mourning about the loss of Harlem sailor John Paskalis. And now death has taken two more giants, my friends, mentors and helpers. Three in one season and no, it is not Covid that has taken them. My pain is real. 

Hadley, was the father of Catherine, who met Craig at the Club and had married him before I joined. They survive him. They taught me some secrets about racing, namely: do not yell or lose it when things go wrong, as they inevitably will, but calmly make it right as quickly and efficiently as possible and keep going. But they are consummate cruisers, mentors to me. We visited with Catharine and Craig in Florida in 2015, where they keep "Sangaris", their Amel 47, after returning on it from several years of cruising her in Europe. They gave me the "helm" of one of their electronic joy stick/radio controlled  model boats one morning.

Hadley, an accountant, served the Harlem for many years, keeping track of our money for us.  He sailed "We Three," a Pearson, with his wife, Susan and son, Billy, who survive him. Hadley participated in several of the Club Cruises. Lene and I were honored to be invited and participated in Billy's wedding, thereby following the commandment to "rejoice with the bride and groom."  Hadley and Susan retired to Rhode Island and we visited them there several times during the last decade. Once our plans  accidentally brought us to Bristol at the Fourth of July Weekend. We had no idea about how big a deal that holiday is in Bristol. Yet Hadley had arranged to move his sloop, Vagula, to give us his mooring.  Our last visit with Hadley was after it was no longer safe for him to sail, even as a guest on ILENE, but we had dinner with Hadley and Susan in a French restaurant  in Tiverton. 

Erwin was the most terrific guy, an honored Past Commodore, expert and experienced at all aspects of sailing including boat making. When his passing was announced, the internet lit up with so many email tributes to him from the memories of Club members. Mine is here.

I joined the Harlem while still new to boating. I knew that I had to "fog off" the Atomic 4 gas engine, but had no idea how to do this. Everyone had told me, correctly, that "People will help you here at the Harlem". My Pearson 28 "Just Cause" had been hauled and the threat of frost was imminent. I was asking who will help me. One man, who I had not asked, came over and showed me how to do it, by doing it. That man was Erwin. That evening, at a Club party, one of the folks who I had asked for help came over and said "Did you get that help you needed with your engine yet?" I'm bad at names and had lost Erwin's. I said "Yes, it was that blond fellow." Later that evening Erwin came over and said "Thank You." "For what?", I replied. He laughed and said, "It has been decades since this white hair was blond!"

When the head gasket was shot on that engine, a few years later, Erwin spent two hot summer days on my boat taking off the engine's head which he then took to his shop, machined flat, and reinstalled, in time so I could participate in the Club cruise. At one point he directed me to go ashore and get some studs to replace the ones that had to be removed and a cold chisel. When I got back Erwin took a large hammer and WHAMed it to the chisel that he held against my engine -- to get the head off. "What are you doing to my baby, I cried?!?!" He just laughed. I say he helped me with my engine, but the fact is that did the job with me just handing him tools and learning -- and he refused any pay.

I had the pleasure of sailing with Erwin on his sloop, "Mother Goose", Muzzer Goose as he called her, with the Wednesday afternoon Old Salts Club of which he was apparently a founding organizer. I also enjoyed several of his "right after Thanksgiving," week-long charters from Conch Charters in Road Town, Tortola, BVI's, of which he was the guiding spirit. Hadley cruised with us at least one time, come to think of it. Erwin epitomized leadership, not from behind by telling people what to do, but by taking the laboring oar, setting the good example and exhorting us: "Follow me!"

He designed, fabricated and installed the unique cantilevered supports from the radar arch on which ILENE's solar panels have been installed since 2010. With his design, the panels are quite secure but hidden, in plain sight, above the bimini, but not relying on the bimini for support. And he refused to take any payment except for the materials.

I'm also grateful that he did his best to provide a father figure for my daughter's late husband.

Lene and I had a lovely lunch with Erwin at the restaurant of his club in North Palm Beach Florida in March of 2015 while we were returning from Key West.

Our Club has been blessed to find leaders to follow in Erwin's footsteps.

October 20 -23 -- Three Work Days And Covered

Three 0f the four days in this period were work days, totaling 13 hours by me plus four more with Mendy, who was great for the heavy lifting jobs, plus I enjoy his company and conversation. The two yard men needed my help to get the forestays reattached and tightened. The remaining two sails were stripped, transported, folded and stowed in the upstairs locker. (Mendy, my weight- lifting heavy-lifter, estimated the main weighs 75 pounds and it is bulky even when folded neatly.) Also, the dodger is removed so its zipper can be replaced at Doyle Sails. An innovation: I used the topping lift to raise the aft end of the boom so the dodger's stainless frame could be arced forward under it and removed one screw on each side. Now it lays flat on the coach roof and is no longer a hazard of head bumps. Also, I removed six stanchions and four lifelines, labeled them and stowed them in the anchor locker and removed the steering which I moved to the forward head for the winter. Then the framing for the winter cover was placed, i.e., the whisker pole, the boom and the wooden extension and its support beam. And all remaining running rigging was moved so as to not interfere with the winter cover. The electrical cord is placed for shore power and the salon table removed for access to the bilge. This picture, (photo credit: Mendy) was before the cover was tightened: