Swedish September

Martin Rutgersson, Laser Sailor from Stenungsund, Sweden (just above Gothenberg on the west coast), sent along a video of him doing some bombing around in a Laser in September. Apparently fall twilight in Sweden lasts between 2-3 hours and sailing in this muted light is an entirely different sensory experience. From Martins email:

"To sail in the beautiful long sunsets we have here in Sweden this time of the year is just marvelous.

Martin also sent along this spectacular sunset photo.

Martin Rutgersson

I was under the impression that Stenungsund was a Swedish backwater until I went poking around the Internet and discovered that Stenengsund is the focal point for the Tjörn Runt, a 50 km race. round Tjörn Island, held in August that attracts 1000 sailboats of all types, from all-out multihulls and carbon monohulls to the mom and pop cruiser  Evidently this race is also popular with spectators as there are parts of the course where the sailboats must navigate narrow inlets; short tacking among crowded groups and sometimes crashing into the shore. A short video advertising the 2014 race:



Martin has also put together a stunning slideshow of his photos taken during the 2013 Tjörn Runt.

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May 2 3 Portsmouth to Yorktown and Lay Day There 34 9 Miles

Well it was not our fault, and no harm done at our 9:15 departure from the Tidewater Marina. The lovely young lady who works in the office came to help us off the dock. It is obvious that she had never done such a task before, though we did not know this. I asked her to take the bow line while Lene undid the stern line. We were port side to the dock with the wind blowing from that side. What our willing and cheerful helper should have done was hold the bow line and walk aft as we backed out after which she should have tossed the line on deck. The wind would then have blown our stern to starboard, so we would be able to back up a little further, turn left and motor out. But she just threw off the line on our deck immediately and when we backed out we drifted sideways to starboard in the narrow lane. Fortunately there was a turning basin down a bit, which she pointed out to us, and we were able to turn around in it and head out.
But the wind gods were not cooperating. The first part of the passage was essentially north, where the wind was coming from, and about 15 knots actual, (20 apparent). Also, we had a batten problem. The Velcro strap that holds the batten (flexible rod that stiffens the sail) in its pocket in the sail, was partially torn off and not holding. So the batten was sliding out and this was not good for the sail either, so no main sail use today.  We passed the Navy Bases Destroyer Pier from which I did my

Midshipmans cruise in 1964, aboard the USS Dewey. DLG 17. As time passes destroyers get bigger and bigger.
Aboard ILENE, we cut across the Thimble Shoal. But our course gradually curved around to the west till we were heading west up the mighty York River. We got to where we could put out sail and put out the small jib which gave us an extra knot. But when we got to the river itself, where a beam reach could have helped us, the wind gradually died, so it was a motoring day -- again!
Once on the mooring, Roger the Tailor sprang into action and the batten problem is fixed. I lowered the dink for the first time since Beaufort SC and connected the two parts of the new, stronger, wider, easier to use ratchet strap.  We dinked in, paid for our mooring and had dinner with Stan and Carol, at the Restaurant in the Marina. We celebrated his retirement after almost 50 years of teaching Genetics, most of them at William and Mary. I called it fine dining based on service, taste and presentation, but Lene, who likewise relished the food, says that fried food cant be fine dining though it was mighty fine to me. I did have a "wardrobe malfunction" trying to get properly shod before dinner. Both are red, they are jumbled in a locker and I didnt notice this until after dinner.

Our friends again drove in their two cars and left one for our use for the next day! They also brought us the box from Doyle Sails with the five plastic panels with which we can now enclose the cockpit. A very peaceful night.
In the morning, we dinked in, brought the box with the panels from the car via the dink to the boat and installed them. It will take some getting used to for me to be comfortable sailing with them on. The rear one has to be removed to lower and raise the dink. When the dink is down, one has to crawl out under the rear panel to the swim platform to board the dink. With the side panels on, the handles for the big winches for the Genoa sheets can only go half way around, slowing operations. Many of these issues can be resolved when we get back and Junior, of Doyle Sails, puts straps on from the top so that the panels can be rolled up, and fasteners between the aft end of the dodger and the forward end of the new cover need to be attached.

It was beautifully warm and sunny and the adjacent beach in the river got a lot of use. There was also a food festival on Saturday and one for art on Sunday.

We did laundry, bought some gifts, and did the shopping.











Lene dressed for dinner and I shot her by the two green excursion schooners docked at the marina.

In the evening went to dinner at the home of David and his family.
David is Stans son, who I saw last when he was an adolescent and an avid player of Dungeons and Dragons.

David, Lene, Me, Davids wife Wendy, their son Josh, Carol and Stan. Their daughter, Sam, soon  to graduate, is the best looking of the lot of us, by far, but she was the photographer.

Three generations were enjoying each other and we enjoyed them all. They did the best dry rubbed ribs I have ever had, corn bread etc., and it was a delicious home cooked meal. And another very quiet night on the mooring with a full moon.

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Directors Cut CRAB Delivery Skipper Freedom 21

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Click here for information about CRAB (Chesapeake Region Accessible Boating).

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It somewhat pains me to admit this, but Ive done more keelboat sailing over this past summer than dinghy sailing. Ive been volunteering at CRAB (Chesapeake Regional Accessible Boating - my long time sailing friend, Dick White, is sailing director there) and Ive been kicking around the Bay with various groups in CRABs keelboats, the Freedom 21s, which were designed specifically for handicap sailing.

The blogmeister had to make a singlehanded delivery of a Freedom 21 from the home-port of Sandy Point State Park down to Annapolis (the Freedom 21s were sailing in Boatyard Bar and Grill fundraising regatta off Annapolis that Saturday). I took my trusty pocket waterproof camera and shot a very short video of the 6-7 mile jaunt (including selfie).





I was delivering the Freedom 21 down to Annapolis for the annual Boatyard Bar and Grill fundraising regatta, where, as it turns out, US Sailing had decided to feature this years regatta, and CRAB, in this well done video.




The local Chesapeake Bay sailing rag, Spinsheet Magazine, captured the elusive blogmeister crewing at a previous Wounded Warriors Regatta.

Photo courtesy of Spinsheet Magazine

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Vintage Iceboats

The East Coast and this time, the Mid-Atlantic got dumped on by another snowstorm today. Oh, well, lets go with the flow.

A CSNBC production on the Hudson stern-steerer ice-boats. This was filmed last year where the Midwest and East Coast had even more ice - if you can believe it.



"Sailing on Ice" from CSNBC on Vimeo.

And other ice-boat posts on Earwigoagin can be found by clicking here.

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Levi and Hugh

Last time these two gentlemen appeared in this blog was in late June 2013 aboard ILENE at the end of a lovely daysail amid the many islands of Boston Harbor.

Levi is Hughs grandson. Hugh and I, as junior officers, served together on the USS Hammerberg, DE-1015, back in 1967.
     They came to New York, Memorial Day weekend, for sightseeing and largely to explore New Yorks harbor islands. On Saturday they did the USS Intrepid and The High Line before coming to our house to rest up before dinner. When offered his choice of Vietnamese, Polish, Persian, Chinese, Deli, Italian, Indian or Ukranian, Levi asked for German, also within about half a mile of our house. I enjoyed Schnitzel, Red Cabbage and Spaetzele with them at Rolfs.
Next day I met them at Bowling Green after they had toured Liberty and Ellis Islands, to take the ferry to Governors Island, recently turned into a park after centuries of military use. As many as 5000 people worked on the island during wartime, and 60 percent of them lived on the island in various structures built during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, many of which have been re-purposed for tourism.
     I had visited the island only once before, in 1968, when it was a major Coast Guard base. I took my division of men assigned to the Navy Reserve "surface training division" (no boat) at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where I was assigned to complete my military reserve duty after two years of active duty. The reserve unit was sadly a joke and a waste of taxpayer money: men who were not motivated to train were supposed to be taught by Chief Petty Officers who were getting out and did not want to teach. So I looked for opportunities to avoid the boredom and the Governors Island visit, along with ones to the nearby South Street Seaport Museum and the Hayden Planetarium (to study navigation, of course), were our escape hatch to sanity. After a year of monthly weekend meetings during my first year of law school, we were all offered the opportunity to resign and I never looked back until my visit to the Governors Island with Hugh and Levi.
       A stream of visitors is debarking from the ferry. ($2 for the round trip passage, seniors half price, kids free -- a bargain!) and a view north up the mighty Hudson River is to the left.

The ferry is a small one compared to the Staten Island ferry and is seen behind the tree to the left, with its other terminal, on Manhattan, at the extreme left. To the extreme right can be seen the tall ships of the South Street Seaport Museum, to which my friends walked next.

They have done a great job of making the island into a city/national park. Tours are available of the two forts, the pentagonal one in the center of the island and one with a curved outer wall in the extreme northwest corner. The islands size was near doubled with landfill excavated a century ago from the tunnels through which subways now rush. There was lots of activity on the island with a gift shop an arts center, many food kiosks, several performances for kids, pop up galleries for art, clothing, and the Math Museum, and to the west, large fields for soccer with Lady Liberty as a spectator.

They also have a "grove" of hammocks, bicycle rentals (or you can bring your own) and bike paths.

Manhattans skyline  from above the carefully and diversely planted new trees on the island, with the new Freedom Tower to the left.
Governors Island is a fun place to visit for city dwellers and tourists alike. Hmm .... all they need here is a group of moorings and a dinghy dock!

But meanwhile progress in getting ILENE ready for her upcoming 17 month "season" (June 14 through October 15) is proceeding, but she is not quite ready to sail yet and other events keep interceding.

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Copenhagen Wooden Optimist

We have the navigation tab for the videos above, but would like to thank Mikkel for sharing the videos of his project.
The boat was built during spring/summer 2015 at ES Nord boatbuilding school in Hillerød/Copenhagen Denmark.

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Optimist Pram Project Starting Back

After an exciting summer of sailing and sailboat racing, we are returning to the Optimist project. In the effort to make these boats as inexpensive as possible we have purchased luan plywood to sheath the hull of our boats.

Our decision to use luan was based on information given to us by John Bridges who has been building Optimists since the 1960s. He has built Optimists of luan and they have been in service for over 5 years. That is longer than we will probably need the boats.

We will also be stacking these hulls after sailing them - leaving no water in them to cause problems. Additionally, we will be priming our hulls with CPES (clear penetrating epoxy sealer) as a way to be sure that the absorption of water is slow.

Today, we worked on the hull sides.

1. Working on three boats requires 5 sheets of plywood to complete all the hull skins. 
2. We ripped two full sheets on 16 inches the long way. This gave us 6 strips to use as hull sides.
3. Temporarily attaching one side to trace the contour, we removed the piece and cut a bit proud of the pencil line. 
4. We checked to see if the template piece fit all three hulls - it did.
5. Using Locktite PL Construction adhesive, we laid a bead of glue along the chine and bow/transom about half way down the hull.
6. Starting at the transom we worked forward placing screws about 5 inches apart.
7. We worked in a zig-zag pattern of top then bottom as we worked forward to be sure not to pucker or buckle the plywood.

Starting aft and working the plank forward.

One side of the hull secured and curing.

Three hulls with starboard sides attached.

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April 12 14 Fernandina to Jekyll Islands Harbor Marina 23 9 Miles

Amazing! This is the 365th post to this blog since it began in October, 2010.

We were underway from 8:15 to 2:30.  We went very slowly up the west side and north side of Cumberland Island, across St. Andrews Sound and up Jekyll Creek, on the west side of Jekyll Island. A new stretch of the ICW for us. We went slow because we wanted to arrive when the tide was an hour before high. We passed the huge Kings Bay submarine base, but without sighting any of those killing machines. We passed Cumberland Landing,

on the north side of that island, where the packet boat used to land. We also passed the abandoned lighthouse and saw a buoy that has apparently detached from its mooring and washed ashore. The NY Times had a nice article about the men and women of the Coast Guard vessel that services the buoys in the NY area. In the ICW most "aids to navigation" are not buoys, but numbered red triangular and green square signs posted on pilings -- cheaper to maintain.

But this passage, with a few quite shallow patches, was deep water, 40 to 50 feet, deep enough for nuclear subs, so buoys are necessary.

This Marina is a well loved one, essentially a long dock along the east side of the creek to which all the transient boats are tied, this from its free postcard.

Here is ILENE under the live oak tree from the shower house, laundry and restaurant. Her mast, with its distinctive double forestay is in the center.

My first chore was to change ILENEs engine oil and filter. The marina takes waste oil for $2 per gallon, and I paid $2.50. We have a good pump that sucks waste oil out of the engine through the dip stick hole. You have to run the engine to get the oil hot before sucking it out but this was not a problem in that we had been running since early in the morning. But I realized that when you think you have gotten all the old oil out you have to wait to let more of it drip down to the bottom so you can suck out more of it. This time I pumped one pump to many and some oil gushed out from the bottom of the canister onto the cardboard box that I had set under it to catch spills. Im hoping I did not ruin this tool and will be able to fix it. I was also able to twist off the old oil filter without dropping it and spilling its dirty contents under the engine. Patience, and resting and drying hands just before it came off was the key. Lene helped out at the stage when you pour the dirty oil from the canister of the pump into the recently emptied oil cans for disposal. She steadied the receptacle and the funnel while I poured. No mess! Then, using a tiny bit of laundry detergent and a stiff brush, I got rid of 99% of the remaining one percent of the pelican poop from the blue canvas.
 The Marina is extremely friendly and provides good, movie watching quality, wifi; Lene has watched a lot of TV shows. They also have bicycles and a golf cart, which we used for the limit of 90 minutes per usage, for shopping at the IGA.

It is a very small store with limited selection and high prices on the east (Atlantic) side of the island, which is being developed with homes and hotels. The one drawback is insects, which bite, especially Lene. Rain has been predicted for the last week, including very high probability several of the days, but it did not come. During this passage the grey lowering skies suggested rain but it did not come until about an hour after our arrival, and lasted for about eight hours.
Because we were spending three nights and two days here, I asked the marina staff for the names of people who wash bottoms, change oil of outboards and align propeller shafts. Leo Ross, 912-266-1323, looked at the alignment, first. "Well", he said, "with the problem being intermittent and only at certain speeds, it might not be an alignment problem at all. Lets take a look."  I had cleared out the aft compartment so everything was ready for him. "Whats this? A motor mount bolt!" he quickly noted, picking it up from the bilge. It seems that the engine was held on its shock absorbing mounts by only three of the four bolts and those three were loose too. And the flange at the forward end of the propeller shaft, which is held in place on the propeller by two set screws, was also loose! After everything was nice and tight, I ran the engine at pretty high speeds in forward and reverse while tied to the dock and so far it looks good, very good indeed. But the acid test will be trying this while underway.
As to the outboard, it needed both its engine oil, which I had, and its lube oil, which I did not have, to be replaced after its 20 hour break in period. And the latter requires a special tool to force the new oil in from the bottom hole until it flows out of the top hole. I will get that tool for next time. Leo went to Westmarine on his break and bought the lube oil. He let me help him and taught me how to do this, including whacking the screwdriver with a hammer to shake lose the tight seal.

Leo looks like a refugee from that Dynasty Duck program but he is a set man, a good teacher, knowledgeable and charges a very fair amount A diver came and scrubbed the bottom and reported that my zincs have 75 to 80 percent left but that the wheel that, when not clogged by seaweed tells us how fast the boat is moving through the water (as compared to over the ground), is broken.
With all of the repair activities we did get time to use the pool and hot club, or do the sightseeing I would have liked. They have a free museum which also offers a $16 guided tour train ride through the historic old town district on the islands western side, which the Macys and Goodyears and other people of wealth set up in the 1890s. A reason to come back! Our last evening we did have a pretty good meal at the annex of the historic dowager but quite busy Jekyll Island Club Hotel, where the rich hob nobbed -- and still do. The Club sent over a van to pick us up and bring us back to the Marina.

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March 18 20 Three Lay Days in Lake Boca Zero Miles

Lake Boca is a large rectangle of water cut into the west side of the beach strip of Boca Raton, from the Boca Inlet north for about  .4 miles, along the east side of the ICW, .2 miles wide. The center of it is very shallow with only the edges navigable for keel boats. Anchorage for sailboats is in the NE corner. Access to land is in a park with a boat ramp and dinghy dock on the west side of the ICW, just south of the Palmetto Park Boulevard Bridge, north of the lake (less than half a mile away). We will have to request an opening of that bridge when we leave to head north.

Craig had a better idea about where to go ashore, because the tide runs fast under the bridge and big boats go too fast and make wakes: his boat, Sangaris, pictured above, is docked in a canal at the back yard of a private home about a mile further north. He picked us up there and we got to see Sangaris again, after all her European adventures.

Ive been saying that when I get too old to sail ILENE, a radio controlled sailing boat on a lake may be in my future. Well Kathy had to work, Lene did her phone work from Kathy and Craigs house, and Craig took me to another gated community a bit further north called Kings Point, which has a lake in which his club races such boats. Beauties, one meter long, high aspect ratio,with 3/4 of the weight in the keel. The control box is worn on a strap around ones neck and the right thumb controls the rudder by pushing its joy stick left of right, while the left thumb controls both sails with back to pull them closer hauled and forward letting them fly for the downwind legs of the course. Below is Craig, demonstrating and Erwin, also a Past Commodore of the Harlem and racer, to the right.

All I can say is that it is a lot harder than it looks and I lost every race; actually I did not finish them. When aboard a boat you can easily see if your bow is pointed to the right or left of a buoy; you feel the tension of the water on the rudder; you can see how close to the wind you are. But offset by 50 to 100 yards and at a strange angle, these critical facts are not readily apparent at least not yet, to me. And rudder control is maintained by constant pressure of perhaps a half inch on the "tiller". But these things can be learned and the fifteen guys had a good camraderie going. Kathy is one of the guys and quite competitive when she is not working. I raced her boat, number 3. Erwin brought some beer for the "after". We plan to see Erwin again before heading north.

And in the evening we had dinner with not just Craig and Kathy, but also Mike and Janet. The latter have a Florida home and we will see them again at their home in St. Michaels, off the Chesapeake on Marylands Eastern Shore, on our way home. I forget to take their picture but they are pictured from when we visited them in the Chesapeake in 2012 if you want to take a look. A nice Greek restaurant.

We rented a car for one day for trips to cousin Naomi to pick up a late arriving bundle of mail from home, the pet food store, Publix, the automotive store for things for the dink, the post office, the bank and the beach.

On our last day we toured around Mizener Village, which is a ritzy shopping mall. I got some new shorts because none of my old ones are unstained. We had lunch out and saw The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which celebrates India and aging. Good but not as good as the first movie. The theater is called Ipic and does not really want to be in the movie business. Seats are very large and comfortable and $14 if you want to sit in the first two rows, or $24 if you want even more luxurious seats with free use of a pillow and blanket and free popcorn. And Ipic has a full service restaurant and bar that you can patronize before or after and provides delivery of food and drink to your seat during the movie. And no reduced rate for matinees or for seniors.  The staff said it is a "good place to impress your date on a special occasion". The film is apparently just a gimmick to get folks to come in and spend money on the "entertainment experience package". This hustle offends me and I hope it fails, though we were the only two in the sixteen "cheap" seats while perhaps ten people sat behind us. We have had nice warm dry calm weather while in Boca. Next stop: Palm Beach.

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Tallinn Estonia Maritime Museum

We were let off the boat here in Estonias capital from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm and took a shuttle bus from the cruise ship dock to the edge of the medieval walled city up on the hill. Lene rode back (round trip bus fare $10.00) but because the Maritime Museum was half way back, I walked.

We were without the company of our companions, Mike and Linda. Her broken wrist was causing increasing pain so they went to a Tallinn doctor who replaced her hard cast with a soft one at a ridiculously low price, by US standards.

In town Lene and I took a free two hour walking tour led by students or recent graduates of the local University who majored in "Cultural Theory".

She spoke with flawless English, quite engagingly, with humor about Estonias tangled history of centuries of occupations by Scandinavian nations, Tzarist and most recently communist Russia and with a briefer time under Hitler. Its current period of freedom, since the early 1990s, is the longest in its history, and while it has a sizable Russian speaking minority, this history makes it highly unlikely that they will seek "protection" from Vlad Putin.

The huge freighter load of logs we saw come in at Warnemunde likely was loaded in Tallinn, lumber being Estonias chief export. While Lutherans form the largest organized religion, they are a minority in a nation which is overwhelmingly secular or as our guide called them Athiests. As a result, many of the large churches whose spires dot the skyline, are now museums. LOTS of towers:

Small one with Lene

This one is called Look Into the Kitchen

Estonias independence was won in "The Singing Revolution". The nation has huge mass organized singing festivals, but under Russia only government approved songs were allowed. But in the year in question, at the end of the officially approved program the crowd broke out in uncontrollable spontaneous leaderless disapproved anthems of freedom. The Russian army chose not to mow down the crowd and victory was won. There is a bas-relief sculpture honoring Boris Yeltzin. 

Here is Freeedom Square and next the top of a huge glass cross dedicated to freedom.

Trip Advisor gave our daily tour exceptionally high praise and it covered the same sights that Celebrity sold for $45 per person. We happily gave our guide €10, about $13.50, as a tip. So with $20 as bus fare, it cost us a total of $33.50 instead of the $90 that Celebrity was charging.

I bought a small bottle of Vana Tallinn, the local 90 proof Estonian Liqueur, but our guide warned us that the local specialty, amber, is all imported.

This cathedral was built in the late nineteenth Century.

From the top of the walled city looking to the new modern city and then from the base of the old city looking up to the top.

 

I am a sucker for Maritime Museums, and I have to admit that Tallinns was not the best I have visited. Built with a modern concrete structure inside the shell of a medieval tower, it sought to cover fishing and caning, military, freight, cruise ships and sailboats from prehistoric times to the present and while part was in Estonian and English, the history of the Estonian-Russian naval war of 1918-20 was in Estonian and Russian, which left me ignorant of this obscure chapter in world history. Here is our ship from the rooftop of the museum, where they have a nice cafe.

After the steam room we took in our first show. It told a new story of a couple overcoming obstacles to their marriage, consisting almost exclusively in 1980s pop songs and set in Wonderland and Oz. Whimsical fun with high production value. Then another great dinner aboard.

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Our Part in the Harlem Yacht Club Cruise of 2014

Sunday Aug 3 - Work Day on the Mooring

The Club Cruise ran from Aug 1 to 10 but ILENEs part became five nights and five days, with three nights with the main contingent of the Club Cruise in Mattituck and the Seatauket YC on the North Shore of Long Island. I worked four hours the day before we got started. I found the missing green washer for the dinks air pump -- under the dink and made some progress on pumping it up, but it is not right yet. But we will be on anchor, on dock or on a mooring with launch service for this entire mini-cruise so the dink will not needed. So I moved the outboard from the cars trunk, the gas tank from the boat and the air pump from the dock -- all three to the locker with the oars I found located there buried under the winter covers. Also, I am not putting the water maker into service until we leave for the winter -- unless the manual says it cant remain pickled for a whole year. Id hate to foul up that expensive piece of machinery.

Other work included: (1) sawing the three pieces of veneered wood to close up the port aft cabinet to size, though installation requires return of our drill which was lent out; (2) cleaning birds mess off the dodger which needs more scrubbing. Actually is is not guano but fish guts, scales and bones -- birds being such messy eaters;

(3) attempting to knock out the booms thumb cleats, which was not successful, though I did learn that the first reefing line had been led through the forward part of the boom on the wrongside of the thumb cleat, which was what was causing the harm to the line. So by releading and repairing this line I may not have to do the knockout or replace the line; (4) locating and installing the hatch board bag and inserting the boards therein and installing the cafe doors. These doors put me psychologically into cruising mode. Im ready!

Mon August 4 - Prep Day and Sleep Aboard, Anticipating an Early Start

This was mostly a land day for prep, provisioning and packing. We loaded the car, including the cats, and arrived at the Club at 8:30 pm. After getting everything aboard and put away, we slept peacefully in calm water. This was the cats third trip to the boat this season and they did not complain about being locked in their stuffy carrier in the car. I think it is because they have associated the carrier with boating, which they seem to love. So much for my amateur feline psychiatry.

Whitty: "Do I look like Im worried"

Alphie: "Im Captain of all I survey"

Our efforts to keep out flying biting pests at night was thwarted by the cats ability to "break and enter" by pushing in the screens covering the small side opening ports. They want free rein of ILENEs cabin AND exterior, 24/7. But if we close these ports, the screens cannot be pushed through and the cats have to elect between the two sides of the boat: in or out.

Tues August 5 - HYC to Port Jeff Cove

Underway at 7:00 am for six hours. It was eerily still with mist on the water that the sun had not yet burned off but fine visibility. We were the only boat moving. We waved to some fishermen on the Morris YC dock. By nine a.m. there were a few other boats out but far away. We motored the entire way and never set a sail. Normally a sail will stabilize the boat against rocking but the seas were flat calm with occasional 2 or 3 knot winds, so rocking was not a problem. It was a day made for power boaters, who like flat seas, but not for sailors. Perhaps all that great wind in July has blown itself out and we will have to content ourselves with weak weather sailing conditions in August.  

Clouds and Northport stacks mirrored on the water

Our wake, if you can call it that, as if cut through oil

The last time I recall sailing with such views was crossing the Caicos Banks.  See blog: "Judy and Meridel and Turks and Caicos Part 1", April 3, 2012.

 We took someones mooring in the big cove to starboard just past the breakwater in Port Jeff, hoping the owners didnt show up that evening, but there are about seventy private moorings here and only five boats at the maximum. On a weekend its quite different. Lunch, a nap and then chores before dinner, reading and sleep.

My primary chore was removing, repairing and reinserting the first (red) reefing line. The strength of such a braided line is in its core. The outside, which we see, protects the core from chafing and makes it feel better in ones hands. The covering was all bunched around the two ends and about six feet of the white core, where it runs through the boom, were bare. So the first thing I did was to pull on the cover from the ends to the middle, over and over. Gradually the cover moved toward the middle until the bare spot was only about eight inches long. Then I sewed some light thread through the cover and the core, to try to hold things in place. Then red electrical tape was wound around the remaining exposed core. The reefing line certainly carries a heavy load. More experienced sailors who may think this is a bad idea, please chime in. Otherwise, time will tell if this red line parts, and if the storm is severe enough to do this to the red line, there is the second black reefing line waiting to take its load.

My other chore was installation of self adhesive rubber weatherstripping to the underside of the cover of the aft port lazarette -- the propane locker. Practical Sailor magazine told me that this compartment should be locked and watertight, except for a hole in the bottom, through which any propane that leaks from the tank, being heavier than air, could escape outside the boat. We have gotten some water in this lazarette, when heeled in the rain, because it was not watertight. Most of this water escaped through the hole in the bottom but its much better bone dry. The latch went on this past winter and now the weatherstripping.

August 6 - Port Jefferson to Mattituck

We hoisted the main at the mooring at about 8:30 but also used the engine to head north out of Port Jeff, through its wide channel, rather than tack in there. Then northerly winds made the next two hours of our 25 mile eastward passage something of a beam reach and the genoa got to play as well. With full sails, and a bit of help from the tides, we were making speed over ground in excess of two thirds of the apparent wind speed, averaging better than six knots, and without the engines noise. But starting at about 11:00 the winds dropped to behind us and in strength so we had to use the engine the rest of the way. There was a mess in the compartment under the cabinet under the galley sink, which I cleaned up while Lene maintained the watch. She also had the helm from the breakwater up the two mile long bending bayou-like creek to the dock at Strongs Marina. We did this at low tide which made for a nervous time. In the bayou the deep water is not in the center and at times was only five inches below the bottom of our keel. We were on the dock, across from "Blast," Ernie and Camilles big Albin trawler, by 1:30.

This was ILENEs first docking this year except for her initial watering. I worked the afternoon, washing the top of the boat, filling the port water tank and then I caused a very expensive stupid mistake -- by not following the advice I always give to Ilene. "Make sure that the deck fill hole into which you put the water hose says WATER".  Yes, I put the fresh water hose from the dock into the starboard fuel tank. Water being heavier than diesel, it went to the bottom of the tank and pushed a few gallons of diesel fuel out onto the deck and into the water before our neighbor, Bert, yelled that we were spilling fuel. Probably a few gallons, which subjected us to a potential fine and cleanup costs from the Department of Environmental  Protection. I mopped up what I could and did get to the marinas very nice pool to cool off a few minutes before its five PM closure time.

Im sure these guys didnt like my mucking up their home.

I think it was the anticipation of that dip which caused me to not be thinking about the right deck fill. A shower and dinner with our new friends, Bert and Margie of the fast powerboat "Blue Bell" from Mashpee, on the Cape and Florida. Dinner was at Paces Dockside, the restaurant on the marinas grounds. Bert bought a bottle of wine and shared it with me. And another good nights sleep before I had to face the music the next day.

August 7 - Lay Day in Mattituck

The morning was pleasant, with a walk into town to visit the hardware store, post office, book store, grocery, drugstore (for a postcard to send to my granddaughter), cheese store, and wine shop. But the afternoon entailed taking up the entire cabin sole to get to the top opening of the forward fuel tank (where the inoperative fuel gauge is inserted). That hole is inconveniently located directly under the one small piece of the sole that holds all the other pieces together. About 60 1.5" wood screws were removed. John is an excellent mechanic but took three very expensive hours to do what he could have done in a fraction of that time if he had been supplied with a stronger pump attached to larger diameter hoses. Out came the pink diesel fuel and the water, all told about 40 gallons, into five gallon cans which were poured into a fifty five gallon drum that was hauled off to an authorized hazardous waste disposal site. The pumping done, I shooed John out and put the boat back together again myself. Too late for that refreshing dip today. Instead the bitter pill of the bill. Lets just say with the replacement of forty gallons of diesel fuel my mistake cost north of one grand. And I have remarked how proud of myself I am when I accomplish a new task on the boat. So I better fess up about how rotten I feel about a stupid very costly mistake that harmed the environment. I know better and it wont happen again.

Dinner was a pot luck affair at a picnic table in the marina. This would have been better if we had had six or ten boatloads of folks. As it was there was us, Ernie and Camille from "Blast" and Marcia and Mark from "Leeds The Way". 

Marcia is the Clubs current Fleet Captain, a position I held for a few years and that Ernie held for more than 20 years before me.  We love cruising but can do it without the Club, such as our 93 days in Maine last summer. It is sad that those who could benefit from our experience do not avail themselves of this resource. Anyway, there was no shortage of good food and beverages among our tiny group.

August 8 - Mattituck to Seatauket YC, in Port Jefferson Harbor

Underway from 10 to 4:30. We tried to sail and actually did sail a few miles, close hauled, easterly, along the North Shore of L.I. But we tacked to a northerly course and stayed on it too long. Too long because the wind had shifted and we could no longer sail east so we gave it up, keeping the main up for stability and headed directly for the Port Jeff breakwater, with the wind directly in front of us. Turning south to enter the harbor, the wind helped us and we sailed to about 150 yards from the mooring field, headed into the wind, popped the main halyard clutch and expected to hear the familiar "whoosh" of the mainsail tumbling down into its bag. But no whoosh. I went to the mast to tug down on the sails luff. Nothing doing. I told Lene to head back out into the open part of the harbor and watch our depth and for other boats, like this ferry coming out,

while I would get into the bosns chair and she would haul me to the top of the mast (using the spinnaker halyard) where I planned to use pliers to unscrew the shackle and let the sail fall down. Luckily the wind was light, reducing both heeling and our speed. Lene said "Check the mast." Smart girl! Somehow, two loops of the end of the port lazy jack halyard had worked loose from their coil and in fact four lengths of this thinner line had become wedged between the main halyard and the housing of its block at the base of the mast. I managed to get the sail down by pulling the halyard through this block, a few inches and then feet at a time. Once the sail was down and stowed, we were able to take a guest mooring and then came the task of fixing the problem. First I cut the lengths, about 2.5 feet that stuck out from the block. Then I tried pulling the stuck bits out with pliers. I removed the block and its shackle from the base of the mast to make the work easier. Next it was knife, ice pick and pliers, trying to pluck fibers from the errant bits but this was very slow going.

Fluff

Notice how flattened these formerly jammed bits are compared to the width of normal line.

 (If anyone knows how I can get rid of the underlining below, which is unintended, please let me know, thank you.)

I thought to pull the main halyard out of the shackle in the direction I had pulled to get the sail down, to thereby relieve the pressure in the jam. But this would have required use of the snake, to get the line back through its channel under the deck after it was freed. The same snake used earlier on this voyage to repair the reefing line, had been put away in a safe place and could not be found. Lene is the one who always wants things to be put away and I should let her do the putting because she is better at the remembering. In any event, after diligent search, no snake. So another plan was needed. I noticed that the block seemed to be held together with three small Allen bolts and disassembled it. Then everything could be easily removed. A similar jamming had occurred in the block at the clew of the small jib during the passage from Providentiales in the Turks and Caicos to Mayaguana in the Bahamas. Some physicist is going to have to tell me about what force of magnetism draws small lines into the narrow spaces between larger lines and the housings of their blocks.

Free at last.

Roger, Mark, Ernie, Marsha, Lene and Camille -- after ice cream.

Dinner was at La Parilla, good Spanish food, followed by the traditional desert of the Harlem Cruise -- ice cream.

August 9 - Seatauket YC to Harlem YC

Port Jeff waterfront from our mooring; ferry docks to the right.

We got off the mooring at 7:45  and at 8:00. Huh? Well, Lene and I had a "failure to communicate." She did not hear me say "Reverse," to back away form the ball, and took my pointing out where the ball was as a direction to turn toward that side. We drove the boat over the mooring, getting its lines tangled on the propeller. So I got a refreshing early morning salt water dip and got us off in short order, without cutting any lines.  In the harbor we saw about five knots of wind from the north and hoisted the main in anticipation of a beamy starboard reach while we retraced the first days passage, in the opposite direction. We even set the genoa, a couple of times. But the wind died. This time, it being a Saturday, numerous wakes of large high horse-power floating big-ego machines roiled the surface so the main did serve its anti-rocking purpose. A rather boring passage and we were on our mooring at 2:20 and home in our apartment at 4. So, while a lot of things went wrong, everyone got home safely and a good time was had by all.

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