Monthly Archives: September 2015

Unknown's avatar

Rock Hall, MD

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Rock Hall, MD

We pulled into the bay at about 6:45. Less than 15 minutes until sundown. My eyesight isn’t what it used to be and like an idiot, I decided to cut a corner. Gosh, what’s that green buoy doing on my right side, I wondered. Then I found out. 5 feet of water and one foot in the mud. Not my foot mind you, the keel, one foot deep in the mud.

Again. This was not the first time in the past three weeks and likely it won’t be the last in the next month or so.

I called TowBoatUS and had them on the phone when they put me on hold. The guy was being a jerk and wouldn’t listen to me and I was probably being a jerk because I was frustrated with myself, the keel and the damned mud.

I handed the phone to JoAnne to deal with and said, “Screw this, I’m not getting towed again.” A few minutes later, I had the boat free and backing up. I backed all the way into the channel and turned the boat into the middle of the channel markers and came inside at about .8 knots. JUST enough to give me steerage, but not enough to destroy anything in front of me that was hapless enough to stand still.

What seemed to be 30 or 40 minutes later we came into slight contact with the public “Wall”. The “dock” such as it is, was full of boats already. There was one spot and a guy asked me, “Do you need help?”

Who am I to turn down anything free?

“Yeah, I’m still trying to remember how to do all this,” I shouted back. He chuckled and said, “Me too.”

He rushed over and took a line JoAnne threw him and within minutes we were tied up, tied off and relieved we’d come in without wreaking anything again.

JoAnne reminded me to call back the TwoBoatUS folks to cancel the tow (Which she had already done with the tow boat operator anyway, but they wanted me to call them myself, so I did).

When I looked at the clock on the phone and the phone call, a grand total of six minutes had elapsed.

We both looked at each other and exclaimed “Six MINUTES” – it seemed like hours.

Truthfully, it seemed like a LONG time had passed from our entrance into the bay (after getting unstuck) to the time we tied off.

The sign says “15 Days”. I’m not sure if they mean the parking lot, the dock, the grassy area nearby or what, but, we’re here for a few days and I’m not planning on dropping lines and heading out into the Bay until I am sure the weather isn’t going to kick up a stink for us. I’d like to sail out of here to our next stop instead of using the engine all the time.

It was very late when we got everything ship shape and hiked over to the pub we could see from the dock area. I had a taco salad, she had soup. We had a pitcher of margaritas with more ice in it than rita. No salt. I don’t think there was any tequila either. The taco salad wasn’t as good as my own, and it wasn’t even as good as Jose Muldoon’s in Colorado (which sucks).

We walked back (walked, not stumbled, as most people do after 2-3 margaritas) and got back on the boat without falling into the water – there’s a gap of 18″ to 2′ and JoAnne was afraid to step over it. Me, I’m pretty nimble and only tripped 9 or 10 times.

This morning we got up pretty early (about 8) and decided we were going to do shopping. She had already scoped out a place for us. A small grocery store about a mile or so away. I called in my medications I needed to refill at the Walgreens in town as well.

We found the grocery with no problems, bought some eggs, a couple of ears of corn, oranges, greeeeeeeeeeen bananas, some cookies, canned foods and a few other things, then started for the Walgreen’s. On the way, they called me to tell me they couldn’t fill my prescription because I needed to get in touch with the insurance company. I don’t have insurance. I lost that when I quit my job. Duh. I called them and said, “Just fill it and and I’ll pay cash”.

They replied, “Ok, no problem, that will be $999.99.”

What the hell? Its some god damned pills. Turns out the BP medication is only $55 bucks. I told them to fill it. I’ll take an aspirin instead of the other crap the docs have me on. Screw that, if I die, tough shit. 1000 bucks for stupid pills. WTF do they think retired people are made of, money?

So, I did collect the BP meds, which I probably needed after the price check. And probably didn’t need before I heard the price check.

Anyway, stopped in West Marine (yes, there is one in this little place) and bought two sending units to the tune of 100 bucks for the set. (Rolling my eyes at the cost of a couple of pieces of stainless steel and a bloody little potentiometer, GOD!)

So, we got some shopping done, got a couple parts, found out I am going to die from lack of medication sooner rather than later, got some oranges and I got a Pepsi. I’ve been sipping at it since then and it’s almost 5 PM. Decided we weren’t leaving today and watching a storm moving up the Bay towards us. Supposed to blow like stink tomorrow, white caps and rain. I’m technically still a “Day Sailor” so – not quite ready for shitty weather.

I’ll suck it up enough, soon enough, right now, I’m trying to figure out how 900 bucks a month in insurance fees saves me for 999 dollars a quarter on heart medication.,

You know, screw the government regulations, screw the US medical system and screw the AMA. (Am I speaking with my outside voice again?)

I’m really unhappy about this stupid medical nonsense. Seriously, how can anyone justify the cost of simple medicines that help keep people alive?

Screw it, I’m going sailing in a couple of days and to hell with all that.

Rock Hall is a quaint little town. I’d move here, if it weren’t cold in the winter. Or in Maryland.

Or close to New York.

Seriously, this is a cool little town, nice little houses, nice people. There’s a Bait and Tackle store “right there” out of my boat. 40 steps away. But nothing I can really use, yet anyway. They did, however, have a case of Corona Extra for 23 bucks. Plus tax. That’s alittle over a buck a bottle so not too shabby. I bought a case. Going back tomorrow to get a back up (you need spares of everything aboard a boat I’m finding out).

The place we ate lunch was called Waterman’s Crab House. I think. To be honest I didn’t look at the name. It was good, albeit, expensive, like every other place on the East Coast we’ve been in. $30 plus dollars for lunch. Yep, that’s right. Oh, well. We’ll be going back to Colorado to work soon enough if our money runs out. Before my retirement pay kicks in. Sheesh.

Day after tomorrow, Sunday, I think we’re bailing out of here and heading for Annapolis or somewhere. I need to talk to some friends and find out where they are so I can set a course in their direction. I need to get close to my friend Phil, so he can help deliver my equipment and after that, well, we’re heading for Norfolk, then pass inside past Cape Hatteras, outside at Beaufort NC and on to Florida. Mostly then, I hope, by sail. Instead of engine.

JoAnne is tired today from our walk. She carried a backpack full of stuff from the store, but to be fair I carried the bulk of it.

In fact, I took 90% of the weight.

Who the hell needs heart medications?

Unknown's avatar

Last Night in Summit North

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We are bailing out in the morning.

Mike from Total Boat Works came by with our new parts (water pump) and some spare parts this morning and completed working on the boat.  The engine is purring like a really, really big cat.  NOT over heating, not even warming the cabin up now like before.

We did a lot (I say we, because I was helping most of the time, so I could learn).  And I think we got it now.

I think I have everything ready for tomorrow except putting away the hose, the electrical cables and the lap top here.  We’ll have breakfast and coffee and head out the canal to Chesapeake tomorrow and probably sometime in the late afternoon will find someplace to anchor.

After that, it’s on to the Annapolis area and meet up with some friends.

Unknown's avatar

Engine- Still

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So Mike came by this morning with some transmission fluid, and a couple of things left to do. He assisted in adjusting the tachometer to the right settings, but it was “by ear” so it’s not precisely accurate but I’m guessing it is closer than it was before.

The trans was low, like almost a quart… ack.

Then he had something niggling at him, it was that the over flow was still bugging him so he pulled the water pump cover and found a problem, again, one I’d missed. There is a severe wearing in the area where the water is pumped through. In fact, on closer checking, it’s broken.

After a few hours he called me back with several options. I chose the more expensive option. Pump replacement. $800 bucks for the part. He said it would be cheaper if we run down the coast and look again. And he could have just put in a new impeller.

I told him , No, this is my life and my wife’s life, and the safety of the boat. Get me a pump and spare impeller. He actually said “You can get all the way to Florida without bothering” but I think that’s a half-assed job.

Get me the parts I need, make the new parts work, get me spares. I’m good.

They won’t ship though until in the morning. If the part gets here tomorrow, I’ll be surprised. He is talking to the marina to get us a break on the stay because frankly, they are bloody hell expensive.

The saga continues…..

Unknown's avatar

C&D Canal – Summit North Marina

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Not the best place to be stuck (though we aren’t actually stuck now, we can leave when we’re ready) but other than have a good mechanic here and showers a 1/2 mile off, up a hill, through the woods and mosquitoes, it’s ok.  We have fresh water and electricity.  I’m taking advantage of that.

As it turns out, we have two water tanks.  I think I mentioned that before.  One of the tanks is on the port side and has a separate valve to control its flow into the water system.  It was off and I hadn’t found it yet, and didn’t KNOW it was off.

When we arrived I was looking over plumbing and locating things I still needed to find.  As it turns out, when I opened the valve (not thinking about what might be in the tank) I contaminated the water supply with antifreeze.

Stony Point Marina didn’t do ANYTHING to the boat without specifically pointing it out.  Zincs was my first real issue with them.  Then duct tape on the shut off.  Now this.  I’m sure now I’ll find other things.  Commissioning should have involved flushing the water system and filling it, should have involved checking and topping off the oil, coolant, transmission and making sure belts were right and things were going to go well.

They didn’t do anything of the sort.  If you’re a power boater up in that area, you might have good service, but I strongly recommend against sail-boaters using the place.  Even for storage.  I think the manager is a jerk after charging me for duct tape (he didn’t tell me that’s what it was) and just being an all-around slimy guy.

There was one young man there, I want to say his name was Darryl maybe, who was helpful and nice, offered advice.  Eric, their yard manager and mechanic was the one that had to have used the duct tape.

Avoid the place.

Back to Summit North.  You’re more than a mile from ANYTHING here.  It’s a 1/2 mile to walk from the office to the road and there is a small store up the road (No, I haven’t walked it, but have had people tell me how far it was).  The next closest stuff is several miles away.

There is a restaurant here called “Aqua Sol” which was ok.  But they are like a high end place for boaters.  Kind of expensive.  Beer isn’t bad but the food… well, the burger was ok.  I guess JoAnne’s food was decent, service was so-so, but it was expensive.  And there’s nothing else.

I feel like I’m back out at Schriever, AFB inside the restricted compound, one place to choose from at high prices because you’re in a captive audience.

Internet service here works up by the main office.  No in doors place to be.  Internet at the Aqua Sol doesn’t work and they made an excuse about the fire wall blocking the public/free stuff and “nothing they can do about it”.

T-mobile service is limited here.  Internet connections through my phone are limited because I can’t get a good signal.  So, they get a 1 on service.

The mechanic, Mike, of Total Boatworks was helpful and when he looked in the engine, in 30 seconds he said, “Found your problem”, and pointed out some kinks in hoses I’d not seen or would even recognize as being a problem.  Remember, I’m used to cars and trucks, I’m NO mechanic but can pick my way through an engine slowly if given time and not under stress.

The hoses in a car or truck are rarely if ever a problem until they split open. Some of the hoses had holes being worn into them from vibration.  We replaced them all, put some anti-chaffing around others, added some missing nuts and bolts, changed the oil, added coolant, added an overflow for the coolant, rerouted the shifter cable, rerouted the exhaust water flow so the hoses weren’t kinked up and in general cleaned up all the loose and vibrating parts.

I have one big job to do, to cut a bracket away from the engine block, which is being hit and vibrated on by the block.  I just need to cut away a corner…. not an easy proposition, but he said he didn’t want to do it and charge me hours of work for it.

The engine is running much cooler now, and in fact using the laser heat gun he had showed me it was running cooler than it had before.  Simple stuff.  I hope that’s all that was causing the issues now.

We were going to leave today, but we need to do laundry and I need to rearrange a few things on the boat to redistribute some of the weight a little further back in the boat, and manage the forward compartment better.  Right now we have it crammed full of stuff and no real place to put it, and of course no place for a visitor to sleep either.

It will be a few weeks before we’d be ready for visitors, but then the family members who might visit are in the middle of doing their own things at the moment and probably won’t come out for at least a few more months.  Which is ok.  We’re still learning anyway and I don’t want to stress them out!

Last night we were up by the office visiting the rest rooms and checking the bulletin board and I ran into a couple who were just coming back from Baltimore and heading home.  We got to talking and she asked us how they were treating us in the marina and I gave her the “ambivalent” answer.  So she checked on our “condition” – that is she started asking me questions of if we needed a ride into town to get food, how was our fresh food supply, etc.

They were very nice and at the end of it she offered us some strawberries which I kept refusing to take, finally she thrust them into my wife’s hands and said, “Please take them”.  It was a very heartfelt response to us “not having fun”, completely unnecessary, but very, very sweet of her.  It’s not like we’re indigent or something.

But, they were the best strawberries I’ve ever had walking down the docks back to the boat.

So for today that leaves laundry, boat cleaning, paying the mechanic and probably one more long, hot shower today….

Unknown's avatar

Mechanical Issues

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Somewhere along the way I never learned anything about engines.  Well, that’s not really true, I can tell you all kinds of things about how engines work, how they function, what this or that part is and I’ve even repaired my fair share of mechanical issues.

There’s something about a diesel motor though that just is daunting to me.  In the past three hours I have learned a lot.

I learned they are simple.  I learned they don’t break easily, but if they do it’s usually something simple.  I learned that an over heating engine can be due to any number of things, but in general it’s something obvious (assuming you’re a mechanic and used to looking for obvious things that someone not practiced in diesel engines wouldn’t see anyway).

Basically, we over heated because several hoses on this machine were hastily put in, are too short, are kinked here and there, are worn because they are bouncing badly off other items, and there’s no brackets, clamps or other things to keep this chaffing from occurring.

Essentially, everything the mechanic Mike has told me I could have found, IF I knew where to look and what I was looking for.  Since I didn’t, I needed a mechanic.  He’s going to fix all the weird issues, change the oil and we ought to be underway by sometime tomorrow, assuming I don’t decide to spend one more good night to sleep since I’m exhausted for some reason.

Anyway, I’m headed back to help him some more.   He’s back with hoses, clamps and parts.

Unknown's avatar

C&D Canal – Almost there

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I know that most other people who cruise and blog don’t put down most of the stuff they are doing, rarely write much or they put in a vast amount of pictures. Pictures are on Facebook with friends and family right now, and I don’t have the bandwidth or time right now to upload everything to the storage site and post them.

We left Atlantic Highlands the other day and did a 24 hour run overnight and made it as far as Atlantic City, NJ/ Turns out my tach is hosed on the engine so we were running at what we thought was 2500 rpm and it wasn’t even close. I’ve been testing the engine by ear and have had it up to 6+ knots now.

We arrived at AC at 9 in the morning (we’d left at 9 the previous day). We spend the whole day and then one night there and left the next morning for Cape May.

We arrived in Cape May and came into the channel – and a few minutes after I turned the corner, grounded the boat in the mud. After talking to some locals found out the mud bank hasn’t been dredged this year and so it’s further into the channel than the charts and markers show. Go me…

We left Cape May this morning after we deliberated about the channel out on the Delaware Bay side. As it turns out, I measured the mast and came up with 54 feet from deck to top, add in the wind gear and you get 55, add in the deck top to water line and you get 58. Doh! No bridges. My measurements might be off but I doubt it. I was not going to risk our lives or the boat going under a bridge at low water and hoping it would clear by two inches. Nope. We went back out the way we came in, through the Atlantic Ocean side. Did just fine going out.

I set a course on the autohelm and following my charts around to the far side, passed the channel exit and then headed for the C&D canal.

We had NO wind except in the early morning pretty much all day. In the evening we started having engine issues again (this time the prop shaft, I think it’s not getting enough dripping going on down there….) anyway, backed off the engine speed, raised the sails and was flying at almost 6 knots without the engine (it was in neutral and idling). When we go close to where I wanted to anchor the wind was at 12 knots right from our backs.

I had a hell of a time bringing the boat around to the wind and getting the main down! It’s mast furling, not sure I like it all that well.

Maybe I don’t know what I am doing too – that could be it.

We ended up anchoring 3 miles from a nuclear power plant and two miles from the C&D entrance.

Dropped anchor in 20 feet of water. We’re holding very well, and not having any issues.

Yesterday and interesting thing happened. We got a call from a legal authority in Colorado asking about our old Dodge Shasta. It seems that the asshole I sold it too never bothered re-register it, he kept my plates (which I promptly had canceled when he didn’t return them) and it appears SOMETHING like a crime may have happened.

She wouldn’t give details and hinted that they weren’t sure a crime HAD been committed.

But let me say this, the guy was a Serbian, Russian accent, so was the wife, they had two kids and they were sketchy from the get-go. I just wanted to sell the van, he gave me what I asked for it, I signed it over and he vanished into thin air.

I’m wondering now if there was a terrorist group involved or something because I didn’t like him to begin with. They were cagey over names, places, what they were going to do and they were very quick to offer me exactly what we were asking.

Anyway, I don’t know what happened.

Tomorrow, the weather will be ok, but windy on our nose, and it’s not going to be easy to navigate through the Canal. I’m pretty anxious over this. It was bad enough grounding in Cape May…. wish me luck.

Good Night all

Unknown's avatar

Weather Windows

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I’ve not got a really good, paid for, type of weather application. I’m doing my weather the old fashioned way, watching it, smelling it, looking at the clouds, and reading several sites for weather information.

Everything I am seeing says we’ll have a decent weather window Monday to head south. Winds are promising to be relatively light 8-15 mph it looks like (depending on who you look at) and the winds will primarily be from the west giving us winds on the beam. Nice for us!

We spoke to two other cruisers and they are confirming what I think, one has programs (I think) and the other was using someone else’s data from a weather service (paid for). One, a lady, said she would be going over the weather tonight on her computer and figure it out.

The other said he’s leaving very early Monday morning. I think we’re also going to bail out of here as early as we can, at first light, depending on the sea conditions then.

We turned around yesterday and I felt crappy for doing it. I thought I chickened out. Turns out it was a pretty wise decision. JoAnne and I think we made the best decision for us. So did others who watched us go out and come back in, lol.

I changed several lights inside – think I mentioned this already – but I took some car head lamps, LED replacements, and rewired the sockets for the LEDs set to Bright. Made a SIGNIFICANT difference on power usage.

Right now we only have two high amp hour batteries in series. I want to add two more in parallel (the two I have in there are 6v golf cart batteries at 215 AH). If I duplicate that, and parallel them I’ll have 430 Amp hours of energy. Plus we bought a nice little generator set. So we’re ok on power for now. I still have not connected the solar panel up, but it’s on the small side. It will only supplement the generator, and not replace everything we use over a day.

I’m looking over at another boat who has a neat little wind generator. It makes a “swishhhhhhh” sound as it spins, but I think I can deal with that noise knowing it is giving us power. I need to find one that will supplement the engine alternator and generator. Once I do that, add batteries we can get the refrigeration working and have cold food in the ice box. Right now, we’re on a no-refrigeration diet, lol.

Today we got up early and took the day off. We only took the dinghy into the docks, hiked to town (about 2 miles there and 2 back), went to the grocery, hardware store and stopped for coffee and a sandwich along the waterfront.

Then we came back and JoAnne unpacked the food, marked it, put it away while I cleaned up the dinghy and put away the propane cylinders, bag and other stuff I keep in there, and cleaned up the deck, stowed lines, set up the generator and ran it for an hour to charge the system, put everything away when I was done, Not bad for a day off, huh?

For those wanting to know our location, we’re at Atlantic Highlands (still, one week today) in an anchorage near the marina. We’re about 10 or 11 NM south of NY city and can just make out the Verazano Bridge at night, and the city when it’s not hazy, at least the tall buildings.

When we leave we have to sail north, tack right and head east, go off the coast a ways (3 miles maybe) and turn south and then we have about a 100 mile trip in front of us – perhaps a 20 hour sail, unless we can hit hull speed – which I doubt.

On a good note, I got the chart plotter working again, cleaned the connectors very well and got the green corrosion off the pins. I really don’t know how to use it well, which is ok, we can read/use charts, and really it will just help verify our position and nothing more. I can use the autohelm, which I can set to a course and let the boat drive us where we’re going so I have have to tend the wheel constantly. Unfortunately, the autohelm and gps/plotter uses a bit of power, so we’ll be motor sailing on and off too, to charge batteries as necessary.

My nav lights are incandescent lamps so at some point I’ll be changing those over to LEDs when I can find something that meets Coast Guard requirements. Energy saving….

That’s all for the update for now.

Unknown's avatar

Didnt get out

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Last night we were on anchor, they had kicked us off the mooring ball. I don’t sleep well when not absolutely certain of our status and I wasn’t 100% sure of the anchoring last night because we got a very strong wind through here, a thunderstorm and we were rolling and pitching pretty badly.

Boats were anchored all around and while I was pretty sure my own anchor was holding, I wasn’t sure about some others. Needless to say, I was pretty exhausted this morning, and so was JoAnne.

But we left anyway. In the beginning we did well, but the winds picked back up and were blowing us onto a shore. I could NOT get the boat to come away, because we weren’t making much headway in the wind. Finally, I did the prudent thing, turned the boat around and went back to the anchorage.

We’re set securely tonight.

Our next window is Monday morning.

We’ll try then,

Unknown's avatar

Sandy Hook and Atlantic Highlands

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JoAnne and I came in, under tow to this area last Saturday. We were at Coney Island and the engine shredded the belt. We didn’t get the engine repaired until Tuesday, late. The Mechanic was Bill Lloyd of Lloyd’s Repair. He does “house calls”, as a mobile mechanic.

Bill was helpful, showed me a lot of things, gave us some advice and did the repairs – finding the correct parts. The adjustment bracket had broken before. Was the wrong size. The belt shredded, it was too long. The pulley on the alternator was too small. The engine stop was broken as well because was previously repaired by a couple of guys with duct tape…. no more comments there.

Anyway, Bill helped to repair all of that for us. His rates were very reasonable and he was very helpful. I STRONGLY recommend him if you’re in the area and need help.

The moorings here are $50.00 a night and there are showers, a launch to pick you up and drop you off.

The launch drivers are all very nice, helpful and give you directions and advice if you need it.

We have spent the time here moving stuff around, rearranging things to be more logical and I cleaned some of the deck finally. We added more water, I’ve rowed in and out a few times to collect water and gas for the generator. I needed the upper body exercise too. Speaking of which, they were really “worried” about me at the cardiac care and rehab place. Wanted me to stay on a “few weeks”. I laughed and said I’d be getting more exercise than just walking. While I am not getting as much cardio as I’d like, I’m damned sure getting plenty of exercise now. More than I could have hoped for.

I’ve not put on a lot of weight, but I’ve put on muscles. I’m almost back to 100% of where I was prior to the heart attack. By the way, I feel good – except the aches and pains from cracking my skull, shins, elbows, knees, chin, nose, back, front, bottom and top…. lol

Last night it rained pretty good. We had left the boat opened up and went up for a beer and met with Judy and Ron of Spartina, a pretty little trimaran, sitting in the harbor here. They are leaving tomorrow morning as well and heading south. We took their advice and waited through today because of the wind shifts. It did shift out of the north last evening though and is either North or North East right now (so it’s shifting still).

We’re hoping for a good run down the coast and hope to make 5-6 knots under sail… we’ll see. Wish us luck. This will probably be my last entry for a few days until we get back in close enough for cell coverage or Wifi someplace.

For those asking… Yes we’re hams. I’m N0NJY and JoAnne is KB0IRW. We do NOT have either VHF/UHF or HF up at the moment, those were not high priorities which prepping to get the boat out of Stony Point and right now it’s not too high of a priority (though it is coming up the list of things to do pretty rapidly) so we won’t have it up unless we get into trouble, then I’ll slap something together fast (it is what I used to do for a living, emergency communications and military tactical stuff….) so not to worried at the moment.

Sometime in the very near future though, both HF will be online as will the 2meter and 440 rig.

Atlantic City is our stop in point if we can’t make Cape May. Cape May is our current destination. Delaware Bay and the C&D canal is out tentative destination on the way to Chesapeake Bay. Once in Chessie we’ll look for a place we can anchor and explore a bit. We have to get in touch with our friend Phil and get him to meet us someplace.

Also, we’ll try to meet up with Bill, the broker to helped us purchase the boat (and sell for the former owner). Hopefully we can do all of this without any more giant issues. Then, from that point on, we’re aiming for Florida to go see JoAnne’s Brother, Paul. He lives in Tampa area and whether we drive across by boat in the ICW, or by car, or have them come get us is currently up in the air.

If we have to go across by car, we’ll look for a place to store the boat for a few days and maybe get some minor work accomplished. Otherwise, we’ll try to cross the ICW through Okeechobee – which we’ve had opinions about from several people, all of which are divergent… some saying ” no problems” and others saying “don’t do it”…..

Unknown's avatar

Adventure Update

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Yesterday was Saturday.  We had chosen to remain at anchor in New York over near Coney Island.  Except the night before we were getting whipped around by a combination of incoming tide, a current fighting the wind, which of course was in another direction.  So getting tossed about like we were in 8 foot waves (when they were barely 1 foot high) was not on our “want list”.

I decided it prudent to move the boat to a more protected area.  And there was no wind that morning.  So I started the engine.  We moved, dropped anchor and then I went to shut down the engine.

Back up a couple of days.  On our way down the Hudson River to Nyack we’d had belt issues.  I’d fixed them, so I thought.

On the way down the Hudson from Nyack to Ross Dock Park I’d tried to stop the engine and the engine stop cable came loose down in the engine compartment, requiring me to open everything up, rather quickly actually, trace the cable, find the shut down lever and find a tool long enough to reach the switch without burning the royal crap out of myself to shut down.  I could NOT fix that easily.

Back to present.  After anchoring, I went below to shut down the engine with my screwdriver only to find the belt has shredded itself.  Terrific.

I contacted a tow and we were brought south 9 miles….. to Sandy Hook area.  Could I have sailed? Yes, but there was absolutely zero wind where I was.  Did I need a tow?  Perhaps not, but, it puts us 9 miles further south and it was free, and they helped me locate a mechanic and parts.

Mechanic showed up at 2:30 after we were on a mooring ball at Atlantic Highlands Marina ($50 bucks a night, ouch)  and worked on things.

What he discovered was; 1) the pulley on the alternator was wrong, too small.  2) The belt was too long, 2) screws, nuts, bolts were missing in various places (I suspect strongly the marina where the boat was stored did the shoddy work at this point, especially knowing about the damned duct tape used to hold the stop switch).

Bill took my alternator to replace the pulley, find the right size belt, get me part numbers and to perhaps locate a replacement and/or spare alternator adjustment bar.  He’s due back here Tuesday sometime.

We’re planning a short, 16 hour haul down the coast to Barnegat Bay with a stop someplace to drop anchor to get some rest, then on to Delaware Bay – we hope.  We plan to sail.  The Mizzen sail is horked up pretty good, and jammed.  I’ll have to work on that as we go, but we can sail like a sloop.  Assuming the mainsail works ok.  We’re going to find out.

JoAnne and I have been rather …. well, scared of trying to head south, partly due to the medical issues we’ve experienced recently, and secondarily the fact we’ve not sailed anything this large in a long time – and in fact, we have not sailed in over four years.  We’re rusty.  Jumping to a 40 footer from a 25′ sloop wasn’t too bad when we did it last time, but, we did it pretty quickly.  For instance we sailed on a weekend before we left for BVI.  It wasn’t difficult to slip back into it easily.

This time though, we have nothing to give us the confidence we had back then.

So today we were talking (and last night as well) and have decided that we just need to go.

Cold weather will be upon us before we know it – it is, after all, September.  I for one don’t like the cold any more.  Not that the stifling heat of New York has been much of a blessing either, but at least I can feel my hands when working outside.

So, if we get the engine running properly on Tuesday, early on Wednesday we are heading out.  We have rudimentary equipment, but at least the autohelm IS functional (for now, lol) so it should be easier as it acts like a third crew member.

Here in Atlantic Highlands we don’t have Wifi or even phone most of the time.  We’re struggling to get through THAT little thing too.  I’;m writing this on my Linux laptop using a built in editor so I can just post it when I can, so forgive me if it is out of order or date later on.

Over the past couple of days, I’ve scrubbed the Starboard Side of Adventure with soap and water and found a beautiful teak wood surface under the grim and dirt.  Today, I oiled the wood that I’ve cleaned and the boat is absolutely gorgeous under there.  When I have time, the To Do list has the port side listed too.  I’ll get that done.

I have a list we put together today containing around 35 jobs, big and small.  Everything from working on getting the Wifi antenna put together to pick up and give us wifi aboard (using open access points) to cleaning the oil lamp fixture, converting the incandescent bulbs to LED, wiring a charging port in the aft cabin to working on hanging things up, moving things around to get the weight lower down, and the finding of things more efficient.

Some jobs will get done soon, some will get done someday.  No priority except on things like through hulls we need to ensure are closed when we sail.

Right now, we’re relaxing a little.  JoAnne is reading, as usual, and I’m doing the blog.  Trying to get the phone to pick up 4G is infuriating here, irritating.  And there it is, there it ain’t.  Aggravating.

We stopped in at a place called “Gaslight 33“ over on 1st Street here in Atlantic Highlands.  They aren’t a microbrew, but do have a lot of different beers, even some from Colorado we found.  Heck they even had Oskar Blues beers there.  But everything here, including beer is damned expensive.  5-7 bucks a pint from New York to here thus far.  Geez.

And with that, I’m done with the update for now.

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Update: 2 September 2015

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JoAnne and I arrived here on the 27th intending to spend a couple of days.  Those couple of days turned into almost a week now. 

However, we enjoyed our time here and meeting new friends.  Judy and her husband Stephen of S/V Bentaña were our hosts and we met with them several times.  Stephen went way, way out of his way to help me when we arrived to get the alternator repaired and a part welded, driving me all over New Jersey to find places that might have parts. 

On our way out of the docks at Stony Point, the boat proved just how slow to respond she is and I nearly bashed into the sea wall while trying to turn.  I gave us a little too much power and the boat didn’t move at first then picked up momentum.  Slowing her down wasn’t easy either.  Lots of back thrust of course.  Missed the wall, as Maxwell Smart, Agent 86 would say, “By THAT much”.

We set a course for the channel and made that in good time, though some of the markers we were looking for we never actually located. We traveled in the middle of the channel at first then moved to one side to make sure we weren’t in the way of anything. A barge passed us, then what appeared to be a crane. As we got closer I suddenly realized it was a light marker, not a crane and it was marking a huge rock formation. I was driving us on the wrote side. Doh!

After checking the chart I realized my mistake and figured out we were further along than I’d thought.

The chart plotter isn’t working and I can’t get it working as it is too old and too broke I guess.

About two miles out of Nyack, we decided to come in and pick up a mooring. The day before we’d visited there and a couple of the guys sitting there told us that we didn’t need to call in to just pick up the mooring. We did that. We knew there was a $20 per night fee and have no problem paying it, but apparently some were concerned we wouldn’t 🙂 We did later in the week.

Today is Tuesday the 2nd and we were going to leave about an hour before high tide today to head across the river to get fuel, water and a pump out of the holding tank. About 5 minutes after I started the engine, I began checking the boat and found we were over riding the mooring for some reason. I backed the engine slowly to pull us off the mooring and something didn’t sound right.

Alternator, again. This time nothing was broken but it isn’t, or wasn’t installed correctly to begin with and when I put it back in, I put it in the same way it came out. Wrong. I took it BACK out, about 30 times, and had to add washers, a longer bolt and a few new nuts and stuff to make it line up correctly. Now I know why it broke in the first place.

Of course we were about 5 minutes from high tide and it will take us 20 minutes to cross the river, and probably an hour to get water, fuel and pump out putting us on the down side of the time. Not bad except that it gets shallow over there at low tide.

Most likely we’ll try again in the morning. High tide tomorrow is later, around 1 PM so we should try to get out of here early enough to motor across, give us time to get in, out and look for engine issues.

We haven’t sailed a boat this large in almost 10 years, even though it doesn’t seem so long ago. The last time we sailed anything was four years ago, so you can imagine the concern we have. This isn’t an ocean where we won’t hit anything, or a lake we know like the backs of our hands. It’s a busy river with a lot of traffic, some rather large vessels along with a lot of speeding boats who love to leave big wakes behind themselves. We are 1.2 miles from the Tapanzee Bridge where there is massive construction, a lot of construction barges and general construction traffic taking place. We have to pass there after getting fuel. So – we’re both a bit scared to do this.

But, the truth is we know we can do it. We just have to put one foot in front of the other…. or, water beneath our keel, or something.

We have enough little issues in the boat, piddly things mostly, to keep us busy for awhile. That said, I know we invited a lot of people to visit us and we still expect visitors, but give us some time to get used to the boat, get down stream, get south, avoid hurricane season and finish cleaning up and figuring out storage problems.

Right now our vee berth has become the go-to for storage. I currently have the shore power cables, solar panels, extra sails, loose items, extra lines, ropes, buckets, clothing, extra PFDs, tools and a few other things stored in there. The forward head has become my parts locker, or at least one of them.

So…. tomorrow we will do our best to head over across the river, get some fuel and make for either the 79th Street Boat Basin, or alternatively, find our way to Gravesend to drop anchor and figure out how to sail around New Jersey to Chesapeake Bay. If I am right, the Autohelm is working (I’ll test it tomorrow anyway to be sure) then we can do an over night if we need too. The moon is still pretty full.

That’s all for now friends. Hope you’re all doing well. As always, JoAnne and I look forward to hearing from you. Write us at Adventure.Rick.JoAnne@gmail.com

Fair Winds to all!