Post Irene

We had a little excitement yesterday afternoon. The wind shifted around to the west and picked up again. I think the wind was actually just as bad as when the hurricane passed earlier, but with the bay open in that direction, the wind and fetch produced a bit of chop and 3-5' waves at about a 1-2 second interval. It was a rough ride for about 12 hours.

In fact, it was so rough my snubber parted and I was laying just to chain for most of it. In retrospect, I'm pretty sure that really wasn't a big deal, but at the time I was afraid I might lose the boat -- we were only a few hundred feet off the coast. From that direction, I was only being held with my 35# CQR and 150' of chain. The other one was loose, so I pulled in a bit of rode to keep it from fouling, but it still ripped off one of the buckets I was using as a sea anchor.

I ended up pulling the other bucket out, freed the line, and added a second heavier snubber to the chain on deck. Since I've only got one cleat up there, I wasn't able to do much, and had to let out more of my original snubber than I wanted when I adjusted the lines -- I just couldn't hold it.

The additional length might or might not have contributed to the chafe that parted the line, but luckily, I'd already added the second one by the time it failed, because that's what held. I did add a third one in place of the original, but couldn't do much with it because at that point, the waves were periodically coming over the bow and spraying me, which made it difficult to do anything.

To make matters worse, I'd removed all my sails, so if I'd lost the anchor, there's nothing I could have done. It's possible a boat could have gotten to me, but I'm pretty sure she would have ended up on the beach. We were just too close. Needless to say, I'll never do that again.

Another mistake was moving my fuel jugs into the cockpit to reduce windage. With the rough ride, as rough as I've ever experienced (picture the bull at Gilley's), some fuel must have leaked and I started smelling it. That's as close to seasick I've been in a long time. Not bad enough to keep me down, but certainly bad enough to affect my decision making. So, that's another thing I'll never do again. I'll also replace one of the containers I know leaks.

Zoe watch:

She did great, however, she did come on deck a couple times when the wind started to pick back up. I had to stop several times and make her go back down below, but once it got rough, she found a small cubbyhole and hid. In fact, I came down a couple times and couldn't find her.

It's not a big boat, and I'm always worried about her going overboard, so you can imagine a moment of panic when I couldn't find her. I even scanned the water around the boat once thinking she's jumped in to swim ashore. She found some creative places up in the forecastle (pronounced foc'sle) nestled in with all the spare gear.

Irene Passes Nearby, AWOB

We got a lot of wind, still getting a few gusts near 60, but Irene's pretty well done all she's going to do here. The rain's mostly stopped as well, but I expect it to stay overcast the rest of the day and into the night.

We had absolutely no damage, however, there are a few things I'll add to the list for the Houston refit. Mostly adjustments to my ground tackle setup, as well as more cleats and chocks.

With the sails off, I'll go ahead and adjust the headstay, and re-tune the rig. I'll also see if I can rig a new topping lift -- I don't like the current system at all. I'll probably setup the reefing gear and trysail track as well.

And of course fix the transmission coupling. I just need pull it apart, screw the nut back on and pin it. I'll wait for a calm day since I have to crawl down in the bilge to do it.

Zoe watch:

She came through her first hurricane with flying colors. There were a few times, mainly at the height of the storm when the entire boat shook with the wind and heeled over from side to side that she got a bit concerned, but that didn't last long.

And So It Begins

The constant heavy rains associated with hurricanes has begun. I think I've prepared as well as possible, but this experience has certainly added a few things to my list.

First of all, I'd like more chain, and instead of one long continuous length, I think I'd prefer several 50' sections with swivels I can put together as needed. That would make it easy to store the chain in bags and distribute the weight. It would also make it easy to deploy multiple anchors with all chain rode.

The other big problem I have is a lack of enough chocks on the bow. (I just misspelled chocks -- easy to do on a constantly moving boat -- and my iPhone corrected it to "chicks." I guess that's true too, but right now I'd prefer the chocks.) I'd also like to add more cleats and pad eyes -- you never seem to have enough. I've tried tying off stuff to the chainplates, but that just makes them leak, so I won't do that again.

The police boat dropped by earlier to check on me. We had a real nice chat. They didn't seem to think I'd have a problem here and weren't concerned about my staying on the boat during the storm.

Zoe watch:

I let her swim for a long time yesterday and may take advantage of a lull, and let her swim again today. I want to make sure she gets a chance to exercise when she can, because pretty soon, she's not even going to want to go on deck. In fact, the rain just stopped, so I'm going to take her now.

Re-anchored for Irene

I guess it wouldn't be fun if everything went off without a hitch. Needless to say, we've been having fun this afternoon. Luckily there wasn't too much wind, but since it was against the tide, I had trouble placing and setting the anchors. Normally, you drop one, set it, then put out some scope, motor over and drop the second, set it, then adjust both of them, but I lost the transmission again setting the first one.

I went ahead and anchored without an engine, but couldn't set either one. The problem turned out to be the coupling nut. I had reinstalled the transmission before I put it back on, and that turned out to be a mistake. You have to tap the flange on the edge of the nut to pin it, but since it's so tight down there, I had a hard time swinging a hammer. Guess I didn't pin it well enough.

I'm going to try to work on it tonight while the weather's good, but the sun's already gone down, so that might be a problem. The morning looks like it'll be alright, but things should start to deteriorate by early afternoon.

I don't need an engine during the hurricane, couldn't move anyway, but it would be nice to set and adjust my anchors. Luckily I've got a captive prop, or I could have had a serious problem.

Good Side, Bad Side, Direct Hit?

The predicted storm track for Irene has shifted back and forth over the last couple of days, and now has us slightly back on the good side. They are predicting tropical storm conditions Saturday night, hurricane conditions Sunday, and tropical conditions again Sunday night.

It's calm right now after several windy days. As soon as I finish breakfast, I'll take the dinghy in and pick up some provisions, water, and a few things for the boat, mostly concentrating on safety gear. I hope there's some food left at the market.

At some point, I'll re-anchor, but haven't decided where to go yet. I think I'll go around the point to Cold Spring Harbor and see how it looks. It's a bit deeper with higher land surrounding it on 3 sides, and only exposed to the north. If the storm passes west of us, we won't get anything from the north. However, if it passes to the east, the wind's will be relatively lighter, but we will get some wind from the north as it passes by, which will be relatively lighter as well.

Now, if we get really lucky and it happens to pass directly over us, we'll only get winds from the east, a nice calm period, then more from the west. The best thing about this is that it'll give Zoe a chance to go outside. So, as perverse as it sounds, I'd prefer a direct hit to a near miss on either side. I also think a direct hit means less total time exposed to high winds.

I got a call from Paul last night. I think he was somewhat amused that by staying up here to avoid hurricane season, one came looking for me. But, as he likes to say when something bad happens, "it's better this way." Just think about it, I get to test out the boat and my anchors without having to go anywhere.

Hurricane Irene

I'd hoped to slowly break-in the boat, but I guess this is as good a time as any to make sure my ground tackle -- anchor and assorted chain, lines, etc. -- is hurricane proof. All the models over the last several days indicate she's going to pass just east of us, if not directly over.

I think we're in a good spot, but the riding sail isn't working as well as I'd hoped. She's still hunting from side to side, and in a heavy wind, that can put a lot of force on the anchor, chain, and especially the deck fittings. There are a few things I can do to both minimize the hunting and strengthen the attachment points, so I'll work on that over the next couple of days.

My only other concern is storm surge which could increase the depth to over 30'. I have a lot of chain, so I'll try to let out enough to keep a 7:1 ratio even at 30', which is 210' -- I carry 200' of chain and another few hundred feet if nylon rode. I just need to make sure I'm not too close to other boats. I was planning to pick up another 50' and a swivel, so I'll see if I can do that today or tomorrow.

To reduce hunting, I'm considering setting another anchor and adding a weight and sea anchor (probably just a bucket) to the anchor chain close to the bow. This should slow it down enough to allow the riding sail to kick in and swing the stern around. We've got a lot of wind again today, so I've got plenty of time to play with it.

Once I have a good idea of where she's going to pass, I can also set another anchor off the bow at about a 45 degree angle. That should help both hold her and drastically reduce hunting. However, I need to be very careful of other boats close by, since it will reduce my swing. That's the disadvantage of this spot, it's a bit crowded.

I'm also considering removing the sails, or at least the headsail, to help reduce windage. I should probably leave the main bent and tie in a double reef just in case. That way, it'd be ready as a last resort. However, I'd probably remove the cover and lash it down tightly -- otherwise the cover might get blown to pieces.

In any case, the next few days ought to be exciting...

Wednesday Night Races

It's been blowing in the high teens, gusting as high as 30, all afternoon, so I was a bit surprised to a bunch of sails out in the bay this evening. That is, until I realized it was Wednesday night -- race night. It's a bit too much wind for me to effectively singlehand in a crowded bay, but these are fully crewed boats and for them, the more wind the better.

As it turns out, I'm more or less anchored on the course. All the boats had to pass within a couple hundred feet us, with one crossing a few feet off my bow. Zoe loved it -- she was hanging out on the foredeck and thought they were coming by to see her.

They all had to round a buoy a few hundred yards south of me, and with the wind coming out of the south, had to tack to it on a close reach, round it, then run back past me. Several of them hoisted their spinnakers as they went by the second time.

I've never had much of an interest in racing, but it sure looked like a lot of fun. I might have to try it sometime. It's certainly a good way to hone your skills.

Moved to Better Anchorage

I went sailing again yesterday to check out the traveler shackle modification I made after the last sail and all went well. The wind died down a little after noon, so I sailed through the channel between the mooring fields and anchored on the other side near the Cove. It's much calmer here and better protected -- and most importantly, no ski boats.

Kieran dropped off my new riding sail this morning, so I'll try it out this afternoon. The wind's picking up and she's starting to hunt, so it should be a good test. I also dumped garbage and picked up 20 gallons of water while I was in. I was down to about 15 or so, most of which I'd collected during recent thunder storms. I need to go pick up some supplies later, so I'll probably bring along the water jugs and get another load -- bad weather might be on the way.

She holds around 70, so including the jugs, I can carry about 90 gallons total. I won't try to fill up completely, but I might as well fill up whenever I go in. Other than some gear for the boat, my biggest concern right now is stocking up on provisions. I'm down to oatmeal, rice, pasta, and some canned tuna.

Hopefully I can pick up some fishing gear too and start augmenting my stores with a bit of fresh fish. I'm going to try to find a Cuban yo-yo, which is just a large plastic disk used for hand fishing -- don't have room on board for rods and reels. In fact I've got way too much stuff on board as it is, mostly supplies for upcoming projects. I'll sure be glad when that's all done.

Sailing on Oyster Bay

I spent most of yesterday sailing on Oyster Bay. I had wanted to sail over and re-anchor closer to the dock so it would be easier to get in and out. I need to get water, provisions, some gear for the boat, and the riding sail when Kieran drops it off, so closer is better. I started getting the boat ready to weigh anchor once I finished breakfast, but there wasn't any wind.

It finally picked up around 1000, so I figured I'd give it's try. However that only lasted for a little while and I was again becalmed out in the middle of the bay. Now, I need to get used to sailing the boat in all conditions, so I played around with sail trim and did the best I could. I'd hooked up the wind vane and used it a little, but once the wind died down, I disconnected it and pulled up the servo rudder so it wouldn't drag. I really need to be out on the sound to test it out, since it's a pain to adjust wind direction with such short tacks in the bay.

After about an hour, the wind picked back up again, and I sailed all around the bay for the next few hours. Unfortunately, the spot where I'd intended to anchor had some buoys marking it off as a managed area, so I ended up re-anchoring in the back same general area once the wind died down again around 1700.

The sailing was good, but I did have a few gear issues, most of which I already knew. However, I did have one surprise. The shackle connecting the mainsheet block to the traveler car has a tendency to release the spring loaded stopper, and allow the car to slide freely to the end of the track.

I'm not sure this is on my list yet, but changing cars and stops, either back to the original type, which where broken, or something else, would require removing the traveler. Since it's such a pain to do, 14 hard to get to through bolts, I'm not in any hurry to pull it off. I'll try to do something with the shackle and see if that fixes it. In the long run, I may go back to something similar to the original setup, but in any case, will need to buy a new car as well as other hardware -- the flow of money is never ending.

After we got back, anchored, secured everything, and took a swim, Michael came over in his kayak and invited over to their boat. He and his wife Roseann live on Center Island and have a 32' Beneteau moored nearby. They had some friends on board and after a while, the wind picked up and we all went for a sail on their boat.

It's always good to see how other boats are rigged, and how others sail. Although their boat's only one foot shorter than mine, mine's considerably heavier. And not just the fiberglass hull and deck, but all the rigging as well. In fact, I was surprised at just how small their lines and wire were. Michael said he figured it was due to earlier boats being over built before anyone really had a good idea of what was absolutely necessary -- no reason to make something bigger than it needs to be. I think that's right, but think it also has to do with the conditions the boat was designed to handle, and I don't think I'd take his across an ocean -- neither would he.

Zoe watch:

Zoe went with us of course, but their little dog growled at her when she came on board. She pretty much ignored him, but now being much closer to land, she whimpered and let it be known, she really wanted to go ashore.

I realized that it was about that time and since Michael had come by right after our swim, she hadn't had a chance to go on our boat. So Michael ferried us to the beach and she went right away. She didn't even make it fully on land. She's really funny, and even though she hadn't been on land in over a month, was much more interested in swimming and pretty much stayed in the water the whole time.

Reefs

I've been working on my running rigging, and now need to sort out my reefing lines. Reefing is the process of reducing sail area. I have roller furling, so I can easily reduce my headsail size by pulling a line and rolling it up a bit. However, reducing the size of the mainsail involves lowering it a little and tying off the cringles to the boom to make the sail smaller.

My mainsail has two reef points with reinforced cringles that each reduce sail area by about 15%, and I have it setup for single line jiffy reefing with the reefing line run back to the cockpit. It seems to work okay, but I want to add a couple fairleads to the mast as well as a couple blocks to help better route the lines and reduce chafe.

I'd used a cheek block on one side of the boom and ran the other directly to a block on deck, but by moving the block to the mast and adding a fairlead on the other side, the line will be self adjusting when the boom moves back and forth as I adjust the sails.

So, now I need to figure out what I need, order it, and get it installed. I think I have most of what I need, but may be missing a few things. I'll also need to remove the solar panel, move the deck organizer, and remount them. I've just been waiting till I had a better idea of where it needed to go.

It's another rainy day, so I might work on a few things in the cabin as well. The list has grown to over 90 items with only 13 completed, but about 21 are of the "would be nice" variety, and most of them won't get done before I leave the area.

Sailing watch:

I'm planning to take a short sail tomorrow and check out a few things. I also want to move to a better anchorage away from the ski boats and closer to the dock. I may make a fuel and water stop on the way, but want to check my tanks first. I won't do that tomorrow if I don't have to.

Alternator watch:

I can't seem to keep the alternator belt tight. I've tightened it several times, and even switched to a shorter belt, but she still get loose after running for a while. I'm going to replace the lock washers today before trying again. Maybe that will help. If not, I may try locktight.

Zoe watch:

She seems to be fully acclimated to the boat now, but still won't go on her own. That's probably a good thing, since it allows me to rinse the deck right away, but it still seems a bit strange.

Collecting Rain Water

It started raining late last night and should continue for a while, so I've been collecting rain water to refill my tanks. I collected a little over a gallon a few days ago during a thunderstorm, but with the constant rain today, I'm collecting about a gallon an hour.

That's not much considering how much rain we're getting -- already several inches -- but without any sails up, all I've got to catch it are a few bowls, a medium size sauce pan, and the drip pan from the oven. At some point I need to setup a better system -- it's on the list -- but this will have to do for now.

I've already filled up one 5 gallon jug, though not completely, and started on the second. Once I get the riding sail up, I think it'll work pretty well too, but I also want a dedicated tarp ready, and some way to siphon water off the mainsail. You just need to let it rain a while to clean the sails before you start catching it. A bucket in the cockpit works well too, but I'm just going to use that water for washing. I normally use that bucket for getting salt water to rinse the decks, so it's not really clean -- the water here is a murky green, not too appetizing.

I might do some work in the cabin today, but with all the rain, I doubt I'll go on deck much. I'll probably just take it easy, collect water, and do some reading.

With all the rain, I'm lucky we don't have many leaks. I've tried not to mention them much lately since it seems like every time I write about how dry the boat is, I find a big leak later that day. The leaks now are still coming from the shot toerail that needs replacing, so there's little I can do other than tape up plastic bags to catch the water. But it's not much.

Saw an interesting video yesterday. It's called "Hold Fast" and is about a group of young people who refit an old boat and sail to the Bahamas. Here's the link:

http://m.boingboing.net/2010/11/05/hold-fast-a-document.html

Can't say I approve of some of their methods for acquiring parts, but it was entertaining and well worth watching.

15 Minute Rule

I recently read about this on one of the cruising sites where they were discussing the challenges faced by liveaboards wanting to do more sailing. The concept is to keep the boat in such a state that it could be made ready to sail in 15 minutes.

This is more or less how we did everything in Corps, so it's not that foreign to me, but it's still tough to do on a small sailboat. I'm not there yet, but I think I'm getting close, but for me it's a bit more complex. I like to think of it as a matrix of short and long duration, and good and bad weather.

Currently, I'm only okay in the short duration, good weather category. However, once I finish stowing gear down below, hopefully today, I should be ready for short duration, bad weather as well. Of course, I'm only talking normal bad weather, like getting caught out in a squall, not a hurricane.

The long duration sails, at least for me, imply making some sort of ocean crossing, so those require a few more things on my list, e.g., the new forward hatch, so it'll be a while before we're ready for that, but I still like the idea and will try to make it SOP on Aurora.

Riding Sail watch:

I ordered a riding sail yesterday, and it should arrive by the end of next week. I'd wanted to use the sailmaker in Marion who'd repaired my genoa a couple if years ago, but lost confidence in him when he offered to change the size of the sail based on my uneducated comment about it being smaller than I'd imagined.

I was relying on him to design it right in the first place, so his willingness to change it led me to believe he was just guessing. I ended up buying a stock one from a small company in California. I measured everything, and even used some of my old engineering techniques, a free body diagram to sum the forces in each direction, to determine the best angle to sheet it. The California sail will need to be sheeted to one of the aft lower chainplates, which should work out just fine.

Wind vane watch:

I got it all hooked up again yesterday, including a quick release I can trip from a floating line I'll trail behind the boat. I still need to get a float for the end of the line and figure out how long to make it, but at least everything's in place. If I can get someone to go sailing with me, I'll actually test it by jumping overboard -- can't do that test by myself for obvious reasons.

Anchor watch:

I've been having a lot of trouble with anchor chain twist. For whatever reason, the boat seems to have a tendency to rotate in a clockwise direction around the anchor. We've been at anchor for over a month, so she's done it several times since we've been here. I have an all chain rode and use a short 3/8" nylon snubber I attach to my main cleat on the foredeck, so after a few twists, the chain will begin to wrap around the snubber.

Since this could cause chafe and eventually part the snubber, I've cleared it several times by pulling it back in, unwinding, and reattaching it -- I use a rolling hitch. I also added a second line off the snubber a couple days ago, and attached it to my forward lower chainplate in an effort to keep the bow off the wind and lessen hunting back and forth -- similar to what the riding sail will do.

The extra line has helped reduce hunting, but not as well as I'd hoped. Perhaps I need to play around with the lengths. However, it has prevented the chain from twisting around the snubber, which is pretty cool. In any case, I've decided to buy another 50' of chain, for a total of 250', and plan to attach the new chain directly to the anchor and put the swivel between it and the existing chain. I figure that with a 5' draft, I'll always need to anchor I at least 6' of water at low tide. Even the smallest tide will be at least a few feet -- it's almost 8' here -- so if I use and average of 4, that's 10' at high tide, minimum. Given a 5:1 depth to scope ratio, I'd always need to let out at least 50' of chain and could tie the snubber on just after the swivel -- problem solved. The swivel also makes it east to know when you've deployed the minimum amount. I have cloth markers tied at various lengths, but the swivel will be very obvious.

Now, it's a boat, so we'll see, but many people swear by them. However, they tend to attach the swivel to the anchor. I like my idea better, since it's the boat that's rotating around the anchor, not the other way around. Also, most of the chain will be resting on the bottom anyway, which will add additional resistance and may inhibit unwinding. Unless there's a good wind blowing, most of my chain rests on the bottom the entire time.

Long List

I finished making up the list of projects I need to complete before heading south. It currently has 43 items. Some will take only a few minutes, but others might take a few days. I'll need to do a few of them before I can sail anywhere, but many would only be required for a longer offshore voyage.

The new forward hatch fits into this category. While I can secure the old one well enough for most coastal cruising, I wouldn't trust it at sea. A few other items also fit into this category, but most are more about preventative maintenance (PM). Those are typically the small, shorter tasks like putting on wire ties and checking belt tension, etc., but they tend to add up.

Lifeline watch:

As I mentioned before, I finished putting up the netting on the port side the other day, but after thinking about it, decided to redo it. I had planned to replace the lifelines as soon as the rigging went up, but with all the turmoil at the boatyard, didn't have time -- I needed to measure the old ones before I could order new ones, but needed the rigging up first.

After thinking about it a while that evening, I realized that I already had everything I needed on board and could use the wire left over from the rigging to make up both of them. When I ordered the rigging, I got each section a little long and cut it to size myself, but my first couple of tries attaching the sta-lok fittings was unsuccessful, so I ruined the extra wire I'd gotten as well as my new backstay. I eventually got the hang of it and ordered a new backstay -- cost of tuition, just over $100, but much better than if I'd had a rigger do it for me.

Anyway, I had two perfectly good 1/4" wires coiled up in a locker, and as luck would have it, I also had two extra sta-lok fittings -- I'd bought a spare and didn't need the one for the forestay since it already had one. So, I spent yesterday removing the netting from the port side and replacing both lifelines. I even had time to redo the port side netting before it got dark. Actually, I finished in the moonlight. I'll do the starboard side as soon as I finish this post (that's one of the 43 items on this mornings list).

Zoe watch:

She likes to sleep on the coach roof in the shade of the mast or boom during the day, and on the foredeck in the late afternoon and evening -- I sorta like hanging out there myself -- so I'll feel a lot better once the netting is up, and even better one the non-skid is on.

She really hates thunderstorms, and has found a way to crawl up and hide in a bunch of gear stacked on the settee around my table. I guess it's as safe there as anywhere, but once she's there, she can't get out so I have to pick her up to free her. Well, she could get out if she really wanted.

We had another bad one late yesterday afternoon. It pushed us around a bit, but once the wind died down, I went out and took a shower in it and washed out one of my shirts -- Zoe stayed down below.

Riding sail watch:

I took down the storm jib last night after the big thunderstorm rolled through. I don't think it was a severe one, but it was violent enough that we heeled over quite a bit as the wind shifted back and forth. The jib's just too big and too high for strong winds like that. And since the forecast is for more of the same each evening, I decided not to take a chance -- I don't want to blow it out, or scare Zoe. I'll look into ordering one this afternoon.

Riding Sail

It was pretty windy again yesterday, so I decided to try putting up a riding sail. Riding sails help prevent sailboats at anchor from tacking back and forth in the wind. The reason they do this is that they tend to have a lot of windage forward of center, including high freeboard at the bow, and get blown from side to side. This is hard on both the anchor rode and the people down below.

I researched online and found that my storm jib is just about the right size, they recommend anywhere from 5-10% of total sail area, and my storm jib is about 12%. So I hanked it onto the backstay and hoisted it with my main halyard. I secured the tack to the stern pulpit and tried various points forward to sheet her.

It was gusting around 30, so it took a while to get it right, but I finally attached a block to the extra pad eye just aft of the mast, and another on the starboard genoa track and sheeted her to both of them. She settled right down at that point.

Without the riding sail, she would tack up to about 30 degrees or so to each side, but with it only about 5. It also made for a much nicer ride down below. However, she would heel a little whenever the wind would catch the other side of the sail. That probably indicates the sail's set too high. I'll play around with it, but may end up getting one made that's the right size and shape for my boat.

However, I do like the idea of getting some use out of my storm jib. It's original, and other than some rust stains, looks brand new -- I don't think she was ever used, and since she's a hank on and I have roller furling, I can't use her either.

Zoe watch:

She's had some issues the last few days -- perhaps she's getting used to a new brand of dog biscuits or swallowed too much sea water during her swims, I just don't know. She seems to have gotten better this afternoon, but since she's still reluctant to go at all, it might take a few days before I know for sure.

Also, since we go to the foredeck for training purposes, the bad weather has become an issue. Therefore, I decided to go ahead and put the netting back up. It'll make it slightly more difficult to adjust the rigging and non-skid the decks, but at least I won't have to worry quite so much when Zoe wakes me up in the middle of the night, and the wind's howling as we stumble forward in the dark.

I finished the port side and may start working on the starboard side once it cools off a little. However, I decided not to run it all the way around the stern pulpit this time. That would make it really difficult to get stuff in and out of the dinghy -- especially Zoe. I stopped at the last stanchion just aft of my main winches. That way it doesn't interfere with my turning blocks and jib sheets. I'll take some photos later so you can see what I mean.

That still gives Zoe about 6' where she can step over the coamings and jump off. Ever since I started taking her swimming she's been threatening to jump, mostly forward when she's whining and I'm trying to get her to go. She'll stand on the toerail with her front paws and lean out, so I've had to keep her on a leach. The netting should obviate that. Not sure what I'll do in lieu of netting around the cockpit, but whatever it is needs to be easily removable.

Cleaning Day

I finished installing the new batteries and regulator yesterday. Everything went well except for a few sparks and a stripped lug on the starter solenoid. I had to use a die to clean up the threads, but I can't tighten it too much or it'll strip again.

I moved all the other connectors to the alternator so I could get to better threads, but still don't trust it. It works for now, so I'll just have to wait and see. If it won't hold, I'll try to turn it down from 5/16 to 1/4 and re-thread it.

I still need to work on the the battery mounts, clean up wiring, and wire tie everything, but at least everything's working correctly. I also need to permanently mount the solar panel regulator and route it's cable.

However, I think I'll spend most of the day just cleaning up the boat and reorganizing my tools and provisions. During large, multi-day projects, like the one I just completed, everything seems to get turned upside down as I search for buried tools or parts.

Anchorage watch:

Now that I've got dependable auxiliary power, I plan to move to a better anchorage this afternoon. I'll still be in Oyster Bay, but instead of being on the edge of the large open section, where all the speed boats like to race around, I'll be closer to the mooring fields in a narrower section. Hopefully there will be less traffic, or at least slower.

Placed Order

I ordered the new batteries and voltage regulator today, along with a bunch of other stuff I needed, including a new boom vang, dock lines, fenders, and a new forward hatch -- I think the old one would have been unsafe on the ocean.

Since I no longer have an address, I'm having it all shipped to Kieran's house in Huntington. He said he'd bring everything over once it comes in -- hopefully later this week. Living without batteries is getting a bit tough.

As I mentioned in the last post, I had to start using my kerosene anchor light at night. The solar panel puts out enough to let me keep my phone charged and listen to the news on the radio, but otherwise the batteries just won't hold a charge and go dead pretty quickly once the sun goes down.

I can still start the engine if it's sunny and I let them charge for a while, but since I can't count on it, I'm resigned to stay here at anchor until I can replace them.

I'm beginning to run low on both water and food, so I'll probably have to take the dinghy in to get more water and do a bit of shopping tomorrow. I don't think I can wait till the new batteries come in, but with four 5 gallon jugs, I shouldn't have to do it more than once.

Zoe watch:

We try to swim at least once a day, usually twice, and Zoe loves it. I leave her life jacket hanging on the stern pulpit with the tether attached, so all I have to do is put it on her, climb down into the dinghy, then lift her off the deck and into the water. She immediate starts swimming toward shore and doesn't even seem to notice she stops moving as the tether gets tight. It reminds me of those endless pools you see advertised -- she just swims and swims, but doesn't go anywhere.

Of course, I get in and swim with her, but she pretty much ignores me. She's on a mission. After a few minutes, I'll get back in the dinghy, and she'll swim over so I can pull her out of the water and lift her back on deck. I guess it's sorta like going for a walk.