Sandy Hook

We made it to Sandy Hook yesterday, and anchored right as the sun was going down. There was a full moon, but the weather had started to deteriorate a little after noon, so it was completely overcast by the time we got here. The wind picked up a bit too, and is now gusting around 20kts from the east. I'd hoped this spot would offer some relief, but Sandy Hook is too low to provide much protection, so we're getting pushed around a bit.

I wish I could say that the trip was enjoyable, and uneventful, but if I did, I'd be shining you on. I did enjoy it, Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty are beautiful from the water, but with the wind and waves, and especially the wakes from large vessels passing close by, we had engine trouble from start.

We got up before sunrise, weighed anchor, and got underway by 0745. It was blowing about 15kts, and a little choppy, but not bad at all. It took about 30 minutes to round the point at Throgs Neck, where SUNY Maritime is located, go under the bridge, and enter the East River (which isn't really a river a all), but even during that short time, I noticed the engine sounded a little strange -- periodic, short, slight, losses of power.

It didn't take long to realize what was happening. All that bouncing around had mixed up the sediment in the bottom of my fuel tank, and it was clogging the filter, preventing my engine from getting any fuel. At first, It wasn't too bad, so I decided to continue on -- I still had time to turn back and sail out if need be.

However, I got passed by a couple of large, fast moving vessels (for some reason, they only seem to have two speeds, stopped and full throttle). We bounced over their wakes, and the engine began to cut out and almost die. I did what I could to keep her going -- didn't have up any sail or much room either. Luckily, there was a shoal on the outside of the bend on the north side, so we limped over there and anchored.

I quickly changed the filter and bled the petcock -- spilling a bit of fuel into the bilge, but I'll deal with that later. Then, I had the bright idea to check the other filter on the engine. It was fine, but because of how it's made, checking the filter means you have to bleed the air out of the system, which took me another 30 minutes.

At this point, it was already 0930, and I'd wanted to be at Hell Gate by 1011, which was still about 8 miles away, or 2+ hours at the speed I'd been able to maintain. After a bit of thought, I decided to give it a whirl. I wasn't yet at the point of no return, and as the tide turned, I'd be able to pick up speed with the current. Also, the current isn't too bad an hour or so either side of the ebb, so if I could make it by say, 1130, that was still good.

So, I quickly weighed anchor and was underway again by 0945.. Everything went well for the next half hour, but as I approached Riker's Island, an alarm went off. I'd been running her at close to full throttle, 3,000 rpms, and she was overheating. I shut her down, and pulled the engine cover off to make sure I'd reopened the seacock for the raw water intake. I'd closed it while I was running the starter to bleed the fuel lines. It was open, and everything else looked fine, so I left the cover off and restarted her to see if she was still pumping water -- perhaps the impeller had failed.

The alarm was still sounding when I looked over the stern, but she was pumping water just fine. About that time, the alarm stopped, so I left the cover off and got underway again -- there's not much ventilation down there, so I'll have to fix that at some point. For right now, running her at lower speeds or with the cover off seems to work. I also decided this might be a good time to raise the main, just in case. It doesn't take long to raise her, but in confined spaces, every second counts, and anyway, it can't hurt. I got her up quickly and left her up for the rest of the day.

I continued on, passed between the two brothers, and noticed my SOG was averaging better than 6kts. I was overtaken by the Seawolf, a 60+' commercial vessel, between the two bridges off Ward Island, and spoke to him on the radio. I told him I was having some engine trouble, but was okay, and he told me that there wasn't any traffic up ahead and that I should be fine if I stayed off to the side.

A few minutes later, around 1130, I passed under the second bridge and was in Hell Gate. Other than a few small power boats and the Seawolf up ahead, it was wide open. The problem with Hell Gate is the current, which can run almost 5kts, and it makes a sharp turn. It was running around 3knts when I went through and climbing, which was a good thing because it helped me maintain almost 7knts all the way down to the tip of Manhattan.

However, about the time I cleared Roosevelt Island, I passed more boats and the engine problems started again. I didn't actually loose it, but did shut her down once and try to sail. Unfortunately, there wasn't any wind to speak of, however, I was still doing better than 3knts with the current. I restarted her after a few minutes, and she seemed to run fine again until the next guy passed and buffeted us with his wake. I cut back on the throttle, let the boat settle, then continued, which seemed to work fine. This became SOP for the rest of the day -- every time I took a large wake or heard the engine bog down, I'd cut power, let things settle down, the increase throttle slowly -- not only does the sloshing mix up the muck in the tank, it also washes off the filter if there isn't too much suction. I had to do this at least a dozen more times before I got to Sandy Hook, limiting complete failures to only two or three, but she always started back up.

It was a good learning experience, but I think I'll wait a few days before the next lesson. We've got a small craft advisory in effect for at least the next day or so, and I figure it won't lay down enough for me to go out until at least Sunday. I have a few more things I need to do before I go out anyway, so this'll give me plenty of time.

The list is short, but includes securing stuff in the cabin, making final adjustments to the rigging and pinning and taping the turnbuckles, re-rigging my jacklines, and PM'ing the engine again. That's only about a day's worth of stuff, but I've got three, so I'll try to do more planning as well.

Trip watch:

We got a late start on Sunday, 1330, and with little or no wind, only made it back to the mouth of Oyster Bay a little after dark, 1930. We anchored there, and since it was just off the Sound, figured it was a good place to start out for Throgs Neck the following morning.

I fixed a couple rigging problems I'd noticed on Sunday, then weighed anchor and got underway by 0830. We motored out of the bay, and other than the last 30 minutes, sailed the entire way. The wind finally died as we approached Hart Island, so we motored the last mile or so and anchored in Eastchester Bay just north of Throgs Neck right at dusk.

After I shut off the engine, secured everything, and reported my position, I heard water trickling, and upon investigation, found the bilge half full. The stuffing box for the rudder, which always leaked a little, had loosened and was leaking about a gallon or more an hour. Not enough to really worry, but enough I make me go ahead and fix it in the dark. I didn't want to chance getting my feet wet the next morning.

I pulled everything out of the port cockpit locker, and crawled down with my headlamp and a pipe wrench. It was a little tough to get to it due to all the drain hoses in the way -- when I had reinstalled it a few years ago, all the hoses were out. I loosened the locking nut with the wrench, then tightened it by hand and stopped the leak, then re-tightened the locking nut, but it was tough to tell how good of a job I did. I'll take another look from the other side today, but had no leaks on the trip over yesterday.

Zoe watch:

I let her sun herself on the foredeck for the first part of the trip, but as we began to get bounced around, I brought he back into the cockpit, put the life jacket on her and tethered her to the wheel pedestal. I even put mine on once we got into the lower bay, just in case...

I have more Zoe stories, but they'll have to wait till the next update -- including 2 escapes and one dog overboard incident in Huntington.