Not all sailing in this period.
One day was devoted to cleanup after the cruise, replacement of the last cherrywood batten to hold up the cabin liner after installation of the new screens in the salon (Thanks, Tony!) and topping up coolant in the engine.
One day we had a lovely dinner with Craig and Katherine of Sangaris at the Club. I accepted their invitation to crew for them on their passage back to Boca Raton, Florida this fall. I expect this will be about three to five days, to the Chesapeake. The start date is not yet set, but probably sometime in October. So the departure may be while Lene is vacationing with our niece, Yael, in Israel, which will require some cat sitting coordination.
Another day we visited Fran, an old friend, in Kent, CT.  I paddled her canoe around her lake; not sailing, but.....
Lene was somewhat reluctant to come with me and Bennett and Harriet for a week on "On Eagles Wings" in the Virgins at the end of next March, but consented. I always tell her the same thing and it usually turns out true: "For a good time, come with me!" And Bennett advised that he would drop off the guests he will have during the first of his two weeks aboard, in Charlotte Amalie Harbor on St. Thomas, rather than on Tortola, sparing us the ferry ride from our flights arrival on St. Thomas, USVI to Tortola, BVI. And more important to me, he has agreed to look into going back by boat from St, Thomas, USVI to Tortola, BVI via St. Croix, USVI. This simplifies our Customs process because we will already be in the USVIs. But the major benefits of the proposed route are first, that it provides for two somewhat longer than usual passages (40 to 50 miles) to and from St. Croix  and second, it will add a "new" island to my travels. The beauty of this route is that the passages have a lot of south and north in them, providing for beamy reaches in the prevailing trade winds from the east. I immediately got out my Puerto Rico and VI chart kit and plotted the courses and their lengths and did some preliminary scouting about the entrances to the harbors, anchorages, restaurants, and shore attractions on St. Croix. I enjoyed this very much and sent off an email to my companions with the fruits of my labor of love.
Also, I have blocked out a date in May 2016 for a lunch with Eve, who with her late husband, Selwyn, have mentored me in sailing. [The word "mentor" derives from a sea story; Mentor was a character in Homers Ulysses, who mentored Ulysses son during his long sea travels.] Eve now lives in Austin TX but is visiting New York and we will pick her up and drive her to lunch with Jim, who has sold his beloved "Aria." So, some bits of advance planning. "Failure to plan is planning to fail."
And I did enjoy three day sails, for a total of 10.25 hours. The first was with Lene and our artsy, facially hirsute friend Jeff, who took this self portrait: his reflection on one of ILENEs shiny dorades.

Wind varied from 5 to 15 knots. We headed up through Hart Island Sound, circumnavigated Execution Rocks counterclockwise, getting around green can 1 off New Rochelle, thence a rather straight shot back through the small passage off Kings Point to Throggs Neck and back to the mooring. A rain cloud to the west looked threatening but passed south of us.

Dinner at the Club was again excellent.

Next came a sail with Lene and our nephew, Mendy, visiting from Israel. Mendy has sailed with us several times including Maine and on Club cruises over the years, and he is stronger than an ox due to excessive workouts in the gym. He did all the pulling and winching. All I need do is train him a little better on which strings to pull, how far to trim them  and why to do so, and he will be an excellent sailor. But for the first two hours the wind was so light that we only made about two knots, though the wind came up at last and we got to 6.5 knots for the return. In hindsight, if we had left two hours later we would have had more fun.
The third sail was an Old Salts Wednesday and provided the best wind of the three. ILENE had a bye day. I sailed with Bennett, Brian, Mike, Morty and Clara on Ohana. Wind was at about 12 knots from the NE and we darted back and forth several times between Throggs Neck and the entrance to Manhassett Bay on near beam reaches, achieving a speed of up to 7.5 knots.

Here is Ohana taken from Deuce of Hearts, sailed by Mark, Richie, Mark and Marsha and Art and Carolyn, who sailed on Deuce of Hearts, we had twelve sailors in the cats roomy cockpit for the after-sail libation. Sunny warm and windy; what more can one ask for!

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The VX One is one the new generation of hybrid racing designs, in this case a design that targets the longer (17 to 19 or 5 to 5.8 meters) dinghy market in the U.S.. The VX One is that modern mashup of dinghy, skiff, and keeler concepts. It borrows most from the skiff world; the fat arse, narrow bow sections, flat rocker, assymetric and roachy full-battened sailplan. To calm it down a bit, it has a lifting keel of about 60 kg (135 lbs.). The VX Ones length, sail area, overall weight and, no hiking assists, it is raced as a hiking sailboat, puts it out there as a modern market alternative to Americas longer traditional hiking dinghy classes; the Lightning, Thistle, and Flying Scot. Conceived and designed by Brian Bennett, with naval architect data crunching by Rodger Martin (who also did the Johnson 18 in the early 1990s) and Ross Weene, the VX One seems to have maintained steady growth in the U.S. since 2011. Though I couldnt find a price on the InterWebs, The VX One seems to be pricier than any of the aforementioned traditional large dinghies, and definitely more balls-to-the-wall than family oriented racing. Is this hybrid concept the way of the future in America small boat racing, where we seem to treasure both stability and performance?

Here is a very nice video of the VX One with the obligatory planing-at-full-speed filling up most of the footage.


Best of VX One Sailing from Ian Maccini on Vimeo.

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Four trips to the boat but only eleven hours work, scraping rust off the anchor chain. It is hard work with a stiff paint scraper and I cut myself one day after which I wore heavy work gloves. The problem is that it takes almost an hour to do a foot of chain and and ILENE has 300 feet, over 100 feet of which are heavily rusted. The guys at the yard told me to buy new chain but I priced it at about $1300 plus tax and shipping. Wow. Keep scraping, Roger! Here are

rusted links draped over my denim clad knee, with "cleaned" links in the upper right. But another guy in the yard suggested a "hot dip" regalvanizing process that can be done by a firm in Jersey City. I checked it out and they will do the job for $350, first using acid to remove the rust and then dipping the chain in  molten zinc to get a good solid coating of it on the chain. So no more scraping for me.
I attended the Interim Board Meeting at the Harlem; a nice dinner as a way  the Club rewards its hard workers with good fellowship and a good meal "on the house!" And they gave out fire-engine-red fleece vests with the Clubs logo. I felt a bit guilty because as outgoing Fleet Captain I did not do much work for the Club in 2015.  I have been searching out a locale for our annual dead-of-winter outing, to take place in February.  Another scraping day was followed by a good brunch at the Club before a visit to the City Island Maritime Museum.  Its collection has evolved a bit in the last couple of years but the highlight was a lecture by the unofficial"Official Historian" of City Island, who is a sail maker by profession. His knowledge of the numerous businesses, their owners and craftsmen and the boats that were built here over the past couple of hundred years is intense, with slides to illustrate most of it. Big names in the history of boat building and sail making worked here. I met two couples of Harlemites and there were about a dozen Corinthians, who invited me to join them for dinner after the lecture. But after brunch and refreshments at the museum, I went straight home and had an apple for dinner.
I renewed my Corinthians membership and signed up for their one week cruise in the Mt. Desert Island region of Maine next July and August. I also joined the Seven Seas Cruising Association, after Bob, of Pandora, had encouraged me to do so for years. It appears that Im eligible for "Commodore" status based on the mileage I have logged off shore and the time spent aboard, but the third requirement for that status is that one be a member in the lesser class for a year. They do a lot of information sharing and I responded to two requests for information, about Angelfish Passage through the Florida Keys and about sailing in Turks and Caicos. I simply referred the questioners to the relevant posts in this blog. And I have spent some time trying to get the Nova Scotia portion of next summers vacation organized. I asked the other members of the SSCA to share their experiences with me and called Landfall Navigation, an excellent chandlery in Stamford CT, who sent me information on the relevant paper charts, published by the Canadian government, that we will need, and cruising guides. And I selected the right electronic chart, but I will not buy charts until next spring; you want them to be as up to date as possible. And I contacted Fernando, who did stainless steel and fiberglass work two winters ago, to get him lined up to repaint the blue boot stripe when it gets warm enough next spring. So work is continuing apace.

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Backing out of the slip was complicated by my failure to untie the steering wheel or the line securing ILENE to the port aft piling. But these got done at 6:45 a.m. at slack water and we were off in dawns early light, down the New,

under the 17th Street bridge without a substantial wait and into the Atlantic for the run down the coast. We were near close hauled on port tack in ESE winds and I had put a reef in the main and used the small jib at first until we switched to the genoa for speed. We were 2/3 of a mile off the coast in water that was 20 to 30 feet deep. And it was a rough ride for the 25 outside miles. The kitties lost their breakfast and had to wait till we got in to be fed. I had thought to be able to sail in through Government Cut, the deep wide channel through the beach into Miami, but the seas were very turbulent with wind-built waves opposing out flowing current and the main could not be kept from jibing so we pulled the sails down and motored the rest of the way. Here is a view out to sea after we were in, with friend Rhonda and Marcs apartment among those on the left side. (See more below.)

The Main Channel through Miami Harbor to the city of Miami is a straight shot continuation of the Government Cut and had five cruise ships lined up on our port side. We got about one third of the way through this wide deep straight two mile long channel when a loud speaker from a power boat with blue flashing lights (law enforcement) got our attention : "TURN AROUND! THE MAIN CHANNEL IS CLOSED EXCEPT TO AUTHORIZED VESSELS!" So we did, and went counterclockwise around the other, south side of Purdy Island, which is loaded with commercial vessels including this large dredge (water is cleaning its teeth),

and west to the City of Miami and the ICW, on which we went north for about a mile under two open low bridges and one high bridge before having to wait ten minutes at the low Venetian Causeway bridge (all bridges to the right).

During the wait, a Towboat US boat came by and hailed us: "Arent you from City Island and the Huguenot YC?" "Yes", I said. It was Billy, formerly in charge of hauling boats at the Huegenot, now working here in Miami. Then it was two miles west to this nice little free anchorage NE of Belle Island, the easternmost of the islands strung together like beads by the Venetian Causeway, where we anchored in ten feet of water with 50 feet of snubbed chain. We are just SW of the huge Sunset Harbor Marina.

Dockage there is $4.00 per foot (and these guys run a whole lot of feet); we pay nothing. At about two pm as we were anchoring, inherently a very busy time, we were hailed by a large white trimaran that was leaving: "Hello Ilene!" We said hello and the lady aboard said "I know you from your blog!" Well lady, if you respond, I will be very pleased to edit this post to include information about you and your boat, where you are going, your home port, etc. Here are some of the other anchored boats, there were a lot more here when we arrived.  You can see a bit of the Venetian Causeway, the low horizontal white line, behind them.

Once settled we were hailed for the third time in an hour by our friend Jerry who with his wife Louise, sailed with us for a week in the British and US Virgin Islands early in 2012. After launching the dink I went to the dock, which Dean had told us about, and brought Jerry aboard for a cup of coffee. On rfeturn i saw a sign on the dinghy dock said that you cant tie up for longer than 20 minutes. Jerry suggested that I ask the police. I did so politely, told him that we were visiting for a few days with friends who live here and wanted to go to dinners, the beach, sightseeing, shopping, etc. He said that the sign is to inhibit live aboards who stay here all year and those who leave their boats at the dock for a week while they fly north for the holidays: "Dont worry, you wont be towed." "Thank you very much officer."

The twin engine police boat is at the dock, the police station to the right and a ramp to the left is used by stand up paddleboarders.

That evening we were picked up by Rhonda and Mark and taken to their condo overlooking the Atlantic,

Government Cut, Fishers island, Biscayne Bay, Coconut Grove (our next stop) and the city of Miami. 
Wow what a view! And the apartment is the height of luxury.They let us take showers, lubricated us and we had dinner with them at Ciba, an Italian restaurant that opened less than a month ago. It has lovely decor, great service and, in our opinion, food that is just not remarkable. Rhonda is a friend of Lene from grammar school; they go back a ways. The girls had a good time together and we guys kept each other amused.

They were flying back to New York for a week the next day and gave us their last night in town, our first, at the end of a full day.

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Well the Labor Day weekend was spent in the Berkshires, welcoming Liannes new puppy, Finn,  who I call "two pounds of cute fluff"

and visiting her new grandson, Jude.

Ilene climbed with me to the top of Monument Mountain, just north of Great Barrington so we know that her recovery from the removal of the tumor from her lung is making great progress. And I spent at least a day trying to get her medical insurance restored after a foul up of monumental proportions. But this is a sailing blog so lets get to it.

Well actually I did more working on the boat than sailing during this period: 24 hours of work spread over five days, two of them with helpers: Peter, who sailed with me from Virginia to Tortola in November 2010, at the outset of this blog, and our nephew Mendy, who washed the black streaks from the freeboard with salt water while

standing in the dink, and got a sunburn  (and my gratitude and a steak dinner) for his efforts. This working time compared to only 11 hours underway on four days. Such a sailing ratio, once per four days, is below average, but an unfortunate necessity when preparing to go cruising

We got the dink fully inflated after obtaining its parts and accessories from several places, and got it hoisted and secured to its davit bar after Mendys work. I did a lot more sanding and varnishing of the teak cockpit table, the 13 new brass switch plates and the 21 old brass trim rings for the overhead lights after the green corrosion was sanded off. The single biggest task involved the handles used to protect against accidental turning on of the cabin sole lights by brushing against that switch at the companionway, for which new holes had to be drilled.

Another major project was the installation of a "T" valve to be able to divert fresh water from the water maker to the starboard water tank. Peter helped me on this which required removal of the cabin sole to run the pencil thin low pressure black hose from port to starboard, tie it to larger hoses with wire wraps, figure out how the valve worked and attach it to a much bigger and more solid hose so it wont bounce around, and removal of  the aluminum viewing port from the top of the starboard water tank, drilling holes in it, and using blue liquid gasket material to seal the fitting to it and it back onto the tank. Peter also winched me to the top of the mast to inspect and adjust the genoa halyard and this time I got in a photo op of the Club from about 62 feet above sea level, but at low tide.
I also refilled the propane tank and re-installed it in its newly waterproofed locker and took the life raft off the boat to Westmarine to be sent to the repacking company which should be done every three years -- but we have "used" it for four. And while in such a mindset I checked out the inflatable life vests. Ive learned his should be done annually but had never done this before! A decade! The CO2 cartridges are corroded beyond repair and one needs to be replaced. But even worse, the other vest, when inflated by blowing through the tube, failed to hold air -- it was down to 1/3 of its air after an hour. So a new one has been ordered plus a two million candlepower flashlight for finding ones mooring at night.

Getting the dink hung aft and the propane filled really reminded me that cruising is right around the corner.

Oh yeah, some sailing days were fun too.
First with Lene, Cynthia, who sailed with us earlier this summer and has moved to Israel, and Rhonda,

a friend of Lenes since third grade, shown here at dinner at the Black Whale after sailing. The three ladies chatted the entire time, moving gracefully out of my way from time to time as needed for my sail handling. In modest winds we hit a tide assisted 8.1 knots under main and small jib enroute to the far side of Manhasset Bay.
Next, Lene came with me and Peter, who later spent a day working with me and Debbie,

our Rabbi, during which we got to Matinecock and back, with Peter at the helm most of the way.










The excitement on this trip was a "hat overboard" drill during which we successfully retrieved Peters expensive Tilley hat. This picture was taken before it went swimming.

The ever lovely Lene on the leeward side, with Debbie and Peter

I also sailed for a couple of hours aboard Bennetts Beneteau, to Great Neck on the east side of Stepping Stones, and back, in about four knots of wind. Upon returning I joined Morty and Clara, Mike and Sandy and Richie and his friend Charley, a survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor, for refreshments aboard "Easy Living." The Wednesday afternoon ritual.
Finally, on one of the work days, after completion of the chores, Rhoda came out and we had the best sailing, due to stronger winds from just a bit east of south. After close reaching it out of Eastchester Bay on port tack, we got on starboard and made it to green can "1", NE of Stepping Stones before returning via Hart Island Sound.

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Three visits to ILENE for a total of 14 hours during this period.  I lowered the chain from the boat to the ground, loaded it into a yard cart, and from there to a cardboard box in the cargo area of our mini SUV. An estimated 200 pounds, but easily movable, a few feet of links at a time. A few days later I drove to Jersey City and located Nicholas Galvanizing, in a thoroughly industrial area by the Hackensack River. Its staff slid the box off the back of my vehicle onto a wooden pallet to be moved by fork lift. The chain should be nice and shiny and protected for another 16 years soon after 2016 starts. While in Jersey I enjoyed a delicious, leisurely, Thai lunch in Berkely Heights with Jim, formerly of s/v "Aria", who is now sadly too disabled to sail. He gave me three excellent sailing books including Nigel Calders maintenance bible.
On the first of my three boat visits I also took most of the three bladed feathering propeller off its shaft, to be sent to its manufacturer, PYI, on the west coast, for refurbishment. Before going, I watched PYIs how-to video -- four times -- took notes and called the company to speak to the demonstrator, three times. But he demonstrated the disassembly of a shiny new prop and the video left out some pre and post steps. The parts are held together with ten Allen Head bolts. These are locked in place with tiny cut-off half length cotter pins inserted through holes in the sides of their heads, which pins were encrusted in place with layers of paint. By use of the scraper, ice pick and needle nose pliers, the pins came out. Also, I knew that unlike his model, my prop was loaded with heavy grease because I had pumped it in each year through zirc fittings. So I had a lot of rags and paper towels and Fantastic to get the grease off and into a plastic bag. And after the end of the video, the props central hub has to be removed by first removing two rods that hold a locking bolt on the tail end of the shaft in place, unscrewing that bolt, which required no tools, and then sliding the hub aft, off the shaft. The bolt removal was accomplished during my second visit, and that is when I ran into a problem for want of a tool that costs several hundred dollars but that I needed to use only once: a prop puller. But I met with Fernando at the boat to plan a big job that he will do with me: sanding off and spraying on primer and two coats of Awlgrip paint to renew the dark blue decorative boot stripes around the boat, just above the water line. Fernando did excellent work in repairing ILENEs stainless steel and fiberglass which were damaged by a hit and run at the mooring one night in the fall of 2013. In addition to telling me that the bottom is not ready for barrier coating but requires thorough sanding, a lot of sanding, he put me onto the man who does the diving work and other work for many folks at the Huguenot, Brian McCauley, who was present and who has a prop puller. The job will take only ten minutes and of course I was prepared to pay for his services, but he said he would just leave the tool under ILENE, so I could do the job myself and would pick up his tool later -- at no cost! Thanks Brian!
On my third trip the tool was there but I had to loosen the Spurs line cutter to fit the forward end of this tool at the forward end of the hub. This required a spraying of penetrant and then heat from the heat gun, but was accomplished and then the puller did its job, easily. Here are the pieces of the prop, except the bolt, at home, awaiting shipping.

I have also taken out four of the smallest pieces of the cabin sole, and done two of them, the ones that collar the mast. I sanded them down on the sides to make them a bit smaller so they will fit better, let them dry thoroughly and applied two coats of spray-on low-gloss polyurethane to their sides and bottoms, to seal out water, which drips from the mast boot, making this a damp area, and finally, lightly sanded their top surfaces, and applied the plastic paint. It looks good, so I can now do the rest of the cabin sole, piece by piece.
Also, the new teak flagpole, to which I had previously applied many coats of varnish, is finally complete: I got a 5/16th inch Phillips head bolt and after first using the Dremel tool to grind a flat spot on the side of the chrome plated brass base into which that bolt goes to hold the pole in it, I drilled a hole through the base at that flat spot,  and into the wood. A snug fit resulted, but removable, so that the new flag will not get torn to shreds in storms. And pole and flag will not be blown away again, as the combination did during a windstorm in Fort Lauderdale last winter.

I had two other ashore days in addition to the day of the drive to New Jersey. One consisted of about six hours at home on the computer and phone. In addition to learning from PYI about the prop disassembly, I called three potential sites for this winters Harlem winter excursion. The US Merchant Marine Academys Museum at Kings Point, directly across Long Island Sound is not available this year. The other two candidates were the National Lighthouse Museum, a short walk from the ferry terminal, and the Noble Maritime Collection at the Sailors Snug Harbor, about a ten minute bus ride from that terminal on Staten Island. After reading as much as I could and talking with all three places, I spent a day on Staten Island checking out both sites for that I have now called "The Harlem Yacht Clubs Fifth Annual-ish Dead-of-Winter, Out-of-Clubhouse, Salt Watery/Maritime Learning/Social/Dining Excursion".  The Lighthouse Museum is planning a major expansion over the next couple of years so I decided to wait until it is complete. For 2016 The Noble Maritime Collection is the winner and the event is being offered with an additional attraction -- two optional free boat rides -- on the Staten Island Ferry! For those who prefer to drive, it requires getting to Long Island and then crossing the Verranzano Bridge with its $15 toll, though parking is free.
The Noble Maritime Collection is a little gem of a museum located on the site of the Sailors Snug Harbor, formerly an old age home for destitute, family-less, worn-out seamen. The Snugs, as residents were called, were offered a comfortable somewhat spartan free ride. I have characterized it as a way station on their route from their life at sea to Fiddlers Green. Ciro, the Associate Director, opened the place for me on a weekday, when it is normally closed, so I could scope it out to describe it to the Harlemites. More on this place after Sunday, February 21, when the excursion is now scheduled. Ciro also put me onto Blue, a nice waterside (to the Kill van Kull) restaurant less than a quarter mile away, where the dining portion of our excursion will take place, at prices that are comparable to those at the Clubs dining room.
I checked out my friend Bobs blog: SailPandora. When I left him in Hampton, VA he was excitedly planning his cruise to the Caribbean. But a delayed start due to weather and then possible mechanical problems early on the route to Tortola forced him to divert to Beaufort NC; he had lost the availability of his crew and the good weather and was compelled to change his destination to Florida and the Bahamas, where he has been the past two seasons. He did find friends to help him jump the boat from Beaufort to Florida and is now back in CT with Brenda and family before rejoining Pandora in the first days of 2016. As a man of my own passions, he likes to have new horizons in his sights. Currently he has an application pending with the US Government for a permit to visit Cuba. He is applying under the journalism category and has submitted his blog as the journal in question with the hope that the government reviewer of his application has a sense of humor, because he injects a lot of humor in his postings; would that I could be so witty. He also hopes that the reviewer is a sailor who can understand the difference between beating into the wind and letting it push you from behind; due to the prevailing winds being almost always from the east, he prefers a clockwise circumnavigation of Cuba, departing from the Bahamas and returning to Key West. However, the regulations seem to suggest that at a U.S. registered boat he can only visit Cuba leaving directly from a U.S. port, without a stop in another nation. I sure hope Bobs plans work out.

And speaking of plans, I also spent some time learning more about ILENEs proposed summer cruise to the Bras Dor Lakes at the NE end of Nova Scotia. The SCCAs journals include one account of a voyage to Nova Scotia from Mount Desert Island, Maine, in 2002. Old, but while the shoreside amenities may have changed, the waters and rocks do not change that fast. The 18 foot tides of the Bay of Fundy, which we experienced on our voyage to Eastport, Maine in 2013, do not extend to the ocean or Atlantic side of that Province, where six foot tides, comparable to those at the Harlem, prevail, I am told. And  the distance from Northeast Harbor in Mt. Desert Island to the check-in town in Nova Scotia is 165 nautical miles, which I compute as about 24 hours at 6.5 knots. So an overnight sail is in order. With tidal currents running swiftly around Nova Scotias SE cape, its a passage that has to be carefully timed and on a good weather day. I think we can get nearly a month in Nova Scotia between our scheduled arrival in Maine in late June and the beginning of the Corinthian cruise in Mt. Desert Island starting July 25. My mate is not yet totally committed to this summer float plan

(the other two crew members do not have votes) but I am continuing to plan for Nova Scotia and my gal usually comes around once she can see the fully thought out plan with enough safety lay days to avoid problems. Wish us luck, both Pandora and ILENE.

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This is a good video if you can block out the time - 40 minutes. A duo spend two weeks going around a natural circular body of water in central Quebec, formed by the impact of an asteroid.

From the blurb accompanying the video:

"The Eye of Quebec (Lac Manicouagan) is visible from space as a perfectly ring-shaped lake. Its center island is far larger than the water that surrounds it. 100km in diameter, it is the fourth largest meteor impact site on earth. We sailed around it and think that was the first ever circumnavigation of the reservoir under sail and oar. (We can find record of two other sailboats that have attempted the trip. While were not sure of their success, both appeared to carry auxiliary engines. If it wasnt the wind pulling us it was our backs.)

Three years ago, when John and I drove the Trans-Labrador highway, we camped one night on the shores of the great Manicouaga and it captured our imaginations. Finally, this year, aboard the expedition re-fitted Wayfarer 4610, we made the voyage. We were on the water for about twelve days after a two day drive north. It is an astronomically great lake.

We camped ashore every night, and packed nearly 100 Ibs of dried food for the journey. We wore drysuits most of the time, cause the weather was typically cold and wet!

Circumanic Higher Res from Scott McDougall on Vimeo.

More information on the "Eye of Quebec" from Wikipedia.

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At this years Classic Moth Nationals we had a marine layer settle in Saturday night, giving us fog on Sunday morning, a rare event for Elizabeth City, North Carolina. The fog started to creep out towards Pamilco Sound around 9 a.m. and racing commenced, on time, in sunshine.

I took a couple of photos.

The fog didnt stop the sailors kibitzing about Mothboats.

Two transoms in the mist. The Laser transom of the Maser and the wide Europe Dinghy style transom of the Mousetrap Mistral.

The view from the Pughs pier.

The original post of the 2015 Classic Moth Nationals can be found here.

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A study in contrast: Annapolis is a hub of bustling high powered big money sailing activity, especially during the sailboat show, which this year coincided with a big Navy football game and the Columbus Day weekend: the busiest weekend of the year. The Rhode River, where this is being written, is the antithesis of this: no hustle, no bustle, we are on our anchor in complete solitude far from any other boats, after a twelve mile motor passage in light winds on a cold day in varying heavy to light rain. No wind ruffled the waters here last night or this morning..

The Rhode River was also the destination of the first voyage we ever made aboard ILENE -- at the beginning of our first season with her, also from Annapolis to here. But that night, in late April 2006, was a rough one. The wind turned from south to north, putting us close to the lee shore instead of sheltered in its lee and big wind caused waves that clanged our unsnubbed anchor chain against its roller, sounding like someone was taking a sledge hammer to the boats metal bowsprit. Last night, with better weather forecasting, all was calm, and the same lee protected us from the gentle southern winds.

In Annapolis we had breakfast both days at Grumps, discussed in the prior post, with Manu and Michelle, the sailing duo who we met in St. Martin, on several other Caribbean Islands, up the Hudson and in NYC where they have stayed in our apartment and sat our cats. They were staying on a catamaran with Vince but moved to our boat’s aft cabin for our last night in Annapolis before driving their car south to rejoin their boat, “Teepee,” which is on the hard in Florida. Saturday was rainy and drizzly so we stayed aboard for the most part, did a lot of paperwork that we brought from home and took in a movie in the evening.

Sunday we went to the boat show and it is far too big to see in only one day, much less in the five hours I spent there.  I had planned to dink across Back Bay to its north side and then walk for 20 minutes or so to the show. But the dinghy engine was still not fixed and I recalled the mechanic’s voice: "it might still have a problem in its fuel pump". So I hitch hiked and Lene got a ride from Manu and Michelle after they helped her drop off the one-way rental car from NY.  The water taxi brought us back for only $6 per person.

At the show, I boarded only two of the hundred or so boats present: One was the Jeanneau 44 RDS (raised deck salon), similar, I would have thought, to the Jeanneau 43 RDS we saw -- and thought of buying -- when we were at this show in 2005. But not really, because the concept of a RDS has apparently changed in the last nine years. Then, the boat’s cabin’s salon sole was a step or two up, permitting the persons seated at its dining table to look out of wraparound windows on both sides and forward.  The new concept RDS does not raise the sole and the windows, though large, are only on the two sides, not forward. Persons seated at the salon dining table have to stand up to see out. I’m glad we got the Saga.

 The other boat I toured was the Moorings 48, a catamaran: These are immensely popular in the islands but I had never been on one and Lene met a guy who talked up catamarans so I had to take a look. The big advantage is that the tremendous width of the boat means it does not heel much. Each of its two hulls is divided into two cabins, one forward and one aft,  each suitable for two persons and each with its own identical head and shower. The second deck is the living space which is huge -- I’m guessing about 800 square feet. It has a different feel when sailing. And we don’t know enough people to run a four bedroom hotel. I’m so glad we have ILENE!

The bulk of the time was used visiting a few of the hundreds of vendors of things nautical or tangentially nautical. Lene fell in love with extra absorbent thin cotton towels and they will call to see if they have one left in her color. We bought red LED bulbs, a good paring knife, a waterproof pouch for a cellphone and a scrap of navy blue tape to patch up scratches in out boats name lettering as well as polarized UV protectant inexpensive sun glasses. I met Paul, of our Club, a sailmaker at the booth of Doyle, one of perhaps a dozen sailmakers and sales reps for Pantaenius, our insurer.  I met the manager of North Summit Marina, where we went aground. He told me we could pay half price if we stop there on the way back.

The manager of River Dunes Marina, where we stayed on our way back in the spring of 2012, offered us his card with a two nights for the price of one offer.  A south island New Zealand winemaker gave me samples of her Sauvignon Blanc: first her regular fruity and second the premium dryer wine, while another booth offered a sweetened creamed rum.   We got the name and number of customer service for the manufacturer of our side ports to obtain a replacement for a dog for one of them that broke about four years ago. Numerous publishers of magazines, books, charts were present, as well as manufacturers of specialized hardware, clothing fashions and shoes.
But the potentially biggest purchase for us could be a new Rocna anchor, like the one on Pandora. We have been offered the boat show price, about ten percent off, with free shipping. Lene really went for this item which means greater peace of mind when at anchor because of the way it grabs the bottom fast and holds. We have a call in to Pandora’s Bob, to determine the proper size and hence weight and to find out if the pattern for the specially made brackets is available. No trade in because the Rocna has become so popular and highly recommended by impartial sources that no one wants the old ones.

Jim and Ann invited us to a delicious dinner at their apartment and also invited Manu and Michelle as well as Ann’s friend Carolyn. A lovely land base evening spiced with talk of the sea.

Michelle, Manu, Ann and Jim

With help from the mechanic at A&B Yachtsmen, we have ordered a new carburetor to be delivered to us by Fedex, care of John, a former Harlemite who was part of the group that took Nick out of the Hebrew Home for the Aged for a sail during the summer (See Blog).  John lives in Cambridge Maryland, on the eastern Shore, and that town is our next stop, about 34 miles from the Rhode River.

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Miami, including the separately incorporated city of Miami Beach, is the largest city on our trip, by far. It is very much like New York, except for the temperature. Chock a block high rises, crowded urban density, traffic and parking problems, construction blocking streets frequently, lots of high income and low income people, lots of culture and a heavy Hispanic and Jewish component of the population. And while there are lots of old folks like us
down here, there are also a lot of young people in Miami Beach. Possibly the similarities are because so many retired New Yorkers have moved here -- also a lot of Canadians.
What made our stay so special -- and so long -- was the hospitality of our friends, Jerry and Louise. We swam in the surf and the pool of their condo. Those are kite board sails not gargantuan seagulls

We did our laundry there, took several showers and were ferried everywhere by auto. We had one dinner at their home, one with them and their friends, Harvey and Phyllis, at a new eclectic restaurant on Indian Creek Road at 27th Street.

From the left: Harvey, Phyllis, Jerry, Lene and Louise

and were invited with them to a lovely party of about forty people in another apartment in their building. We also had pizza with them one night and burgers at the highly rated B&B restaurant near us, which took two hours! So thge place is not highly rated by us.
They introduced us to stand up paddleboarding (SUP), which Lene frequently malaprops as "waterboarding;" Vive le difference! This was at Oleta State Park, several miles north of the city. Lene proved adept at this new (for us) sport. Im a slower learner. I had no problem climbing up onto the board, raising myself to my hands and knees and then to an erect position. But each of the ten times I did this, after a few strokes with the long paddle, I tilted it and fell off. Next time, Im told, I should keep my feet closer to the center of the board rather than toward its sides. And there will be a next time because we have rented an inflatable board (lashed to the starboard rails) and paddle until we get back here in about six weeks on the way home. Pictures of it, on board ILENE and in use, will be shown in next post. Jerry and Louise are also avid cyclists and Jerry is to lead his bike club on a 26 mile bike tour from Coconut Grove soon. One afternoon I rode shotgun with him in their car, calling out the 45 turns to be made during this bike trip.
Our anchorage was very close, walking distance, to many of the attractions of the downtown area in addition to both Publix and Fresh Market, a gas station, Chase Bank, dry cleaners and many restaurants.  The sights we visited were the dramatic Holocaust Memorial

and the Miami Beach Botanical Garden











 (very small but well done with about fifteen stops where you hear a recorded explanation about the fauna at that location on your cell phone).

Lene with giant banyon

We also saw The New World Symphonys hall, where they show movies for free on the huge white wall to people like us who sat on the lawn in front with a terrific audio system, and Lincoln Road Mall, a street closed to vehicular traffic and filled with shops and restaurants. We had lunh at Yuca, (Young Urban Cuban America). We are urban and American so meet only half the requirements, but they let us in and the food was good, including. for me, a  Media Noche sandwich which though called "midnight" they served for lunch.
The movie, shown for free en plein air on the large exterior wall, was "Hole In The Head", a Frank Sinatra comedy of the late 50s, which seemed uniquely appropriate to the setting because Frank played a down and out widowed playboy hotel owner in Miami Beach with a young son. The titles were aerial shots of the beach with banners towed by those beach banner planes spelling out such things as "Directed by FRANK CAPRA." It was not a great movie, saved by the performances of Edward G. Robinson and Thelma Ritter, but the experience was terrific.
At the near end of Lincoln Road, which is only about five blocks long, is a eighteen screen movie house in which we saw Unbroken, Top Five and Selma; a movie binge after a long drought along the way.
Boat chores accomplished during our stay here included sewing the sides of the zipper at the top of the stack pack to the sides of the bag. The stitches got torn out when I forget to fully open the zipper and raised the main with the electric winch; it is so strong that the sails leach pulled the stitches out, which is not god for the sail either!
I also had to take out the interior panels of the big lazarete to locate and fix the fresh water plumbing which is hidden behind the largest and lowest such panel. We noticed that the fresh water pump did not shut off after the faucet was shut off (because, due to the leak, pressure never built up) and Lene heard a flow of water after we turned that pump off. Yes, one of the short pieces of hose that I had attached last winter had come off, so the pump was pumping our fresh water into the bilge. I added a second hose clamp to each end of that two inch long piece of rubber hose and put back all the wood panels with the eighteen screws.
While the title of this post says we traversed zero miles, we actually did motor about 2.5 miles, from one side of Belle Island to the other.

First we went west along the north side of the the Venetian Causeway (the road connecting the row of six man made islands across the center of the chart) to its low opening bridge, at its Miami (left side) end, and then back east along the causeways southern side to the Miami Beach end (right side). We started a bit northeast of Belle Island, the easternmost of the string of man made islands that the causeway connects, to end up just south of Belle Island, just .4 miles away. We passed the Flagler monument, on the tiny island to the northwest of the blue (shallow spot in the middle of the right side of the chart.

Before the move we were about 100 yards west of the police dinghy dock (just below the small rectangle in the upper right) and afterwards we were almost half a mile south west. The reason for this change of venue was the weather.  The original anchorage was crowded making it difficult to put out enough chain to feel secure without bumping into nearby boats when swinging on the anchors. And with predicted winds gusting to 30 knots from the north, this problem would have gotten worse. On the south side, there is a lot more room between the boats and we were in the lee of the island which protected us from the strong winds.
Next stop: Dinner Key, known as Coconut Grove to land people, less than ten miles away.

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Yellow boat 4 mostly Hobby King bits balsa epoxy fiber glass hull 
http://kiwitricopter.blogspot.co.nz/2012/09/3-hour-yellow-boat.html



Twin Turnigy 450 Series 3800KV Brushless Outrunner Helicopter Motor
RPM: 3800kv
Max Current: 35A
Max Power: 365W

2 X HobbyKing 30A BlueSeries Brushless Speed Controller with shared enlarged air cooled heatsink with an 30mm fan
Cont. Current: 30A
Burst Current: 40A
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewitem.asp?idproduct=13429&aff=652823


coupled to modified NQD jet drives with flex shafts and custom 3 blade impellers 

ZIPPY Compact 2700mAh 3S 25C Lipo Pack
Capacity: 2700mAh
Voltage: 3S1P / 3 Cell / 11.1V
Discharge: 25C Constant / 35C Burst
Weight: 203g (including wire, plug & case)
Dimensions: 137x15x44mm
Balance Plug: JST-XH

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewitem.asp?idproduct=21349&aff=652823

Purau
https://www.google.co.nz/maps/preview#!q=Purau%2C+Canterbury&data=!4m15!2m14!1m13!1s0x6d322f14fc09c6a3%3A0x500ef868479e4b0!3m8!1m3!1d338144!2d175.3085223!3d-37.6203018!3m2!1i1366!2i642!4f13.1!4m2!3d-43.6390402!4d172.7489035

Yellow boat 4 FPV camera view Purau New Zealand 2-1-14 from nickatredbox on Vimeo.

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ILENE is sitting on her mooring while we are cruising from Amsterdam to St. Petersburg and back on the Celebrity Constellation along with our brother and sister in law, Mike and Linda, and 2030 other folks, the boat being filled to capacity -- plus near 1000 crew. She is 965 feet long; her beam is 105 and her draft is 26. And she outweighs ILENE  9100 to 1.

Our cabin, though on starboard, was third deck, the second row of  large round portholes (just below the life rafts, about three forward of the very large ones portholes under the enclosed exterior black elevators.

Roger, Mike, Lene and Linda with cast on her arm

This is our sixth cruise -- almost all with my brother and or Lenes, and their wives. The pleasure of behemoth cruising pales compared with cruising ILENE. The big advantage of the big boats is they go to places that we will never otherwise get to and the hotel is moved at night while you sleep with no watches to stand or navigation issues to resolve and there is no packing, unpacking and getting to and from airports or railroad stations. Food is prepared and served, the room is professionally cleaned by our smiling steward who remembers my name and there are countless and varied shipboard entertainments.

We have missed about half of the evening night club-like shows. This is partly because we are day people to which night clubs are less of an attraction and partly due to our proximity to the land of the midnight sun. One night we got to the theater after dinner and saw that the show was wrapping up. "Well stay for the second show," said I. "This is the second show" was the response. But while it was almost 11 PM,  it was still light outside, creating the illusion of 7:30. The traditional "sailors midnight", i.e., sundown, gets thrown out the window here.

The food, while good, has never again achieved the dazzling excellence that we recall from our first such cruise of the Eastern Caribbean on a Princess ship about fifteen years ago. The excellence of that first time experience may be a creation in my mind, and back then I ate like a pig while now I am conscious of a desire to limit the number of pounds that this vacation will add to my personal tonnage. (Actually, my first weighing after returning home showed a gain of seven pounds.) Mercifully, the "midnight buffet" is a thing of the past, a victim of both cost cutting and peoples increasing consciousness of the perils of extreme obesity. But the buffet is open about twenty hours per day.

This boat was built twelve years ago but was recently refurbished and looks pristine. Newer ones have larger gyms to accommodate a greater percentage of health conscious cruisers. We took in a stretch class almost every morning and  worked out in the gym and visited to the sauna or steam room almost every day.

Too many of the "entertainments" are infomercials for the products and services that the ship is forever trying to sell. I have a personal prejudice against being "sold". When I want something, Ill ask for the help of the salespersons suggestion. But unsolicited sales help makes me less likely to buy the advertised product or service. On the boat they have art lectures to try to sell you art, gaming lessons to try to increase their casino business, tours of the galley to try to get you to dine, for additional fees, in the several specialty dining rooms which used to be free, and lectures on wines and liquors to induce sales of drinking cards. We are very poor customers in the eleven different bars because the two women do not drink at all and Mike and I have only a very occasional beer or glass of wine. And we have not patronized the mall of shops. And the ships land excursions are very heavily promoted too, and not a good value. I learned from my brother, Allen, years ago, that especially when you have a group (we are four) you can do better with your own locally sourced tour guide or taxi driver than with the expensive tours that the boat pushes. This lesson was driven home in Amsterdams airport, where we met a Celebrity greeter who told us that their special private direct shuttle to the boat cost only $38.00 per person.  But Mike told us the better way. The local railroad station runs under the airport and for $4.00 you get a ticket to Amsterdams central station with only a beautiful fifteen minute waterfront walk to the boat.

My three companions love to play cards and are quite good at this; they like to play with me because I am a good loser. Lindas arm was in a sling this whole trip and I became her "card holder".

The best thing about cruising the sailing vessel ILENE is that we can make our own schedule. If we like a place we can stay a while. If storms threaten, we stay put. Before I was retired I did not have the benefit of almost unlimited time. Neither does Constellation. She is on an extremely rigid fixed schedule with one "day" in each port except two in St. Petersburg and this cruise has four "at sea" days among the twelve.  Many people do not like these "at sea" days but as long as I have my book and good companions, they are fine by me. And we will end up having visited seven nations, six of which are new for me.

The exception is Germany, birthplace of my father, in which, during a Danube River cruise a few years ago, we visited Regensburg and Nuremburg, in the southeast. This voyage included a lengthy fifteen hour visit to the seaside resort town of Warnemunde, near the ancient Hanseatic League port of Rostock, in the northeast.  That day our dockside visit extended to midnight to accommodate more than half of the passengers who took a seven hour round trip bus ride costing about $200 per person in order to spend a few hours in Berlin. We took a ferry from our dock in Warnemunde  to the heart of Rostock for $10, and after several hours of wandering among the churches, 

Huge organ above clock

Clock with 135 year calendar

gates to the ancient city,

its galleries, university etc.

A $3 train ride brought us back to Warnemunde. I was quite conscious that this was my first ride on a train in Germany, but this was not in a cattle car. Germany is indelibly stained in my mind by its Third Reich, and I cannot help but look for references to this abhorrent period. But I found none here in Rostock other than the account for what had been rebuilt after the bombing of 1942.

They reverse our "red, right returning" rule in the placement of the buoys in the Baltic.

This is the former communist East Germany but the spirit of capitalism is thriving with innumerable food, lodging, clothing, novelty, souvenir and every other type of store. The volume of the shipping traffic past our boat including both freight and passenger boats plus many sailboats from marinas in this port was very heavy. This and the next picture are from the top of the old lighthouse

Warnemunde is a beachfront resort. I just liked the looks of this Dutch style gaff-rigged low-aspect ratio sloop with her brown leeboards up (instead of a keel).

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All good things must end. Having lived aboard during the first 146 days of 2015, during last winters Florida adventure, 2015s boat days will be a good number. (See next post.) The twelve day period reported on in this post saw (A) ILENEs final three sails, (B) four work days and (C) GOC.
Lets start with the sails. One was with Rhoda and Lloyd, of the Harlem. We have sailed with many times in the past. We were underway about four hours, and I confess that due to poor note taking, the wind and our course regrettably escape me.
Next was with four residents of my apartment building. I started out planning to sail with Dorothy, who is a fellow client of our personal trainer. That morning he mentioned that another couple in our building who trained with him, Mort and Rollie, had said they would like to sail some time. "Call them right now and ask about today; we leave at noon!" He did and they are in! But Dorothy was not feeling up to it today and requested a rain check for next season. "Sure." And now, including me, we are down to three souls. But on my way back to our apartment I saw Max, who shares a wall with us; he is in the next apartment.  He had to check with Ellen and two minutes later, my bell rang and our party had grown to five. Max purchased a picnic lunch for us all and we ate aboard, before getting underway -- while waiting for wind. Then there was only a ghost of wind, but it built, out of the north, and we got almost to Execution Rocks before heading back. We enjoyed four hours underway and three of the four guests took a turn at the helm. Mort is a professional oenophile who praised the bottle I served aboard and brought another to my apartment to replace it. Rollie, Mort, Max and Ellen:

ILENEs final sail of the season was also the final gathering of the Old Salts, including several of the regulars, and two special guests. We were underway for 3.5 hours, and got about a mile past Ex. Rocks, peaking at 7.4 knots. This was rather amazing given how foul ILENEs bottom was. (See below.) Thanks, Larry, for the next two photos. Here are Dave, Marti and Marcia:

Next is Dave, doing what racers do: checking the sail trim, with Art at the helm

Readers of this blog will recall Marti, who I have named The Goat Lady of Grenada. She has a long history of animal care and is volunteering there to help raise goats to develop a chevre cheese industry. She showered us with such great hospitality there during 2011. I had known that she was coming to the Big Apple for a visit and saw that she had arrived via a Facebook posting. It turns our she was staying in a friends apartment only a block away. I did not have her phone number but instant messaged her at about 10 a.m., and picked her up an hour later. She fit right in and has the ability to do that wherever she is. Our other honored guest was Dave, an excellent racer and now in charge of qualifying members who want to use the boats that the Club owns. I have long desired that he sail on ILENE, figuring I would learn something, and I was not disappointed.

With Lene in Israel, I had no date for the Clubs annual end of season gala, and Marti was able to gin up a suitable outfit despite having left all her dressy clothes in "The G," as she calls Grenada. It was a cool Saturday evening, warmed by the camaraderie of our members. Memorial plaques were set in the flag pole base for Al, a loyal Old Salt who moved to Florida two years ago, Tom, whose death I had not heard about, and Vinny, who I sailed with up the Hudson at the end of the season, perhaps ten years ago. The cocktail hour was long and delicious with good quality wines, and the sit down dinner was also great except for the perennial problem we experience: our kitchen is just not adequate to serve that many people at the same time. Our servers brought eight plates at a time to serve all the people at one table at the same time, but the last table was not served until amore than an hour after the first. The trophies to the winners of the races were duly warded. As Fleet Captain, I described the highlights of the Clubs cruising activities, thanking Bruce and Diane for designing the Club Cruise itinerary. I regret that I forgot to summarize the Old Salts season and to thank Mark for his help in reinvigorating the group.

(The next day was chilly and I escorted Marti on a tour of lower Manhattan via rented CitiBikes, my first experience with this program. I got an appreciation for the problems of cyclists in the City, with the paint marking the bike lanes significantly worn away and motorists infringing them even when marked. The thirty minute time period causes tension - finding the docking stations, though they let you take another bike two minutes after you drop off the last. We used three bikes to get from Tenth St to the Brooklyn Bridge and Chinatown, to the Hudson and Freedom Tower and back, stopping for a warming lunch in Chinatown.)

The first of the work days was the Clubs annual fall work party. I got enlisted into a group of four who painted the yard car,

by which boats on cradles are transported around in the boat yard (parking lot). After about twenty years of service it looks like new. I love these work parties because you get to know people who you only vaguely recognized before. And a delicious free lunch is always served.
Having loaded the two pieces of ILENEs canvas winter cover from the locker to the cart to the launch and to the boat, I motored from the Harlem to the Huguenot, about five miles, in no wind to speak of, entering through the western passage, passing the NYACs club house. After docking I stripped and bundled up the two headsails and removed the battens from the mainsail.
Next day I stripped off the main and after tying it to itself, heaved each of the three huge sail bundles from the boat onto the dock. Then they are, one at a time, lifted into a dock cart, wheeled about 150 yards to the parking lot, lifted into my car and driven to the Doyle sail loft on City Island, for repairs, cleaning, proper folding and winter storage. That same afternoon ILENE was lifted from the water revealing the terrible condition of her bottom.

Keel is bearded! Too many sandy landings in the last 18 months.
But power washing by Orlando and scraping that I did cleaned it off and she sits blocked and steadied by jack stands. Some of the black bottom paint is completely gone, with the blue paint underneath showing through.

The fourth work day, five hours, began with an inspection of a blasting of the bottom paint using tiny glass particles (except for the aft portion that I barrier coated two winters ago). David, using a powerful air compressor, did the forward three quarters of the hull in two hours for a very well spent $1175. Based on how long it took me to do the back end two winters ago, I saved about 25 days of back breaking, dirty and dangerously unhealthy work. A bargain. A photo of the newly white bottom will be added to this post soon. That same day I tried to winterized the engine, air conditioner, heads and fresh water system, which was very frustrating, because I had done this in the past but kept getting stuck. I also removed the lifelines and stanchions and rigged the "ridge pole" for the canvas cover (whisker pole, boom and a board from the aft end of the boom to the radar arch) in preparation for installing the cover. The next post will describe a sail from Essex CT to Hampton, VA, which kept getting delayed by equipment problems and weather. Many work days are ahead.

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