Leading Up To The Departure Sept 22 to October 7

Time to say goodbye to the Harlems mascots -- though these birds can get nasty when not given what they want. They come every summer. The white ones are the parents, and the darker ones were born this year and are full size but not yet white. God willing, they will return to the Harlem in 2015 before we do.

During the period of this post I had only three sails totaling only eight hours and all in light to nonexistent winds. One of these was aboard ILENE, with Stu and Barbara. Stu is a Past Commodore and they recently sold their power boat so, being boatless, I was able to seduce them to sail with me. We went to the fuel dock in Port Washington to fuel up, round trip about six or eight miles, and it took us four hours of pleasant conversation, with a delicious lunch, except we motored half of the way.

I had planned to participate in the Harlems annual Take Veterans Sailing Day, and with Ilene away had slept aboard in anticipation of that event the next day. But the engine would not start, probably because I had burned up all of the four gallons of fuel in the starboard fill fuel tank in the process of removing the final water from that tank. Howard, in his mid eighties and very intelligent and spry, helped me "bleed" the air out of the system and change the Yanmar fuel filter, which had a bit of water in it and no fuel. Howard had spent a harrowing, storm tossed ill fated week aboard ILENE in the fall of 2010 during which major damage was done, which will be the subject of a post some day when I have no current news to report. Yet Howard was willing to sail with me again! We sailed his 28.5 foot Hunter, "Covered Call" for a few hours, and because both of us are veterans, we "sort of" fulfilled the mission of the day, though all of the American Legionnaires, our Clubs actual guests, had been taken out aboard other boats by then. The boat moved very well in light air and was a pleasure to sail. I was able to better attach the tack of her genoa and pull it closer to the furling foil to give that sail a better shape using bits of light line that Howard had aboard.

The third and final sail of this period was on "Jazzsail" with Lloyd and Rhoda. I had a good time working most of the time aboard whipping the ends of their lines.

As contrasted to the three brief sails and two days with overnight sleep aboards, there were six work days (totaling only 23.5 hours), including two with Ilene as helper. Her forte is organizing and things are now put away. Hopefully I will be able to find them! We loaded a lot of stuff aboard, cleaned inside and out, took her to the dock to fill water tanks, readjusted the davit bar, finally figured out a way to add air to the dink (using the old foot pump from the prior dink with the nozzle of the current dinks pump) and did miscellaneous bits of electrical, carpentry and marlinspike work including rigging a true preventer (of accidental gybes) system.

As of October 7, the last day of ILENEs "first season" of 2014, I have 66 "Work" days, and 27 "Other" days but only 50 "Sailing" days (on which I sailed and/or slept aboard). But during our second season, October 8 through December 31, God willing, we will add 85 more sailing days, bringing 2014s total sailing days to 135.

Key West, Here we come! Im psyched!!

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July 11 24 To The Departure on the Harlem YC Summer Cruise

Two days of shopping, cooking and enjoying a dinner at our house. Not a sailing activity except that Bennett and Harriet was one of the three invited couples.  Menu included a cold stewed stone fruit soup, salade nicoise and a linser torte ala mode. And all was delicious; if I do say so myself.

We spent a four day weekend up in the Berkshires during which the only remotely watery related item was during the second half of the Alonso King Lines Ballet Companys performance at Jacobs Pillow Dance Theater. The work was called Biophony and the "music" consisted of the recorded sounds of wild creatures from around the world. The third of the eight sections was called Mare Nostrum (Our Sea, I think) and was danced to the sound of "Ocean waves, humpback whales, fish and killer whales."  A stretch to relate this to sailing but its all I have.

A day of work: featuring the plastic cockpit enclosure panels, which were fitted together with snaps by Junior of Doyle Sails. I have left the aft three panels attached and rolled up at the top of the bimini, out of the way and ready to roll down. The two forward panels, which hang from the connector between the bimini and the dodger, together with that connector, are rolled up and stored in the aft cabin. I also topped off the seven batteries which drank about a quart of distilled water and made arrangements to get the lettering for the "licence plates" for the dink. And some cleaning -- four hours total.

Lene and I sailed one lovely Sunday afternoon for about three hours with Christine and Heather, the young women who were with us in Miami last winter, followed by dinner with them at the Club where I came to appreciate how talented our caterer is. I hope we Harlemites can eat there with guests often enough this summer so Anne can make a living. We actually only sailed back, having motored to off Sands Point where the girls went for a dip in the sea. I did not lower the dink but loosened the band cinching it securely against the ILENEs stern so they were able to climb the ladder and slither up into the boat from the sea from under the dink. This worked fine in moderately calm waters though I do not think it could be done safely in big seas.

I went to the Club for the Old Salts event both Wednesdays, but the first of them we were confronted with the strong threat of rain and no wind. So while I enjoyed the food and the camaraderie, there was no sailing.

 But the other Wednesday was a peak sailing day, clear skies, little traffic and good winds in the teens from the NW. I sailed with Richie, his brother, and three of their friends, while Mark sailed four of the regulars on "Deuce of Hearts." And everyone came over to IWe went out into the Sound to the far end of hart island. And everyone came over to ILENE for the after-sail libation. This was our largest outing of the summer so far -- eleven participants. I will miss the next two Wednesdays, being on  the Club Cruise.

The last day before that Cruise I sailed with Anne and her friend, Janet. I tried a new experiment in dragooning crew or lets call them sailing companions: I put up a poster in the gym in our apartment house (300 apartments) offering a sign up sheet for free sailboat rides. I was taken aback at the underwhelming response and next time will do a better job of advertising. But we had a great afternoon in much the same wind as the Old Salts enjoyed, but a little less of it. My new friends were content to not experience the effect of the genoa so we moved slowly and they had a good time. I would say that we "beat" up Hart Island Sound except that beating somehow suggests stronger winds; so lets just say we "patted" up the Sound, and around. Some wine and then dinner at the Lobster Box because their hearts were set on lobster, which was not on our clubs menu that night.

The Friday before the start of the Cruise was devoted to packing and transporting and loading the stuff for sixteen days away-- including the kitties and their stuff.
Well needless to say, we forgot a few things, including the Wifi device needed to right these blog posts. And the Club wants one per day for the Cruise if possible.

But we were there in the early evening and I was pleased to sail with Mike and Sandy (Old Salt regulars) and their niece, Alissa, aboard "Pas de Deux". We did no worse than and of the other ten boats that circled slowly near the starting line. This is because after a delay to wait for some wind to come up, the race had to be cancelled. But no one seems too upset by that development:

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