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Sept. 17 - Traveling South - or, Skip and Lydia are fine :{))
Sept. 17 - Traveling South
For those who have been concerned about us, for lack of contact, we apologize. We're alive and well and living our dream, one day at a time. Fortunately, some of it is pretty boring in cruising terms... We spent the last two weeks enjoying the New York City area, and generally just "chilling" - for which we are doing as the title indicates, as well as having recharged our personal batteries, so to speak. Time on the hook, and for a few days, on a mooring in the 79th Street Boat Basin, immediately adjacent to Riverside Drive, included just about every type of weather you could imagine. Even at anchor, there were seas in the Atlantic Highlands Harbor - but the tradeoff was good internet connectivity, over which I was able to read of at least one of the forums where I'm a regular participant's collective wondering where we were and how we were doing, due to the lack of contact. Fortunately, Lydia has written more often, being the Sunsets and Animals type log, and our whereabouts and condition were conveyed to those concerned. However, my original thought that we'd just spend a couple of days in the NY area, and then head south due to impending fall weather, while it didn't get fulfilled, at least was meteorologically accurate, as there were several very cool days and nights. As I type this, it's piping (windy) out, and pretty cool/cold, depending on how you like your outside air. So, we're traveling south, not a little like the Aussie movie "Traveling North" - except we're in a boat, not a VW van. Meanwhile, Murphy came to visit us on this leg. I'm still working on a totally proper alignment of the alternator, exacerbated by at least one of the mounting brackets having a pivot hole which has deformed over years of pressure as the alternator was tightened. I think I have that portion of the issues worked out, but in the meantime, due to the prior various misalignments, we continue to go through belts. This last one, occurring on our sail from Sandy Hook (see below for the start of that sail), was replaced quickly and we were off again, motoring in nearly nonexistent wind, despite the rosy forecasts for ideal conditions (which would have been 10-15 knots, NW). Instead, there were light winds, NE, directly behind us, making for a very rolly, no sail-propulsion, trip. NOAA strikes again. Shortly into that new belt, however, burning smells emanated from the engine room and I dove to investigate. Sparing you the technical discussion, a connector I'd cobbled up to overcome a different difficulty had overheated. I replaced that in short order, and we went off again. However, this time we had no tachometer or charging. As we had a very full battery, and were not far from our destination for the night, I just ignored that part and we threw out the hook in Barnegat Light, getting placed just as full dark descended. A hearty dinner and closed hatches and ports kept us reasonably warm as the area headed into a frost-warnings night. Later today, I took one of the (now) several spare alternators I have, mounting it to see if that cures the problem. If so, we have a problem with our new one. I fervently hope that's the case, as if not, we've got systemic problems which I've not yet overcome in a prior instance, and the learning curve will be high. For all that, we are secure on our anchor and staying here isn't a problem. Update: in the time between when I started typing and now, I did the replacement. When I took out the old one, I saw what I presumed to be the problem - a really stupid shortcut on the part of the new alternator vendor relating to the tachometer. That shortcut failed, providing all the electrical excitement. The replacement alternator works just fine, so we'll continue as weather allows. However, to back up a couple of weeks, we arrived in Atlantic Highlands/Sandy Hook in late August and relaxed for a couple of days before meeting my brother and going over to JFK to pick up Lydia's 81 year old mother, newly arrived from England. Lydia had been concerned for her ability to cope with the boat's realities - bouncing, wobbling, climbing, etc. - but, aside from a couple of days' remaining on the boat while we did the touristy bit in New York out of concern for getting in and out of the dinghy (not that she can't - just that she didn't want to bother) as well as her having grown up in the area and having no interesting in touring, she's done extremely well. We've not yet attempted to make her a sailor, but she certainly does just fine on our sails and passages. Lydia and she are stuck together like the umbilical cord had never been snipped, and they're having a ball together. Louise (her mother) says she's having more fun than she can ever remember. Just recently, it came out in conversation that she'd been here more than 2 weeks, and it seems like just a couple of days. So, as forecast (by me - most folks, hearing that my mother-in-law is coming to visit on the boat for 10 weeks think I'm crazy!), she's doing just fine, and so are we. In New York and Sandy Hook, we spent a lot of time with relatives and friends. One of them, my brother, is a professional photographer (paulscharffphotography.com), and graciously took some pix of our boat under sail, both with NYC and some bridges as a backdrop, and as we headed south, with nothing but the open ocean highlighting our downwind run. Fortunately, part of that - our departure south - included a period where the winds were appropriate for a spinnaker run, and we now have two marvelous distance shots from a pretty good height where our "gay pride" (rainbow color) spinnaker shines. One of those two really highlights the sailor's prayer, "Oh, Lord, my ship is so small, and your sea is so large. Please protect me." For a nice set of pix, see our gallery (in my sig) under the "Away We Go" and "Enroute" subgalleries in the "Flying Pig Is Aloft" thumbnail. Clicking any of the thumbnails will get you larger shots, if you like. He got these from the lifeguard station on Sandy Hook, and Twin Lights in Highlands, NJ, as we were headed out to our southern destinations... And, as one of the events we enjoyed in New York, we went to see Ground Zero - which was truly amazing. It boggles the mind to think what happened that day. However, every year, there is a tribute to that occasion, the "twin lights" - massive accumulations of spotlights which project two perfectly vertical beams into the sky. Lit before dark, they rise into the sunset, and left lit overnight, fade in the morning. Paul's captured this event every year, but he says this one is the best yet. His not-yet-published site for that shot, should you care to see it, is http://i.pbase.com/o6/36/744236/1/85...uteinLight.jpg Our alternator excitements aside, we have been blessed with little of concern mechanically on the boat. Oh... That... Murphy was in high dudgeon this trip, causing a broken dipstick. From looking at other versions of Perky, I see that deformation of the dipstick (the thing which tells you how much oil you don't have because Perky was thirsty - think "Captain Ron") is common to this engine. Probably because you have to climb over it to get into the engine room from the walkthrough, nonetheless, it broke off, and tried to fall into the engine. Fortunately, I was able to retrieve it. It had already broken once before, and the patchup which was used to make it useable led me to believe that if I could extend it by the amount it had broken previously, I could reuse the part below the handle. No such luck. The indicator end broke off. Fortunately, I was able to find a generic replacement at a NAPA store, and, using the combined length of the old parts was able to make the new one fit. Unfortunately for our engine's design, the old dipstick was made of a coil of spring steel, and nearly filled the tube. That protected, in part, from the fumes which come up from the crankcase under heavy load. The new one, unhappily for the comparison, is the more typical flat metal. It does nothing to impede the light smoke under pressure. So, my next project will be to fabricate some sort of plug which will cure that minor nuisance, and work on one of my prior projects, evacuation of the crankcase by the filter we installed for the intake. All in all, though, once I get the replacement large blower (the one whose hose was wrapped around the crankshaft in the last episode) installed, all that can be exhausted, in addition to cooling the engine room. So, this afternoon, as the deadline for getting out the channel in daylight, we considered whether to make the run from Barnegat to Cape May overnight. After asking a new arrival about weather and sea conditions (generally lousy), and looking at all the marine information points we could find, we elected to go, despite some lumpy water, as the winds would be reasonable, and we should arrive at Cape May at dawn. Well, Murphy has apparently taken up residence here, because, as we were working our way out the channel, Lydia informed me that we had no fix on our chartplotter, which meant that we had no GPS signal arriving there. The waves had become large and confused, and our radio and other electronics panel came down. I'd been in there for other things and had forgotten to turn the latch. That, along with various other things which normally go flying in 45-50* rolls had been making noises so I went below and dealt with resecuring all of them. However, apparently, that drop and associated shock had caused the GPS failure. Well, failure to start. I've had a similar experience in the past which I've succeeded in remedying by cleaning the contacts for the power to the unit. However, this time was not successful, and I'll have to take it apart in order to see if there is any obvious means of determining the problem. So, we turned around and headed in to anchor before it got dark. The way in was a real sleigh ride on a tilt-a-whirl. Quartering seas, breaking waves, and all the rest. Very invigorating, as Flying Pig took it all in stride, and all the crew did fine. Well, Portia wasn't very happy, but she didn't run and hide, nor was she sick, the behavior we've seen in other boat cats in moderately rough weather. So, tomorrow will be another example of cruising being boat repair in exotic locations. As usual, we aren't very exotic on this trip, and the repairs are pretty boring, but as always, we're looking at it as an adventure. Just this evening, just before we left, another couple anchored next to us, and, in the course of discussing anchor lines and spacing in a tight anchorage (we're fine, even with our reanchoring in front of a trawler which had been behind us last night, and next to them again), we became friends. They're going the same way we are, though for different reasons, and had, ironically, come from the same anchorage as we when we left. Likewise, our dear friends from Salt Creek Marina were among those we saw in the NYC area, and we traveled a few places together, including on the way here (but not leaving today due to our alternator excitements), and we'll catch up with them in the Annapolis area. So, we're making new friends and meeting old ones - this will be just another lovely stop to smell the roses (and the electronics!). As always, stay tuned! L8R Skip Morgan 461 #2 SV Flying Pig KI4MPC See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery ! Follow us at http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog and/or http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog "You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it come true. You may have to work for it however." (and) "There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts." (Richard Bach, in The Reluctant Messiah) |
#2
posted to rec.boats.cruising
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Sept. 17 - Traveling South - or, Skip and Lydia are fine :{))
Skip Gundlach wrote in
ups.com: As always, stay tuned! Well, at least it's not 110F in the engine room like it was when I was in there! Larry -- Search youtube for "Depleted Uranium" The ultimate dirty bomb...... |
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