19 Oct 14
Terri and I woke up early and went for showers, followed shortly by John and Laurie. We had breakfast and checked the marine weather forecast and decided to go to 12 miles to Bristol, RI, rather than the 35 miles to Mystic, CN. I made a complete hash of getting off the dock. The wind was NW 15 - 20, which put it at about 135 deg relative on the port side; we were tied up port-side to. We let go fore and aft simultaneously, thinking the wind would just push us off the dock and I would back up out of the slip. Unfortunately (predictably), the bow blew off way faster than the stern and when I tried to go astern, the prop-walk pulled the stern back into the dock before I could get enough steerage to back out clear of the dock. We eventually got turned around 180 deg, but got pinned up port-side to against a finger pier and another boat at 90 degrees from our original slip. We finally got lines fore and aft back to the pier we had originally left and, with a little help from dock-mates, pulled ourselves off the finger pier and boat and were away without further incident. John held the bow off the other boat, preventing what could have been a nasty entanglement. No damage, other than a scuff to the port side from the rubber bumper on the finger pier (which will buff out, I think) and seriously injured pride. We should have hung onto the bow line until the stern got blown off enough to be able to power back. Live and learn. We motored and sailed without further incident up the East Bay of the Narragansett Bay all the way to Bristol and picked up a mooring ball about 13:30. After lunch, we took the dinghy into Bristol and had a walk round town. We spent a couple of enjoyable hours at the Herreshoff Maritime Museum and then found a nice restaurant, DeWolfe Tavern, for dinner. The wind was still blowing NW 20, so it was a wet ride back to the dinghy. But we fortified ourselves with a wee dram of Talisker and all was well. It was cold enough that we started up the generator to run the heater to take the edge off the cold. After just under an hour, the generator stopped outputting A/C power (which, of course, meant that the heater stopped), even though the engine kept on running. 41-40.110’N, 071-16.875’W.
20 Oct 14
It was COLD last night (35 deg F) and windy, so it was about 36 F inside the boat. But we slept well under a duvet and a quilt. We moved the boat over to the town dock after breakfast, then rented a car and drove over to Mystic, CN. Although we had originally planned to sail there, inertia and weather conspired against us, so we will have to save that adventure for later. We made it to Mystic about 13:00 and spent the entire afternoon roaming around the Mystic Seaport museum. I especially liked the wood carving section. After a late snack of clam chowder, we drove back to Bristol via the scenic route, arriving about 19:00. For dinner, we walked into town to Roberto’s and had an excellent Italian seafood meal. Then, it was time to return back to the boat, where John and Laurie had to pack for their return flights to the real world. We played a last game of BananaGram and John and I did a last QA check on the Talisker (it is still good). It was not as cold tonight, and since we were on shore power, we could run the heater.
21 Oct 14
We slept very well at the dock, but had to get up kind of early to get John and Laurie to Boston. It occurred to me that the generator had stopped working last year and I ended up replacing the 50 amp breaker; I bet that is the problem again, which is really annoying. We loaded up the car and headed to Boston about 10:30. We grabbed sandwiches from the Italian place we had eaten at before and walked over to Old North Church to eat them in the park alongside. We snapped a few photos of Paul Revere’s statue and walked by his house as well, thus completing the Freedom Trail. Then it was time to head to the airport and say our final (for this visit) farewells to John and Laurie. We had a fun-filled two weeks with them on-board and it is hard to believe it is all over so soon. We stopped at West Marine on the way back and loaded up with winterization material and also did a quick shopping run. On John’s recommendation, I ordered 2.5 L of Tonkinois varnish, with which I will do the toe-rails. This is a linseed oil based varnish, which does not harden (and crack and bubble) like other varnishes. Dinner aboard - lamb chops, yum.
22 Oct 14
The day dawned grey and threatening. We decided last night that if the yard will move up the haul-out date to next week some time (about 1 week earlier than we had originally planned), we will go ahead with this; the season is about shot, between the weather and lots of things shutting down for the season. A quick call to Clark Marine confirmed that they can haul-out some time early next week. The flights home to Houston have been changed from 7 Nov to 30 Oct 14. We got moving and commenced to cleaning up the boat doing the pre-haul-out chores, although first I updated the haul-out/winterization checklist. I spent a good part of the day in the starboard locker with the generator and finally confirmed that the capacitor has failed (voltage output at the circuit breaker - which was my first suspect - was 2V, which is indicative of a failed capacitor). So, I ordered 2 replacements, plus a spare 50A circuit breaker; they will all arrive at Clark’s on next Tuesday, so I will probably not get the new capacitor installed until next season. I also got the outboard engine off the dinghy and took it to a local Yamaha mechanic to check out the safety recall repair; I went ahead and got them to winterize and store the outboard as well. The inflatable kayak has been deflated and packed up in the bag and I covered the hard kayak with a protective (solar) cover and lashed it back down to the deck. I also started the epoxy repair (using Marine-tex) of several stripped out screw holes in the binnacle and a dodger snap. It turned nasty in the afternoon, with intermittent rain showers and NE gusts into the mid-20’s, all as predicted; in anticipation of this, we turned the boat around to face N, somewhat into the NE - this will reduce the annoying wave slap on the stern counter. Terri worked hard on cleaning the boat up. And then it was time for cocktails and a chance to forget all our troubles for a while. Dinner aboard - salmon. After dinner, we finalized our plans for the next few days. Later, the wind gusted up even more: we had several gusts to 46 kn and one to 52 kn, followed by a bit of thunder and lightning - fortunately, not very near us. I doubled up the shore lines and we slept very well.
23 Oct 14
It was still gusty in the morning, but the rain had stopped, at least for a while. We made a run to the UPS store to ship some stuff home (guitar and a few other items). Then, I dropped Terri off at the laundry, swapped the rental car for a smaller one that we can drop in Boston Logan Intl Airport, drove to West Marine for more winterization supplies plus the screen for the hose end on the main engine raw-water winterization T/emergency bilge pump; then to AutoZone for an oil filter for the generator, on to Bed, Bath and Beyond for non-skid material to put on the bottom of my Marlinspike rugs, and finally back to collect Terri. We had lunch on the boat and then I changed the oil and filter on the generator and winterized the generator’s raw water system; I also sucked out a liter of coolant (using the oil change pump) and replaced it with anti-freeze - hopefully, this will suffice. Finally, I cleaned out the shower drain pump strainers. And then it was happy hour. Tomorrow, I will work on the winterization T/loop for the air-conditioner raw water system. Dinner aboard (lamb chops), as we try to eat up the last of our supplies. The wind gusted up vigorously again in the evening, along with intermittent rain.
24 Oct 14
We went to bed early last night, so I woke up at 06:30, to a cold, grey dawn. After breakfast, I spent the whole morning cleaning (it was a mess) and deflating the dinghy. After lunch, we made another run to West Marine to buy a few bits for the A/C winterization loop (a NPT/barb fitting and 3 ft of hose to facilitate sucking antifreeze into the A/C raw water system). When we got back, we folded up the dinghy and packed it in its bag, hauled down, flaked and packed the genoa, hoisted the spinnaker to dry it (although it was too windy to unfurl it, so we will have to complete this task later), flaked the genoa sheets and finished the repairs to the binnacle and dodger snap screws. Dinner aboard again; salmon. The wind was still howling in the rigging, although it has gone around to the NW, so we are pinned against the dock; I guess we will have to listen to the fenders griping all night. I committed to the purchase of the PT 11 Spear sailing dinghy kit. It will be delivered in early November, so I have something to do during the long winter months in Houston.
25 Oct 14
We woke to a beautiful, clear dawn; first time we have seen the sun in a week. We got both holding tanks pumped out and have winterized the starboard (forward) tank. We also finished drying and packing up the spinnaker, which would not fit in the lazarette, so it will have to go in the main cabin. I determined that we need more anti-freeze to finish the winterization process, so we went to Salty Dog Marine, the local consignment store and bought 4 more gallons. We may use these guys to sell the inflatable dinghy, so I wanted to check them out. Afterward, we drove down to Jamestown to check out the Clark Boatyard, where we will lay up “c’est le bon” early next week. Then over to Newport for a drive round and a cup of tea. When we got back to the boat about 17:30, the water pump was running continuously, although we could get no water out of any of the taps. After about 15 minutes of looking and scratching my head, I finally found that the hose from the hot water tank to the main header had burst and the bilge was full of about 30 gallons of hot water. Fortunately, I was able to bypass the hot water heater by hooking up the hot water tank inlet hose directly to the header. So, no hot water tonight; and I was really looking forward to a long hot shower. While I was trying to figure out what was wrong, we filled up the stern water tank, so now we have to get rid of 50 gallons of water before that tank can be winterized. If it ain’t one thing, its another. And now, we get to go back to West Marine tomorrow. Dinner on board again, the last of the pork chops. We were going to go up to the pub to watch the World Series Game 4, but I’ve lost interest and/or inertia has set in.
26 Oct 14
Another clear day, but still a strongish wind out of the NW, so we were bounced up against the dock all night long. After breakfast, we trekked over to West Marine to buy a replacement hot water hose, and, whilst there, of course a few other boat things I could not live without. I bought 3 spare hot water hoses, among other things. Back at the boat, I got the hot water system back in working order, then applied another coat of teak oil to the toe rails. It occurred to me while putting the water pressure system back together that we do not have a spare water pressure pump, or any other means of getting water out of the tanks if the pump fails. I must look into a foot pump and/or buy a spare water pump. Because of the 20 - 30 kn winds, the teak-oil exercise turned into a bit of an ordeal, but I got her done and the toe rails look good. Meanwhile, Terri drove over to the local laundromat and did the last load of boat laundry of the year. We had leftovers for dinner aboard and worked judiciously on reducing our excess stores of tonic (suitably diluted with gin, of course). Completed the final packing of luggage for the flight and the final iteration of the pre-haul-out checklist, and somehow managed to crawl into bed totally exhausted.