7 May 15

Today, we checked out of the hotel and moved onto the boat. “c’est le bon” was re-launched at 09:45 and installed on a Clark’s Boatyard mooring ball about 400 yards from the dock. After dropping me off at the boatyard, the Admiral drove over to Jamestown to do laundry and get in a major shopping run. I rowed out to the boat and continued getting her ready to go cruising. The main problem today was the generator, which quit generating electricity last year, just days before we headed south for the winter. The parts to effect repair came in two days before we left, and I just ran out of time to do the work before we left. I changed out the 50 amp breaker and, as that did not resolve the problem, I also changed out the 50 micro-farad capacitor (the old one was apparently toast). The whole job had to be done down in the locker, on bended knee, with double-jointed fingers and blind spots, along with a couple of bolts to loosen/tighten which were virtually impossible to reach with a spanner. After much cursing and several Advil to ease my crippled knees, I got it all put back together and … it works. Hallelujah!! Hope I don’t have to do that again for a couple of years. Afterward, we got the rest of the cockpit enclosure re-instated and spent what was left of the afternoon stowing away food and supplies.

Between collecting laundry and groceries and running into town for lunch, I rowed the round-trip between “c’est le bon” and the dinghy dock 3 times, so I have got in some good exercise today, although my arms and shoulders are a bit sore.  I’m pleased to report that “Swallow” rows very well even with two people and a load of groceries aboard. No regrets, so far, about going “green”; i.e., outboard-less.

The Volvo Ocean racers arrived in Newport last night and early this morning on the penultimate leg of their round-the-world race. Lots of partying and folderol going on over there, but we will probably miss it all; too tired to party with the jet-setters and professional sailors. 41.48832 deg N, 71.35718 W.

8 May 15

Morning started well, with a bit of fog early on, but it burned off by about 09:00. The wind was pretty calm, so I determined it would be a good time to hoist the new jib, before we headed into town for a last provisioning run. I got set up while the Admiral was cleaning up after breakfast. As soon as she we ready, we started, and the wind naturally gusted up to about 20 knots by the time the jib was half way up the forestay. The Admiral ran out of gas on the manual winch about then, so we swapped places. Unfortunately, during our change, the sail luff rope got jammed in the luff grove of the furling foil and would not come down, no matter how much we pulled. After about 15 minutes of trying and failing to move 2 mm, with the wind now gusting over 25 knots, I called Clark’s Boatyard for emergency assistance. One of the owners rushed out in the launch and jumped on board. Two of us (i.e., 2 strong(ish) men could not shift it, at which point in time he shouted at me to release the halyard, which, of course (I’m no idiot) I had released from the winch 15 minutes before. But as soon as he said that, I looked at the mast and realized that the mast-mounted brake for the jib halyard was closed; as soon as I released the brake, the jib came down out of the jam and we were able to hoist it the rest of the way without further ado. Another rich “learning” experience.

We spent the rest of the day shopping, checking weather forecasts at WIFI cafes to see the progress of Tropical Storm Ana and turning in the rental car. Weather forecast for tomorrow looks very favorable for the 22 NM run over to Block Island, where we can weather the storm, if it gets up this far.