24 May 16

We are doing things a bit differently this year: for one, we are not starting our travels anywhere near as early as previous years (to avoid the worst of the cold, early spring weather); we froze our butts off the first several weeks of each of the last 3 years, and since the boat is the farthest north it has ever wintered, we were determined not to make that same mistake again) and, for another, I am heading to the boat 2 weeks earlier than The Admiral. She has a doctor’s appointment that cannot be rescheduled (freaking insurance company rules) and I have a couple of weeks worth of work to do on the boat before we are ready to start cruising again.

Followers of our blog will have noticed that this year, we have started up later than ever: 5 Feb 2013, 18 Mar 2014, 6 May 2015 and now 8 Jun 16. This year, we are planning to head up to Saint John, NB, cruise up and down the Saint John River, then head back down the east coast to NYC, up the Hudson River and into the Erie Canal somewhere to find a winter storage place. This will put us in a good place to head into the Great Lakes in early 2017 to continue on our American Great Loop.

So, today, I flew from Houston to Portland, ME and rented a car to get on up to Rockland, ME. We landed in 1/4 mile visibility with a 400 ft ceiling and 52 F. It was like that on the drive up to Rockland. Welcome to Maine before the summer solstice. I got into the Glen Cove Hotel, in Rockport, after 21:00 local time and pretty much went straight to bed.

25 May 16

The birds started chirping outside my window and 04:30, which is apparently when the sun comes up in this latitude. I finally staggered out of bed about 07:00. It was cool and low overcast, so it is a typical day in Maine. After breakfast, I drove to Journey’s End Marina, where “c’est le bon” has been this past winter, and got straight to work. All of the stuff I ordered over the winter, most importantly the replacement holding tank for the port/aft head, had arrived, so I went straight to work. The first thing was to get the old (bad) holding tank out; that only took me about 3 hours of swearing, sweating and skinned knuckles. Then, it was time to head to Hamilton Marine and Lowes to get all the parts I would need to finish the job (pipe fittings, hole saws, more pipe fittings, tools, sealants, thread lubricants, etc., etc., etc., ad infinitum). Another couple of trips to Hamilton Marine and Lowes were required to get more stuff, but still not done yet. At the end of the day, I thought it would be a good idea to get the the dodger and bimini up (and clear some of the crap out of the salon), but this job too bit me in the ass; it is a whole lot easier with an assistant, but the Admiral is still absent. I finally got back to the hotel about 19:30, then had to settle for Applebee’s for dinner, because all the real restaurants close at 20:00. In bed by 22:00.

26 May 16

Rough night; I woke up at 02:30 and spent 2 hours thinking of all the stuff yet to do on the boat. Then, at 04:30, the sun came up and the birds started their morning song. I finally dozed back off around 05:00 and snoozed for a couple of hours, before finally getting up at 07:30. Today was sunshiny and warm, right from the start and pretty much stayed that way all day. After a quick breakfast at the hotel, it was back to the boatyard to fight with the holding tank some more. After additional trips to Home Depot, Lowes, and Hamilton Marine, I finally found the solution for the vent line penetration. I drilled 3 holes in the top of the new holding tank and managed to install a new hose between the toilet and the 3-way valve and between the 3-way valve and the holding tank, which cost me another pint of blood and a couple of pints of sweat. Over the winter, I had obtained some stuff to fix some of the scratches in the navy blue topsides, but when I applied it, it looked like crap, so I gave up on that. I’m way behind schedule, so far, on all the stuff I was planning to accomplish before the Admiral arrives; ah, well. We will launch the boat early tomorrow morning. I got back to the hotel around 18:30, then went to the Offshore Restaurant, just up the road, for dinner of cilantro shrimp and a nice salad bar. Early to bed.

27 May 16

Another rough night (must have too much on my mind; plus the damn birds started up at 03:30 today), but I got to the boatyard at 07:00 and “c’est le bon” was afloat by 07:30. Nice to be back in the water again; no more climbing up 10 foot ladders every time I need to run to the shop or the toilet. The weather has changed back; this morning was cool and overcast, with occasional light sprinkles throughout the morning. I spent the rest of the day getting the winterizing undone, putting up the rest of the cockpit surround, reinstating the davits and the grill, and - finally - working on the new holding tank (I’ve now gone as far as I can until the last ordered part arrives). Unfortunately, as we got the engine running, the mechanic advised me that he had finally discovered the source of the engine coolant that kept showing up in the bilge pan: the brass coolant fill cap spout (not sure the official name of that part) has a couple of hairline cracks that let the coolant out as the engine heats up and the spring-seal backs off a bit. The repair estimate from Volvo, which includes replacement of the entire heat-exchanger, is north of $4 grand, for a $15 part. I suspect this issue has been going on for quite a while, so we may just live with it, or cobble together some jury-rig with the assistance of the local radiator expert. It got quite foggy late in the afternoon. I knocked off about 18:00 and had an early meal; I’m dead on my feet. So, a good day and a bad day, all at the same time; just like boating. Dinner at Rock Harbor Pub and Restaurant: Irish beef stew.

28 May 16

Finally, a good night’s sleep; it was foggy this morning, so I guess the birds slept in. As soon as I got to the boat, I decided on a spot for the tank monitor interface terminal (on the port side of the forward cabin) and pulled the wires from the port tank up to this spot; no big problem. Next, getting the wire from the starboard tank (forward head) over to the port side of the cabin was a bit of a challenge. I finally found a route the overhead, which meant pulling down the ceiling in the forward cabin. Also, the supplied wire was not long enough to reach the interface terminal, so I had to splice in an extra length. This all occupied the entire day, but good progress was made, nevertheless. Dinner at Rustica: chicken parmigiana.

29 May 16

This morning, I finished re-instating the ceiling in the forward cabin. Then, I performed a leak test on the new holding tank; it did not leak a drop, mercifully. Then, I got the level monitors hooked up to the starboard tank and did a fill/function test, which was successful. Unfortunately, I was planning to empty the tank using the macerator, but it did not work - for reasons unknown; one more item on the to-do list. I tried for a while to figure out a way to hook up the 3rd set of monitors on the forward water tank, but the tank is built in behind bulkheads on all sides, so I cannot get a level signal using these proximity monitors; will have to leave this for some later time. After the successful leak test of the new holding tank, I decided to go ahead and install it in the port/aft head, even though I am still awaiting the arrival of the one final fitting, which I can install in situ. Next, I thought it would be a good idea to tackle the engine room blower fan, which is not working. I was unable to figure out the root of the problem, so will have to work on it tomorrow. I had the leftovers of last night’s chicken parmigiana for dinner.

30 May 16

First thing, I went back to work on the non-functioning engine room blower fan. Initially, I could not get any voltage signal anywhere around the switch, so I was concerned that I had a bad wire. However, after emptying all the contents of 3 of the 4 cockpit lockers into the cockpit (amazing how much stuff we have stuffed into these corners), it occurred to me to check that the electric winches were working (the fan switch is commoned into the negative for the port-side winch controller) - they were not. Aha!, says I, the breakers for the winches have tripped. But no, they were fine. Then, based on observation, it finally dawned on me that these winches, and QED the fan switch, are powered off of the 5.5kW generator starter battery (not sure why, although this does guarantee that the house batteries do not get dragged down by over-use of the electric winches), which I had not yet got around to hooking back up. As soon as I touched the lead to the negative post on the battery, the fan motor whirred to life. Sure wish I had remembered this detail earlier. Oh, well, it gave me a good excuse to weed out some of the redundant junk in the lockers and organize the same.

As it was relatively calm after lunch, I decided it was time to head up the mast to inspect all the standing rigging and install a replacement reflector on the Windex. This was accomplished handily using my ATN Mast Climber. I wish I had remembered to turn on the Nav, anchor, steaming and deck lamps on so I could check them out; probably means another trip up the mast in a few days. Afterward, I installed the last Schaeffer outside stanchion and spring-loaded fairleads for the jib-furling line; it leads much fairer now and should make it easier to furl the jib.  

Next, it was time to tackle the installation of the USB charging point on the binnacle column. I pulled off the instrument/compass block and found a good spot to mount the charging point and decided to pull the electrical power off of the binnacle light, which is powered off the cabin lights breaker. I had a couple of parts to buy to complete this job, so moved on to installation of the new/replacement manual bilge pump. This was a straight replacement of the existing pump, so only took about an hours to complete. We now have a fully operational manual bilge pump, for the first time in a couple of years. By then, it was time to call it a day. Pizza for dinner and early to bed.

31 May 16

I checked out of the hotel this morning and moved onto the boat. On the way from the hotel to the marina, I stocked up on essential breakfast and lunch supplies at the local Hannafords. The marina wanted me to move to the transient slip (“c’est le bon” has been parked at the complimentary launch/commissioning slip since Friday), so I had to do that first. Before I moved, I fixed the tank monitor sensors on the new aft holding tank and filled it about half full; the monitors all work great. When I tried to pump the water out using the macerator pump (don’t be alarmed; this is the new tank, which has never been used and which contains only fresh water), unfortunately, just like the forward pump, this one also makes lots of noise, but does not shift any of the contents from the tank to the sea. So, I stopped in at the pump-out station to empty both holding tanks before moving to the transient slip. Unless I have done something stupid, neither one of the macerator pumps works at present, although they are only 1 and 2 years old, respectively. This is really soul-destroying, as working on the pumps and associated hoses is extremely difficult; I’ll probably leave it until the winter - this is a job for professionals.

Once I was settled in at the new slip, since the motor was running, I went forward to do a quick operational check on the anchor winch (which only works while the engine, or more precisely - the alternator, is actually running). The winch works fine, so, while I was there, I ran out all of the anchor chain onto the deck to inspect it and renew the rode length markers. Then, after lunch aboard, I finished off the installation of the USB port on the binnacle. I spliced into the hot-wire for the binnacle light with no issues. It works fine, so now we can recharge the iPhones or my new cockpit lights from the cockpit - way cool. The new 8” drawer glides (for the Admirals drawer in the forward cabin) arrived today, so I got them installed on the drawer; it works fine now and the Admiral will be well pleased. Happy hour mercifully arrived at that time. After a quick dinner in town - 3Crow for Taco Tuesday - I visited the windjammer dock, hoping to see the “J&E Riggin”, but they are out of town on a 6 week charter with a bunch of 8th-graders. However, I had a nice chat with the folks who are renovating the “Ladona”, a two-masted schooner that hopes to start the Maine island charter trade at the end of the week. When I got back to the boat, I turned on all the navigation and other outside lights. The nav lights are working, but neither the masthead (anchor), steaming or deck lights were working, so I have at least one more trip up the mast to get these sorted out.

1 Jun 16

Slept like a baby last night; back in my own bed on board feels good. Having said that, this outside slip is a mighty rock and rolly location. After breakfast, I did a massive tidy up of the salon, which has for the last few days looked like a workshop; all organized and back to almost Bristol fashion. Next, I installed the new manual winch recovery clutch (so I will be able to recover the anchor manually in the event the electric windlass is inoperable). The old clutch plate was seriously seized in place, so it took a lot of penetrating oil and an hour of tapping and fiddling about to finally work it loose.  

About that time, Hamilton Marine called and advised that the last fitting for the new holding tank installation had finally arrived. I got it installed, hooked up the last two hoses, and performed leak and function tests. After a significant amount of disassembly and fiddling about, I finally got everything tightened up and all of the leaks completely stopped. After pumping about 5 gallons of water through the toilet into the holding tank, I tried the macerator pump and, oh happy day, it works now. Not sure why it did not work yesterday; maybe it had lost its prime. Who cares? It works now and that is all that matters. Then it was time for happy hour and dinner cooked aboard; pork chop. 

44-09.204’N, 068-52.967’W