Lazy Days on Long Guy Land

As we had more or less planned we are spending the Labor Day weekend back in Manhassat Bay before heading back down the East River and out to Sandy Hook NJ. While here we have accomplished a few necessary tasks and have few to go.

To feel a little more comfortable accomplishing these tasks we took a slip at the Manhassat Bay Marina. Nice place but a little pricey with a nice restaurant (LaMotta’s) attached. Don’t know if there is any relation to the old fighter of Raging Bull fame.

Sue Goes All the Way…

…to the top of the mast! If you remember, we (ok I was at the helm) got the anchor light at the top scraped off when we were sideways in the lock. The mast got re-stepped before we could find the replacement so Sue was called to duty to do her high wire act again. Good news and bad news up there. The good news: the base of the light matched the new one so no wiring had to be done. Just replace the bulb and put the plastic lens back on the old base. Nice. The bad news: I was hoping that the reason the wind indicator wasn’t working was because of the connection at the top and NOT the connection that is now sealed under the base of the mast. Wrong. Sue re connected it up there but it still doesn’t work. Oh well… Sue also re-strung the flag halyards from the spreaders and re-taped our paint roller/spreader boots. We see no reason to not stay with them!

The water lift muffler…

is a clever invention. Unlike powerboats, sailboats tend to have their engines below the water line. Seawater is taken in for coolant from under the boat but now how to get it out? The water is mixed with the exhaust from the engine in a box. As the pressure in the box builds due to the exhaust the water is pushed out the exhaust pipe along with the exhaust gases. Clever. Ours though was barely connected to the deck any longer and was constantly oozing water into the bilge. Not good. So, we ripped it out of there to truly see where the problem was and hopefully repair it. Upon inspection we discovered that the bottom of the muffler was a laminate of two pieces of fiberglass much like a piece of plywood and it was de-laminating and the water was coming from between laminates. I put a few screws into the seam between laminates to open it up a little and then drizzled epoxy into the void. When it seemed filled I clamped it tight and let it set for a few hours. Like most engine work there is no room to work and it was difficult to get the darn thing back in but when we did and started the engine…NO LEAKS. We’ll see how it is after 20 or so hours of running time though.

Salt Water?!

I don’t know what it is about the water around here but it seems to leave a white powdery residue on everything! Enee is getting used to saltwater and we are already seeing the effects in small patches of rust in places where we never saw it before. We are keeping an eye on this and cleaning with fresh water when ever possible.

Windy!

Last Wednesday we got the effects of the hurricane all the way up here in Long Island. The wind blew 20-25 knots with gusts up to 35 knots for about 18 hours straight! We were tied to a mooring ball but it is still unnerving to listen to the wind shriek through the rigging for that length of time. We were unwilling to leave the boat for fear that something would break and Enee would be across the way and into other boats in no time. Since then the weather has turned perfect. Cool nights and warmish days with low humidity.

Port Washington is a good stop for cruisers. Food store, laundry, West Marine, hardware restaurants and lots of friendly people.

Speaking of friendly people...

When we were back in North Port we struck up a conversation at dinner with a very nice couple, Pat and Heidi. Pat, an avid fisherman, was shocked that I had NONE of the proper lures to fish with in the Sound. We agreed to meet again the next morning for breakfast and Pat brought me a SACK of giant lures to use. I've kept fish in Michigan that were the size of these lures. I'm a little afraid to use them for fear that they might work and then I'll have to figure out how to get a 20 pound 'Blue' into the boat! Maybe Gracie will help. Thanks again Pat and Heidi!