GENTLEMEN, START YOUR ENGINES!!!

SHIP'S LOG:

Well, today, for the first time since we docked ABISHAG at the Mystic Shipyard back in August, the engine was fired up today! Sounded really good, too. The yard mechanic got a chance to check out the temp gauge and the tach, both of which were working just fine. Wouldn't you just know it! Actually, we couldn't get the engine hot enough to really register on the temp gauge, even running the engine under load. The mechanic suspects the location of the temp sender is in the wrong place and that it is influencing the readings. Hey, it's all Greek to me.

Running the engine under load, that is with the transmission engaged made the gear oil pressure gauge do strange things and after crawling around in the engine space, the mechanic discovered a pin-hole in the transmission oil filter hosing. In that the transmission is English like the engine, he had to take a couple of hours to track down a new transmission oil filter housing, or at least he tried. He discovered that they haven't made filters for the transmission for more than 20 years and that the standard procedure for changing the transmission oil filter is to remove it and seal it off. It was decided two decades ago by the builder that the filter was an unnecessary appendage, sort of like an appendix and the transmission was better off without it. So a transmission appendectomy will be performed and I will have one less thing to worry about. The mechanic was also loud in his praise of the engine as was the guy who readied it for the trip north from Annapolis. Evidently the engine is in first class shape.

On the down side, and there is always a down side, the batteries are going to have to be replaced. In point of fact, the mechanic, who is also the yard's #1 electrician, says that the batteries in the boat are the wrong size and need to be upgraded in amps and amp hours (more technical stuff). It makes sense as that battery compartment is so much larger than the two batteries in it. I have suspected that there was something amiss here. The previous owner made some off-handed comment about the "seeing the batteries I use for cruising." With everything going on I sort of let it pass and it didn't impact me until now. I guess that when he was cruising full time he had a much larger battery capacity and that when he came back he down shifted for some reason, probably replacement cost. So, it will be new battery time soon.

Marked and oiled the anchor chain today. It tops out at 125 ft and seems to be in decent condition. I've got 300ft of 3/4" braided anchor line. I also have three anchors, a CQR on the chain and two Danford types connected to nothing. While I think the 300ft of braided 3/4" is actually for the GALERIDER drouge I found, it could work with either of the two unattached anchors, that is if I can separate it from a rusted shackle that is currently attached. Nothing a hammer, vice and hack saw can achieve.

I also have my bilge pump hose connected again to the thru-hull. The chances of sinking are now greatly diminished. It is exciting to see the boat coming together more and more.

MASTER'S PERSONAL LOG:

I have to admit that I am getting very itchy about getting started on the sailing part of the journey. Today the temp was in the high 50's and it seemed warmer and I toyed with the idea of taking her out for a little spin. I didn't of course as the mechanic would have been a bit distressed but it was tempting. I still have a ton of stuff to load on the boat and find places for, not counting food and drink, and the final few things to get up and running ( read "watermaker"). While I know a lot about the boat I really haven't had the chance to sail her and get a feel for her yet. The cruise south will be the chance to do that but it is just that itchy feeling is setting in, especially when the weather was so nice today. It was something akin to those days in summers passed when I'd be out sailing and everything was perfect and it literally was all I could do not to throw the helm over and head to Bermuda. Truth is that the first Waypoint on my GPS on every boat I have had was always Bermuda. I used to sail most days with the GPS locked on that Waypoint just in case the urge overwhelmed common sense.

It is strange how God works things out. I had hoped that everything would be ready for me to join the Caribbean 1500 Rally that left on November 4th from Hampton, VA. From what I hear now, they left in the aftermath of NOEL (Hurricane) and have been battered more than a bit and they are still some 600 miles out from Tortola. Long ago I decided that sailing was not a survival sport and I still no sense in pitting myself (and boat) against the ravages of nature. As I have mentioned before (I think), schedules have no place in cruising, at least not for me. After all, the most inefficient way of getting some place is by boat and the most inefficient type of boat is a sailboat. If the weather isn't good, there is no reason to go anywhere, a perspective which I don't think would have fit in with the Rally mentality. Still I want to get going, but not until the boat is ready to make the trip. Not perfect but ready.

FROSTY THE SAILOR

SHIP'S LOG:

Another task has been completed by the yard! They have connected the exhaust hose from the engine to the "new" seacock! Now, I can run the engine and charge the batteries! Well, I could if there was enough juice in the batteries to turn the engine over and if the batteries would take and hold a charge! Unfortunately, neither is the case. Too bad about the batteries too, as they are AMGs and will be EXPENSIVE to replace. Considering my precarious financial situation, such will not be the case and I will have to go with wet cells. Another one of those unexpected surprises that keep cropping up to keep me on my toes.

I have discovered a panel on the side of the engine space that allows access to the top of the engine when removed ..... and allows for great frustration when one tries to put it back in place. For some reason that I have yet to figure out, the panel, held in by four screws, popped out rather easily yet refused to go back into place. It is going to take some work with a plane or a sander to get it to fit. while it is out, I am trying to come up with a way to fix it in place and yet still allow it to be readily removed. Screwing and un-screwing doesn't seem to be the way to go.

Of course, getting the panel off in the first place was a chore. It was not so much the the panel was tough to get out, clearing the way for it was. A previous owner had placed a cup-holder ( actually a piece of 3-inch diameter PVC pipe) on the counter in front of the panel and affixed it to the bulkhead with screws. It is great for holding cups but it had to be removed to remove the panel. In addition, not satisfied with the amount of light generated by the flat light fixture over this counter, a previous owner had installed a swiveling light fixture which hung down just far enough to prevent the panel from being removed. It too had to be removed too. Unfortunately, it was not installed all that well and literally came apart when I took it out. Solves the problem of what to do with it after I get the panel back in. Fun! Fun!Fun!

The name is on and it looks great. It is done in silver foil and outlined with white. It looks impressive but it does provoke the obvious questions. Perhaps I should put the scripture notation below it or something.

I have found that I cannot re-install the floor in the "in-law apartment" - the large cockpit locker. The new thru-hull for the exhaust changes the angle of the hose raising it above the previous floor level. I guess that I will have to re-cut the floor to allow for the new angle but I wonder if I should do something to "protect" the hose. There is, after all, a lot of "stuff" that used to reside in that locker and I wouldn't want to get that hose punctured. This is also the home of the battery bank and the future home of the new and increased-in-size battery banks. it means that I am going to have to rethink storage. You would think that there would be a lot of storage on a 39 foot boat, and there is, but you still have to have a place for everything and have everything in its place, or you'll never find anything. I "lost" a Maglite flashlight for almost a week on the boat and the only reason I didn't buy another is because I knew that it was on the boat somewhere. Eventually it turned up and it now sits in its own place whenever not in use. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the bungy-cords I "lost" yesterday. I am going to have to start bringing things to the boat and finding places to store them but that is not as easy as it sounds.

First of all, every boat is weight sensitive. ABISHAG can carry a lot of weight but it is not just how much but also where. How and where you position the weight on the boat affects its sailing characteristics, especially its stability. You have to keep the weight as low as you can.

Then, there is access. How do you get to the things that you need when you need them? Things that you don't use a lot can be buried deep in a storage space and the stuff you use a lot has to be readily available. Then again, safety equipment, which you hope you will never use, has too be instantly accessible.

This all gets even more confusing when you get to food supplies. Items you use a lot have to give way to stuff that can go bad . Fruits and veggies last for different lengths of time before they go bad and where you store them, deep in the cool bilge or high in a dry hammock, affects that time line. There are whole books written about how to store stuff on your boat. Like many things in boating, there is almost too much info. The simple truth is just the fact that I still have too much stuff.

MASTER'S PERSONAL LOG:

It is frustrating that I am still here. When I get up in the morning now and there is frost all over my car, I really get pissed. I should have been away by now but I am still here. today, I went out to get some milk for breakfast and had to warm up the car and defrost the windows. i was not happy about it. And really, it is the yard and there is not much I can do about it.

One good thing, one very good thing in all of this is that I will probbaly get to spend Thanksgiving with the family. I seriously doubt I would whip up a turkey if I was on my own at anchor in the Cheasapeake.

Once the boat is finally ready, I will have to hold a "Going Away" Party and give everyone a chance to say "Good-bye.' Maybe I should have a "Boat Warming"?

IT IS GETTING COLD!!!!!

SHIP'S LOG:

It is getting colder as fall comes in. The downside of this is that the late-hauling boats all want to be hauled now and since this is a yard where most of the work is done by the yardworkers rather than by the boat owners, I am a bit of an oddity here, all that is involved in winterizing the boats is being done by the yardworkers. What this means is that the work that they got half done on ABISHAG remains in that state. And the weather gets colder. It is not that much of the work is beyond my skill but if I step in now and finish it and something goes wrong, it is my fault. Basically I have to let them finish what they have started and I hope they get around to it soon.

This doesn't mean that there isn't stuff for me to do, oh there is plenty but really it is stuff that can be done at any time. It would effect the trip or the departure date. It really rained on Tuesday and I discovered all of the leaks that I thought I had plugged we still active. Well, not all but three: the port in the fore-cabin, the main salon hatch and the portside port in the main salon. I couldn't do anything so long as it was raining so Wednesday became a re-caulking day, ripping out the old and putting in the new. Almost as much fun as fiberglassing but at least it stops the drips on your head.

With the electrics still out, I bought a small Honda generator for juice while tied up at the dock. Actually, I was planning to do so anyway as I doubted that the wind generator alone would allow me to run the engine significantly less. I really don't want to run the main propulsion engine simply to charge the batteries. It's not good for the engine in any event and until I get a chance to live aboard for a couple of months, I won't have much of an idea of how big an electrical load I will have to deal with on the boat and what is the best way to generate the power.

ABISHAG is officially ABISHAG. Not only do I have the official documentation but I put the name on her yesterday. I have no idea quite how it looks as the "coolness" of the weather requires it to dry out completely before removing covering. I will be going down today and will be stripping the paper off. I'll let you know how it looks. And I have started bringing stuff down to the boat now. It is fun to begin to do this at last.

MASTER'S PERSONAL LONG:

It is beginning to bother me that the weather is getting so much colder so quickly. It is making the prospect of the trip south much more of a chore than I hoped it would be. Heading south in near-freezing weather is not something I am looking forward to doing. I will have to winterize the boat for frostbite sailing and that would be an unanticipated expense. Of course there are two other options, winter over here in Connecticut or hiring a delivery crew and have them take the boat south to say Norfolk, VA. Neither of these two option would be cheap on top of everything else. This is getting more than a bit frustrating and I am trying to get a sense of what this is all about. There is not a lot I can do about and will have to wait it out, making plans for all of the options. It is not fun to think about staying here for the winter nor going south in the freezing cold. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

The Week In Review

*My access to the Internet was disrupted for a week but now I have it back!!!!

SHIP'S LOG:

Well, she floats! ABISHAG went into the water this past Tuesday and is floating at last in her element! I get the impression that a thru-hull, with no hose connected, was left open during the launching. This impression came from the rather large amount of water in the bilge I found on Wednesday! Normally this wouldn't be a cause for concern except for the fact that there is no electricity in the boat to run the automatic bilge pump. This is actually a good thing in that the hose connecting the automatic bilge pump to its thru- hull is not attached so pumping would have just circulated the water through the boat. Then again, the float for the automatic bilge pump (the automatic part) is disconnected. We did this to jury rig the pump for the trip up and it hasn't been reconnected. Then again, there is the manual bilge pump which I just installed (new) but since it feeds into the the same hose and thru-hull as the automatic bilge pump, pumping it was not going to do anything. In the end, I used a small hand pump to fill a bunch of buckets and empty them into the sink and so overboard. There is still a tiny bit of water coming in from somewhere (I am betting on the stuffing box) but that will be handled this week.

The Wind-steering System is now in place and functioning. Sitting at the dock, it will maneuver the boat in its slip. It really looks like a great piece of modern art affixed to the stern and it just screams "BLUEWATER CRUISING BOAT!!"

Hurricane-tropical storm NOEL clearly indicated which of the ports still leak. Actually just one in the forward cabin and in its case, it is the gasket around the lexan. A little silicon should seal it up just fine.

What remains to be done:

1.) Finish installing the new wiring;

2.) Wiring a new battery switch, battery bank and a new dockside power switch;

3.) Installing a Galvanic Isolator (very technical);

4.) Installing the watermaker (next Monday for sure!)

Basically, when these things are done, ABISHAG will be ready to go. The refrigeration is problematic as I can't check it until we can crank the engine. If it works great. If not, well it is a big ice box and I can use it as such until I can afford to replace the refrigeration system. As I have written before, the list of repairs and maintenance items is really never ending. If I waited until everything was perfect, I would never leave. So it is a matter of getting the boat ready enough to begin the trip. Hopefully that will be within the next 10 days or so and then comes the stocking up and then departing.

MASTER"S PERSONAL LOG:

The day isn't here yet but it sure seems that it is very close. The time of year and the weather will probably mean that I will have to do the day-hop trip down the Connecticut Coast and New Jersey Coast to Cape May. Day-hopping is not fast but I don't really have to be anywhere at any particular time, besides as someone once noted, the most inefficient way to get anywhere is by boat and the most inefficient boat is a sailboat. I start when I can and get there when I get there. Weather will probably slow down the trip some as if the weather is not conducive to sailing, I won't go anywhere. The farther south I get, the less the weather should be the problem, but north of Norfolk, VA. and the start of the ICW, it can mess up my timing.

I had expected to spend about $15,000 more to get the boat ready for departure. I had planned on money from the sale of the condo to cover that amount. Well, I have exceeded expectations and the condo remains unsold. Needless to say, the Bank of America has a hitman looking for me, though I keep getting mail from them offering loans at great rates. Who knows, perhaps I will win the lottery though buying a ticket would be necessary for that to happen.

I have to start sorting through my remaining stuff to determine what I need to take, what I want to take, and what what has to go away. My books are all gone and most of the close are headed to Project Northeast. I'll be taking both laptops with me and one print, but the desk top and the other printer remain, though where I am not sure. I sold a couple of things on E-BAY but didn't realize all that much but it may be the way to go.

It is an interesting experience unloading stuff like this. It is amazing how much stuff I have accumulated over the last 30 years, all of which I thought was important at one time and which i have been loathed to get rid of ... until now. I have had to be very careful not to replace old stuff with new stuff though my financial situation has helped a great deal in that regard, as has the fact that everything has to have a place on ABISHAG and even at 39 feet, there is not all that much space, at least not for file cabinets and rocking chairs and the like. I am certain, from all that I have read, that I will also be disposing of even more stuff along the way as I find it is completely useless to me, nice to have but useless. It is already a rather extensive life-style change and dealing with it can, at time, be difficult. I am not quite use to it yet, but i am getting there. I keep thinking of that biblical image of God as the potter fashioning the clay. I wonder what kind of "pot" I will turn out to be?

Monday, Maybe Tuesday!!!!!

SHIP'S LOG:

The last few days have been rather busy as I am more putting the boat back together than anything else. In fact, a good part of today was a "Clean up" day. Not soap-and-water type clean up but a get-rid-of-all-the-stuff- you-no-longer-need-for-the-boat. Back to the car went drills, saws, grinders, dremmel tools and the like. Into the trash went all the cardboard boxes holding stuff to be installed and suddenly there was actually room to move around without tripping over stuff. Places for the tools that will be traveling with me have been found and things are falling into place.

I installed a new manual bilge pump and re-built the old one as a back-up, though if I ever need two bilge pumps, in addition to the automatic one, I am not sure that one the boat is the place I want to be. It would mean one heck of a lot of water trying to get on board which probably means that I would be leaving.

Today in the mail saw the arrival of the vinyl lettering for the name as well as the official documentation papers. We are all official now but it also means that I have to get out of state 30 days after the boat is ion the water or I will owe the state of Connecticut $3,400 in sales taxes and a couple hundred more to register the boat in the state. It is something I will have to work out over the winter south of here. I will have to register the boat when I come back in the summer as I'll be at the Thames Yacht Club but if I register it in a state that doesn't charge for registering documented boats, I can get away with not having to pay the sales taxes in Connecticut.

The weather has been moderately crappy for the projects I want to do, namely finishing off the bottom painting, attaching the last zinc, compounding and waxing the hull. I thin k summer is definitely gone and fall is here big time. The cold rain has made it easier to track down the leaks whose sources have so far eluded me. Water tends to travel in a boat, coming in over here and showing up inside over there. Tracking down leaks is even more fun that tracing pipping and wires. Leaks are almost magical, or intelligent. It is as though they are playing a game of hide and seek with you ..... and they cheat. It is as though they love to send you on a wild goose chase and after having you pull out this piece of hard ware and re-bed it, it wait an appropriately decent time before leaking again or from some new spot. Ah, the joys of boating.

The last of the thru-hulls are in and the hull is sound and so the boat is going in the water on Monday or Tuesday. Not my decision but rather the yard manager as he is running out of room and at 39 feet long and 12 feet wide, ABISHAG takes up a pretty nice chunk of boatyard. She will go into a slip until the electrical work is done and I get to check out the systems that need a working electrical system to function. Once everything checks out, it is pay the bill (UGH!) and hit the road, metaphorically speaking.

MASTER'S PERSONAL LOG:

The departure day is almost here and I still have a million things to do. The trip south will be dictated by the weather. If it is crappy, I'll day trip down either the Connecticut or Long Island Coast, down the New Jersey Coast, up the Delaware Bay and down the Chesapeake. If the weather is good, it will be a straight shot from Montauk to Cape May and then up the Delaware and down the Chesapeake. I don't have to full stock up before I go as there are grocery stores(I still have my WINN DIXIE Card) and West Marines up and down the eastern seaboard. The boat has no heat so I would not want to hang around too, too long but will see what happens. The hammy is better and so is the car, though the mechanic fixing it did a less than admirable job re-connecting to cooling hose to the radiator. Had to get another tow. Thank God for AAA.

Actually, I am a bit amazed how calm and relaxed and non-stressed I am right now. I guess God's plan has worked. While I plan ahead, I tend more now to practice mindfullness and live in the moment. Everything necessary will be done and when all is ready, the actual sailing part of the journey starts. It is exciting to think about it.

I Could Just Scream!!!!

SHIP'S LOG:

It is somehow appropriate that Captain Binghamton of the TV SHow "MCHALE'S NAVY" comes to mind , especially since his signature line is "I could just Scream," as he gets frustrated in his plans just when he thinks he has everything under control. That is certainly me this week.

Actually the projects on the boat are going very well. The LPG Locker is set and needs only paint. The Hydrovane Wind Steering System was dry fitted and awaits only a couple of pads to be cut and fitted for it to be assembled and ready to go. All the thru-hulls have been polished and, while still awaiting the two missing thru-hulls, they are on their way and can be popped in when they get here. The Watermaker needs only installation and the wiring needs finishing. Aside from that, only the numerous and never-ending projects on the boat list remain to be done, items that can be done "underway."

MASTER'S PERSONAL LOG:

So it is understandable that I would feel a little like Capt. Binghamton when on Wednesday the timing belt went in the engine in my car and took out at least three valves. Evening if that is all the damage done, it will be $1,500 and odds are that it will be more than that. That's $1,500 that I really can't spare at this time but which I will have to spend. However, one had to do what one has to do and eventually I became at peace with that. Then again, there was Thursday and i evidently ripped the scar tissue on the hammy. Suddenly that horse bit me again and for two day's now I have really be unable to go up and down a ladder. I could just scream!--this time in pain. Thank goodness the weather has been crappy but it is still another frustration upon another frustration.

Zen And The Art Of Bottom Painting!!!

SHIP'S LOG:

I nearly had a heart attack today. I pulled into the West Mystic Shipyard , made a left turn to where ABISHAG has been sitting for weeks and she was gone! Talk about panic! Who the hell steals 12 ton boat sitting on the hard? And how would they do it? It seemed like an eternity before my brain kicked into gear and I realized that the boat had simply been moved. In that I am not wintering in Mystic (please God), I was on the hard in a spot where another boat in normally stored. This was fine until that boat came out of the water which it evidently did this morning and so I go moved to a new spot. It was a small first step closer to the water...literally!

Today was the third shot at glassing in the LPG Locker and I didn't waste it. West Marine Epoxy Resin & Hardener. Expensive but boy does it work! The locker has a new layer of glass inside and out encapsulating the Formula 27 Filler. I will check it out tomorrow and quite possibly lay down another layer. In all likelihood it does not need it, it is pretty much bulletproof now, but as Oscar Wilde observed, "Nothing succeeds like excess!"

Touched base with my good friend Skip Beebe and Wednesday we will install the Windvane steering system. When that goes into place, at least the outside of the boat will really look like it is ready for the ocean. I am eager to try it out.

Bottom painting is a real art. True most of it seems to be just slapping on bottom paint but to do it right requires a real ZEN like approach....well at least doing the waterline does. ABISHAG has a red, white & blue waterline of marine enamel and the current bottom paint is a hard type, red in color. Today I had to cut-out, that is with a brush go around all the thru-hulls (don't paint your thru-hulls) and get into all the place you can't reach with a roller, like the area between the edge of the rudder and the deadrise. But the part that needs the real Zen approach is the intersection of the bottom paint and the waterline. And that poses a question, how do you paint a straight line on a curved hull? What makes it a little more challenging is that this is the first boat I can't quite paint standing on the ground.

The first few times I paint bottoms, like everyone else I used masking tape and razor blades to be sure the paint line was perfectly straight. It made the job rather tedious and it never quite turned out perfect. But working for a couple of winters in the Farrar Sail Loft in New London, I learned the art of making a curve with a straight line. All the panels of a sail have straight edges and all of the edges of a sail (luff, leach & foot) are also straight and yet all sails have a curve in them. Bed sheets, towels, curtains are all straight and sails are curved. Once you know the art, it is easy and it transfers, as Kevin and John taught me, to painting the straight line of bottom paint on the curved side of a boat. The best part is that if you do it right, you use only one continuous piece of tape all the way around the boat this makes it a great deal easier, not only in painting, but in taking the tape off the boat. You grab one end and walk around the boat and off it comes. I would explain how it is done but as some Zen master said, nothing can be taught, it can only be learned. The easiest way to understand it is to answer the question, How does one get to Carnegie Hall? And tomorrow that bottom will be fully painted.

MASTER'S PERSONAL LOG:

I can't believe how panicked I was when I didn't see ABISHAG where I was accustomed to seeing her. But it was a good thing that she got moved. I was getting far to comfortable where I was and it was a good reminder that I still have a journey to complete. With the weather getting chilled I have pretty much completed the alternate course south. Even though it would only be a 24 hour dash from Montauk to Cape May, it seems easier in warm weather than in cold. Actually it seems a little scary in the cold as opposed to the warm. Not that I expect any problems for ABISHAG will be as ready as I can make her. Rather it is just that I think ( I don't really know yet) that weather will be less settled. I am not concerned once I get to the Chesapeake, it is the trip from here to Cape May. That is why I want to get the boat in the water as soon as I can, so that I can shake her and me down. I have more confidence in the boat right now than I do in myself, but I also know that I can do this. God is sure making this an interesting learning situation. In any event, even if I have to day sail and motor the whole way, I have no intention of spending the winter here. I really hate the cold.