From the logbook, July 3rd, 2003

Today is what all of us envisioned when we decided to take this journey. We have been sailing since 1:30 AM. The wind is blowing at about 12 knots.

Later, the breeze picked up. This is fine sailing, 10-15 knots of wind, close reaching, clear, blue skies, tropical clouds, calm seas.

Spirits are up as we anticipate landfall in two days with this breeze. We positioned ourselves well on the ocean to avoid stronger winds further north. The price of admission to this ride was the motoring of the last several days, and lying ahull to conserve fuel, drifting last night. Now we're sailing directly to Bermuda, our speed varying from 5-7 knots.

Dirt Dwelling

Silence was hauled out of the water this week, and she is sitting on the hard for the winter.

Decommissioning

Silence is put away for the winter; pink antifreeze is running through
her veins now. To keep up my sailing spirits, I am watching
http://www.velux5oceans.com. Check it out.

--
Sent from my mobile device

St. Michael's

We are passing an easy day at anchor in St. Mike's today. Heading out
for a bike ride soon...

Dodging the Bullet

It looks like Earl will pass us by... we will still plan to do a boat
check this evening, and make sure everything is well secured.

Hurricane!

Hurricane Earl will come close on Friday. We will be watching this one closely.

Centerboard

The last time that we were out it was very difficult to get the centerboard up, and when we attempted to lower it, the cable seemed to be hung up on something. I'm speculating that the cable has jumped a sheave (there are 3 sheaves in the path through the boat). Fixing this will probably require having the boat out of the water. We planned to haul out next spring anyway, so we might just opt to avoid using the board for the rest of this season. (This is only a problem if we want to go to windward effectively). This is the first problem that we have had with the centerboard in 12 seasons of sailing. So, even though we're having this problem now, I still like having a centerboard. It's great for going to windward, balancing the boat, and still having a shallow draft for the Bay.

Leak Repaired

Our mechanic replaced a gasket on the coolant tank to stop the leak, so the engine should be A-OK now.

DIW

Well, some problems are not as simple as you might hope. When I tested the engine last night, I discovered a much more serious coolant leak. This one is in the coolant tank on top of the engine. Some of the metal has corroded away so the tank will have to be replaced. Drat! It may take a few weeks before I can get my mechanic out to help, so no sailing for me this weekend.

Coolant Leak

I went over tonight and looked in the riser to find... no coolant! Searching for a leak I noticed that the area around the expansion tank, near the hot water heater was damp. So, I refilled the riser with perhaps a quart or so of coolant to top it off, and started the engine. When the temperature got to about 150, the cap on the expansion tank began to leak. The cap was old and rusty, so it looks like the fix for our problem is just a new radiator cap.

Tow

After 20 years of sailing, I experienced my first tow today. We had a beautiful sail in 10 knots of breeze, and then we started the motor to head home. We noticed the engine temperature running very high after a few minutes, so we slowed down to see if the engine temperature would drop. No luck, so we shut the engine down and called Tow Boat US. They arrived in about 20 minutes, and hauled us in, through the draw bridge and to our dock. We restarted the engine briefly to put the boat in the slip, and shut everything down, with the engine starting to overheat again. We think that this might be a bad thermostat, or maybe a fresh water coolant leak. I will spend some time in the engine room this week figuring out the problem.

Spring

The list of spring chores is getting shorter. Today I changed the oil in the engine and generator. Last weekend, I replaced the impeller in the engine, replaced all of the zincs in the heat exchangers, and scrubbed the decks. Now we just need a warm day to go out and raise sails.

Packing and Stuffing

Last weekend I went to the boat and measured the propeller shaft, and found it to be 1-1/4" in diameter. Based on discussions that I read on the web, I concluded that I needed either 1/4" or 5/16" packing. West Marine carries GoreTex packing in both of those sizes, and since it was three times as expensive as the cotton flax packing, I figured that it must be the best choice!

Today, Dennis met me at the boat to lend morale support and guidance. He has replaced the packing on his boat, so I figured that having an experienced hand around would be a good thing. We went through the process methodically, and everything went perfectly. The amount of water leaking around the shaft after opening the nut was very tolerable for the bilge pump. I had the right size packing, 1/4". The packing cut easily with the fresh razor knife that I had on hand. The clearance for the packing nut allowed me to slide it way down the shaft to an area with great access under the floor board. The PVC pipe section that I made to use as a tool to help the packing push into the nut did it's job. And when I hand-tightened the packing nut, the water flow stopped. Total time working: 55 minutes. The sea gods smiled on me today, and I am grateful.

Stuffing Box

Last season it became clear that it is time to re-pack the stuffing box. The adjustment nut has become hard to tighten as the packing has become compressed. It's been about 5 years since the last re-packing, so the timing seems about right. This time, I plan to do it myself, with the boat in the water. This should be exciting, since once you open up the stuffing box nut, the boat will begin to take on water around the prop shaft. I'm using the following link as a reference: http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/stuffing_box&page=1

This is the best example that I have found on the web so far. I need to take some measurements from the shaft this weekend, and then collect some supplies for the job.

Snow and Ice

I visited Silence today, to dig out the cockpit after yesterday's snowfall and to make sure that all is well with her. The surface ice on the creek is building up, but our de-icer is running smoothly in the water, keeping the ice at bay. We are eager for spring and the beginning of the sailing season.