May 2015 – Dauntless at Sea

Dauntless Summer Cruise 2015 Days 04 to 07, Trebeurden, Lezardrieux & Jersey

Trebeurden, a nice town, but we had to hike a mile uphill to see it. Very touristy. Not really my cup of tea, but especially for Larry and Karla, it’s nice to have a rest on terra firma.

After 10 months, I finally got the water maker up and running. I had needed to replace the aux pump and wanted to rewire it a bit, to use a relay closer to the power source. This also enables me to have a switch on the helm to turn it on and off.

I had done the electrical weeks ago, but the pump fitting were giving me fits. Between national pipe thread (NPT), garden hose thread, plastic fitting, brass fittings, American fitting and European fittings, I was at my wit’s end.

I didn’t like the first solutions I had come up with which had made it look like something Rube Goldberg would have designed. Finally in Trebeurden I found a coupler fitting and that led to an elegant solution.

The new auxiliary pump, centrifugal, is very quiet and made to run continuously. That’s thanks to Parks at Hopkins-Carter Marine in Miami.

Having to find a new dock in Miami last winter, while stressful at the time, ended up being the best thing ever. My helper, the other Richard, got to see some of the Miami boating environs and I ended up meeting some really helpful and nice people: Parks and my Nordy friends, Ed & Rosa. A wonderful result on all accounts.

So Saturday morning, we got up and were underway to Jersey. We didn’t make it.

For the first 4 hours, our average speed was 4 knots. At that rate, we would get to Jersey the day after tomorrow. Not really but it felt like that. So I decided to find an interim stop. I did, Lezardrieux, promptly nicknamed, Lizardville. As soon as we turned upriver to the town, about 5 miles, our speed shot up to 9 knots. We arrived just in time to miss the lunch hours, meaning a wait until 19:00, 7:00 p.m., to eat. I don’t like eating late anymore, convinced that part of my weight loss has been due to not having evening meals for the most part.

The forecast was for a storm to be moving through on Sunday, but you know me and forecasts. I wanted to get to Jersey because the window of opportunity was getting ever smaller. Therefore, we are underway now to Jersey, in moderate winds, 16 knots gusting to 25, but the seas are relatively flat, at 2-4 foot. Yes, I have come to accept that 2-4’ is relatively flat. Our roll has increased to 8°.

We now have a counter current, so although I am making the supreme sacrifice by running at 1800 rpms, where fuel burn is 2.0 gal/hr, our speed is still only 5.8 knots. If my Navionics currents are correct, we should have a helpful current going our direction in the next two hours.

Our intended destination, St. Helier on the Island of Jersey, is a port that has a sill to come over. The sill, like a cofferdam, keeps the water in the basin, otherwise the harbor would be dry at low tide but now, this means the harbor entrance is only open 3 hours on each side of high tide. So, it’s also closed for 6 hours. I’m running faster to try to get there before it closes.

I’ll let you know how it turns out. But you can probably figure it out as it happens just by watching our route at the Share.delorme.com/dauntless website.

The Sill to the Marina Harbor, St. Helier, Jersey

Ummm, turns out I had rebooted the InReach and then did not realize it was not transmitting, so no joy that way. However, I did get an email from MarineTraffic telling me Dauntless had arrived in Jersey!

The wind stayed out of the southwest until the final hour into Port St. Helier. This meant the fetch was small and the waves stayed in the 2 and 3 foot range, with only an occasional 5 footer, in spite of the 15 gusts to 25 knot winds. Just before landfall, the winds turned westerly and north westerly at 25 knots. That combined with the much longer fetch, was immediately saw waves a few feet higher. All of sudden we were getting 6 foot waves on the port stern quarter. That angle of incidence does make the roll more than usual, and we had one roll of 15°. But not much more than a curiosity, as the port was in sight.

As we pulled into the harbor, I saw the three RED lights signifying the marina basin was closed. Not only was it closed, but the water inside the marina was three feet higher than the water Dauntless was in. We have tied up at the “waiting” dock.

So my tide calculation was only off by about 6 hours! Se La Vie.

All’s Well that Ends Well

If you cannot find me via the Delorme, you can also try Marine Traffic, but a caveat. If you google MarineTraffic Dauntless, please be aware that we are not: The Greek bulk carrier, nor the Tugs in the UK and Singapore and not even the British war ship.

So if you are like I and are easily confused, just google “Marine traffic 367571090”, which is my MMSI number.

We went into town and had a great, early dinner. I’m beat. So nighty, night.

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Dauntless Summer Cruise 2015 Day 03 Scilly to France

We got up early to take advantage of the calm winds and little boat traffic. Dauntless rolled a bit last night on the mooring ball, so I put the paravanes out. They decreased the roll a bit, certainly dampened it, like shock absorbers on a car, but these particular fish (or birds) are made to be moving through the water for maximum effectiveness.

As we got south of the Scillies, I realized that while it was 90 nm to Plymouth, France was but 120 nm. With fair skies and still under the influence of the Azores high, it made sense to me to press on across the channel to the continent. I discussed our options with Karla and Larry and they concurred. A direct route to France also meant we could avoid the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) off the English Channel and the area north of Brest.

So instead of turning due east for Plymouth, we set off ESE towards the north coast of France. The port of Trebeurden is our goal, with anticipated steaming time of 22 hours.

After a few hours of beautiful weather and looking at our expected arrival time, I decided to lower the engine rpms to 1500. Not only will that save us about a half-gallon of fuel per hour, but our ETA would have been 04:00 at the faster speed, and is now, about 05:30. A better arrival time, as it will be light.

It’s 18:00 now and as the day progressed diurnal heating produced some stratocumulus clouds and winds from the WNW at 15 gusting to 23. So the almost flat seas we had in the morning, gave way to wind driven waves of 3 to 5 feet hitting Dauntless on her stern starboard quarter. We have gradually increased our rolling from plus or minus 1 to 2 degrees to +/- 4 to 6°

Still, that’s half of what it was for the last few hours of our cruise into St. Mary’s Harbor in Scilly.

For dinner, I made a tasty dinner of hamburger and crudité. The hamburger ground by my butcher in Waterford. It’s hard to imagine that I spent 8 months on and off in Waterford and now won’t be back for four months. But I did meet an Irish sailboat in St. Mary’s. We had gotten into a discussion about the “legs” on their boat which was beached on hard sand, held vertical on its keel by said legs. That gave me some ideas of how I could make that work on Dauntless. Probably just 4”x4”s with a notch for the rub rail, then bolted through the hawse pipe. A project for next winter. They were taking her to the west coast of Ireland and will winter over in Dingle, so I promised to come visit next winter.

Unlike yesterday, time today has seemed to fly by. And yes, I kept the patch on.

For the past two hours I have been watching the parade of ships heading for the TSS north of Brest. I have also managed to figure out the Raymarine radar a little better and finally noticed after two years that the gain also had an adjustment for wave state. I could keep the gain much higher, if I also adjusted the wave state. A win win. And to think, some say I’m a slow learner! (win-win turned out to be tie-tie, as I adjusted it not to see waves, turns out it also didn’t see fishing boats).

The Dauntless Helm with Radar, Chart & AIS Information

A beautifully flat day, azure sky and sea, with just some mare tails cirrus. As the afternoon and evening progressed, the winds started picking up slowly, but surely. By evening, increased westerly winds had produced 3 to 5’ waves and the roll was 6° to each side. As one of the lessons learned from the Atlantic Crossing, I now run off the tank on the windward side of the boat. The lee side seems to remain heeled for slightly longer times, so I don’t want the engine sucking water through the vents. Yes, I had not gotten around to moving the vents yet. I did think about it a lot though!

Under these conditions, it’s not an issue, and possibly only an issue under heavy seas with only paravane in the water.

I had also adjusted the ComNav Autopilot to be less sensitive, so that it made fewer corrections constantly. I will have to call them someday and discuss if my interpretation by reading between the lines of their user manual is correct. Basically, under open ocean conditions, meaning no need to keep a rigid heading constantly, I set the sea state to very high (rough seas), so that it doesn’t try to adjust heading every second. Under these conditions, I will hear it operate every few (3 to 6) seconds.

On the other hand, under truly rough, 12+ seas, I set it to totally flat conditions, so that as soon as it senses the stern coming around it acts. Then the adjustments are almost constant, but it does a great job of steering the boat through the worst conditions. I have tried to hand steer under such conditions and frankly the ComNav does a better job. In the 20+ foot seas on the last day into Ireland, as I cowered on the bench in the pilot house, the ComNav reacted so well, I never saw any green water over the rails. Maybe I should ask them about a sponsorship!

During the early evening hours we had a little excitement as we were crossing the main eastbound traffic lanes. While not in a TSS, the ships having come around Brest in the TSS 30 miles to our west, will reenter the TSS about 30 miles to our east. Therefore they pretty much stay in the same track. Makes it easier for us, as one can figure out where the main traffic lane is and the direction ships will be heading.

We only encountered a few west bound ships, but an hour north of the east bound lanes, our AIS and Coastal Explorer showed the parade of ships heading east. They were cruising at 14 to 18 knots, while we were doing 6.5 knots. That gave me plenty of time to plan our crossing. There was only one ship that was a factor. It was a big Chinese ship that the AIS said it was doing dredging operations (something must have gotten lost in translation), but to me looked to be one of those floating dry docks. Massive bridge at the bow and a massive stern and almost nothing in between.

I adjusted our course to be perpendicular to his course and I could see that he adjusted his course a few degrees to starboard also. The picture is what CE depicted. The closest anyone got was about a mile, though later on we passed a fishing boat about a quarter mile away, but I had been watching him for more than an hour so…

By midnight winds were westerly at 15 gusting to 22, seas 4 to 6 feet and roll 7°. This kept up until we reached the harbor.

Dawn was breaking as we approached. We had to stop to get the paravanes in, while it only took a few minutes, it was disconcerting to be stopped just hundreds of feet from the large rocky outcrop. So I was much relieved to get underway again even though Dauntless hardly drifted at all.

Previously, I had carefully plotted a course into the basin based on our pilot charts, and my C-Map and Navionics charts.

But the reality ended up being a bit different. Our planned path was full of moored boats. So on to Plan B, I kept our speed just above idle, about 4 knots, to minimize the damage if we hit anything. I picked up the three green lights our pilot charts told us meant the gate was open. But our pilot chart had also told us the gate was always open during neap tides and as I remembered seeing the waxing (light on the right) quarter moon last night, I knew it was a neap tide.

The Gate We Passed Through. D is just past the gate on the left.

Creeping slowly forward, the sign board seemed to indicate 2.5 meters, but always leery that I am missing the obvious, I was still worried about the mysterious sill. We passed over the sill into the marina basin and didn’t scrape anything, but it was an anxious moment.

A big assed catamaran was on the one available “T”. I went past him to see if we had any options, we didn’t. I turned around and headed for a slip just inside the gate. The slip is short, only 20 feet, so our rear half is hanging out.

The wind was behind us, so that was a bit of a mistake, it made the docking more stressful then it needed to be, but finally, 23 hours after engine start at St. Mary’s, we were finished with engine and had landed on the “continent” for the first time by boat.

The Trebeurden Harbor from Above. Dauntless is docked in the basin to the left, out of the Frame.

All’s Well that Ends Well

Closeup of Our Crossing. Those are 30 minute Heading Vectors.

Maretron Data for the Previous 24 hours. The Telltale says the Highest wind was 24 Knots, but I reset that frequently.

Dauntless Summer Cruise 2015 Day 01 New Ross Ireland to Scilly Islands

Woke up still on the hard at New Ross boatyard. Stephen the owner, like virtually every Irish person I have had contact with in the last 8 months, was great. Helpful, prompt; got me two fuse blocks I had decided I needed for the solar panels.

Just a wonderful experience form beginning to end.

We were splashed at 12:30 just after high tide. Of course, I was not ready to go, so we tied up alongside and I spent the next hour, putting tools and stuff away that had been out over the weekend. Also go the boat sea ready, which means getting all the stuff off the counters before it goes crashing to the floor.

Almost successful. A few hours past Dunmore East in the open ocean, seas westerly at 2-3 feet, winds NNW at 15, I hear a crash and glass breaking. I had forgotten to put the restraining clothes pin on the wine glass rack, thus a glass walked off to its doom. But as Julie and I often say, you can never have too many $1 wine glasses from IKEA.

All in all a beautiful day. Decided to take advantage of the light winds and not stop at Dunmore East, but to head directly for St. Mary’s in the Scilly Islands, just off Land’s End.

I neglected to do a few things which I had actually thought about, but then in this weird sense of I know better than myself, I out thought my own plans, and didn’t:

Prepare the paravanes for deployment ({paravanes, why would I need paravanes?) and,
Put my Scopolamine patch on, (sea sickness, I’m sure after 8 months on land, I don’t have to worry about getting seasick).

Passing Dunmore East, I was already feeling strange. That feeling got worse until I realized I was getting sea sick and put the patch on. That was at 16:00. It’s now 21:00 and I can write this because the sea sickness if finally gone and I feel normal. I would have felt fine all day had I stuck to my well thought out plan and put the patch on before we left New Ross because I know it takes hours to take effect on me.

And of course, we feeling the worst, I realized we needed to deploy the paravanes. As we got into the sound, we started rolling 5 to 8° in each direction. So, feeling like crap, I am up on the fly bridge with Larry, trying to show him what we need to do.

Only took 15 minutes. Had I prepared beforehand, it would have taken 2!

Karla will have the late night watch, from 21:00 to 02:00; Larry from 02:00 to 05:00 and I’ll sleep on the bench in the pilot house, knowing it will be a more restful sleep there.

Do not expect much traffic and all systems are working well. The AIS did warn us of one fishing boat just off the coast.

Summer Adventure 2015 Begins

Yesterday.

We got up at the crack of dawn so to be able to start engine at 06:15. The last line was thrown off at 06:45 and our Summer Adventure officially began.

Today, Sunday, 24 May, 2015, I awoke to the visage of Claudia III out the salon window, quite a change from Waterford. But how did we get here?

THe Krogen's Salty Bow — The Krogen’s Salty Bow & a Few Irish Boats

Casting off yesterday morning, with our bow pointed into the flooding tide, Dauntless left Waterford with hardly a ripple. A little left rudder, forward gear at idle, she glided smoothly into the oncoming 2 knot current.

I can’t begin to tell you the feelings of getting underway, cleaving the bonds that tied us to a particular place. The steady purr of the engine, the big wheel turning a big rudder, Dauntless becomes frisky. Krogens are made to roam the seas and can bring their lucky owners to virtually any place they dare to go.

We had arranged to go to the New Ross Boatyard for haul out. 12 months and 4,000 miles after our last haul out, I figured it was time again. The Waterford boatyard’s lift was too narrow for our Krogen, but they recommended the New Ross Boatyard. Our departure from Waterford was predicated on two factors: the need to depart into the current and the necessity to arrive at New Ross close to high water. That meant an hour downstream against the current and then an hour upstream with the current. Turned out there was also a swing bridge to traverse, but we had three feet to spare.

Arriving at the boat yard, with a two knot current still running, made for an exciting entrance, finally on the third attempt, Dauntless was safely cradled in the lift.

The bottom was in much better shape than I had anticipated. The previous haul out, half the anti-fouling paint was gone. This time, there were just small areas where the old ablative paint was showing through. So we, actually Karla and Larry, spent the rest of the afternoon touching up our bottom. Now it looks a bit like a moth eaten leopard, but only the fish will know.

The two zincs were half gone. I replaced the one on the rudder. The one of the shaft is a combination steel cutter attached to a clamp on zinc anode. It costs only $62. It’s the second one I’ve put on and it works wonderfully. Half eaten, it tells me it’s doing its job and no pieces of line wrapped around the shaft as had happened in the past. I got it from the Zinc Warehouse,

http://www.zincwarehouse.com/shaft-anodes/salca-line-cutter-3.html.

It’s about half gone, but I did not have a replacement, I’ll buy in bulk the next time.

We’re ready to go back in the water, but today is Sunday, so we will have a day of rest and just small jobs. I must service and grease the Ideal Windlass and probably replace one of the solar panel controllers.

The Delorme InReach is now on, and my intention is to keep it on until Dauntless returns its 2015-6 winter home October 1^st. Therefore, you can find us at, https://share.delorme.com/dauntless But unlike the Atlantic Passage, since we will have somewhat normal email and cell, I have alimited plan in the number of text messages I can send or recieve. So, if you want to contact us, the best option is email, wxman22@gmail.com, or cell phone.

If there is not a current update on the InReach, either the boat has sunk or I have neglected to charge the InReach.

Thanks for coming along with us.

Cutter on the left, abuts the Prop. SALCA 2000 Anode is half gone

The Krogen Prop and Rudder after 12 months and 4,000 miles

Winter Work Almost Done

We took a half hour cruise yesterday, first time Dauntless has moved since my arrival October 1^st.

Sunset in Waterford with the Moon and Venus Looking on.

It felt so good to be out on the water, if only on the River Suir, in front of Waterford. As you can see from the pictures of our docking situation, I needed to wait to leave the dock until we had a current against us.

So we untied and left the dock about a half hour before low tide. Did a few figure 8’s, just to test all the systems.

No leaks, no problems, no strange odors or noises.

The Lazarette is empty and clean for the first time thanks to Larry.

The Lexan storm windows are cleaned with new rubber gaskets applied in a far more systematic way then previously, thanks to Karla. I like the insulation they provide in these cool climates.

D is good to go.

Current plans will be to depart Waterford early Saturday morning, as we will be going to a boatyard at New Ross, one hour down river, two hours up another river, for haul out.

Hopefully, if all goes well, we will be ready to

leave Tuesday at latest to begin our summer adventure.

Richard in an empty, clean Lazerette — Richard in an empty, clean Lazarette

A Far Better Day

I can see why satire is so effective; no, I did not sleep well, but I woke up in a far better mood and the simple fact is I am tied to the dock, so any problem is fixable. Getting across an ocean helps the perspective.

Larry, my Alaskan friend, along with his wife, Karla, is also here to help.

I had decided that I still needed to finish installing the controller and tablet dispenser for the Purasan, leak or no leak.

Another thing that happened yesterday was the forward bilge pump, while running, was not pumping any water out. So Bucket Head came to the rescue again and we could at least get the inch of water in the bilge out.

Having a leaking sanitation system into the bilge without the bilge pump working was a very unpleasant prospect, so I awoke this morning with a plan the first, I would deal with the bilge pump.

By 9:00 a.m. I had gotten the courage to take up the floor hatch covers and drive into the depths to do battle again. The bilge pump ran, but no pumping. I disconnected it from its bracket and then took off the short hose.

I put the pump into the shower sump and as I lifted the float sensor, the pump sprayed water all over the place. Well. At least one problem was partially solved. I took off the one way valve, water poured out of the hose, but blowing thru the valve showed it worked as it was supposed to (I was days past caring about where my lips were).

Putting it all back together, I once again used the hose to see if it was working and wonder of wonders, it was. I’m guessing that the day before, we may have been spraying down the bilge and I have has instances where when I do that to the shower pump, it can lose its prime. At that point, if it is running, it runs, but does not pump. Only turning it off and letting it rest, while presumably, the water for the out flow flows back into the pump, thus priming it. So when powered up again it works fine.

The bilge pump could not do that, since the one way valve is on the outtake side.

Knowing we had a working bilge pump made tackling the treatment tank far easier, as least now we could keep the forward bilge relatively clean.

So now we carefully dried the top of the processing unit and over the course of an hour, watched carefully as we flushed toilets. No leaks that I could find.

Then, within minutes I get a call from the States, it’s Raritan. I had called yesterday and left a message with the Senior Engineer, who I had talked with previously. So Brian was returning the call and I told him exactly what had happened yesterday and then today.

I was sorry I had cried “wolf”, but it was clearly not leaking now, while yesterday, I watched the fast drip of water with every flush.

Brian also helped me with a few other issues, including the solution to the one push pad issue. I had also woken this morning with a plan if only using one push pad. Brian confirmed my idea and also explained how I could set it up as before with one touch on either toilet.

This conversation led me to understand that the instructions for the second toilet which called for the two toilet option were written for people who did not have Raritan toilets already. So, now Raritan’s only crime is a poorly written installation manual, and nowadays everyone is guilty of that.

I still must calibrate the system, but at least I will be able to enjoy my dinner tonight.

And Monday, the Wallas heater install will commence. I wonder how their instructions, which I have already read many times, will work in actual execution?

A Few Days of Electrical Hijinks

Or How to Turn a Three hour Job into Three Days

Today is sunny, the birds are singing and I hope to finish the great electrical puzzle.

A Portion of the Engine Room Electrical Panel

Its Sunday, 10 May, 2015 15:00, 3:00 p.m., 30 hours after I had written the sentence above. Little did I realize three days ago that I would still be dealing with this tar baby.

Day 1 Friday, started out rainy, dark and damp. I figured a good day to stay in and finish the electrical work that I had started yesterday. Shouldn’t take me even all day, I thought. Ha!

It was’nt complicated in what I was trying to do. Dauntless has two electrical systems: 120 volt AC like you has at home and 12 volt DC, as your car uses. But now it becomes complicated, because unlike a house that sits on the ground and is literally and figuratively “grounded” or a car, which sits on rubber tires and therefore is isolated from the ground; a boat is neither. Not only that, but unlike a house, a boat is producing electricity or bringing it from the shore and making sure it doesn’t escape is a crucial.

Why? Because in the process of the electrons leaving the boat, going to Earth, the ground, they do not travel as free electrons, but as ions, electrically charged particles, that conduct electricity, in other words any metal on the boat in contact with water.

So this means that if the boat and its electrical systems are not grounded correctly, it will eat away at whatever metal parts it can find. There are two ways we deal with this. The first is to have a metal block somewhere on the outside hull that is connected to all the major grounding points inside the boat. The second is to use sacrificial metals, in particular zinc, which is attached to the engine, and on the drive shaft, so it eats that zinc and not the engine, the prop or the drive shaft.

These systems work well when properly maintained and designed in the first place. Dauntless actually has three electrical systems, two 120 a.c., one being connected to the Inverter and one 12 v d.c. I discovered that the 120v systems were cross wired in a way that helps to defeat the other safeguards in the boat. That’s bad. It can damage equipment, but worse lead to electricity leaking into the water taking metal ions from wherever it can find them with it. There may even be some electrocution risk, but that’s minor in the scheme of things.

So the process started Thursday, with me making a plan, looking at the old blueprint of the electrical system and making a new diagram of the changes I wanted to make.

I soon discovered that the neutral wires, those white wires in a 120v system, were not correct. And much like an old series style Christmas tree bulbs, having one burn out, darkens them all, in this case, having one wire going to the wrong place, puts the entire system at risk.

So thus started the get neutral hunt. Having to disconnect everything and then figure out what is connected to what.

I did that and at the same time I also changed the function of three of my upper panel breaker switches.

This is where I always get in trouble. By making many changes at once, while it may seem more efficient, it is only so, if and only if, everything works as planned when done.

It didn’t.

By late afternoon, I was ready to check to see if my changes worked as anticipated. The most significant change was allowing the Inverter to give power to the hot water heater. Completing the last connections, I turned on the inverter, got my trusty volt meter and tested the voltage going to the water heater. 1 volt! Not zero, but clearly not right.

Decided I’d finish it in the morning. Going to sleep that night, I did not have visions of sugar plum fairies, instead it was circuit diagrams and what had I missed.

The sun streaming in the windows woke me Saturday. Had my coffee and two oatmeal cookies form Costco that I had brought back with me and kept in the freezer.

I proceeded to spend the next few hours trying to understand what was happening or not. OK no power to the water heater, but what about the other stuff on the Inverter circuit? The outlets, the microwave, etc. Sometimes they had power, sometimes not.

Brought my analog volt meter out. Too many times in the past, I have been fooled by the digital meter not registering voltage for who knows what reason. I then spent the next few hours at the upper panel, maybe the problem was just getting the electricity down to the engine room?

Like everything, at first it seemed different, but upon closer inspection, same old problem.

I had noticed that if I turned on one particular circuit that the microwave happened to be on, then the entire system had power, but if that one circuit was off, no power anywhere.

I got worried that I had some strange feedback going on, that my turning on the circuit was allowing the electricity to flow backwards. Made no sense, but is possible, so I had to disconnect more stuff to make sure that wasn’t happening.

Earlier this morning, I heard a strange noise while in the engine room. Almost sounded like a mixer inside my fuel tank. Having learned the hard way that ignoring strange noises in a boat is like waving a red flag at a bull, I crawled out of the engine room to discover this behemoth in the middle of the river. What I had heard were his bow thrusters.

I watched him dock across the river.

Well, at least the weather was better than the day before, so I decided I needed a break and would do some shopping. I went the baker and got an apple pie (I like pieces for breakfast), then the butcher, who ground for me hamburger with 20% fat, instead of their normal 5%. Lastly to Dunn’s supermarket where I get my greens, in particular wild rocket (arugula, I think) and lamb’s lettuce.

Getting back to the boat, I fiddled with the electricity some more

Made my salad, didn’t overcook my burger on the Weber this time and it was one of my best dinners in a long time. Even drank red wine with it. Watched a few episodes of a new Korean Drama that I had downloaded while in NY, Cheongdamdong Alice, a really sweet drama.

So today, Sunday, I woke to gusting winds, driving rain and figured I would disconnect everything again, figure where every line goes and it has to work.

Didn’t work. Finally, I figured maybe it was the Inverter. Maybe I should read the manual again. Get it out, sit down, and make a cup of tea. Right in the introduction as it talks about how great it is and all the marvelous features, it mentions an “idle” mode.

WTF? Idle mode, I was pulling my hair out, thinking I had some crossed wires and now it tells me there is an idle mode, immediately I realize that’s why I was seeing one volt. And then like figuring out that 2 + 2 =4, I realized the one circuit that had to be one, was the only circuit that had a load, the little display of the microwave oven! Eureka,

California a very interesting town, but I digress.

OK, easy test, I get the vacuum, plug it in to a plug on a different circuit and turn on the inverter.

Within seconds the vacuum comes on, even while the microwave circuit is off.

Three days later, the problem was solved. Even got my water heater to work off the inverter. Takes a lot of power, but it will suffice this summer on those days we are at anchor.

Now, back to that drama.

Think I deserve a scone and some tea also.

The Cloud Passes Leaving a Beautiful Day in da Bronx

It was a short lived storm.

As I walked to the car, crossing Pelham Parkway, I really was struck by how pretty the Bronx is.

Now, I have been told by some about the Bronx, and working here for five years, and now living here, if only part time, I can certainly appreciate it, but still I’ve always had my doubts.

My friend Sam, a big Bronx booster and the only person I know who was born, raised and still living in the Bronx, would periodically rant and rave about its attributes. But like most New Yorkers, I attributed it to a passing delusion.

But I always liked her enthusiasm and she was more right than I. Sometimes I should listen better also.

As I got in the car, connected my IPod, that had been “lost” for the previous week, I also realized that that last night’s funk was as much about having to listen to NY radio for a few yours. How such a big city can have so little choice in radio listening is simply pathetic. We are such a big city, so there are no real “local” stations, but instead virtually every station is owned by some big corporation, run by the bean counters.

Sad to think that the place where playing rock albums on WNEW-NY actually started in the ‘60’s has now reverted to the planned world of a Disney Land.

So here is a song or two that works well on a sunny day.

And for those Double Bass Fans, Agnes Obel’s Aventine

One Republic's Counting Stars — OneRepublic’s Counting Stars

Windows Does What the Atlantic Couldn’t.

I’m returning to Dauntless in a few days. I have spent my time in NYC getting the final pieces for the heater installation, but I’m leaving with a little cloud over me.

Why? A number of reasons:

It started with my visit to our roof top apartment in Manhattan. It’s been rented since August and the renter has been great, but the plants did far more poorly this winter than the winter before, which was just as cold, if not even worse. I think it was that the plants suffered last summer, and therefore did not start the winter in the condition they should have.

Then it was on to the next project, the upgrade of our home computer.

Well, I could cross the Atlantic, but even after a week of trying, I still have not been able to get my 7 year old desktop computer to run Windows 7. It had been running XP. I spent three days trying to get it to run XP again. No luck. Then finally, yesterday, I bowed to the inevitable and put Vista on it.

Yes, I got Vista to work, but at the cost of having to reinstall all my old programs, etc.

The Courtyard of Our Apartment Building in the Bronx. They do take care of it.

Stupid. I should have left it alone and in another year or two replaced it.

I also would like to start our summer cruise in three weeks, yet there seems so much to still do.

Lastly, I would have liked to see a few more friends while here; but it was not to be, hopefully in the fall.

So, I’m left with this sense of not having accomplished much of what I had wanted for this trip. Like having a pebble in your shoe; irritating, but not deadly.

Let me get to it.

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