Back on the water after 3 years

 Salty Ginger is afloat!

I kept meaning to write for the last 5 days, but somehow in the priority list of chores adding blog entries was not high. As I was considering starting clean up after breakfast (the cabin is still a royal mess), I realized that if I don't start writing now, I will keep pushing off the blog entries till the end of the trip and that would be a shame.

My friend Frank and I came aboard Salty Ginger on Monday afternoon knowing that the amount of work that needs to be done is huge. Thanks to Mark who came out to visit SG a couple of weeks ago I knew that the house batteries died (important lesson: batteries would have survived if they were fully cut off), therefore task number 1 was to go to RI Golf Carts to pick up the batteries for which I already paid. To my surprise when I called the shop, the owner said that he already closed for the day even though it was still more than half hour before official closing time and that he wouldn't be back till Wednesday. A little bit of pleading and begging got him to accommodate us and we came back at 5. Oh yeah, it was raining while we were unloading the car and loading the dead batteries, so we were totally drenched, but there was not much time to change into dryer clothes until later. Getting 4 batteries out of the boat and then back in is quite an exercise! Exhausted with minor acid burns we found 2 sheets, 2 pillows and 2 pillow cases and went to bed.

Call me crazy, but I do have a dream to cross the Atlantic on Salty Ginger. However, as the trip to Nova Scotia showed, this requires a bit more equipment for self-sufficiency. Primary concern: we were running out of power if the fridge and the auto-pilot were running: solar and wind could not keep up with the power consumption even on sunny days. To get to a more autonomous state I got a Hydrovane (mechanical wind vane) and a hydro generator. Now not only do we have a back up rudder, we have an additional option for who gets to steer the boat. Of course, those things needed to be installed.

The previous owner of SG had a Hydrovane, so at least we were had the mounting holes that we could reuse. His only recommendation was to beef up one of the mounting places because it seemed to weak. I got half-inch G10 board with the intent to use it as backing plates to distribute the load of the bolts and to beef up the troublesome spot. What I didn't appreciate is the curvature of the hull that we had to compensate. It took all of Tuesday cutting plywood to fill up the gaps, cutting the board (it is really hard stuff). At the end of the day we had the backing plates epoxied to the hull, but being tired and hurrying too much we made a mess with the epoxy which now needs to be cleaned up.

Freshly manufactured backing plates.

3 years ago we made a rather costly mistake while filling the water tank: the activated carbon filter broke and all the little carbon pieces into the tank. All was ok until we were sailing in somewhat bumpy seas when the particles got shaken up and sucked into the water pump scratching the membrane and killing it. Luckily that happened on the last day of our Maine trip. I replaced the pump thinking that the problem would "go away", but on the day when Mark and I sailed into Newport the new pump also was destroyed while Mark was in the shower. That's when we realized that a thorough clean up is critical. Luckily, of the 2 water tanks aboard one got a lot less carbon particles and it only took a few hour to clean it out. Working in a tight place extracting particles through a hole that is a little larger than my fist left me all bruised up, but at least we had one tank and running water!

I didn't get to the second tank until Frank left on Thursday, and that was a totally different story. I sprayed water from the inside a few times, and when practically nothing was washing off I thought I was done. Wrong! As I started filling the tank I could not believe my eyes: the amount of crap that was getting washed into the tank. I had to repeat the procedure of partially filling, draining, wiping 3 times, and even then garbage is still left in the tank. I tied a piece of cloth to the water intake, counting on using up the tank and then wiping it. Just in case, I have an extra pump aboard. One never knows what may happen in places that are far away from marine stores...

Yucky pump-destroying garbage.  

Wednesday we checked the epoxied pads, they looked fine except for the largest one which flexed the hull. So, I expect micro-cracks to appear some time in the future, but as far as structural integrity I don't have concerns. By mid-afternoon we had the Hydrovane fully mounted, examined how the mechanism is supposed to work and proceeded to install the hydrogenerator. As we got pretty much everything installed, the amount of space taken up by boxes decreased drastically, so we finally could find room to install the dodger and the bimini (yay, shade in the cockpit!) and finally the sails.

It's kind of ironic that I can't quite account for where the time went. I would wake up at 5:30 or so (not too surprising coming from Europe), and would start doing something at 6:30-7 while Frank would cook breakfast. After that we would work with generally minimal interruptions till 8 or 9, sometimes skipping lunch - it was quite hot, so drinking water seemed like enough nourishment during the day. And yet, at the end of 2.5 days we "just" got two pieces of equipment installed. Of course, we fixed a bunch of little things on the way, and found some broken things. Frank kept telling me that I was too fast, and that was true, and that did lead to mistakes, but there was soooo much to do!

Daily breakfast: eggs, toast and coffee

Thursday we finally went for a test sail! We didn't have much wind, but enough to shake out the sails and get a feel for how Hydrovane works. With very little fiddling we got it to steer the boat on and off the wind and it was tracking quite well. Very nice helper to do one of the most boring jobs in the open water! The sail did not go without a little adventure.

Frank adjusting the foresail while Hydrovane does the steering.

I knew that the tide was very close to low as we were going out and noticed that the depth on the turn out of the marina is uncomfortably low: 0.1 feet below the keel. All was ok inside the channel since I was correctly favoring the deeper side, but at the turn into the marina I had to let a boat pass by and right after the turn got stuck in the sand/mud. At only 2 knots this wasn't bad, so we could back out. I called RI Mooring services and Philippe told me to go in the middle of the entrance channel. A passing by water police officer pointed us where he thought it would be best. Great! We're in! A bit of fiddling with entering the slip (must be rusty after not sailing for 3 years) and SG gets stuck in the mud as about a half of the boat lines up with the dock. The plan was for Frank to step onto the dock to tie the boat up, but instead I had to jump and get a couple of lines tied. For the next hour or so SG was sitting on her keel until the water lifted her up.

RI Mooring Services is kind of in the middle of industrial zone, so there is nothing within walking distance. After lunch Frank drove me to get the important stuff: beer, wine, food, and some linens and towels.

Friday had 2 major jobs: install the charging  controller for the hydrogenenerator and take care of the diesel engine. Snaking wires without a helper is a pain, but mostly because it requires a lot of time. The engine needed new oil and fuel filters, new impeller, new oil, just make sure that it will run smoothly over the next month. Everything was going well at the beginning until I started changing the oil in the sail drive unit. I overfilled it a little, spilling some oil, wiping it, using a ton of paper towels in the process.

Changing the fuel filter I noticed that the fuel is very clean, so I decided to pour it back in instead of throwing it away. In the hurry I forgot to close the fuel cap. I don't know how much water got in while I was washing the boat, but talk about mistakes while "moving too fast". The plan is to drain the bottom of the fuel separator on a regular basis to prevent the water from getting into the engine (bad experience with the previous boat we had).

A passing thunderstorm helped me wash the soap off the boat, so now she doesn't look quite as schmutzig. Then came the decision time: stay at RIMS one more night and sail into Newport in the morning or sail now and wake up in the morning. Somehow the latter option seemed a lot more appealing, so at practically high tide with no worries of getting stuck in the mud I departed. Lovely upwind sailing had to be switched to motoring since I was running out of day time and anchoring at night was something I wanted to avoid. Well, it was dusk when I finally dropped anchor lamenting the sorry state of the anchor chain. But it was worth it! Having a glass of wine while looking at a beautiful full moon rising is a lot more joyful than being in a little marina in the middle of nowhere!

Speaking about anchoring. 3 years ago we broke the anchor controller as the wire got stuck in the chain. The manufacturer Quick USA is not that quick as it turns out. I ordered a replacement well ahead of time, but then called them when I got to the States to find out that they will not have it until early August. Amazon would only promise delivery on Monday, so Irina ordered it through a different site paying $50 for expedited shipping. Guess what, it will arrive on Monday to RIMS, but I won't be there. Duct tape solution for the foreseeable future...

It's great that most systems on SG work. Yes it took quite a bit of elbow grease and a few bruises to get things going, but she's in the water, fridge is working (cold beer anyone?), running water is working, electronics is working. There are still quite a few projects to do, but then who would expect a sailboat without something that needs to be taken care of. 

Now I'm off to Newport which first requires unfolding the dingy and getting the Torqueedo engine. With some luck that will run smoothly...