Our passage from Cuttyhunk to Newport was quite smooth. Even if the forecast didn't get the wind direction, it did correctly predict the increase in wind speed over the course of the day. Initially I thought we'd be able to still under gennaker, but its top didn't unroll, so I took it down. The main plus full genoa was more than enough power for what ended up being a day upwind passage. Sasha was steering the entire time, maintaining speed of 7 to 8 knots against 10-13 knot winds. Fast and fun! The wind did indeed pick up after we dropped the anchor, so we were happy with the decision to leave early.
Power game
One of the things that we haven't been able to get quite right yet is the hydrogenerator. In essence, it's an alternator that is spun by a propeller submerged into water, so as soon as the boat is sailing at any sort of reasonable speed, the generator should produce more than enough power for our needs: refrigeration, instruments, water pressure, bilge pump. The charge controller is capable of taking solar in addition to the alternator, and that part seems to work ok. No, I've never seen more than 70W from 2 panels that are rated at 100W each, but maybe they are old, or partially damaged, or such power output can only be achieved in perfect conditions. In any case, they work.
When we tried to run the hydro together with the solar, the power output actually dropped! I reached out to Hydrovane guys to seek advice and they recommended to turn off the solar to see if it was interfering. Indeed, with the solar panels unplugged, at 7 knots the hydro was producing more or less stable 100W. At some point it must have caught weeds and became less productive. However, where are the promised 300W at 5 knots?
At least a partial answer lies in the fact that I installed the propeller that was in the box. Its diameter is 240mm. At 6.5 knots it's supposed to produce about 120W, so maybe that all checks out. I attached the 280mm propeller, so we'll test it today.
Crew off, crew on
Friday, the AAMMM crew had to leave Salty Ginger. Adults need to get back to work, Mabry needs to head back to Seattle, and Margot to her favorite Russian camp in upstate NY.
Shortly after Mark and the girls left, Martha, Paul and Peter arrived just in time for lunch.
After lunch, Sasha & Sasha left, so we collected our thoughts together, and jumped into the dinghy to go into Newport for groceries and ice cream. I have to say, the number of ice cream shops on Thames St is a bit overwhelming!
Never a dull day on the water
Laundry dropped off, food purchased, ice cream eaten we got back into the dinghy to head back. There was a lot of wind, so we weren't making rapid progress, which was ok, at least we weren't getting flooded with spray. However as we crossed the channel and were maybe 1/3 of the way to SG the boat slowed down a lot and the engine was basically keeping us in the same place. Strange. Powering up actually dropped the speed over water and we started slipping back.
We rearranged the 4 of us so that Martha and Paul were on the stern bench, Peter in the front and I started rowing. It was slow. With every pull on the oars we were maybe moving forward 10 cm fighting the wind and the waves. And the big waves would flood over the stern because now it was too heavy. We rearrange the people to put Martha on the bow, which helped to even the boat and it wasn't flooding as much.
Progress was retarded even more as the wind picked up in strength. Great... Martha and Peter take turns bailing (Peter sometimes pouring water onto my back) as we slowly but surely progress towards Salty Ginger which was already in sight.
A good Samaritan saw us fighting and offered to jump into his dinghy. He took Peter and Martha aboard and slowly (although a lot faster than rowing) pulled us towards Salty Ginger. Thank you!
We got aboard just in time: the wind strength picked up even more. Definitely at least 15 knots judging by the whitecaps. Feet and groceries were wet (salty watermelon, anyone?), my palm skin lost fingerprints in a few more places, but all were happy to be on a much more stable surface than Ginger Snap!
I knew exactly what was happening: the pin that goes into the propeller shaft and turns the prop must have been broken. I started thinking what is it that I must have hit to break it, but couldn't think of anything. The answer is much simpler: corrosion.
And of course the pin is solidly stuck inside the shaft, so now we're up for a fun task of hammering it out before inserting a new pin (I eventually found the 3 replacement pins). We'll try to get the penetrating oil to do work while we are having breakfast...
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