Courtesy of the pandemic, 2020 was not an exciting year for sailing. We were limited to NJ and NY waters during the season, and while it proved to be a wonderful getaway, there wasn’t much blog-worthy.
On the other hand, 2021 is already off to an exciting start. I’ve made jokes in the past that all of our drama happens early in each season, and this year is no different. We launched at the end of April, and Trip and Lawrence decided that winds in the 30’s (gusting to 40 knots) would make a great day to move the boat from the marina to our mooring. They had a great day and reminded each other that neither of us will see wind like that the rest of the season (mostly because we sit at anchor when the wind is blowing that high!).
But the big excitement was our first sail together a couple of weeks later. Something was wrong with the way the main had been set up, so I took the helm after we left the harbor so Trip could go forward to address the problem. Once he hoisted the main, I put the engine in neutral, ready to sail. Trip killed the engine and went below to switch the batteries. A few seconds later he yelled up that the automatic bilge pump was running non-stop. A few seconds after that he yelled up that water was pouring into the boat—–whaaaaaat?
I’m rather proud to admit that in the next couple of hours that involved sailing back into our harbor, sailing up to the mooring, pumping water out manually the entire time, and diagnosing the problem, we didn’t scream at each other once. I guess we’ve owned the boat long enough that we know how to slide into emergency mode without too much panic.
It took Trip a couple of hours to get stubborn hose clamps and hoses off to get to the piece surrounding the shaft (the shaft log) that had cracked and was allowing water in, but he managed to get a temporary fix in place so well that the water ingress was reduced from several gallons a minute to less than a gallon over the next 48 hours. Lawrence and Viviane arrived for what was supposed to be a leisurely raft up only to join in the pump out and to consult with Trip on the whole situation. I had saved a nice bottle of champagne for the meet up and we decided that pumping water out of the boat was no reason not to carry on with celebrating. (Trip can’t really drink much champagne because of migraines, so we didn’t feel too bad for leaving him out).
Long story short, the boat got hauled three days later at a local boatyard and Trip was able to complete the repairs within a week.
Then the refrigerator went on the fritz. Trip tried to solve the problem before we left, but to no avail. Though he continued working on it over the next two weeks, the fridge became a cooler instead for the first three weeks of our cruise and we kept supplying it with ice until Trip decided that it was time to call in a pro.
Our next bit of excitement was leaving for Block Island, our normal first stop every summer. We needed to leave Tuesday afternoon as a front bringing easterlies was arriving Thursday. Unfortunately a short but massive line of thunderstorms came through early evening Tuesday. We made it out to the boat and got our gear down below just minutes before the skies opened. We sat out the storm on the mooring and left a bit later than we originally planned. Unfortunately, the storm took all the wind with it, and we were left with a windless, 24 hour motoring run up to Block. We did score a beautiful rainbow at dusk, and the next morning we had a dragonfly that rode along with us for a few hours, as well as a pod of dolphins that decided to hang out with us for a short while.
Block Island was the first feeling of normalcy after a year of masks and social distancing. Our usual bars and restaurants were back in business. Natalie came to visit for the weekend and other than a morning of light rain, we had absolutely beautiful weather.
It’s been the usual crazy start to each season, but we’re looking forward to what’s to come!
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