August 1 – 31, 2005
Ok, so where did we leave off?
Oh, that’s right, we finally made it to our idyllic cove. Talk about “water colored memories”…
Not long after breakfast, the natives started their attack… jet skis screaming past us; fishing boats throwing up huge wakes as they raced out of the bay; power boats literally running circles around us pulling screaming children on floating contraptions! When we weren’t pitching up and down, we were rolling side to side… ah yes, what a relaxing day!
Ada (Maria) battled with Mal-de-mar and spent the better part of the day wishing all sorts of evils on these devils! Later in the day, as one of them roared past us, we heard a little girl shouting with glee and realized, they were just having fun… perspective, what a concept!
Finally… back in Our Cove!
As the day wore on, the power boats went their own way, and the cove we remembered slowly returned… the weekend was over, tomorrow we would have it all to ourselves again.
We woke up Monday morning to an amazing sunrise… unfortunately, by the time I got my camera and pulled out the companionway boards, the best of the colors were gone… it was over. Oh, well, you’ll just have to take my word for it.
The waters were calm; we had a quiet breakfast (granola today… I guess blueberry pancakes every day would get boring) and prepared for the day ahead. Made my calls to the office, problems with my wireless connection prevented me from hitting email, but seems things are under control.
We waited until about 11:30 or so for it to be close to high tide; pulled up anchor and headed for the town docks. We tied up and headed into Northport for lunch at the Ship’s Inn.
We shared an order of Clams on the half shell; followed by a nice salad (blue cheese dressing for me; oil and vinegar for Maria). My choice for lunch was Chicken Francese with linguine; Maria chose Grilled Cajun Shrimp over rice… both excellent choices. We finished lunch off with some great coffee and shared a slice of black forest cake… overall, an excellent afternoon!
Now to the business at hand… repairs!
Found some work gloves at a local hardware store (yep, they still exist!) and found that the only marine supply store was a bit over a mile away (uphill of course)… so off we went.
After walking off lunch (well maybe a clam or two) we were on our way back to the town docks with our newly purchased parts: a replacement bilge pump; a replacement float switch; a one-way in-line valve to prevent the previous “adventure” from happening again; some heat shrink tubing for the electrical connections; hose clamps and finally a back-up bilge pump and float switch Obviously, you never know when you’re going to need one of these things)
Back at the boat, I proceeded to make myself comfortable. Then again, that assumes that you find being hot and sweaty twisted like a pretzel underneath the dining table fighting with a tangle of electrical wires and hoses comfortable!
Needless to say, the screw holes of the previous pump didn’t match those of the current pump and I really wasn’t prepared to drill new holes into the lead keel, so I made do (got two of the four to line up… good enough)… completed all the wiring; cut through the hose; added the new check valve; replaced clamps, etc., etc., etc…. having defeated the beast in the bilge, I arose from the pits of hell triumphant!
If you’ve been following along, you already know what’s coming next… that’s right boys and girls! The %^&*$#@ pump wouldn’t work!
Undaunted, and yelling several expletives, I dove in; ripped the beast loose and found that it was actually faulty… (tested with the back-up… see, it already paid off). Calling the marine store, I found it was closing at 6:00 PM… yep it was now 5:55 PM! Off we went… me racing back to the store on foot, Maria waiting at the town docks for a cab to hopefully pick me up for the trip back.
The now infamous bilge pump replacement!
The new pump went in with testing after every single step to ensure each and every thing worked… this time it worked… lesson learned: just because it comes in a pretty new box doesn’t mean it works… test everything before installing!
We cleaned up, got rid of our refuse and cast off our dock lines… time to re-fuel and head back to our anchorage. Too tired to even think about cooking, we heated up some soup for dinner and crashed in the cockpit …
It’s now Tuesday… the skies are gray and it’s a bit hazy, but we have a cool breeze blowing in; not bad at all. We’ll probably stay put one more day, as we plan our next leg… either Milford Connecticut (about a 4.5 hour sail) or Fisher’s Island (about a 13 hour sail)… the Adventure continues!
Till next time,
Carlos & Maria
SV Rocinante…_/)