Tuesday to Wednesday on Shawnee

Tuesday night's sunset.  Love the reflections in the water - no enhancements to these photos.

Wednesday:
Drew continues to work away at the GPS install.  There is a blue tooth connection with an app called Garmin Helm on the ipad which would be cool, but we are finding a bug in the app so it's not working yet because it won't communicate through the bluetooth.  We are investigating this through the Garmin Helm app contact.  Keep you posted.

And here are some of the directions, or hieroglyphics to my eye, that he is reading to make it happen.

This is where I drop out and go for a walk.
 Here is a better picture of the mooring weights, the cement circles, beached for storing.

Here's a nice evening view of Marblehead' green light with its reflection across the harbor  through the trees of the Dog Park. 

Right next to Marblehead Yacht Club (MYC), and at the top of the town fishing and dinghy dock is a little dog park with free plastic bags, maintained by volunteers and set up by the US Marine Air Corps. namely the late Don Humphries, a former Marblehead resident.  It's extremely convenient for us with Mazu who is currently in heat and wearing a doggy diaper (same as for babies but with a hole for a tail.)  Here is a picture from the top of the dinghy dock that we can use when the MYC launch is not running.  Few locations on the harbor have this convenience.  I'll be breeding Mazu next spring when it doesn't conflict with the timing of our new grandson due in December.  Want a wheaten terrier puppy next summer?

Hopefully we are off to dinner and a movie tonight, "Sully" with Tom Hanks.  Has there ever been a movie he's in that's not good?

Saturday - Wednesday on Shawnee

Now that's it getting closer to our exit date of Oct. 7 we are beginning to load up the boat.  Here's half the first load at the club dock awaiting the launch.  Food, yellow jerry jugs for extra fuel, sheets, and canvas bags full of clothes (we always bring too many clothes.)

 On the launch our usual trip out to Shawnee in Marblehead Harbor.

View of Marblehead Harbor from one of our walking sites (when we try to get 10,000 steps in for the day.)  You can see Marblehead light way out at the point.  Marblehead Neck is on the right.  A causeway unseen to the right connects the mainland to the neck.

On Saturday we cleaned up the corrosion on the anemometer and I was hoisted back up -- Drew's workout -- again to clean the inside of the anemometer at the top.  The seal on this newer anemometer must have not held as well as the old one so I put a smearing of silicone paste on the outside.

Getting the red and green lines ready - 2 halyards - one is a safety and the bosun's chair on the deck.

 On my way up a view of the cockpit where Drew is winching.  The solar panels are on top of the bimini.

This picture shows the opening where I cleaned the green dots of corrosion with a brush and screw driver, screwed back the anemometer, smeared on paste to better waterproof it, and came back down.  Should have taken a picture of the anemometer but couldn't pull the camera back far enough.  The black circle under the red arrow is the cap that can be screwed on if there is no anemometer.

There was no line left to pull me up any higher.  Here is the pulley and the red rope I was hanging from.  The green safey is pulled to the side on another pulley.

On Sunday we had Drew's brother and wife, Ann, on board for brunch.  Should have taken a picture of the spread we had along with Bruce's homemade candied grapefruit rinds and delicious deviled eggs.

Tuesday morning we awoke to a still, foggy harbor.  Couldn't see land.  Would need a GPS or compass to get to land and back.

Later the fog lifted and we dinghied in at low tide to shore.  Here's Tweety at the town landing dock.  We went in to get groceries.

 Low tide here is pretty big, about 10'

Here you can just see at low tide the dark cement disks or cylinders = mooring weights stored on the beach.  They are attached to the mooring balls and hold boats in place.  Drew explained that cement isn't super dense so a 5,000 lb. cement weight is only 2,500 lbs. in the water.

The reason we came down to the boat was for Drew to install the new GPS that will connect the auto pilot to the Max Sea route without turning on radar.  Opting out on radar all the time will save a lot of battery power.  We don't need radar during the day.  You can see the opening in the Navigation panel where he is doing the installation.  He has 2 days to put it in.  We sailed up without this connection - many sail without this but many call it basic with all the electronics available today.

[Now I am off to get a needed pedicure. and maybe a movie, "Sully" tonight]
Reading:  The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World by Andrea Wulf, the story of an amazing explorer, scientist, naturalist who influenced and was read by Darwin, Jefferson and many others in the mid 1800s.  Just finished The Hare with Amber Eyes  by Edmund de Waal - excellent historical book on a Jewish family from pre WWI to the present.

Back at the helm again

We've had a few sailings this summer and are on the boat this weekend to install a new GPS, clean up the water line, and fit in some relaxing time - watching Harvey Reid and Joyce Anderson at the Me and Thee Coffee House and an MIT BBQ in Hanover, NH.
We are starting to get the boat ready to sail south around Oct 7th near when the launch at Marblehead Yacht Club closes up for the season.  Such a difference from Florida.
   Marblehead Harbor has 5 yacht clubs on its shores: Boston, Corinthian, Eastern,  Dolphin and Marblehead, each with their vast differences in services and amenities.  An amazing northeastern harbor with at least 1,000 boats, it is enclosed on 3 sides with Marblehead, the causeway and Marblehead Neck - very fancy.  The harbor is open to the north but has islands far off that stop any huge surge in a storm - still for the never-to-happen Hermine "Hurricane"  every club pulled up the docks and prepared for a big blow.  "Better safe than sorry," dockmasters said.  Since all boats in the northeast must be hauled in every winter there are no derelict boats in the water anywhere.  Boats are pretty well kept and with the deep water there are lots of sailors from Maine to New York.  Maine with all its islands and the Maine Island Trail, Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, Block Island, and Cuttyhunk New England boasts one of the finest cruising grounds in the world. Only the lobster pots need to be avoided.  You don't need to constantly watch the depth sounder.  There are rocks, but well charted.  Storms are not to be tested because if you lose control or have sailboat damage and wash to shore, unlike Florida, it will be a rocky one.

  So today's project for me was to scrub/wash Shawnee's waterline hanging off the dinghy.  On the way I found iron filing rust stains from when Drew worked on the dinghy outboard from Shawnee's stern storage mount.

Of course why is there anything that could rust in an outboard motor, but that's another topic.










Iron filing stains on transom.



















So I tried Krud Kutter, Star Brite Bird & Spider Stain Remover and -- ta da-- the soft cleanser Bar Keepers Friend.

That got it off.  It's very runny.  Gentle rubbing then a scrub brush, and rinsing with lots of water got off the rust.
Meanwhile Drew's project of the day is to fix the anemometer.   After a day at the base of mast checking connections, much research, and reading discussion groups, he said that many people found corrosion in the anemometer itself.  Oh...that means I need Drew to winch me to the top of the mast and get it.  Fun. Actually heights really are fun for me, a former rock climber.
As I was putting on the Bosun's chair getting ready to be hoisted up, a father and his 3 kids came by in a dinghy.  He saw what we were doing and explained, giving a running commentary to his kids like a sporting event describing everything that was happening and going to happen.  It pumped me up - all I needed was the Olympic theme song.

Getting ready:
I got to the top and took a picture of the hole where I unscrewed the anemometer. Without being able to see directly in, I held the camera around the other side and snapped a picture.

 Hard to see but corrosion is on the small pin holes where the anemometer goes in.

 

And we found corrosion inside the anemometer:

Next step is to clean this up and go back up to clean the corrosion at the top of the mast.

Another day.

There is always the glorious show at the end of the day.  This one filled the whole sky.  I never tire of this.  No enhancements on any of my sunset pix.

The reflection in the harbor waters was an added feature.