East Coast Travels

7/15 to 7/29 2007

Another two weeks in the yard... we have politicians vying for our votes. Soon we should be on our way.

We plan to post and update at least weekly. We move the older portions of the log to secondary pages accessible at the bottom of the page. Join our voyage!

Updated on 08/01/2007

7/15/07 - We lazed around until almost noon, then sailed to Dutch Island so Ruth could go beach glassing (she's found the mother lode). In 20-30 knot gusts it was a great ride. Ariel started a half an hour behind us and caught up in about 16 miles. Fast boat! They went back to Potters to swim while we stayed a few hours at Dutch Island while Ruthie dug up the beach. She replenished here beach glass supply, happy as a kid! We returned to Cove Haven at 7:30pm to find that Ariel had broken a couple of line stoppers and a boom bail in the high winds. Now is the time to do it - while they have other projects to complete. We had storm warnings but they passed north of us, following the pattern of the past couple of weeks. It did rain extremely hard... we view that as the ultimate fresh water rinse. 7/16/07 - Monday, time to get to work. This is retirement? Did a little carpentry on Ariel, made up a couple of webbing gadgets and planned a few sewing projects. Weird day, didn't feel that it was all that productive. The yard finished re-installing the refrigerator - now they just have to charge it. None of the parts we ordered for our projects arrived... what's new. I did chase down some of the parts I needed to start our new bimini and cockpit enclosure. I tried to get the local canvas shop to finish Ariel's bimini. Even offered to help Ken pattern it at no charge. He sounded excited but never showed up. If he doesn't do it I guess I will. Retired? 7/17/07 - Another hot beautiful day. I worked with Miles on projects on Ariel and started getting AA ready for laying out a new bimini and enclosure. I designed a bimini for Ariel, finishing the layout just as Ken's Canvas showed up. I passed the design on to Ken and he patterned the bimini portion. Don't know that he'll ever actually sew it, but... Miles spent most of the day trying to reach the lone expert at Glacier Bay to get some help on troubleshooting the freezer/refrigerator. Actually lost ground on that project today. We did gain on several other fronts, repairing the parts that failed during the weekend 7/18/07 - A grey morning quickly turned into a rainy day. Puttered a little on Ariel and on AA - we're waiting on some parts and Miles is working with Cove Haven trying to get his Glacier Bay freezer and refrigeration system working. Lots of time and parts but no results. This is compounded by Glacier Bay's lack of response. As of now this is the last of their big problems. 7/19/07 - Cell phone coverage is a little funky here. My phone is constantly beeping to tell me is roaming... on the network... roaming... etc. It happens enough to wear out the battery in a day. Ruth's phone is doing the same. Things are coming together on Ariel... finally. We're keeping our fingers crossed but it appears that the refrigerator/freezer issues have been resolved. We received the plastic parts for the dinghy chocks, the refrigerator shelf and the A/C supply air vents. Tomorrow we should resolve the A/C problem and get the dinghy supports in place. That leaves the canvas work - couldn't find Ken all day today. On AA I got the last seat varnished and half the cockpit sole. Sure looks a lot better than it did! Ruth went shopping for provisions as we plan to be cruising next week. 7/20/07 - Ken test hung the aft bimini on Ariel. It's going to look good. One more piece to make and fit. Miles and I worked on the dinghy chocks, test fitting them and drilling and filling the mounting holes (we oversize the holes and pot them with epoxy to prevent water migration into the balsa cored deck). We also cut the hole in the pantry door and install the first vent in a two vent process to get supply air to the air conditioning unit. Panic time, the two inner vents are too big for the space. We'll have to remake them into one unit. The crews talked it over and decided to work the weekend in order to get on the water the first of next week. We are sooooo close to done. 7/21/07 - Ruthie gets a day off. She's been working the phone and internet trying to get two ends of any deal together. Got to have a tough hide to pound one's head against the wall so repeatedly. I couldn't do it. I started my day with a coat of varnish on the last half of the cockpit sole. Now I can start on the deck trim. Ariel has it right - no teak on the outside of the boat. 7/22/07 - Miles woke me to report the aft holding tank was leaking into the aft head... ohh goodie! After thorough investigation we trace the pinhole leak to a fitting the yard replaced several weeks ago. Apparently they hadn't gotten a 100% bond to the wall of the holding tanks and the sewage had found a path through the balsa core. Several hours later we'd ground out the core and epoxy potted the area around the fitting. We then filled the holding tanks with water and are monitoring it... so far so good. Miles took us to dinner as a payback for a sh---y job. Iron Wok, a great authentic Chinese restaurant! We're still on track to leave Tuesday. I have a  couple of small maintenance issues to address on AA tomorrow and we will be ready. 7/23/07 - Woke up to overcast and light rain... only the second time since we've been in Barrington. Our typical day starts sunny and still. Rising temperatures are broken by a 1:30pm sea breeze that drops the temperature about 10 degrees. Newport, 15 miles south of us and on the ocean is typically 15-20 degrees cooler on days when we have 80's and 90's. Today's job jar includes a couple of jobs on AA. I need to go up the mast and remove the wind meter - it is incorrectly indicating direction. Between showers I took down the wind indicator and straightened the fin - hopefully that solves the problem. Miles holding tank is still leaking... we finally found the leak in the repair job the yard had done. A layer of epoxy applied too thick cracked during exotherm creating a leak. They are grinding the fitting out today and tomorrow morning and re-bedding it. Suggested to Miles that he insist they do it in several applications this time to avoid the reheating. Actually I suggested an alterative but...........They also took down the aft part of his Bimini and said that they needed it to do the forward section.  (We have our fingers crossed) We heard from Kenny G.  A business friend of Ruth's from Mass. that would like to see us and we'd really like to get together with him and his girlfriend in the Martha's Vineyard area. Bill and Jill called to say their cockpit door fit superbly and Bill checked the battery on our Jeep and replaced it.  Again, geez, how long will it last without using it? It was really heart warming tonight with people coming to our boat to say goodbye but we told them it was maybe a "premature" situation as we didn't know what was up with Ariel's final departure.   Okay, let's all say our prayers to the boat goddess that fixes boats.  (Whenever you say goddess, you think of a really sexy looking wench don't you????- Come on, you know you do!) 7/24/07 - Maybe today? Cove Haven is working on "their" leak in the holding tank, I've finished up a couple of straps for Miles... the sun is shining brightly overhead. The day sped by, warm and beautiful. Work on Ariel's holding tank leak progressed but wasn't completed. Miles and I added a shelf in their refrigerator providing usable space for about 18 cans of soda. Ken, the canvas guy, showed up and mounted the bimini... measuring for the bridge panel to be done tomorrow. Ruth and Laureen went gathering - provisioning for departure. I arranged to have AA hauled and washed. We've been sitting here so long we've turned into a reef (the state came by to see if they needed to install buoys around us). 7/25/07 - Another beautiful day, sunny and still. Frank is finishing up the holding tank repair and replacing shredded halyards on Ariel. Along the way they discovered the hydraulic vang (made in Oshkosh, WI) was leaking. It was removed and delivered to a shop for inspection/repair. Ken delivered some more canvas. Yeah! We hauled AA... she looked like a reef! Along the bottom 10" of the keel and the rudder we had a 3" thick mass of barnacles and worms. Ruth saw a platter-size crab scamper off the bottom as the boat cleared the water. The propeller and shaft were encrusted to the point I don't see how the maxi-prop worked (actually it was out of balance). AA actually could use a bottom paint job though she won't get it until we get back to FL. We touched up the worn spots and will monitor growth. The spots that weren't worn were relatively clean and washed off easily. Now we just need to get out of dodge before we are re-inhabited. 7/26/07 - Ariel is about ready to roll as soon as the vang repair is complete. Today's projects were little "like-to-do's": a shelf, cutting board and figuring out a lock down for the aft end of the dinghy... all improvements. AA has decided to get funky - our a/c started blowing breakers and is now out of service. Arrggh! Not a big issue as we never use it unless we are at a dock (which we seldom are) so we'll leave with it out of service and figure out what's wrong later. Had a great party tonight on "A" dock. Met new folk and others we'd met before. It was a lot of fun and the food was great - boiled little-neck clams and wieners with potatoes along with all kinds of appetizers. 7/27/07 - A windy sunny day. Temperatures were in the high 70's... ideal given we currently don't have air conditioning. Ken has finished Ariel's canvas and it looks pretty good. As soon as the vang comes back Miles and Laureen are ready to go! 7/28/07 - Today's a fun day. We took AA out and tested her clean prop and bottom. Nice... Ariel lurked behind us in 10-15 knot winds for a while with only their mainsail up. Then they finished lunch, unfurled the jib and passed us. When we caught up they were anchored in Potter's Cove. She sure is a beautiful boat under sail. We've been calling her "Sharkie" because the carbon fiber sails look like a shark fin gliding along on the water. Miles professed to being nervous - he didn't want to break anything this weekend. Actually I think Ariel is pretty well past the new boat shakedown stage. Watching them sail is neat. The boat tacks as easily as turning a corner with a car... there ought to be a law! We added a few snaps and straps to Ariel when we reached our anchorage. You know a boat is ready when you are adding tool bag and cushion retainers. 7/29/07 - While Ruth and I were having our morning cupa in the cockpit a couple of gents came up in their dinghy - noting they'd seen AA in the Bahamas. We had a interesting time recounting adventures there and promised to watch for SV Sweet Sensations and MV Camelot this coming winter. Storms passed west and north of us all day. It poured at Cove Haven Marina while we had a great day 10 miles south. We returned at 6pm... a milestone for Ariel, nothing broken.

Ruth, Miles and Laureen posing as tourists Mom swan brings babe to dinner Photo by Ruth Barry working on A/C air supply Photo by Ruth Finally, air to the A/C Frank checking Ariel's mast in the rain Photo by Ruth Fog bank building behind Cove Haven Marina Ariel at anchor - Potters Cove Nice bimini!

Visit earlier portions of our east coast travels...