Post #6: Never Underestimate the Ability to Get Into Tight Spaces

 Wednesday and Thursday. September 16 & 17, 2020

And off we (don’t) go. You’ve probably heard the old saw that sailing is really boat repair in exotic places.  I guess I just don’t think of Branford, CT, when I dream of exotic places.  Wah, wah, wah.

After the mechanics left yesterday, David and I tried to track down a water leak that we had noticed when we were sailing from Newport to New London with waves hitting the boat at the stern. We have two scupper drains in the cockpit that enable rain water to empty back into the ocean through about 2 inch holes in the stern (back) of the boat. These thru-hull holes are about 4 inches above the waterline.

We found the leaks where the drain pipes meet the thru-hulls and thought all we needed to do was tighten the clampS that hold the offending hoses onto the boat.  So we thought we’d be on our merry way today.

And then we had second thoughts—why not ask Bill the Awesome Mechanic to check it out for us, just to be safe.  Sure enough, “Houston, we have a problem.”

Thank goodness the deteriorated hoses were discovered and can be fixed tomorrow.  As David said, there’s real value in investigating, investigating, and then investigating again.

This afternoon we walked 1.5 miles to a supermarket, vowing to only purchase what was on the list.  You can imagine how successful we were at that.  Hah!  The trip back seemed like 5 miles.  What were we thinking?  Remind me why I thought we didn’t need to buy a cart for shlepping stuff to the boat? Sometimes we are so short-sighted.  Now we’re both tired, cranky, hungry, achy, and feeling old. Time to go to bed.

Thursday, September 17

Bill and Chris arrived with new hoses and got straight to work at 8 a.m.  Fixing or replacing things on our boat can require a contortionist but they were up to the challenge.  Seriously, everyone we dealt with at Bruce & Johnson Marina was professional, courteous, and talented.  We cannot recommend them highly enough.

We were ready to take off by noon today. Long Island Sound beckoned us like the wide open ocean but most of the day we could see both NY and CT shores, especially as we got further west.  Much to our surprise, we saw only a handful of other boats:

Before we rounded up into Huntington Harbor on Long Island, I pondered, who would ever guess, viewing this aqueous expanse, that the Throgs Neck Bridge is only 25 miles ahead.  The world is soon about the change.