TRIP 5 LOGS
Annapolis, MD to New York City, NY Area
June 23 – July 8, 2000

Houston, TX to Annapolis, MD, Friday, June 23, 2000

     Angela and I flew to BWI Airport and were picked up by our friends, Trent and Rita.  They drove us to the boat so we could unpack and make a store list.  I paid the cleaning lady for washing and partially waxing the boat, and spoke to Allen, at Cypress Marine, about his bill, which was not yet prepared and ready for us.  His mechanic had replaced the water pump impeller on the port engine and had repaired the sea strainer, which had come apart, allowing some little shells to get by and ruin the impeller.  (We thought it was shells because there were shells in the starboard sea strainer, which had performed as designed to stop the shells from getting to the impeller.)

     We realized the ignition keys were not in their usual place, so we assumed the mechanic had taken them with him.  We searched and searched, but could not find them.  I had asked Allen if the mechanic had run the engine and checked for leaks, and he had said “yes”, so I assumed the keys were there.  When Allen finally reached his mechanic, he said the keys were not there and he had not checked it for leaks.  Allen said he would get new ignition keys and install them the next morning, since I did not have spare keys.

     We went to the grocery store and stocked the boat for the next week or so.  Then Trent drove us to Baltimore, to the Inner Harbor, for dinner and a look at the Tall Ships.  As part of OpSail 2000, tall ships were en route from Puerto Rico to Miami to Norfolk to Baltimore, then to New York and on to Maine.  That was Angela’s first sight of the Inner Harbor, and our first look at the tall ships.

     I think Baltimore’s Inner Harbor is the most attractive port with restaurants and visitor attractions of any I have seen.  It is right downtown, with the tall high-rise buildings just 1 block away from the water.  It has 5 – 6 ships there all the time, which visitors can tour, plus others which offer harbor tours, sailing trips, and dinner cruises.  It has a lot to see and do, and it has a lot of color and style.

     The tall ships were a surprise to me because they were so large.  We ate at Phillips’, on the water, and two large ships were just outside the restaurant.  One was the Italian ship, Amerigo Vespucci, which was built in 1931.  Its overall length was 330 feet.  It had a beam of 51 feet and a draft of 23 feet.  The following day we were able to see it leave the harbor; it was huge.

    We returned to the boat, after buying two more essential items, toilet paper and diesel oil.  We made plans to meet the next day.

Magothy River to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, Saturday, June 24, 2000

     Allen came with the new ignition switches as he had promised, and soon we had the engines running again.  Our shore power cable had barnacles on it from hanging down in the water, so I scrapped and cleaned that.  Angela and I filled our water tank, after flushing it with chlorine to clean out the system.  The icemaker in the galley refrigerator seemed to not be working.

     Trent and Rita, plus their son, Jeff, and Julie arrived around 10am and we departed the marina at 10:30am.  When we planned off, the engines would not come up to full power, so I called Allen and asked him about it.  He said the barnacles were particularly bad at that time and that type of growth was probably the reason for the slowdown.  We did not have a high temperature alarm going off, and the RPM did rise a bit after we got going, so we proceeded to Baltimore.

     When we arrived at the Inner Harbor, the cameras started clicking; it was a pretty site.  There were a lot of pleasure boats out and about, almost making a loop through the Inner Harbor to see all the ships and other sights.  In fact, there were kayaks, very small sailboats, and sailboats with no other power, which would turn right into your path and make you stop or run over them.  There were also large and responsible sailboats, large cruisers capable of ocean crossings, large naval vessels, tug and tow boats, dinner and tour boats, small fishing and cruising boats like ours +/-, and the tall ships.  We took lots of photos and video.     


      

     The Coast Guard and Harbor Police moved us all out of the way of the Italian ship as it was pulled away from the dock by a tug.  We were able to see it as it made its way down the river.  We met our friend, Greg, who lived in the area.  He was in their boat with his wife and family to see the tall ships.  He came into the marina and visited with us after we were settled in.  We stayed at Henderson’s Wharf Marina, where we had seen the Herndons the month before.  Marion’s sister and her husband apparently kept their boat there. 

     

     That marina was supposed to be full for the weekend, but it wasn’t at all.  The gravel parking lot was full and overflowing, but there were plenty of boat slips available.  We had made a reservation and had no problems in that regard.  The up-and-down motion in that marina was the worst I had ever seen at that time, partly due to the traffic in the river, and partly due to the lack of any kind of breakwater to block the surges and wakes.

     We left the marina on foot about 2:30 or 3pm to have some lunch.  Most of the restaurants in the Fells Point area seemed to be dark, smoky bars which also served food.  We kept moving from one place to another, trying to find an exception to the rule.  Most of those establishments had a wait of 30 minutes to one-and-a-half hours.  Everyone was getting hungry and wishing we weren’t so picky, I suppose; and then we found Jimmy’s Restaurant.  Our wait was 10 minutes, there was no loud rock-n-roll music playing, and it was a no-smoking restaurant.  It was fair as far as the food was concerned, but it filled the bill at the time.

     Then we went to see the nearest tall ship we could see without using the water taxis.  Water taxis are a great idea, but the crowd completely overwhelmed them; the wait for a water taxi was probably 30-45 minutes, at least.  Also, it was hard to tell which was the waiting line for the ship, or the restaurant nearby, or the water taxi.

     The ship we went aboard was from Chile, Esmeralda.  The wait was not too bad, say 15 minutes.  That ship was built in 1952-1954 and had a crew of 332 sailors (all men, they said).  It was 371 feet long and 42’8” wide, with a draft of 19’8”.  We were only allowed on the top deck, since some of the crew were sleeping, etc.  We were ready for a nap after that, and it was very warm, high 80’s, and sunny.

     We returned to the boat around 5:30, and soon after that Jeff and Julie left for the evening.  Trent and Rita went with them to bring back the car they had spotted there on Friday.  I hung our strings of flags from bow to flying bridge to make us look festive.  Then I tidied up some rope ends and changed the main engine Racor filters, which had sounded like they needed changing that morning.

     When Trent and Rita returned later that evening, we taught them the game, Sequence, which they seemed to enjoy.  It’s a game we like as well.  We didn’t feel like going out for a big meal, so we snacked and had brownies for desert.  Making brownies for the boat is now Rita’s job for life; she does a good job of it.  We watched some of the boat traffic while it was still light.

Lay Day in Baltimore, MD, Sunday, June 25, 2000

     We slept late, and I cooked breakfast for anyone who would eat it, which was Trent.  Angela and Rita preferred to make their own breakfasts, which was permissible.  We met Cindy and Jim, from a sailboat with a Corpus Christi, TX name on the transom.  They came by at different times and offered the use of a car, directions, welcome, etc.  They had met the Herndons and the Thomsons in the previous month.  They were very nice.  Marion Herndon's’ sister, Linda, came by and offered the use of a car.

     The motion on the boat was bad enough that Trent had to get outside, and Rita was having a little trouble with it, also.  We could sit on the aft deck and see the boats moving up and down the river, and the breeze was wonderful.  We spent a lazy morning doing that, and then we went out for lunch.  Jeff had recommended the Bay Café, and we used Trent’s car to get there.

     The Bay Café was on the water, downstream from our marina, about 10 minutes away by car.  It was basically a bar which served food, but the food was good.  We were able to see boats coming and going outside the restaurant, including the water taxis, which made a stop there.  We passed several old waterfront warehouses, which had been converted to condos, on the way into the restaurant.  Parking was a zoo – lots of private lots with card-activated gates and a public lot which charged us $5 to park for lunch.

     After lunch Trent dropped me at the West Marine store and Angela at the Safeway grocery store.  We took our supplies back to the boat and helped our guests pack their belongings.  They departed about 5:30pm, and we began preparations for travel the next day.

     We picked up an idea from reading about a sailing couple who spent a lot of time in the BVI’s.  They had different guests arriving every week.  They asked their guests to bring their own sheets and towels, since there was no laundry equipment on board.  We decided to try this idea, since it fit our boat situation.  Also, it has the advantage of the guests using linens with which they are familiar.  Trent and Rita brought their gear in paper bags, which were easy to fold and stow away until time to depart.  (Guests arriving by plane should consider folding luggage, such as duffel bags, since storage space for suitcases is hard to find.)

Baltimore, MD to Cape May, NJ, Monday, June 26, 2000

      

     We were pulling out of the marina just before 9am when we spotted a tall ship from Colombia coming upriver towards us and the Inner Harbor.  As the ship got closer, we could see the crew, dressed in their finest clothes, standing side-by-side on the spars of the masts.  The ship had 3 masts, and each mast had 5 spars.  On the longest spar there were about 12 men, six per side, all facing forward.  The country flag was huge, about 10 feet by 20 feet; and it was flying nicely from the fantail in the breeze.  It seemed a proud moment for the ship and crew; and Angela and I both had a lump in our throat as we watched the ship glide into port.

     Just ahead of us was a US Navy destroyer, which we passed just under the Francis Scott Key bridge.  Soon after, we turned north and it turned south, so we didn’t see it again.  We heard it on the radio, however.  The radioman said, “This is Warship S-4, proceeding…for any concerned traffic, etc.”  It made me want to move out of its way.

     It was a nice day for cruising, warm, with a cool, light breeze.  We made the entrance to the C & D Canal and went under 6 or so bridges in its 12-mile length.  By 1pm or so we were in Delaware Bay and heading southeast for Cape May.  We photographed the Cape John Shoal lighthouse and set a compass course for the Cape May Canal from there, which kept us out of the main shipping lane.

     

     I made some calls to find a diver to scrape off the supposed excess barnacles, but could not find one.  So, we elected to quick-haul the boat and pressure wash it.  Utsch’s Marina was the least expensive and most able to service us, so we made reservations there.

     By 4pm we had arrived at the Cape May Canal, and 3.5 miles further we were at Utsch’s.  The wind had steadily increased as the afternoon wore on, and it was getting bumpy in that large bay.  We had closed our flybridge plastic windows due to spray rising up that high.  We were glad to be in the canal and out of Delaware Bay.  We had traveled 105 miles on the day.

     Don Thomson had warned us about the creosoted pilings at Utsch’s, so it was our fault we ruined two old ropes before we understood what he meant.  Anyway, we fueled up, showered, and went next door to The Lobster House for dinner.  The wait was one and a half hours, and it was a big place.  Some other food establishments were serving on the waterfront adjoining the Lobster House, so we ate a dozen oysters on the half shell while we waited.  Dinner was wonderful; I could see why it was so popular.

Cape May, NJ to Atlantic City, NJ, Tuesday, June 27, 2000

     I was up at 6am to change the main engine fuel filters.  It had occurred to me that I had changed the Racors several times without changing the CAT filters, and I wanted the run in the Atlantic Ocean to be a good one.  So, I changed those fuel filters.

     At 8:30am we were lifted out of the water for the inspection and pressure wash.  The barnacles were not as bad as I had thought; everything else looked good.  By 10:30 we were in the channel leading out to the Atlantic Ocean.  The weather forecast was not good – strong SW winds, 3-5 foot seas, and heavy rains later in the day.  I thought we could get to Atlantic City before the rains, and that’s the way it happened.

     The swells may have been 3-5 feet, but they were spaced apart far enough apart so it was not uncomfortable.  Our RPMs were improved to near-normal on the starboard engine, but the port engine still would not reach its maximum RPM.  Also, it seemed the port engine was fuel deprived, surging slightly like a stopped-up Racor filter.  The starboard engine and the generator were running fine.

       We pulled into the Farley State Marina at Trump Marina Casino about 1:30pm.  Right next to us was a sailing tugboat named Norfolk Rebel, and the captain and crew were giving tours and selling T-shirts and other ship souvenirs.  It was bound for OpSail in New York, to assist the other sailing vessels as a tug.

     A tv crew was there interviewing the captain of Norfolk Rebel.  We were just completing our tie-up at the slip when they asked to interview us.  Their interest was in the current high fuel prices, but they took some interest in our Houston, TX homeport as well.  The network was Cn8, a cable news network.  We watched at 7pm to see ourselves on tv, but we didn’t make the program.

     That marina charged $2 per foot, including electricity, water, and cable tv.  The assistance on docking was good, and the floating docks themselves were wide and well-maintained.  We took the local “jitney”, $1.50 per person one way, to the famous Atlantic City Boardwalk, which was wider than I had remembered.  The stores alongside the boardwalk were generally seedy, but the casinos were impressive.  Atlantic City appeared to have been cleaned up since I was there about 15 years earlier.     We bought a few souvenirs and took the jitney back to the boat.  After a good shower and change, and a check on the 7pm news, we ate at the buffet at Trump Marina Casino.  It was fairly good.  The forecasted rain finally started after we got back to the boat about 9pm.  It was not torrential, as had been forecast, but it did rain all night.

Atlantic City, NJ to Barnegat Light, NJ, Wednesday, June 28, 2000

     Since the port Racor filter had shown signs of distress the previous day, I changed both of them first thing in the morning.  We left the marina at 9am in the fog and rain.  Visibility wasn’t too bad and was improving; temperatures were in the 70’s.  About 11am the alarm went off on the port engine.  The temperature had climbed from its usual 195 to 200, setting off the alarm.  I reduced RPMs, and the expected reduction in temperature did not occur.  Instead it climbed slowly to 205, then 210, when I shut it down.

     While Angela steered ahead on one engine, I went below and checked the engine room.  The sea strainer was clear, and the water pump appeared to be working.  There was some coolant in the bilge, perhaps more than was there when we started out; but the reservoir for the heat exchanger was also half full.

      I decided to go in the nearest inlet and try to find a mechanic.  Barnegat Inlet led to the town of Barnegat Light and Lighthouse Marina.  That was a fishing boat marina, but it was the nearest one for us to try to reach on one engine.  The inlet itself was a dangerous one, and we felt like we were surfing onto the beach at times.  It was very difficult to steer a straight course with only one engine. 

      We tied up at the fuel dock at 1pm and I tried to get a diesel mechanic to come from another place to look at the engine.  Most of the repair shops in that area had all the work they wanted and would not be free to look at anything else for 2 – 3 weeks.  We called Jersey Diesel, and they referred us to Ransome, the CAT dealer in Philadelphia.

     We shut off the generator, filled up with diesel, and got into a slip for the night. I had called several marinas in the Sandy Hook area for prices and availability of slips and fuel; none of them called me back.  The prices at that marina were $1.19 for diesel and $1 per foot for a slip.

     The Ransome mechanic, Bill, arrived at 5pm and stayed until about 7:15.  He pressurized the cooling system and determined we were losing coolant; indeed, he believed some of the coolant in the bilge was from the engine and the recent overheating problem.  He could not come back out to work on our engine until Saturday.  He left some CAT filters with us, which we had ordered.

      We thought we could get to NYC on one engine and try to get a mechanic in the week-long stay we had planned there.  With that in mind, we ate on board and went to sleep.

Barnegat Light, NJ to New York City, NY Area, Thursday, June 29, 2000

     Five of us from Clear Lake, Texas (Houston) had planned to meet on that date at Port Imperial Marina in Weehawken, NJ.  I did not plan to be late.  The marina had charged us four prices for a slip, and had imposed a one-week minimum stay, and had made us pay in advance.  I wanted to be there and to get what I had paid for.

     I woke up at 5am thinking of how to turn right with only the starboard engine.  It tends to turn the boat to the left, both forward and reverse, so going to the right in close quarters is difficult if not impossible.  Since I could not sleep, I got up and prepared to leave.  We actually got underway about 6:45am.

     The fishing boats were going out as we were leaving.  I found I could turn the rudder hard to the right, give the starboard engine a short burst of power and then go to neutral gear, and the water passing that rudder would turn us to the right.  It took several bursts of power, and patience, but we were able to make that 180 degree turn and get moving into the channel.  Occasionally we had to move over to let the fishing boats by, and some of them were on plane as they passed, but we made it out the inlet into the Atlantic Ocean.

     The water was the worst we had seen out of three days in the ocean.  It was choppy, hazy, and cool.  Otherwise, we had no real problems getting past Sandy Hook, running at about 8 – 9 knots, 2000 RPM on one engine.  We figured our total distance at 65 miles. 

      

     At the Statue of Liberty we closed the Great Loop begun in 1997.  We met up with AnnTicipation, one of our five TMCA boats, around 2pm.  We took turns posing for photos by placing our boat in between the other boat and the Statue of Liberty, or downtown Manhattan, etc.  We got video and still photos from front, side, and back, and presume they did, too.  The weather had cleared and New York City looked pretty. 
        



     By 3pm we were trying to get into our slip at Port Imperial Marina so I could start calling mechanics.  Mike and Ginny, on Fine Time, were already there and willing to help us into our slip.  They had been there a night already, and they warned us the marina only had 3.5 feet of water in it at MLW (Mean Low Water).  High tide was about 4pm.


     We made the left turn into the marina and ‘F’ Dock, but I could not make that boat turn right to go down the fairway.  I turned the wheel to the right, hard, like I had done at Barnegat Light that morning, but that time it didn’t work.  And then the wheel turned freely in my hand; the steering went out!  I could go backwards, and I did, aiming for the nearest place where the people on the dock could catch our lines.  They did, and then pulled us into the slip, where we stayed.


     We hooked up, plugged in, and set out fenders, then helped AnnTicipation (Don and Ann), Remedy (Ed and Marion), and Taliesin (Rick and Mary) into their slips.  At high tide we could run our air conditioners, but at low tide the water pumps would suck up mud.  The wakes from the New York Waterways ferries rolled through the inadequate breakwater every 8 minutes, rocking and rolling the boats worse than I have ever experienced.  We called it ‘the marina from hell’; no wonder they made us pay in advance.

      
     The authorized CAT repair company in the area was Foley.  I got them on the phone and they agreed to come out the next day.  I had other plans for the day, so Don, who had a boat like mine, agreed to show them the boat and pass on our experiences so far, which I wrote out.  We had a dock party for Happy Hour, with all five boats celebrating our arrival and our Great Loop Cruise to that point.  The snacks and fellowship were great.  The view of Manhattan was great.  The weather was warm, but nice.  We hoped our engine problems would soon be repaired.

Side Trip to MN, Friday – Sunday, June 30 – July 2, 2000

     I had business to attend to in Minneapolis, MN; so Angela and flew there from Newark, NJ airport on Friday morning.  The CAT mechanic, Steve, arrived about 1pm and stayed a couple of hours.  Don showed him the problem engine.  We communicated by phone and decided to change out the exhaust manifold and clean the heat exchanger.  Steve would then be able to tell if the head gasket was blown, or if we were ready to go.  The work would commence on Monday.  Our a/c units were left off for the weekend.

     When we returned on Sunday evening, we had dinner with Don and Ann, and their guests on Annticipation, Hank and Sue, also from Clear Lake, TX.  We went to an Italian restaurant in Jersey City, NJ, and had a good meal.  The service was slow, but the food was good and we had time to enjoy each other.

     The taxi rides to and from the restaurant were memorable; the drivers seemed not to know how to get there.  We drove to the restaurant along the Hudson River, through Weehawken, Hoboken, and Jersey City.  The scenery varied from old to new, warehouses to high-rise office buildings, and manicured lawns at high-priced marinas and restaurants to vacant lots covered with trash and weeds.  At one point the road appeared to end, and the taxi driver turned onto a lane just past the end of an overpass that connected us to a road again.  Most of the roads in that area were in bad shape, and we turned and turned through old sections of Jersey City before getting to the restaurant.

     We slept without air conditioning that evening due to low tide coming every 6 hours: at about 10pm and 4am.

 Lay Day, Weehawken, NJ, Monday, July 3, 2000

     The main things to accomplish that Monday were the CAT mechanic coming to replace the exhaust manifold, doing the laundry, and going grocery shopping.  Steve, from Foley, arrived about 2:30pm and said he went to overtime at 3:30pm.  In the hour he was there he removed the old exhaust manifold, which I could see nothing wrong with.  He had said on Friday that he could see and feel a leak in the manifold; it was definitely defective.  He promised to return on Wednesday, as they would not be working on July 4.

     The Port Imperial Marina mechanic came by to fix our steering.  Apparently I had put too much pressure on the hydraulic steering and blew out a hose connection to a “T” fitting.  He reconnected it and filled up the system with automatic transmission fluid, which was all he had.  Then he sold me a fitting for my a/c sea strainer, which would allow us to connect a hose to the system and use potable water for cooling the a/c system.  I ran an extra hose through the aft cabin window and through an opening to the bilge in a closet, around the engine, and forward to the a/c sea strainer.  Once the hose was turned on, I closed the valve to the through-hull fitting for raw water and just used the potable water.

     Angela and I started the laundry at the marina office.  Then she went to the grocery store with two of the TMCA ladies.  Our neighbor, Ed, on the boat, Corky, offered to take anyone of us to the grocery store; and Angela, Mary, and Ann accepted his offer.  I finished the laundry while she was shopping.  It started to rain lightly, but we got it all done.

     We were expecting my old college roommate, Ed, from Chesapeake, VA, to join us for the Fourth of July festivities.  Most of the TMCA boats had friends and family visiting for that event.  Ed told us not to wait dinner; he would arrive late.  So, we went up to Arthur’s Landing, an expensive restaurant on the premises with a great view.  The view was the selling point for that marina; it was directly across the Hudson River from mid-town Manhattan.

     We ran into Philip Kropf, a TMCA member from Clear Lake, and his friend, Carol, from Maine; and the four of us had dinner together.  It was a nice evening.  Ed arrived from VA just as we were finishing dinner, so we helped him park and unload his car.  That was 11pm, time to turn in for the big day ahead.

OpSail 2000 and Independence Day, NYC Harbor, July 4, 2000

     We expected the Tall Ships Parade at 9:30am, so we were up and fed and dressed about that time.  We didn’t actually see any tall ships for over an hour after that; it may have been 9:30 where they started, which was way south of us.  We had the television on, and the coverage of the event was good.  It was the kind of coverage that delves into all manner of background issues for each ship, or each topic. Quite detailed, actually.  I couldn’t stay below to watch, but whenever a tall ship was shown, it was a lot clearer on tv than it was in person.See OpSail 2000 for some good photos of the boat parade.

     A cold front had been forecast, and was desperately needed, to blow away the haze and fog; but it arrived a day late.  Consequently, we could hardly see the World Trade Center, much less the Verrazano Bridge.  In the lens of our movie camera I could see ships with sails, several at one time, sometimes; but they were surrounded by this haze, which made it difficult to distinguish anything.  It was truly unfortunate, because I understand from the papers that 150 tall ships from 23 different countries participated in the parade.  OpSail 2000 was called the largest maritime event in history. 

       

     We could see some ships better than others, and the number and sizes of the ships was impressive.  There were 40 US Navy ships, too, and cruise boats with large parties on them out to see the sights.  There were airplanes flying over, and helicopters, and individual recreational boats (50,000 spectator boats were reported), and tugs, and the John F Kennedy aircraft carrier, in addition to the tall ships.  The QE2 was in the docks the next day; I’m not sure when it arrived.  The ferries that caused us so much motion were not in service, although some of them were in use for private parties.

     On the docks at the marina, the local boat owners had set up folding tables and chairs and strung up flags and patriotic and colorful banners.  Our five Texas boats strung a series of Texas flags from stem to stern of each vessel, plus some larger Texas flags, plus our US flags and ensigns.  Many of our crowd had red, white, and blue outfits on; and all four people on AnnTicipation had matching shorts, shirts, and hats with stars and stripes and colors.  All of us got out on one finger pier and sang Texas songs and had our pictures taken.  It was a festive affair.  We cooked and shared our fare with each other, and enjoyed the day.

     The locals nearest to our boat had food catered by the expensive restaurant at the marina.  Three different times during the day the caterers arrived with food of all kinds.  We offered to share with them and they did with us; there was a real sense of brotherhood and good will on the docks.  Some groups we saw were obviously a family with a language other than English, and we all seemed to really wish each other a good day.  Food was exchanged, in addition to pleasantries, and I didn’t see a fight or hear about anyone falling overboard.  Except for the haze, and humidity, which we were used to in Texas, it was a very nice day.

     Our marina had several good points, and one of them was location.  We were opposite midtown Manhattan, and a dozen or so tall ships ended up at berths just across the river from us.  At night we could see the lights they had strung in their rigging; it looked like Christmas, very nice.  As the parade came up the Hudson, some of the ships turned and went downstream just as they got to our marina.  Others went past us and then turned around.  We did have a good vantage point.

     The other good feature, and it is related to the first, if the layout of the marina.  Instead of being long and narrow from front to back, like Liberty Landing, our marina was longer along the water, and not too deep from the shore to the end.  We had only a few boats in between us and the river, and from our front deck, on the bow, we could see quite well.

     That was particularly true of the fireworks.  There were two barges anchored in the river just between us and midtown.  We understood there were 13 such barges in all, each firing the same exact shots at the same time.  The two in front of us each shot off identical fireworks, at the same instant.  It was like seeing the fireworks in stereo.

     What really impressed me was the appearance of fireworks on the other side of the Manhattan skyscrapers.  There were 2 or 4 barges on the East River, also shooting off the same fireworks; and we could see it from where we were.  We could also see fireworks from barges at Staten Island and in the river near the Statue of Liberty.  It was the largest, the longest, and the most elaborate fireworks display I’ve ever seen.  I guess New York City was showing off.  The papers said they expected about 4 million people to see the festivities from land and from sea, that 150 tons of pyrotechnics were used, and 35,000 to 70,000 recreational boats were in the waters for the event.

Lay Days, Wednesday-Friday, July 5 – 7, 2000

     On Wednesday Steve Kettyle from Foley, Inc arrived about 9am.  He installed the new exhaust manifold with new bolts, which had arrived that morning (the design had changed, and the bolts were different).  He opened up the end of the heat exchanger and observed pieces of shells and rubber impeller vanes falling out of the end.  He examined the heat exchanger and decided it did not need any further cleaning, such as an acid wash (both heat exchangers had been acid-flushed in FL in August 1999).  He rigged up a ‘bottle test’, and we went out into the Hudson River for a sea trial.

     Basically the engine failed the bottle test, which indicated to Steve exhaust gases were getting into the cooling system from a blown head gasket.  We authorized overtime for Steve to remove the head and gasket that day, since he was scheduled to work somewhere else on Thursday.  We thought he could get us fixed and out of there on Friday.  He left about 5pm, with the head off.  At that time he thought the replacement of the head gasket would solve our problem.  He said, “Usually the head gasket goes first, then the exhaust manifold, then the head itself”.

     Our friend, Ed, left for VA about 2:30pm.  I think he planned to see some friends in PA on the way home.  We ate on board and contemplated the schedule changes which were looming ahead of us.

     On Thursday, Angela and I toured Manhattan.  That was very enjoyable.  The weather had improved the day after the fourth of July.  It was sunny, with a cool breeze; and the temperature was about 80.  We rode the ferry over to midtown, and the Waterways bus took us to downtown at no extra charge.  There we could choose a tour company with a double-deck bus and open top.  We could get off and back on again, which we did several times.  We got back to the boat after 7pm.

        

     On Friday Steve arrived early, as he said he would, about 7am.  By 8am he was calling me to come into the engine room.  He had turned the crankshaft and inspected two cylinders which he had not seen on Wednesday.  One was fine; but the number 5 cylinder was scored.  He said the block needed to come out of the boat to be bored out.  Then a sleeve would be pressed in, and a new piston and ring set would be installed.  He said they would inspect the whole engine and give us a more detailed report on why this happened after they got it into their shop.

     That was a shock, to say the least.  How had that happened to us?  Surely the little bit of overheating we had experienced could not have caused that much damage.  And what about how tough these diesels are, anyway?  Two months earlier we had limped into port on one engine because the turbocharger had come apart on us, now this.  We were upset.  But we set out to do the next right thing, which was to find a place to pull the boat out of the water where the engine could be removed.

     Steve tried to help us find a marina which could lift us out of the water, remove the port window, and remove the carpet and the floor.  Then, working together with Foley, the yard would lift out the block.  He called and I called.  The Carver dealer on Staten Island could help us in about a month.  Next door to the Carver dealer was Atlantis Marina, which could take the boat.  Bianca spoke to Steve, but refused to speak to me on several subsequent phone calls.  TowBoat US would come pick us up and tow us there, but only after the tide changed to a flood, after 3pm.  Atlantis would be closed by then; they didn’t work overtime or on the weekend – come Monday, they said.

     I spoke to Dave at Liberty Landing Marina several times.  He agreed to take the boat if Foley would assist in getting the equipment (fork lift, probably) to take the block out of the boat through the port window.  Steve was gone by then, but I phoned him and he phoned Dave.  TowBoat US was busy by then, but Captain Jack came to pick us up about 5pm.  We were at Liberty Landing by 7pm.  It was windy and we could not place the boat where Dave had asked us to place it.  In fact, Captain Jack didn’t try; he almost hit two boats bringing us in.  The winds were from the N and NW, and we were going west.  The wind kept pushing us off to his port side.

     The cell phones did not work well in that area.  It was one of the most frustrating days I believe I’ve had.  VHF radios didn’t work well either,

Lift Out and Return to Houston, Saturday, July 8, 2000

     By 8am we were out of the water, and the boat was on blocks.  Dave and I had a heated discussion about where the boat had been placed the previous night, but I think we reached a meeting of the minds.  He promised to take care of it for me.  We plugged into 110-volt power (15amp) for our refrigerator, closed up the boat, and headed to the airport.  The boat was placed so another vehicle could come along the port side to get the block out, i.e., there was a driveway along the port side of the boat.

Statistics for Trip 5

270 miles
27 running hours
456 gallons of diesel
Average price of diesel was $1.33
Average speed was 10 mph

Changed the main engine fuel filters once and Racor filters twice.

Statistics for Year 2000 Cruise, Trips 1,2,3,4 & 5:

2250 miles
178 running hours
3553 gallons of fuel
Average fuel price was $1.38 (high in Bahamas)
Average gallons per mile was 1.56
Average gallons per hour was 20.0
Average fuel price per mile was $2.18
Average speed was 12.6 mph

For all five trips, changed both main engine fuel filters once and Racor filters five times and the port engine Racor once, plus five changes of the Racor and the fuel filters on the generator, plus two complete oil and filter change for all three engines, plus changed the oil filter twice and the fuel filter once on the port engine only (during replacement of the turbocharger on the port engine).