5/17/18 – ? : Sometime towards the end of April, we talked to the marina in Kingston to see when they planned to launch Shanti. Their reply was “We’ve been launching since early April. We’ve been waiting for a call from you to schedule your launch!”. Wow, really? We were used to the “Lake Superior” schedule, with launches starting in May and hopes that all boats were in by Memorial Day! So with the news we just heard, we did the fast scramble to get everything packed, say our goodbyes, and make the two (plus) day drive back to New York.
On our way, we stopped by to see Sam and Brad and our new granddaughter, Kennedy. We spent two days visiting with them before hitting the road again. We could not believe how much road construction there was on the freeways from Illinois to New York. There were lane closures and shifts every mile or two, with some single-lane traffic sections that stretched for 10 or 20 miles. One section took us 2-1/2 hours to travel 40 miles! It was a horrible drive back, but we made it.
We arrived in Kingston on Thursday and checked into the hotel, which would be our home until we launched. We had two big projects to accomplish before we would be ready for launch. The first was to get our wind sensor working, which hadn’t worked since we stepped (put up) our mast last fall after our Erie Canal adventure. Of course, the thing is at the top of the mast, so we had to unstep (take down) our mast (again) to troubleshoot the connections and wiring. The second was to install a new hot water heater. The one we had was the original, and had developed a leak somewhere inside the heater itself, enough to cause our water pump to kick in every hour more so.
The marina where our boat was stored didn’t have a crane large enough to unstep our mast, so we hired a crane from the marina next door. We set up an appointment with them on Friday morning. We arrived at the marina, but our boat was blocked by two cars whose occupants were out fishing for the day! The marina policy is to leave the keys in your car during launch times, in case they need to be moved. Do you think there were keys in either car? Nope! There would be no mast stepping that day!
The crane was available on Sunday, so we reserved it again and blocked off the open area in front of the boat so nobody could park there. They showed up, and within an hour the mast was once again off the boat. As we were troubleshooting the sensor, we (no, not we, PAT…) accidentally bent and broke some pins on the inline terminator which plugs into the sensor. No problem, get out the spare. Wait! We had no spare! It was Sunday and the only marina store in the area was closed. We called the closest West Marine, but they didn’t have any in stock. We could order one with two-day delivery, but the cost was outrageous, and we wouldn’t have received it until that Wednesday. We knew Defender Marine (another big marine retailer) was in Waterford, CT, which was only a three hour drive away. Well, we also needed a new water heater, so we placed an order for two terminators (yep, a spare!) and a water heater. We set the delivery for “in-store pickup” and made the drive to Waterford early Monday morning.
On Tuesday we installed the terminator and also rewired the connections at each end of the mast. We found two wires that had pulled loose from the bottom connector, which must have happened last fall when we restepped. We put everything together, tested the wiring with a multimeter, and said a quick prayer to whomever might be listening. While the mast was down, we also installed a new mini-block (tiny pulley) on our spreader where we hoist the radar reflector. This would keep the hoisting line from rubbing on the edges of the reflector, chafing and/or cutting it completely. No more possible radar reflector crashing to the deck (as it did last year in Sarnia)! And, just for good measure, we tested all the mast lights. Everything looked good. But then we had to wait for the crane guy to fit us in his schedule between jobs and rain…our luck.
On to the water heater. The more we looked, the more we realized what a headache this was going to be. The water heater must have been installed before the sink was installed, because the sink was blocking the only opening big enough to get it through. We tried removing the sink, but it was completely sealed in place. We thought about cutting a 16″ hole through the rear bulkhead and pull it through the outside lazarette, but we didn’t like that idea. Our first idea was to cut it apart and take it out in pieces. We bought a new Sawzall, started cutting, but quickly realized it was a tank within a tank. The outer shell was sheet metal, and the inner tank was stainless steel. After chewing up 2 metal deconstruction blades and getting a 3 inch cut out of them, we gave up on that idea. So, we did what any self-respecting American would do…we disconnected all the hoses and wires, took a hammer and smashed it flat enough to MAKE it fit through the only viable opening we had. It took over an hour, but we finally got it to fit through. Two days later, many bruises and scrapes for proof, we had the old one out!
Ok, now the hard part – putting the new one in. Our existing plumbing was 3/4 inch plastic lines with screw-on compression connections which they stopped making in the mid-90’s. The new heater had 3 standard American pipe fittings and one British pipe fitting (why not all four American? Who the heck knows!). So we got a British to American adapter from Amazon (what can’t you get from Amazon??), and made multiple trips to Home Depot (got to know the plumbing guy, Dennis, on a first name basis) for a bunch of fittings and hook-up lines, and also a trip to the auto parts store for some high-temp sealant and some hose adapters for the engine connections (most marine water heaters connect to the coolant lines of the engine so the water will heat up as the engine runs – pretty nifty!). We mounted the thing on the bulkhead wall, which freed up the whole cabinet under the sink for storage, and with lots of swearing, hooked it all up, including adapters to marry it all to the old plumbing. We weren’t launched yet, so we couldn’t fill our tanks to test it, but we were confident that every fitting we made would have some sort of leak.
Those two projects, including the trip to Defender and loss of time from idiots who cannot follow marina rules, took 7 days to finish. We were ready to launch, and scheduled it for Tuesday the 22nd before low tide hit. The marina cannot launch at low tide due to extreme low water in the launch bay, and we need at least 6 feet anyway, so we had to launch 2 hours either side of high tide to get in. Tuesday was the earliest we could get in that had no other boats scheduled and also had marina staff working during the optimal tidal range.
Tuesday came and we launched with no problems (just a little rain to add to our fun-filled day). The engine started right up and we motored to our assigned slip. We hooked up shore power and started our regular commissioning process: canvas, sails, water, cleaning, unpacking clothes, testing all the systems, etc… On the water heater: after filling our tanks and pressurizing the system, we found one leak – on one of the FACTORY INSTALLED connections! We took it off, applied pipe sealant, reattached it, and found no other leaks! None! We both looked at each other with that “you’ve f-ing got to be kidding” look. No leaks from any of our connections? We ran out and bought a couple Powerball tickets (unfortunately, having no leaks doesn’t equate to winning the lottery…but for us it is close).
We are now sitting on the boat and except for food shopping, are ready to go. Unfortunately, Pat has been having some pain between two of his molars and needs to see a dentist to figure out what’s going on. The earliest he could get in was the Tuesday after Memorial Day, so we are going to wait on the results of his visit (and any possible procedure after that) before heading off for the summer. More to come…
Pics of our return to Kingston
