2024 Winter Projects Part 1
January 15, 2024 | 6 minutesBetween the holidays and some time off in between jobs, I got to spend a significant (for me) amount of time working on Peregrine. I was very thankful to have Peregrine in Jersey City. It was also weirdly surreal to sit on a boat, in a parking lot, with high rise apartments around you and a view of the World Trade Center. Peregrine in a parking lot At the start of the winter season, I wrote down a list of projects to work on.
Journey to the Hard
October 28, 2023 | 5 minutesThe rest of the sailing season was kind of a bust. It rained 7 weekends in a row. It was so bad that the Times wrote about it. I did manage to take some coworkers out with me which was pretty fun, although Peregrine did also carry its first seasick crew member, on my watch. While not directly related, I started to notice some sewage smells when we were going over some waves, but I didn’t have time to investigate.
Shackle Me Timbers
August 25, 2023 |One thing (of the many) that my dad noticed when on Peregrine was that the square steel bolts at the transmission that hold the propeller shaft could very well come loose. The same thing could also happen to the anchor rode shackles. I bought some steel “seizing” wire from McMaster-Carr: Round Bend-and-Stay Multipurpose 304 Stainless Steel Wire, Matte Finish, 1/4-lb. Spool, 0.041" Diameter 8860K15 I did a mediocre job of seizing the transmission.
Party Time
August 18, 2023 |We had some friends in town, so my wife and I took 3 people out with us for the day. At 5 people total, this is the most we’ve fit on Peregrine. I think we could’ve comfortably fit 2 more. The weather was perfect: mid 80s and like 10 knots of wind. We sailed out to Execution Rock and then anchored by Barker Point to swim for a while. On our way back, I stupidly let the jib furler line fall in the water.
Anchoring
August 6, 2023 | 3 minutesMy dad was still in town, so he joined my wife and kid for a day out on the boat. As has become a theme, there was no wind. We motored out to the Sound. The boat seemed quicker, thanks to my barnacle scraping. On talking with my dad, I realized I’d probably been running the engine too slow, too. The max torque for my Beta 16 HP is at 2600 RPM, and I’d been running at 2200 RPM.
Captain's Captain
August 4, 2023 | 3 minutesMy dad was in town, so we went down to the boat. He recently got back from sailing from Baltimore to Charleston to Bermuda and back to Baltimore on his 40 foot yawl. Needless to say, he knows a thing or two about sailboats. We didn’t take the boat out; instead, I had a list of things that I wanted my dad’s help with on the boat. We crossed some items off and uncovered other items:
Kid Turning Point
July 30, 2023 | 2 minutesThe other times that my wife and I have brought our kid to the boat, it’s been… difficult. The kid gets bored on the train, doesn’t like wearing his life jacket, wants to get off the boat the moment he gets on, and so on. Today was… different! We had a great train ride, there were no life jacket complaints, the kid was fairly occupied while sailing, and he even fell asleep on my wife for almost an hour.
First Friends
July 28, 2023 |Today was the first time bringing non-family on the boat. Two of my Data friends who had never met each other joined me on Peregrine. One met me at Penn Station. The other met us on the train in Queens. The conditions were objectively terrible. It was over 90 degrees out, and zero wind. The conditions were so calm that we spotted a sailboat that didn’t even bother to anchor while a bunch of kids swam off the boat.
2023-06-11
June 12, 2023 | 4 minutesToday was a day of firsts, and they were all good firsts! I left with my wife and kid to catch the 9:17 AM train from Penn Station. There were no trains stopping at our 23rd and 8th stop, so we took the 1 from 23rd and 7th. We made sure to arrive later this time. At only 20 minutes early, we didn’t have to entertain the kid too much in the train station.
2023-05-27
June 3, 2023 | 3 minutesFirst time bringing the kid to the boat. Traveling Traveling to the boat is complicated since we don’t have a car. I also don’t want to bring a stroller. There’s nowhere to leave it on land, and it’s too big for the boat. So, traveling looks like: Walk 2 blocks from the apartment to the subway station. Ride the subway one stop to Penn Station. Catch the LIRR from Penn Station to Port Washington (~45 minutes).