We took the LIRR from Penn Station to Port Washington and then walked down to the Town Dock.
Town Dock
We had limited time, so we spent the first half of the day fixing things up and answering a number of open questions:
- I added clorox to the water tank.
- I set the MMSI number in the VHF.
- I looked at connecting the Garmin GPS to the VHF and decided this will be a winter project.
- We adjusted the roller furler so that the furling line does not completely unroll when the jib is furled.
- All the lights work.
- The battery switch is (thankfully) Make Before Break rather than Break Before Make.
- The bilge pump does turn on even when the batteries are switched off.
- There is an old fuel gauge in the lazarette where the old engine’s key still is. The fuel gauge does not work but appears to still be wired?
- One battery seems good. One battery seems dead.
Old fuel gauge
Top Battery Good. Bottom Battery Bad.
For the second half of the day, we tied up to the fuel dock (first time docking!) to refuel. It turned out the fuel tank was basically full. We then went for a quick sail just past Plum Point. We managed to get both sails up and sail for about 15 minutes. I ran into some issues reattaching the topping lift (I dropped multiple parts). This needs to be reworked. Additionally, the folding prop folded up a number of times when I had low engine throttle, and then I had to rev the engine to get it to spin open. This, too, needs to be reworked!
The guy who runs the launch recommended hanging fishing line around the boot to detract birds who apparently like to ruin the tops of unthreatening boats. Here’s hoping the deck stays clean for a week until we can get back to the boat…
Speaking of staying clean, this was our welcome back to the city:
