My 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. I still don’t know what my cruising speed ought to be. At the least, I can probably push past 2200 RPM.
As an experiment, we started the engine with the good battery and then switched to the dead battery to try to charge it.
The kid was having a fantastic time sitting with mom on the side deck watching the water.
We rounded Barker point and went towards the Sands Point beaches. It’s unclear to me if these beaches are public, but there were a couple power boats anchored nearby whose occupants had swam to shore to walk around. We decided to try anchoring for the first time on Peregrine.
The previous owner had left a large plow anchor and a small Danforth. The Danforth wasn’t easily accessible, so we dropped the plow. Along the way, my dad discovered some issues with the anchor: it’s missing mousing for the various couplers, there are no length markings, and the rope is double-braided. Nevertheless, we dropped the anchor, let out a bunch of line, and set the anchor on the first try (it helps that the bottom is mud and sand).
Anchor Locker
We blew up an inflatable raft. My wife and kid sat in the raft while I swam around for a little while. More boats came and anchored nearby while we swam. I think this will be a great spot for when we want to do a quick daysail and give people time to swim outside of Manhasset Bay.
We dried off, ate some lunch, and then my wife and kid took a nap in the V-berth. While they were sleeping, my dad and I tried to (quietly) investigate other things on the boat.
Both the depth sounder and knotmeter don’t work.
The depth sounder turns on, but it reads as though the sensor is missing. We followed the sensor cable from the depth sounder to a sensor that goes through the hull into the water. We also found an extra depth sounder and extra sensor onboard. We tried hooking the extra sensor up to the depth sounder, but no luck. It’s unclear right now if both sensors are bad or if there is an issue with the depth sounder itself.
For the knotmeter, we found that it’s not properly grounded right now. Next time, I’ll ground it and see if I can trigger a signal.
While we were putzing, my wife slipped out of the V-berth hatch and left the kid sleeping. This was his first time successfully sleeping in the V-berth.
Sleeping Kid
We decided to head back to the mooring. Raising the anchor revealed that the anchoring setup is pretty poor. It was tough to keep the anchor rode between the bow pulpit and the hull without rubbing the rode against the hull. I need an anchor roller. I also need to inspect the structural integrity of the bow sprit. The previous owner messed with it, and its status is unclear.
While motoring back, the kid woke up. He had slept for almost 2 hours, including sleeping through turning on the engine. If he can do that, we can spend the night on the boat, right?
We checked the low battery when we got back to the mooring, and its voltage had raised. Maybe the battery just needs to be charged after all.