« March 2009 | Main | May 2009 »
April 29, 2009
Miami Beach
Photos from our romantic weekend getaway in Miami. As luck would have it, the weather was better in New York than Miami Beach. Nevertheless, we had a marvelous time, and certainly a nice break from the pulsing chaos of Manhattan.
Posted by dave at 07:48 PM | Comments (0)
April 23, 2009
Nation for Marriage - Is this for Real?
Not long ago, a conservative group called the Nation for Marriage launched a campaign to fight against gay marriage. The 60-second spot called "A Gathering Storm" features Americans claiming that gay marriage is a threat to their religious liberties. Oh, pullllllease.
"My freedom will be taken away" says one actor.
"I'm a Massachusetts parent helplessly watching public schools teach my son that gay marriage is okay" says another.
"A rainbow coalition of people of every creed and colour are coming together in love to protect marriage". Umm, that would be every creed and colour EXCEPT GAY PEOPLE!
Better yet, YouTube is full of spoofs responding to the ridiculous ad, the best of which you can watch HERE.
Posted by dave at 12:58 PM | Comments (0)
April 20, 2009
Relocation
The weather forecast was perfect. Saturday +22c and sunny. Sunday cooler and clouding over late in the day. We watched the forecast right through Friday morning, when, over breakfast, we made the decision. We hadn't heard from the dealer to say that he hadn't finished all of our warranty work, and we told him two weeks ago that we would move Prana from Huntington to Stamford.
Chis and I went to Cafe Grumpy for lattes, then I walked up 7th Avenue to catch the train to Huntington with some gear in my backpack and groceries from the fridge in a canvas bag. I waited in Huntington for the bus, and finally arrived at the marina shortly before lunch. I put things away, and decided to run errands first before starting to clean and put her together for our first weekend of the season.
We had originally planned to haul her out in Stamford, so the sails, cleaning supplies, toiletries, etc were all across the Sound. The planning took a little effort, but it worked out well.
I walked to the deli, sat by the water and had a sandwich. From there, I walked to the wine store (about 30 minutes), then to the grocery store (another 20 minutes), and returned to the boat ladened with heavy bags and backpack. I put everything away and by 3pm, I was ready to start cleaning. She was very dirty, inside and out. We had been working on her while she was on land, so we had tracked dirty shoe prints all over the boat. A winter's worth of dust, soot and grime was everywhere. I decided to start outside, and quickly realized that the grime was going to take some serious scrubbing. In fact, I had to do most of it by hand because the scrub brush was just not doing the trick. I finally finished around 5:30 and I was pooped.
But we planned to have dinner, watch a movie and stay overnight. I made a cup of tea, sat down for 10 minutes, listened to some old Ella Fitzgerald, and dug deep for a second wind. I didn't have to dig far - I was off and running in a flash. It took another two hours to get the inside cleaned up and put back together. And by the time the sun set, she looked beautiful. I turned on some lights, started Iron Man on the laptop (which we connected to the stereo for better sound), and set to making a simple dinner.
Chis arrived around 8, and we had dinner shortly after he arrived. It was cool, so we put the heat on. That did it. I fell sound asleep.
I woke the next morning around 6, and got up to make coffee and turn the heat on. It was so incredibly quiet. So not New York. I listened to the birds, walked the yard looking at boats, and sat in the cockpit admiring the waking day, the changing angle of the sun, and the fresh morning light. That is when I took this photo of Huntington Harbour:
Chis woke around 9:30 while I was busy polishing stainless steel and gelcoat. With some coffee and a healthy yogurt, granola, fresh fruit and orange juice breakfast, we started to get ready for our two hour journey across Long Island Sound.
Chis does engine checks - he checks the coolant, oil levels, raw water (the engine uses sea water) strainer, etc. Despite having asked the dealer to commission the engine when she was launched, there was no coolant in the recovery tank. This may not have been a problem in and around the marina, but it could be a problem in the middle of the Sound. We dug out the coolant from the cockpit locker, topped it up with a funnel, and started the engine. We checked all the fluids again and everything seemed to be fine.
Off we went.
The journey was uneventful and a little tedious. The sails were in Stamford, and the foil around which the mainsail furls clanged like a bell the whole way across. Which is when I took this photo:
We tied up the boat at the marina in Stamford, and decided to rent a car to fetch the sails and other bits out of the storage locker. We reserved a midsize, but we got a Mercury Grand Marquis. With leather seats. It looked like a pimp mobile. We took our styling ride and ran some errands in Stamford.
When we returned to the boat, we decided to deal with an issue that had been plaguing us. We had taken the halyards down, feeding leader lines to be able to pull them back through. One of them had snapped in the winter winds. And we had tried various things to get it back through the mast. We had a stepladder that we wanted to put in storage but needed it to feed the halyard. So Chis sent me up the mast, and we tried three different methods to feed it through and none of them worked. We tried a fourth, and BINGO! Chis grabbed the feeder line I sent down from the top of the mast, I attached the halyard tied to my climbing harness, and he pulled it through. It worked!
Now we could take the stepladder and a few other things to the storage locker.
We returned to the boat around 6 and decided to call it a day. We were both over-exposed to the sun, and needed to chill. By 7, it had cooled down enough to head below where we could put the heat on. Not long after dinner I was sound asleep under a fleece blanket.
I actually slept in Sunday until 7:30 (rare for me). I made coffee, cleaned up a bit, and went for a walk around the Stamford yard. I returned to the boat and decided to try to remove the adhesive left behind from the shrink wrap. This was a serious challenge. The boom was the worst. I didn't want to scrape it off. So first I tried denatured alcohol. Nada. Then I tried acetone. This worked, but took for-friggin-ever! Once finished, I cleaned and lubricated the jib car tracks, and the outhaul track and car on the boom.
Chis surfaced, enjoyed some coffee, followed by breakfast. We decided to make a trip to Home Depot for a few supplies, then return the car. The approaching storm appeared to have slowed down and it was warming up nicely. We decided to put up the sails. We started in light winds with the jib. This went swimmingly. Then the winds picked up out of the east (storm approaching) and we decided to turn the boat around to face the wind to do the main.
The mainsail is a little trickier, because it furls inside the mast. And there are four vertical battens that we needed to insert to provide shape and rigidity to the sail. We got the sail up, the battens in, and the started to attach the tack (bottom) of the sail to the mast. I dropped the pin inside the mast. I was ready to haul it back down, the winds now gusting to 20 knots. Chis suggested we lash it temporarily, then furl it. An excellent idea. We did just that and got the sail tucked away. We turned the boat around again and started to tidy up. By 3, we decided to stop. By 3:15 we were having a beer. By 3:30 we were walking to the train.
We arrived back in New York around 5, and picked up some stuff for a quiet dinner at home. First order of business was a shower. Neither of us had bathed since Friday morning. Other than the cursory pass of the deodorant. Second order of business - a glass of wine.
We sat on the sofa, I searched the usual websites for replacement parts for the ones I dropped inside the mast. We were sunburned, exhausted, energized, and felt the fresh air in our faces. It was a great weekend, and we got way more accomplished than either of us expected. Short of a pin for the mainsail tack, we're ready to go sailing!
But, instead, we're off to Miami this weekend. Chis is dangerously close to burning out at work, and he needs a break. We're having dinner with a Fort Lauderdale friend on Friday. It will be a great weekend. And the next weekend? We may go sailing!
Posted by dave at 06:11 PM | Comments (0)
April 12, 2009
Happy Easter!
You almost don't see Chis with his red hat amongst the promise of healthy food at today's street fair near Union Square.
Posted by dave at 05:03 PM | Comments (0)
Prana is Launched (Allegedly)
We took delivery of our new Beneteau 40 last July, later than promised by the dealer. It took them 3 weeks to commission the boat, and then when they said she was ready for us, we took her back to the dealer twice to fix issues. Even after that, some of the very issues we reported were still giving us problems. Late in the summer after our 10 day sail around Long Island Sound, we reported new problems to the dealer. None of these issues were earth-shattering, but it was the lack of customer service that we found troubling.
He stopped responding. I know I can be demanding sometimes, but a demanding Canadian is like a sheepish American. I contacted Beneteau's customer service department and was assured that they would follow. A month and several emails later, nothing was happening. Exhausted with my efforts, I wrote a letter to the manufacturer, the President no less. He called me two weeks later, and recommended that we take the boat back to the dealer and let him fix our issues. We had already signed a contract to haul the boat for the winter in Stamford, and grudgingly negotiated our way out of that contract. We agreed to haul for the winter at the dealer. This would give him the whole winter to resolve our issues.
As spring approached, Chis and I set to working on the various things to get ready for launch. Two weeks ago, she was ready. We contacted the dealer and asked him to launch her for Easter. He agreed, weather permitting.
I went to see her Wednesday, expecting at the very least to find the corroding through-hull for the HVAC system replaced, but the dealer had barely touched her. And he said she wouldn't be launched by Easter. He said it wasn't the warranty issues that was the problem, it was the logistics of moving the other boats to get us in. Asking why the warranty issues couldn't be addressed while she was in dry dock, I got no response.
Friday morning I received an email from the dealer advising that Prana would be launched that afternoon. I advised him that this was great news, and we would be there Sunday to move her to Stamford. I got a simple response. "Please call me".
In an exchange of emails and voicemails, it became quickly obvious that while the boat was in the water, not all of our issues had been addressed. He would need a couple of days.
We were in the midst of planning a weekend in Miami, which we postponed to the following weekend so that we can move Prana to Stamford on the 18th. My last email to the dealer said just that. Which means he has exactly 5 days to get her done.
I have asked him for a list of the issues that will not be addressed by then, to which I have received no response. I'm sure there will be some. He's had four months to resolve these issues, and in some cases, over six months. He's been on my case to do some extra work on the boat, which we have flatly refused. I don't think he realizes that we do all of our own boat work.
The sailing season is upon us, and Chis and I spent some time over dinner last night considering where we will plan to sail this summer. It will be busy, busy, exploring the nooks and crannies of Long Island Sound. And possible a trip up into Buzzard's Bay, Martha's Vineyard, and Cuttyhunk. We are going to see her tomorrow, not that she is (allegedly) in the water.
Posted by dave at 09:04 AM | Comments (0)