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Off Again … For Season #15

How could this possibly be year #15?!? We’re off to NYC, Cape May, NJ, up the Delaware River, across the C & D Canal & down into the Chesapeake.

First, time to clear the cobwebs, or in this case, floating debris which flows down the Connecticut River.
Last month, we had a nice weeklong shakedown cruise to Mystic & Block Island to test-out all of our systems before heading south. This Mystic Draw is a tourist attraction in its own right, with dozens of people always watching the show & taking photos.
Wind turbine blades being delivered to New London, CT for installation offshore. Not starting off well though near Martha’s Vineyard (a different project, I believe) – a blade splintered into millions of pieces in only 24 knots of wind forcing partial closing of beaches on the south-side of Nantucket for much of the summer. The large pieces can theoretically be eventually collected from beaches on Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard & the Cape, but smaller pieces, chards of fiberglass, foam & other materials will be around for many years…  Has anyone really thought this completely through??
These storm clouds approached Block Island after causing wind damage & hail on the mainland of Rhode Island. Fortunately, the worst of it broke up before it reached us, although several boats dragged anchor with only 22 knots of wind but were quickly rescued by the Harbormaster boats.

One more project to complete though as we head south – we’re hauling out in the Chesapeake for one week (hopefully) for a bottom paint job, replace our leaking rudder seals & some other small projects. Then, our projects should be done … for a while at least! On the other hand, it is a BOAT – Bring Out Another Thousand – although with inflation, it’s another 3 thousand!

We sure had more fun times this summer and next summer is shaping up to be even better!

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Summer Projects & More!

As usual, we began our summer with our project list to … get them out of the way! Year 2 of our Manta Twin Sisters was no exception.

First, nourishment to get started! Fortunately, we enjoyed lots of breaks with friends & family throughout the summer – donut runs too!

Our most time-consuming project was the installation of new alternators & alternator regulators with remote displays. The remote displays ended up being the most challenging – not only was running the wires to the helm very difficult, I then had to re-run the wires a 2nd time relocating all to keep away from other wiring & devices, as we discovered electrical interference causing the displays to show erratic messages.

Lots of ceiling panel removal fun – some to re-wire lights & add wall switches. In the cockpit ceiling we had a small rainwater leak which really stumped us – the most obvious was wiring from the solar panels on the roof, but the wire was very well sealed. Finally found the culprit – the wire jacket was well sealed but a tiny gap existed where water could run inside the outer jacket.

Speaking of cleaning-up, our watermaker control panel needed some work too.

Perhaps I got a little frustrated removing the old stern shower, but the new one looks much nicer.

Our nephew Matt to the rescue – helping me replace our 2 “house” batteries @160 lbs. each.

Steam cleaning the “monkey fur” in our cabins – while they looked clean, the residual water was pretty black. “Monkey fur” (not sure why it’s called that) isn’t ideal on a boat, but many boat manufacturers use it as an inexpensive way to finish-off interior walls at lower cost.

Hallelujah – Projects are done!

With the remnants of Tropical Storm Debby passing us by, next week’s weather looks nearly perfect, so we’re off for a week to test all our projects & enjoy ourselves! Hard to believe that in only a month, we’ll be beginning our trip south again to Florida & the Bahamas.