Moving Day

Today is our first full day in our new digs, across the tracks from our last place in the Village of Mamaroneck, NY. That place, which we officially vacated this morning, was arguably in a better location, just a short walk from downtown, a five minute bike ride from the yard, and a half block from the bus stop and a wonderful little deli/bodega. This place, however, is a little more comfortable, albeit with some quirks.

Our new digs, with a more comfy couch. We're still getting squared away.

Last night was move-in night. We got the keys to this place at 3pm and had to be out of that one at 11 this morning. The forecast called for pouring rain this morning (it's now nearly 5pm and we have not had a drop, although it rained overnight), so we made it a mad scramble to move everything yesterday. It took four round trips on both scooters, and one additional round trip on Louise's scoot, wherein she dropped me off so I could ride the e-bike back over as well. We spent last night here, and I dropped by the old place this morning just to do a final "idiot check," since we were dog-tired when we wrapped up.

Trip #3, wherein I move our deck chairs on the scooter. Louise has sewing supplies on her floorboards. Both trunks are full and we both have full backpacks.

I rode over to the yard this morning and it's about 7-8 minutes on the bike, so just half again longer than my old commute, and it's a longer walk to town. Instead of a deli/bodega, we have a well-stocked but very small full-service grocery store down the block. It's reminiscent of those in Manhattan, with sky-high shelves and equally sky-high prices, but it's a short walk to get anything essential that we might be out of. This morning that was coffee, milk, and veggies.

Engine #40 at its wetdown event. The truck was open for visitors to climb in.

Speaking of rainy forecasts, we did not end up heading into the city for Pride last weekend, because again the forecast was for pouring rain. That did happen, but it was short-lived and, in hindsight, we might have avoided it. The photos I saw were of a fun time on a beautiful day. Oh well. I made it to PrideFest a couple of years ago, albeit subdued mid-pandemic, so it was not a big deal to miss this time.

We had good seats inside the station.

We made up for missing Pride by instead walking just a couple of blocks to the fire station for a "wetdown" ceremony for their brand new Engine 40. There was no actual wetting down, nor even any kind of ceremony -- we expected at least some talking heads like the chief or the mayor to say a few words. But several neighboring departments came by in their apparatus to share in the festivities, which included catered BBQ, beer, soft drinks, and fancy ice cream, all provided by the FD. I put some money in the boot, and we enjoyed meeting a couple of young families in town whose toddlers were simply agog.

They put out a nice spread, and we managed to pack some away even though we had already eaten lunch.

Ice cream was also provided by this truck, where you get ice cream in a cup, with a cone on top, and meringue, which is then seared with a torch. I have never seen such a thing, and it was delicious.

As if the wetdown was not enough firetruck fun for one week, Wednesday was the start of the annual Firemen's Carnival, Parade, and Fireworks. The parade started at 7, and we walked over to the avenue at 6:30 and snagged the very last open-air window table in the bar at Frankie & Fannuci's, where we could take it all in without getting out of our seats over beer and wood-fired pizza. It was not a good vantage for photos, but we had a great view of all the marching bands, pipes and drums, and fire apparatus from perhaps two dozen other departments, some from across the Hudson.

The Mamaroneck PD motor unit leading off the Firemen's Parade. We had a great view.

The carnival part of the festivities is exactly what it sounds like -- a dozen or so of those trucked-in carnival rides stationed in Harbor Island Park, where you could buy an all-night wrist band or else a stack of ride tickets. We wandered through one evening but opted not to board any sketchy machinery operated by lifetime carnies. The town youth, however, were having a great time. It's a longer walk from here, so we made sure to do it while we were still close.

The Firemen's Carnival. A fun atmosphere but we eschewed the rides.

Lest it sound like the week has been all fun and games, I have continued to put in a full day at the yard each weekday. The painting contractor is moving fast on the preparation, and my challenge has been to stay ahead of the curve and catch the problems before they get covered over in primer, or we get to a point where fixing things later will involve touch-up. For example, we already missed our opportunity to add ventilation to the settee lockers on the flybridge, which are now fully painted.

One of numerous Pipes and Drums units in highland attire, a tradition dating back a century and a half.

This week I had a design meeting with the yard and then separately with the boatswain about the perennially troublesome anchor roller. We had talked about replacing it entirely, but instead settled on repairing and beefing up the existing stainless roller assembly, adding more dielectric material between that and the mild steel deck, and enlarging the "nostril" that we use to secure the snubber to the chain.

A fire chief vehicle with "stealth" graphics and undercover lights. Seems wrong-headed to me.

This is an opening in the bow that we had added back at our very first yard period a decade ago, which serves the dual purpose of enabling us to use the warping drum of the windlass, which previously had no opening in front of it, and also allowing us to reach over to the anchor chain to attach the snubber. We positioned it for the former, and bought the largest stainless hawse pipe for it that we could find, to facilitate the latter.

Snubber/warping hawsehole, marked for new, larger cutout at a more appropriate angle.

Long-time readers will know that it's a long stretch to reach the chain from that hawse pipe. Louise can't really do it, so in spite of doing all the other foredeck work during anchoring while I drive the boat, she has to call me out of the pilothouse to attach or remove the chain hook for the snubber. Normally not a problem, but when I ended up in the hospital and she had to work the chain by herself, it was a real problem. That's what prompted us to finally address it here.

The maritime tradition is long-standing here, as this graphic on a fire apparatus attests.

As it turns out, there really is no better solution on the market to finish the opening, and so instead the yard will enlarge the existing hole to our specifications, and then weld a 3/4" stainless rod around the opening, similar to what currently exists around the bow roller. That will do the job, but it means that needs to happen before final finish paint on the inside and outside of the bow. They sprayed the final inside primer last night, so I am hoping this gets done promptly before the final coats go on.

Foredeck bulwarks and Portuguese bridge in primer, which is a reddish-tan color.

Of course I also continue to plod along on my own set of projects. As I have written, much of that involves refurbishing the equipment we removed and will need to re-install later. This week I received a couple of sheets of 1/16" Buna-N rubber, and I set about making new gaskets, starting with the radar. This unit is so old that I don't think I could buy a factory gasket even if I wanted to, and if I could it would likely come from Japan and cost half a c-note.

Making the new "corrosion-proof rubber mat," as Furuno calls it. Blue tape is to accept layout lines.

Using the old gasket as a template I was able to knock out a new one in an hour or so. The process involves covering the relevant parts of the rubber in painters tape so the pattern can be drawn. In order to cut the fairly large holes for the mounting bolts, I had to do like Norm Abram and make a jig to guide my X-Acto knife.

I made this jig from scrap plastic using a hole saw. It's hard to free-hand small circles.

Old gasket at left, replacement at right. I did not duplicate the unused holes.

I've also drawn out new gaskets for the Kahlenberg horns and the Glendinning cable reel. The bolt and air holes for these are too small for me to use the jig-and-knife trick, and I've had to order a set of punches to make them. Similarly I had to order a new set of metal hole saws a couple of weeks ago. The reality is that money I spend on new tools for these jobs pales in comparison to what it would cost either to buy the finished items outright, or to ask the yard to do it for me. Somewhat to the consternation of my lovely wife, the tool collection thus inexorably grows.

Rubber gaskets between the trumpets and manifold on the Kahlenberg horns.

Glendinning gasket and layout for horn gaskets. I need to punch holes before cutting these out.

Hole punch set arrived today, complete with cutting mat which looks like a miniature version of the ones Louise uses for her quilting. Apparently her online quilting group was very amused.

The aforementioned hole saws were ordered for and used this week to cut four holes in the aft deck overhead for new recessed lighting, which will replace four surface-mount lights that were corroded beyond repair. They were also needed to make four slightly smaller holes in the side deck overheads for the dryer and master bath vents. These vents previously had to discharge through whatever thin gap existed between the overhead panels and the vertical sides, and we've had to pull the overhead down more than once to clear dryer lint out of the space.

New holes for dryer vent. I have plastic grilles that will snap in to these. Similar holes were made for new lights.

The shells of the old lights, on their way to metal scrap.

We are well past the hump and on the home stretch now, at least with respect to the painting (as opposed to putting everything back together). However I still have some anxiety about getting out of the paint shed before our current AirBnB expires. Today marks exactly two months since we arrived in Mamaroneck, and we need to move out of here at the three-month mark. I will be pushing the yard to finish enough to get us back in the water by then, no matter how much is left to re-install.

The wooden boat pedigree of the yard is evident in this part of the shop. Many fine wooden yachts started their lives here.

We've added just one restaurant to our life list since my last post, local Venezuelan restaurant La Casa. We managed to squeak in and out before the live music started, what has mostly kept us out of the place until now. We both had traditional Venezuelan "arepas" and they were quite good, if a bit messy. And Louise has continued cranking out quilts, at least until the disruption of moving abodes.

Another metal boat the painter is working on. They had a little overspray that made it onto the project next to them. The customer was not satisfied so they will have to spray it again after more sanding.

Today I made a run over to the yard not only to approve the primer coat, per the yard manager's request, but also to pick up a few things. I said this place had quirks, and one of them is that the coffeemaker is a Nespresso pod unit, which is not our thing, So I picked up our coffee maker and the few filters we had aboard. I also picked up all our portable lamps, as all the lighting here is very bright ceiling lighting. And I grabbed a better shower head from my plumbing parts box. There's also no microwave here, but that's not something we can easily fix.

This ferry, here when we arrived, was in for replacement of badly corroded hull plating. Work is finished and the crane is taking her back to the water here.

The yard is off tomorrow for the holiday, but working Tuesday. I will drop by to check on things anyway, since the contractors seem to work every evening regardless of weekends or holidays. And the fireworks portion of the weeks festivities here will be Tuesday night. We're still ruminating about going to the park for the free symphony concert beforehand, or just taking it all in from the roof of the shipyard, where we will have a great view without the crowds.