Log of s/v Bellerophon

We arrived in PC at the beginning of the first dog, after a great sail up from Jamestown. Earlier this morning Carol & Jim's friends Jack and Ann joined us for breakfast.

Somehow between the boat and the tiki bar the sun went in, the wind kicked up, and it got quite chilly! None the less, lunch was excellent -- Tricia's Tropi-Grille did us right. We settled on the Bermuda Triangles as an appetizer -- basically nachos with cheese, salsa and banana peppers. The peppers make the snack. Jim had the Cuban sandwich, I had the Buffett Burger (as in Jimmy). I decided against anything with an umbrella and settled for iced tea.

Back onboard, winds out of the south at 10, temperature has dropped about 10 degrees. Jim is resting until the sun returns. I'm contemplating an afternoon cigar in long pants and a sweater.

Spoke to Jack and Anne Dempsey, they will be joining us afloat tomorrow morning.

Winds 5kts. Headed for a tiki lunch and perhaps something with an umbrella.

Set sail for Jamestown east passage. Winds 15-20 N-NW. Brisk.

Fired the morning gun, much to the pleasure of neighbors ashore and afloat.

Another gorgeous day on Prudence. Winds NNW 5-10. We'll be setting sail for Jamestown in a little while, as soon as the cobwebs of last evening's revelry are swept away by the caffeine coursing through my system.

Apparently Bombay Saphire now comes with a child-proof cap. Vise grips were required but in the end the children prevailed.

Arrived PC. Found Nick's mooring but it was occuppied. Found Bob's mooring... It was not! Winds N 10-15. Cove almost empty.

Off Providence Pt, headed south, eta Potter 330. Wind NW 10-15.

Winds NNW 10-15 kts gusting to 20 kts.

Bright and sunny, cool and dry, with a brisk westerly portents a beautiful sail. We'll be borrowing Sea Hawk's mooring if I can remember the number.

I got lucky at Haxtons and scored a case of Cakebread! Straight to the boat with that!

Jim and I did a stocking run today in preparation for this weekend's cruise. Steaks, pasta, chicken, sausage, eggs and lots of munchies. Not to mention poptarts, the modern sailor's hard tack. And do I need to mention a case of water?

Opening day started dark and stormy but the sun emerged from its grey blanket arounf 11, and by 1 the wind had settled down to 15 kts or so. The Parade of Yachts went off with usual elegance and style amidst much gunnery.

We ended the day over-serving ourselves and our companions, finally moving en masse to the irish pub in the village.

I was surprisingly vertical this morning. Gabe and I did a few chores on board and then headed home.

After a couple hours work Wednesday evening, I am happy to report that the manual bilge pump is back in working order – probably for the first time since I bought the boat.  Thanks to Bruce for his extensive help in the rebuild and re-installation!

This past weekend was my 25th Moses Brown reunion. On Friday a couple of classmates and I made it down to the boat in the pouring rain to reminisce about days of yore. I'm pleased to report that the boat was bone dry, from the owner's cabin to the butterfly hatch. I suspect there may still be something funky on the starboard side behind the lockers, but everything seemed dry!

Today, after recovering from 36 hours of reunion, I made my way back down to the boat to tackle the manual bilge pump. I managed to get the coaming box out to reveal the pump behind it. (Good thing I did such a good job of sealing the coaming box when I put it in!) I managed to find an access port on the top of the pump and removed it to reveal a cracked diaphragm within. I made the fateful decision that the entire pump must come out, so I spent the next hour and a half removing hoses, bolts and asundries, and gently extracting the pump through the lazarette. Once I got it all outside I identified the model -- a Henderson Mark V. Then I realized a most peculiar thing... apparently the Henderson pumps can be joined together in pairs with a single handle. This one (or should I say this pair) has two inflows that are piped together, and the same with the outflow. My guess is that this doubles the capacity of the pump. In any case, I got the two separated and discovered that both diaphragms were torn. I found a rebuild kit on Defender and ordered two of them. With any lick they should be in Tuesday and I can reassemble the ensemble (!) Wednesday afternoon.

The outboard hose should really be replaced, but I'm afraid that's a project for someone smaller when the boat is out of the water. I think it's still usable, just worn.

In other news, I filled the fresh water tank, put the handle back on the water tank access hatch, tossed out some 4-year-old granola and took an inventory of food onboard. Looks like the poptarts survived another winter!

In a blind flash of insight I realized that if I cut weep holes in the window frames of the butterlfly, water might weep out instead of collecting and weeping down into the cabin. I carefully cut such holes (or actually channels) with my trusty saw, and recaulked everything. It's raining today, so we'll see on Sunday whether or not my fix has worked.

Lousy weather sometimes makes for better boat projects. When I got down to the boat it was quite evident where the leak in my cabin originates. It looks very much like it is the forward mizzen shroud chainplate on the larboard side. I used some of that Captain Tolley's on it and instantly discovered that it disappeared down into the boat. So I got my putty knife out, and I scraped the seal away, loosened the turnbuckle and removed the shroud. Then I used the putty knife to lift the corner of the deck plate and cut through all the goo under there. A little pressure with a screw driver and the whole thing came up like a champ. Underneath was a sizeable and not particularly clean hole where the chain plate itself went through the deck. So I got out the ol' West Marine Silicone Caulk, laid down some goo, and screwed the whole thing back down to the deck. I left the shroud unattached to give the caulk a chance to cure before I put pressure on the seal. I'm also happy to report that the sealing work I did on the gate stancheons on the port side seem to have stopped the leak just aft of the port hanging locker. Those two leaks have been bugging me for a long time but I think I may have conquered them at long last. Only time and decks awash will tell.

I also did some work on the butterfly hatch, which is probably in need of recauking. We'll see what it looks like the next time it rains. Putting the cover on will probably help quite a bit too :)

The wine locker is partially loaded (pun intended). We were a little low on vodka and gin, though there was still plenty of Goslings' on board (and now there's even more). And of course the water situation was dire. I picked up some bottled water for drinking and ice cubes, and I did an initial flush of the water tank. Oh, and I rinsed and refilled the ice cube trays.

I did some systems testing too. I tuned up the HF rig, checked the radar unit, verified that all the navigation lights still work (always a pleasant surprise), checked the anchor light (I couldnt quite see teh anchor light, but something was drawing a half-amp!), and tested the new deck washdown system. I'm very pleased to report (smugly) that everything works as it should.

I did notice that the fan on the D700 was making an awful lot of noise but it seemed to quiet down. Maybe it just got a bit stuck over the winter.