I am once again anchored behind the statue of liberty, on the way “home”. Retracing to my previous blog: I managed to solve the impeller problem. When all else fails you need go back to “A”. It turned out to be the last action I had done on Blok Island when I cleaned the intake raw water filter to the cooling pump. The lid on the top had not been properly seated and needed a new gasket. I had checked this a couple of times. This time it worked and a good flow of water spit out from the exhaust.
So, now the only other item was to re-install the replacement of the Tri-Color. I found a good strong young man, a sailor, working at the Mystic Seaport. But when I got to the top of the mast it turned out that the replacement is a newer model that does not fit. I took the remnants of the old Tri-Color down and managed to combine the the two to a working unit. But on Wednesday morning I could not get the help to assist the second time. I decided to take off, since I want to try and catch that Northwind window on Saturday until Sunday morning. It has been southwinds for the last two weeks and coming back on Sunday. I went as far as the daylight allowed and dropped the hook on the Long Island West Coast near the Oregon Hills on Wednesday night. Then yesterday I had one of my longest day sail, near 60 knotical miles (5 miles average) to the Manhasset Bay, near Port Washington on Long Island. If I had been able to be there an hour earlier, I would have ben able to catch the current in the East River and be on my way in the Atlantic at this time. I had to wait until the midday current turned. I had not been able to access the internet since Wednesday morning. My new cell phone would not work to use as a hotspot for my laptop. I went from the anchorage to the fuel dock and used their wi-fi to resolve this and check the weather forecast.
While coming up the East River, the storm clouds stacked up. I had hoped to try and get further south. But it looked(van)ommennous, so, I went for the anchorage behind the statue of Liberty.
Saturday Morning: could not get this out last night. Had a good night at anchor in the shade of the statue. The wind direction is perfect but the weather is miserable, heavy rain and winds over 25 at times. I am sitting it out for the time being, still looks like I’ll be able to get to Cape May by Monday/Tuesday.