Norwich in winter

We can't take credit for these beautiful pictures.  They were taken by our friend and summer dock-mate Bob Gearity. Here's a train from Laurel Hill Avenue overlooking the river.

 

 Norwich Harbor...

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 Norwich Harbor from Brown Park.

 A-Dock in winter.  Hard to believe that during the summer, these docks are full of boats, nice people, children and grandchildren, music and great things to eat.

Thanks for the great pictures, Bob.  See you in the spring.

Batteries for the inverter

This past weekend, the Interstate Group 29 battery still hadn't arrived at the boat yard and frankly, it was just as well.  The packed down snow in the driveway was very slippery and our previously dug walkway into the shed where the boat is stored is once again filled with ice and heavy snow.

Instead of working on the boat, we spent some time in a short meeting concerning the Portland Riverside's Spring Sales Flier, which we produce for them each February. With that out of the way, we decided to to stop at Sears and see what they had for marine deep cycle batteries. We ended up buying a Group 27 Deep Cycle Die Hard for $79.95.  Good enough.  We went home, chipped some more ice and then re-did the calculations on the battery power we'd need to power the inverter.

Since all we want the inverter to do when away from the dock is to run the new fridge (75 watts running and we'd guess 150 watt at start-up) and maybe some small stuff like a fan or two, it appeared that we had more than enough battery capacity with one Group 29 and one Group 27 in parallel.

That afternoon, we put together a little mounting tray for the Group 27 Die Hard. Nothing elaborate but it will hold the battery in place while underway. The Group 29 is bigger (and heavier) so we'll have to make a another mounting tray for that one.

Neither of these batteries can be screwed down until all the wiring is in place.  We now have on hand 25-ft. of #4 battery cable.  That's good for 200 amps at a length of 10-feet, well within the distance between the inverter and the two batteries.  It should be fun to connect the battery cables to the inverter, mount it, run the cables to battery #1 and then to battery #2 and once it all looks good, screw everything down.

Next weekend?  We hope so.

Remembering last July at Block Island

The snow and ice are finally getting to us so we thought that it would be good for our mental heath to look back at last summer and one of our favorite spectator sports:  watching the crew slide one more boat into the dock at Payne's.

We were there for a better part of a week in late July and during that time, dock neighbors come and go and we enjoyed all of them. Of particular interest to us was a couple on this 1956 40-ft. Chris Craft Sea Skiff. Phoenix III was a beautiful boat and the captain really knew how to handle it. They arrived when we did and ended up docked two spaces (no slips at Payne's) down from us against the bulkhead.

Eventually, Phoenix III left and late that afternoon, Cliff and his son Sands decided to put another new arrival in its place. It was a 34-ft. Silverton named "Forever Young" and its crew certainly knew what they were doing. The only problem was that they would have to pass in front of us and then turn.  Not easy in really restricted space. Not to worry. The crew from Payne's was on duty.  Here comes "Forever Young."

 

Cliff was on duty, standing on our bow pulpit. Nothing phases this guy. Sands jumps from the Egg Harbor across from us to help.

Looks a little tight to me.

But Cliff pulls the Silverton in, just enough room...

 

Sands reappears on another boat to fend the Silverton off.  They make it look really easy. 

Of course, Bill has to go out and have a look 

Once by us, they have to turn "Forever Young" to port. There's not a lot of space to turn a boat this size but Cliff and Sands are everywhere.

Will it fit?  Of course.

 

Cliff watches as Sands finishes the tie-up.  The Payne family have owned this wonderful spot since 1938 so we suppose that considering the tens of thousands of boats that they have docked, this was an easy one.

Payne's and all of Block Island are something that we really look forward to each summer.  There may be 5 ft. of snow on our roof, but this is what we'll think about as we go to sleep this cold February night.

Measure twice, cut once

Luckily, we brought a shovel with us when we went to the boat today.  The marina driveway is down to one lane with very limited parking.  We spend a half hour shoveling a path through a snow pile just so we could get inside the shed where the boat is stored.

We removed the stuff that was stored in the area under the cabin floor and crawled in to take a look.

There's a lot of space down there. In fact, the only thing there is the control unit for the air conditioner. The spot where we want to mount the inverter is on the wall behind the work light in the photo.

Unfortunately, that plywood wall has a nice big bolt head sticking out right where the inverter will go.

So, we'll have to add some little shims to the base that holds the inverter so it will clear that bolt.  That duplex outlet on the right was where the old Norcold refrigerator was plugged in, but now it will power the battery charger in the inverter.

The inverter will be powered while underway with two 12-volt Group 27 batteries wired in parallel. The space that you see in that photo is big enough for me to crawl into but, it turns out after measuring, that it isn't high enough to drop a Group 27 battery into a permanently mounted battery box.  We'd need at least another eight inches of height to do that.  So, we'll build two plywood fixtures that will hold the two batteries in place.

While we were there, we took some time to investigate where we'll put the new 110-volt AC outlet that will run from the inverter.  The inverter has two outlets (served by a transfer switch) and we'll use one for the new fridge.  No sense wasting the other one so we thought that we'd put a duplex outlet somewhere on the starboard side near the lower steering station. Not a lot of space to fish wires and make a nice neat installation, in fact, there is almost no space near the floor behind the white panel below the radio.We'll have to think about that for a while.

We've ordered the battery cable and connectors from Del City and this week, if it doesn't snow more than a foot or so, we'll make some platforms that will hold the batteries in place.  Let's see: the inverter cost $400, the battery cable and connectors another $63 and the two batteries $85 each.  Nothing cheap about making an old Silverton the way you really want it.

A little too cold, even for us

 

If you're following our blog from someplace other than New England, you should know that this is how our driveway looked this past Thursday after we used the snow blower to take off another 6 inches of snow that fell upon 2 feet from earlier in the week, not to mention the other snowfall in early January which was a 10" accumulation!  Our four-lane driveway is down to two lanes now and it has been cold (20 degrees today and 7 tonight). It will be June before all the accumulated snow melts, but by then we will be boating.

This weekend our goal was to finish the last of the toilet project by replacing the waste deck-fill.  That is a two-person job, but after looking at the predicted temperatures for Saturday, we decided to move on to something we could accomplish at home.  We did visit the boat and plugged her in to charge the batteries at least overnight. The thermometer inside the boat showed just 12 degrees.

Back home, we began the next major project; installing an inverter to power the new refrigerator and other small 110-volt AC appliances while underway or at anchor.

A few weeks ago, we bought a 2,200-watt inverter with a built-in transfer switch and battery charger.  It's made in China (like virtually everything , it seems) and is marine approved.  We paid almost $400 for it and although we had studied the specs carefully, when it arrived it was bigger and heavier that we expected.  No problem.  Big and heavy is good for an inverter .

Our plan is to mount the inverter and the two Group 29 batteries that will power it while underway in the large space under part of the salon floor. We access this area by picking up a carpeted hatch that is just aft of the lower steering station. This area really is big, running across underneath the cabin to the area just behind the galley. It's separated from the rest of the area under the salon by a fiberglass-over-plywood wall that runs athwartships.  Don't you love nautical terminology?

Rather than use valuable floor space in this storage area, we decided to mount the inverter on that plywood wall.  That would require designing some kind of wood fixture that would hold the inverter against that vertical surface, but knowing what it's like down there in somewhat restricted space, we wanted a mounting fixture that we could mount on the wall and then slip the inverter onto it.

Between trips outside to clear snow, we designed a 3/4-inch plywood base for the inverter that would allow air circulation underneath it and permit us to screw the mount into the fiberglass-plywood wall and then slip the inverter over the ten bolts that stuck out of the mount.

(If you are still reading at this point, you are a dedicated boater!)

Here is what this inverter mount made of scrap 3/4-inch plywood ended up looking like on Saturday evening:

Those strips of 1x1-inch molding that hold the inverter up over plywood base need to be through-bolted to the plywood base but the alignment has to be perfect or we won't be able to slip the inverter over those ten bolts once we are laying in the storage space during the installation.

Our solution was to mount the inverter, tighten down the mounting nuts and then apply good quality wood glue between the 1x1 strips and the base.  If everything works as planned, tomorrow morning we should be able to remove the he mounting nuts, pull the inverter off and then through-bolt those 1x1 spacers to the base.

Sunday dawned cold and after reading the Sunday New York Times (all sections but sports) and enjoying a great omelet prepared by Frances, we went downstairs and removed the inverter from the mounting fixture. Nothing moved; the glue held perfectly. Next, we drilled holes in the spacers, bolted them down, recessing the bolt heads so we would be able to mount this thing flush to the wall.

Looks like this will work.  Of course, we had to paint it and once dried, it looked OK for installation, perhaps next weekend.

While we were at the marina on Saturday, we were given two nice battery boxes, brand new, with all the mounting hardware, by a sailboat owner who wanted bigger batteries than would fit in these boxes. Thanks to whomever you are.  That saved us a few bucks.

On Sunday, we had to visit PRM again to unplug the boat.  While there, Frances took some photos.

Our boat is in the shed behind that ancient Ford truck

The Connecticut River is frozen solid...

Back at home on Sunday evening, the view from our bathroom window showing the roof icicles merging with the snow on the roof slope was definitely photo worthy.

Back to work next weekend, if the weather cooperates.

A Wonderful Weekend, Off-duty with Manny and Rhoda Silverton

No boat parts list, no little drawings, no freezing on the boat for us this weekend.  Instead, we ventured off to Williamstown, Mass on Saturday morning, despite the warnings of snow showers. The drive up was beautiful, made even more so by the lack of boat talk. Our destination was the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, known to people who love museums and all that they offer as simply, "The Clark."

Frances had done her usual great research and found us a place to stay at what we remember as the old North Side Hotel, right across the street from the Williams College campus. That venerable property is now the Magnuson Hotel and while it wasn't exactly five star status, it was clean, warm and perfectly acceptable, especially at $59.00 per night.

We checked in and then drove a short distance to The Clark.  We've visited many times in the past but always find fascinating new things as well as old favorites at this beautiful art museum. The current exhibit is a showing of etchings, wood cuts and engravings :

The strange world of Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)

We had seen an exhibit of M.C. Escher's woodcuts  (20th Century) at the New Britain Museum of American Art, back in November with Carol Ann and Rob, but that's another story...

 The Clarks built the marble museum building shown on the right in 1955 to house their extensive and exquisite art collection.  Over the years, the museum expanded with the large building shown at the left.

For us, one of the best things about this museum is the use of windows in most of the galleries. It is wonderful to see a priceless Gainsborough or John Singer Sargent right next to a window looking out over the Clark's untouched 140 acre campus.

 (Frances' favorite is John Singer Sargent's 

Fumée d'Ambre Gris, 1880)

Fumée d'ambre gris was Sargent's major souvenir from a trip to Tangier in the winter months of 1879-1880. The painting's non-narrative structure and monochromaticism, as well as its mysterious ambiance, ensured that it was repeatedly singled out for praise at the Paris Salon later that spring.

With this representation of a North African woman infusing her robes and senses with the musky perfume of ambergris (a resinous substance extracted from whales and considered an aphrodisiac as well as a guard against evil spirits)

One surprise was Gilbert Stuart's iconic portrait of George Washington which is owned by the museum:

We spent the afternoon at The Clark and then did a quick tour of North Adams in a dark and gloomy snow storm. No problem with the roads, though. The folks in this part of western Massachusetts really know how to keep the roads clear and safe.

With cocktail hour upon us, we returned to our room at the Magnuson.  OK, the drapes need work but it was a very cozy spot on a cold night. Mysteriously to us, the photo of the burgundy gauze curtains doesn't show the same horror in the picture as in person...Interior decorating notwithstanding, there were no errant hairs on any of the linens, and no rodents or  bugs...We would recommend as long as ambiance is not a concern.  (Warm and clean!)

We went to the hotel desk to get the location of the ice machine only to find that it had been disconnected for the winter. The manager, an Indian gentleman whom we immediately named Patel, asked if we needed ice to keep our medication cold.  No we, told him, we just wanted to make some cocktails and knowing that, he gladly emptied his refrigerator's ice supply and gave it to us. That ice was perfect for our kind of "medication."


Patel also gave us a menu for the Water Street Grille.  Frances checked them out by phone, made a reservation and we were all set for dinner.  This is a college town and Williams College was in session, so dinner reservations, as it turned out, were necessary.

We were getting a little silly after a long day and decided that for this trip we would rename ourselves Manny and Rhoda Silverton.  Somehow, our new names seem to fit perfectly.

Manny and Rhoda had an excellent dinner at an extremely reasonable price and we left the Water Street Grille right before a party of about 30 was to be seated. Just in time!

We slept very soundly and neither Manny nor Rhoda dreamed about the next or current boating project, so this weekend break was well worth it.

On Sunday morning, we went next door to the Williams Inn for breakfast, after which we loaded up and began the ride home down Route 7.  A few miles down the road, we stopped in the driveway of the Mount Greylock Regional High School to take this picture of what the local kids see every day on their way to school.

A little farther down the road Frances, er, I mean Rhoda, took this shot of fences in the snow in front of a farm.

We arrived home and soon the boat project began to creep back into our lives. As we wrote this blog, Rhoda was in the next room, busy refinishing the swim platform steps.

Next weekend, Manny and Rhoda Silverton become a fond memory as Bill and Frances go back to wrap up the boat toilet project. It was a great weekend, however, and it gave us new energy, ideas and almost too many laughs and half_snaps!

The best seat in the house

Despite the snow, we made some good progress this weekend. God, it was cold on that boat but after an hour or so with the electric heater it was warm enough to be productive.

With the bilge wiring and plumbing finished, it was time to bring the toilet in and test fit it.  If you've been following this blog, you may remember that this is a new Raritan Quiet Flush toilet mounted on the former storage tank we saved from the old Sealand Traveler gravity toilet.  We lugged the toilet in from the cockpit where it has been waiting for the last two months and put it in place.  Amazingly, the discharge house lined up with the old hole in the vanity.  We didn't mount the seat but the toilet looked pretty nice to us.

For some reason, Raritan made the discharge outlet a 1-inch fitting when everything else in the waste plumbing is 1-1/2-inch so we had to add a little piece of 1-inch hose and a 1-to-1-1/2 inch coupling.  That also meant three hose clamps where we would only have needed one if the Raritan toilet had a 1-1/2 inch discharge.  Just a small thing, but it would have been neater without all those extra hose clamps.  The white hose seen curving up in the photo is the water supply to the toilet.  We trimmed about an inch off the end, heated it up with our trusty heat gun and on it went.

The Raritan head comes with a double switch assembly that allows for a variety of flushing modes and it has to be connected to 12-volts DC, the maserator on the back of the head and the siphon breaker. We removed the toilet to make more room to work and drilled the two 1-3/4- inch intersecting holes in the vanity needed to mount the switch assembly.  While we were at it, we also cut a small rectangular opening in the vanity to mount the display for the Snake River holding tank gauge.

We put the toilet back in place and using the cables that we had previously pulled up from the bilge, wired both.  Together, these switches required about 16 crimp fittings.  We made the wiring as neat as possible, slid the two switch assemblies back into the holes in the vanity and drilled some very small pilot holes before screwing them down permanently.

Then, we sat down on the toilet (no seat yet) and pushed the "flush" button. Hearing the toilet motor come on was music to our ears. No "real time" testing right now, because there is nothing in the water tank but soon, we'll dump (good word) some anti-freeze in the water tank and try a real-time flush.

Next weekend, the Captain and Commodore are  going to spend some time together doing nothing boating related. We've worked on the boat every weekend except one since it came out of the water and we need a break. Weather permitting, we will be heading up to one of our favorite museums (Sterling & Francine Clark Institute), in Williamstown, MA

Oh, the ladder from the swim platform to the back of the boat is looking pretty good.  It now has three coats of Sikkens on it and because it's out in the weather, it will get at least three more.  The steps have been sanded between coats and it's looking great.

The remainder of the plan for the winter includes removing the swim platform and refinishing that too. We can't do that until all the projects inside the boat are complete since once the swim platform is off. we really can't get up onto the boat very easily. We'll figure that out when the time comes.

Our list of things to do before spring launch is now a little shorter. Somehow, I know we'll get them all accomplished.