Huntington Place

On a recent Sunday afternoon, we took a walk through a small neighborhood here in Norwich. We understood that a tour was being planned but it was to be on a weekday, when work prevented us from attending.

The tour was of Huntington Place, a small street behind St. Patrick Cathedral.

We admit to being to being architecture geeks, especially examples of late 18th century homes. It always amazes us how the details in those houses were carved or cut by craftsmen who had no power tools and how they fit perfectly and have lasted 125 years or more.

Huntington Place in Norwich has some really beautiful houses and, to be honest, one or two that have  been neglected. But that aside, most of the houses and their gardens are to us, at least, well worth the visit.

Yes, we're still boaters but sometimes, there's something ashore that can be just as intriguing.

A wonderful September weekend

 

The leaves are beginning to float across our bow and that signals fall. Time to leave our summer home.

Last week, we checked the fluids in our engines and everything looked good. On Saturday, we fired her up and headed to the fuel dock for our final fill-up of this season. $4.449 a gallon and we took 111 gallons. That's more than enough to get us to our winter storage yard and back again next spring.

Mike, or Dockmaster, helped us load our inflatable onto our foredeck. That's it for this year for that  thing.

At this time of year, our dock mates fade to other things like fishing or hunting. We're not sure when they will be back before we leave, so this weekend we wished everyone a good winter, if there is such a thing.

Frances and Pooka, our boat cat, continue to live on our boat until we leave. The weather was perfect this weekend and we shot some video of what it looks like. This is video that we'll look at next winter after we have cleared the snow from our sidewalks. 

These are the images that keep us wanting to come back for another year.

The Blue Mass, September 21, 2014

Once again this year, we attended the Blue Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Norwich. If you don't know us, Norwich is where we keep our boat in the summer and over a number of years, we've gotten to know our dock mates and the city pretty well. Several boater friends are in law enforcement and we've come to like and respect them, in particular. When September rolls around, we always put on something besides shorts and attend Blue Mass.

The Cathedral of St. Patrick, where the Blue Mass is held, is simply beautiful and worth a visit if you come to Norwich. As with every church of this type, the doors are always open.

 This particular Mass is held in remembrance of Officers fallen in the line of duty and unfortunately, that list is several pages long.

It is always interesting to see officers from so many towns and cities participate. Some are part of the ceremony and others bring their families with the little kids who don't yet understand what all this means.

We put together some video, but tried to keep that respectful. This is a Mass, after all, and no one needs us running around the church with a TV camera in the middle of a ceremony that is important as this one.

 Now, back to boating

We are starting to off-load lots the summer things. The outboard went home last weekend and we collected all the winterizing stuff at Tractor Supply for a mere $104. It will be a few more weeks, but winter storage is coming.

Our final trip to winter storage in Portland, Connecticut is about 60 miles but only 12 miles of that is in open ocean. The the remainder of the cruise is in the Thames and Connecticut Rivers and they are usually beautiful in October. We hope to once again bring you video of the foliage on the river. We know you just can't wait for that!

Our plan, once we get to Portland, is to winterize the engines and water system and then begin to dismantle, at least partially, our starboard engine to install rebuilt cylinder heads. To get the old heads off, we'll have to remove the intake manifold and both of the exhaust manifolds. That's not a fun prospect since the intake manifold has never been off (from what we can tell) and the outboard exhaust manifold on that engine is within six inches of our water tank.

At least we have the rebuilt heads here. We got the from Mechanic's Select Cylinder Heads in Concord, North Carolina at a cost of $265 each plus $57 shipping. They arrived just one week after we ordered them, which is what was promised.

At 50 lbs. each it will be a task just to get them up onto the boat, which will be out of the water by then.

It doesn't make much sense to do a job like this without also replacing the exhaust manifolds so we're planning a road trip to Lighthouse Marine in Riverhead, Long Island to pick up a pair of them.  The manifolds are also a little over 50 lbs. each so we should be nice and strong by the time we finish this project.

We'd really like to finish this engine project before the weather gets cold. We have only a few small winter boat projects (some interior painting and installing a 110 volt AC outlet in the cockpit and probably a few we don't remember at the moment). This winter, we'd really like to take some weekends off and do some fun things together.

A final solution for our starboard engine

This engine has given us trouble all season. We've enlisted the advice of our dock mates (several of whom are accomplished mechanics) and thrown a bunch of new parts at the problem but so far, nothing has solved the problem.

The problem, you ask? The engine will not, after some almost random time, run faster than about 2200 rpm. Below that engine speed it operates perfectly. The port engine, running from a common fuel tank, continues to run perfectly.

Having exhausted most of the common causes for this behavior, we called in a local marine engine mechanic. He did nothing more than measure the compression in each cylinder before announcing that "this motor has serious problems." The compression readings across the eight cylinders were all over the place from 125 lbs on a some, 100 lbs on others and one, number 8, with just 50 lbs.

The engine mechanic's boss proposed a complete rebuild as a solution. After we brought the boat to his yard, he and his crew would remove the starboard engine and ship it off to Jasper (in Florida?), where they would rebuild our old engine and then ship the rebuilt engine back to his yard for re-installation. He also mentioned how complicated these Chrysler LM-360 engines are and that there were a lot of different engine configurations.

The price for this rebuild? $11,000.

Obviously, this guy really thought he had us hooked and he laid it on, saying how unreliable local machine shops and rebuilders are.

He really wasn't interested in what we thought or what we had found, namely that the engine burns no oil and exhibits little or no blow-by. We suggested that a complete valve job might be the best solution at this point but he reiterated that "this motah really needs a complete rebuild."

We beg to disagree. In fact, it pissed us off that this guy took us for dumb boaters who don't know a wrench from a wench. Over the past 30 years, we've done three engine swaps ourselves on previous boats and they all worked perfectly. We also did the grunt work on a pair of GM 305 heads that were rebuilt by a local machine shop and that worked fine, too.

A look at our LM-360 shop manual shows that these engines aren't any more complicated than a GM small block engine and are in many ways very similar. Also, there aren't "many" different configurations of the LM-360 but only two, and those differences are minor.

So, here's the plan. We'll leave the boat in its slip and enjoy the fall season as we usually do. Remember, Frances lives on the boat and we don't want to cut her enjoyment of the season short.

Then we'll run the boat up the Connecticut River to its winter home, were she is stored in a shed out of the weather. The starboard engine will run fine as long as we keep the speed to 2200 rpm and if not, we can get up the Connecticut River on one engine. We doubt that will be necessary.

Once in Portland for the winter, we'll winterize the engines and begin the process of removing the heads on the starboard engine. We'll find a local machine shop that can do the rebuild. We already have one suggested.

While we have the heads off of the engine, we'll take the opportunity to put on new exhaust manifolds. Normally, that's very difficult to do because of the proximity of one manifold to our water tank but with the the intake and heads out of the way, it should be much easier. Well, okay, somewhat easier.

Hey, we still had a fun boating season, even if it was at 2200 rpm on that starboard engine.

Block Island

Someone once said that Block Island was "one of the last ten greatest places on earth" and while we wouldn't go that far, it is still a place that we look forward to visiting every summer.  This year's cruise was slow due to a mystery problem with our starboard engine that only permitted us a speed of about 10 mph.  That, coupled with a stiff southwest wind that whipped up some nice big swells, kept us steering a lot as we climbed up one side of them and surfed down the other. We broke one of our favorite table lamps and rearranged some furniture but there was never any doubt that we'd get there, and we did.

Once again, we tied up at Payne's Dock, which to us is just the perfect spot. It's on the island's western side in the Great Salt Pond or New Harbor. If you love boats and the ocean as much as we do, this is the place to be.

Lots of people dismiss Payne's because you can't make a reservation or because it's expensive or because everyone is rafted together. The lack of a reservation doesn't mean much since we have never been turned away. It is more expensive than many mainland marinas ($4.00 per ft. plus $20.00 a day for electricity) but it's about the same as the other two marinas in New Harbor. Compare that to a hotel or cottage rental and it's cheap. Finally, rafting up against a pier is half the fun. We've met great people that way every time we have been at Payne's and that was our experience again this year.

If there's a downside for boaters like us, it's the fact that Block Island's tourism advertising has been so successful. Big ferries from Point Judith and New London land on the other side of the island at Old Harbor, which is the Island's shopping area. Ferries disgorge a thousand or more passengers each very frequently and there is hardly enough sidewalk or roadway to accommodate them. The motor scooters don't help either.

Not to sound to high-minded, we always walk across the island to Old Harbor and mix with the tourists. This year, we bought some t-shirts and had a very good lunch at the Mohegan Cafe. Even though the street was crowded, Frances can shop with the best of them.

We also like to get off the boat and walk. One day, we took a walk to the beach and on the way rediscovered the parts of Block Island that we really love.

This house was once a Block Island weather station. Further down the road and up a little nature walk and you can see how beautiful this part of the island really is.

As you can see in the distance, they're building new houses near the beach. Hope they don't ruin the view.

There's a touch of whimsey on Block Island. Here's an outhouse that we see each year. The architecture is really quite original.

On another day, we walked over to Block Island Boat Basin, the marina next to Payne's. Not much special about it but the flowers in the field next to it were worth stopping and admiring.

You can see the mooring field in the background. It's very popular and we know people who complain about not being able to find a mooring.

Here's the deal. When you come into New Harbor, call the Harbormaster on Channel 12. Don't just cruise through the mooring field looking for an open one. The green moorings are rentals and the others are either private or owned by the town of New Shoreham (Block Island's legal name). The Harbormaster will find you either a temporary mooring or one you can rent ($46 per day) if one is available and will direct you to it.

Block Island Boat Basin also has a dingy dock that always seems to be crowded.

There's also a nice little beach between Payne's and Boat Basin that is one hell of a lot easier to use provided you don't mind getting your feet wet.

Pooka, our boat cat, survived the journey with only a couple of minor bouts with seasickness.  Once at BI, he explored the cockpit regularly and found Payne's very restful.

One of the things we really enjoy about Payne's is what Frances calls the "Boat Ballet." This is when the crew moves one boat out from a number of others that are all tied together. This year, there were several good "ballets" and we recorded them on video. We've been part of these movements a number of times over the years and when you're at the helm of the boat being moved, you have to listen carefully to the crew's instructions.  "Bump the right engine" means do it right now. It's amazing how they can squeeze a boat out into the harbor without a scratch.

Catfish Tournament

As Frances got the boat ready for our cruise to Block Island next week, Bill headed off to take care of his annual duties as announcer and photographer at Portland Riverside Marina's annual Connecticut River Catfish Tournament. We helped organize the first tournament 19 years ago and while we've missed a couple, we've been there for most of them.

This year, there were 155 fishermen and the heaviest fish was 14-3/4 lbs. There were three cash prizes for adults with the heaviest fish and three for kids.

We asked the top adult fisherman what bait he used. Seems he tried ells but landed the big one with strips of shed.

All of the fish are kept alive in a large tank and released after the tournament is over. One old fisherman said that he swears that a couple of these big fish have been caught 3-4 times.

Sue Bransfield, Town of Portland's First Selectwoman, shows up every year to give out the prizes and  seems to genuinely love doing it. It's amazing how many of the people in the crowd she knows by name. Guess that's what good about small Connecticut towns.

Speaking of the crowd, these folks get into the beer quite early, well before the fishing ends at the sound of a canon. We know the guy who provides the canon and he really enjoys packing in the black powder.

The video shows the "bang" better than this photo.

Once the prizes are given out, there is a giant cookout. Featured each year is a side of beef cooked in a home-made fire pit and cranked over by a crazy, belt-powered spit. But it works surprisingly well.

This year, there was a second spit sporting what the guys called "Miss Piggy."  Is pork good for the heart?

We usually leave after the awarding of the prizes. We'd love to dig into some of that meat but somehow, it's probably better to head home and sort through the video and get our stuff together for our trip to Block Island.

Frances takes the helm

While a cormorant dried its wings on a nearby dock (with a duck fast asleep next to him), we tackled a few things before we take off for Block Island.

We've had a tiny leak from around our new Bomar hatch for some time so this weekend we examined it carefully and added some sealant that appears to have done the trick. We also washed the entire boat, something we should do more often. We scrubbed off a lot of grime and now it looks fairly presentable.

Shrimp Scampi

Anyone who can cook can make scampi, right? Making it in the confined space of our galley makes it a little more work but Frances carries enough equipment on the boat to cater a wedding so on Saturday night, Shrimp Scampi it was.

This particular version comes from a recipe in The New York Times and it's remarkably easy, even on a boat. Even with the windows and hatches open, the boat smelled like an Italian restaurant as the cooking got underway and that's fine with us. The result was an excellent dinner that we heatedly enjoyed.

Frances takes the helm

For some time, we've planned to have Frances get some helm time, especially in close quarters. She regularly drives the boat out in open water but she wanted some practice in and around places like our harbor and gas dock. On Sunday afternoon, out we went with dock mate John H. riding shotgun.  Once Frances became at ease with using just the transmissions to steer the boat, she did okay and we expect to have more lessons in the future.  We've included some video of Frances at the helm. Listen carefully and you'll hear some of her comments.

Pooka on the fly bridge

Pooka, the Boat Cat has lived his entire life inside but he has taken to the boat very well over the last few summers. He's grown more and more confident to the point of actually climbing the ladder to our bridge. Frances finally recorded one of his climbs and we've included that in the video, as well.

Sunday visitors

On Sunday, we got a chance to meet some friends developed though the Silverton Owner's Club. Ed and Dana are experiencing their first summer on a 40 ft. Silverton convertible. They keep their boat in Niantic and had visited Montauk over the weekend. On the way back, they wanted to pickup some family members at our marina and give them a ride back to Niantic.

We had a chance to tour their boat and it is certainly the nicest big Silverton we have ever seen. It was a lot of fun finally meeting them and see how much more room they have than we do on our 34 footer. Their boat has an interesting back story, which at least partially explains why the boat is a beautiful and well-equipped as it is. We got a chance to sit in the boat's Stidd Helm Chairs, which cost more than both of our engines combined.

We included some video of Ed and Dana arriving and leaving. We hope to see them again soon.