September 15th is our supposed departure date. So much to do. Tough to leave home for many months when you’ve been there for most of the last 20 years.
To get ready for the trip I’ve been reading about WWII submarines. Haven’t figured out how to fit torpedoes in Catalpa yet. Doesn’t stop me from telling Ollie, “flood tubes 1 and 3, fire on my mark,” or “CRASH DIVE!!”.
Run Silent Run Deep (middle book) is probably one of the best naval books I’ve read.
So I haven’t updated this blog in a few years. I actually got to the point that I could not remember how to do it. Since we have a big trip coming up, I thought it might be a good idea to get this thing working again so my family can keep an eye on us and I have a place to deposit some pictures. My goal here was to take a picture with my tablet and upload it with the WordPress app.
We took a three week trip this summer. We had a great time but we mostly motored from port to port as there wasn’t much wind (not counting thunder storms and water spouts). Last Sunday had a nice SW breeze so we decided to sail out to Cuttyhunk. A great sail out there and back. Coming home we had some rain but the wind was off the beam and we surfed home at max speed. Lots of fun.
There were a few schooners around and this one was tied up near where we were anchored.
Bayline launched Catalpa today. New engine. New electrical. New Hoses. Lots of new things.
Engine ran well. I need to adjust the stuffing box as it ran a bit hot.
The engine installation was a huge job. Unfortunately I did not document the process as I went through it. I was very focused on “getting it done”. Several months later… It’s Done! (I hope). I’ll get some pictures up soon.
I haven’t been updating this log because of all of the lost data I had. I went back into the old posts and restored most of the pictures. The Photo Album pages have been restored. Eventually I’ll get my old catboat site up too.
2013 Recap- We managed to get the boat in a bit late due to a cracked exhaust manifold. Last winter I replaced the exhaust and broke the manifold trying to get it apart. Big Problem! We had it welded and re-machined but still problems. I even glued it. I nursed the engine through the summer. Despite the engine issue we had a great time. I’ve uploaded a bunch of pictures from this year. Mostly Vineyard Haven, Tarpaulin Cove, and Lake Tashmoo. This was our first year for T Cove and Tashmoo. Both were great spots that I intend to frequent in the future.
Catalpa is hauled with big plans for the winter.
My old sailing site was hacked. The company that hosted it, for the past 5+ years, wouldn’t really help me much so I decided to migrate over to new servers. Unfortunately, I was unable to figure out how to import all of the pictures so this might take a while to complete. I am getting Catalpa ready for the season and have installed some new gear. Launch date is June 10th.
Sailed from Cuttyhunk back to Padanaram Harbor today. Sunny with light winds. We motored about 50% of the day which has seemed to be about the average for the whole trip.
I’ll fill in some of the blanks later. We had no WiFi after Provincetown and I didn’t keep up with my electronic log but we have our log book and lots of photos.
My outboard motor is running but my lawn tractor just broke! I gotta get back on the water.
Loaded up Catalpa. If the weather is favorable we are going to sail over to Onset tomorrow. I think we’re going to sleep on the boat tonight if I can tie up a few loose ends around here.
Martha’s Vineyard has great bus transportation so we took the bus over to Oak Bluffs again today.
Today was the “Grand Illumination” of the gingerbread houses that surround the Tabernacle. Beautiful. Wish I had my tripod for better night shots. Managed to get a few pictures that aren’t too blurry. All of these tiny little houses had thousands of lanterns lit up on them.
Had dinner at Offshore Ale again. Love the stout beer they have over there.
Diesel: Working! I managed to find someone (Discount Marine Source.com) that had the offending dipstick tube. They express shipped that to us and I got it in today. So our main engine seems to be working pretty well right now.
Outboard: Not such a happy story. The shop says it needs a new carburetor. It’s only a couple of years old so I’m hoping it’s covered by warranty (Honda). Best case scenario is that we get it back by the end of next week.
Plan: Who needs an outboard motor? I think we’re going to leave Sunday or Monday morning. We’ll head over to Cuttyhunk for a few days. I’ve got oars. Hopefully the engine gets done in a few days. Then we’ll sail back to Dartmouth, pick it up, and head off again.
After some very long 16 hour days, Catalpa is in. It would have been very easy for me to delay a few more weeks but a deadline is a deadline! “Time and Tide waits for no man!” The heat on Tuesday was ridiculous. Every once in a while we’d have a thunder shower but it only seemed to increase the humidity.
Our Day started at around 4:50am. At first light I was out putting bottom paint on the hull. Lynne spent most of the morning loading the boat. Caffeine was a necessary part of the morning’s festivities. The truck was at our house at 8:00 am to load Catalpa up.
Davis and Tripp did a good job of getting her out of my yard. I built the shed around the boat so I wasn’t 100% sure they were going to fit the boat out. I had a chainsaw handy. It was a tight squeeze due to the grade of the land but eventually she was out of the shed and on her way to the waterfront.
They picked Catalpa up with a big crane and put her into the water.
The rest of my day was spent rigging and sorting through some of the stuff in the cabin. Later in the day we motored around the harbor to make sure our old Diesel was still chugging away. Eventually we made it up river to our mooring.
Next- a few days of well deserved sleep!