New Trip Blog

The trip - In May 2017, I will depart Fair Haven, New York; the mast down. Under power, Distant Horizon and I will follow the south shore of The Great Lake Ontario for Oswego Harbour. Weather is important. If there is wind, it needs to have a southerly component for minimal waves.

From Oswego, we will traverse the New York State Canal System to Catskill, NY where the mast will be raised.

After I have tuned the rigging and bent all the sails on, we head south to New York Harbour.

I will wait in the New York Harbour area for a good three-day weather window, at which time I will depart for a transatlantic voyage to the Azores.

Those familiar with the islands will notice that I am sailing directly to Ponta Delgada on Sao Miguel rather than Horta the typical stopping off point.

Ponta Delgada is the capital city. I am familiar with the port entry procedures, which is a minor detail. However, There is so much to see on Sao Miguel, I want to stay there for several days: hiking the volcano calderas; enjoying the natural hot spring baths; taking in the beautifully decorated streets and much more.

This choice of destination will extend the Atlantic crossing by about one day. However, as I back-track to Horta, I will actually be heading north towards Ireland. I plan to stop and tour several of the islands during my stay. This will take about a week to 10 days, but I'm not on a schedule.

During this stay, I will notify Grace of my intended departure date. It will take about 12 days to reach Ireland. It should take less. In fact, it could take as little as 7 days. However, I am crossing the stormy path of the North Atlantic where every storm crossing North America (Mexico to Canada) makes its way across the ocean. This will be the roughest and toughest part of the journey. So, I am leaving extra time to allow for a conservative approach to the storms. After all, this is not a race.

Grace will meet me in Ireland. For the the remainder of the summer, we will tour the southern coast of Ireland. My daughter, Brynn, and her husband are planning to visit Ireland at that same time so we can all tour inland together.

Depending on our progress, I can either end the season in Limerick, or continue on to Dumbarton, Scotland. The remainder of the trip is quite open and unplanned. I wanted to leave enough time to truly "see" Ireland and re-visit Scotland.

This will be the last post to this blog for quite some time. I have started a new blog that is specific to this trip. So, please go to HTTP://SailingOnTheDistantHorizon.blogspot.com where I tell the story from the beginning.

2017 - A late start

As I performed an overhaul on the boat's portlights this winter, New York State performed an overhaul of the New York State Canal System.

Previously, the canal system fell under the Thruway Authority. That made sense because the Thruway Authority was charged with maintaining and controlling transportation systems throughout the state.

As of January, the canal system is under the New York State Power Authority (NYPA). The most common expression people have when they find this out is... What!? It does make sense, though. The water levels in the canal system are controlled by the NYPA. They regulate the canal system's water by releasing water from Delta Lake, Hinkley Reservoir, Sacandaga Lake and others.

According to the Oswego News, "When the New York Power Authority took over operation of the canal system in January, its officials did a thorough inspection and found a number of large maintenance projects that need to be done."

The canal system's season will be 6 weeks shorter this year. So how does this effect me?  Instead of opening May 1st, the canal system will open May 19th. Grace graduates from Ithaca College on May 21st. This means a three week delay for the start of the trip. I was hoping to be out of the canal system before Grace's graduation, and then sail down the Hudson River afterwards. Now, I will try to get started May 24th.

As a side note, Syracuse will host the World Canals Conference  in September.

Winter Project - Sealing the Portlights

The portlights on a boat are the windows. On Distant Horizon the portlights are made of bronze. I'm not sure how many of you reading this remember your high school chemistry class, but bronze is comprised primarily of copper with a little tin; a variety of other ingredients could have been added, as well. Brass is fundamentally the same, except zinc is used in-place of the tin. So, Brass will quickly corrode when exposed to the harsh environment encountered at sea.

You've all seen those old churches and buildings with copper roofing. With age, it turns green. Well, when bronze ages it first turns to a nice patina and then, dues to the high copper content, green.

I decided to seal all twelve portlights before departing across the ocean this summer. To do this, I have to remove each portlight from the boat; remove all old sealant residue from both the boat and the portlight. After that, the portlight will be re-installed and sealed; making a watertight seal.

As you can see from the photo below, the portlights are corroded and the glass is starting to delaminate. I decided to take advantage of this opportunity to cleanup the portlights. Besides removing the old sealant, I was going to polish the bronze. The plan was not to polish them to a bright mirror-like finish, but to make them shiny and clean... and definitely not green. There is no stopping the bronze from corroding at sea. So, my plan is to allow them to oxidize; that protects the metal. Then they can turn a nice bronze patina. I'll keep them clean enough as to not turn green again.

Portlight, removed from the boat

I checked around Syracuse with several of the glass companies about having custom made glass. You can see in the photo above, the old glass is starting to delaminate around the edges. Solvay Glass was the most helpful. One look, and they knew exactly what kind of glass. That put them ahead of all other companies. The said they could make the new glass fit a little better than the original glass did if I would leave the frame with them. So, of course, I did.

This meant a lot more cleaning because the windows had to be disassembled, the glass removed and the window frames cleaned with all sealant residue removed. As you would expect from a boat, the window seal was completely different from the portlight to boat seal.

I contacted 3M and they were helpful as far selecting the right sealant for the glass. However, their help ended there. Another company Sika was far more helpful. They explained that glass is not a porous material and does not accept sealants well. So, for the boat, they recommended a chemical activator to pre-treat the glass, which was made specifically for my purposes... it's how the windows on cruise ships are sealed. Then I would need a primer for the bronze because that was a very porous material. They explained the exact process and timing of the applications for the bronze primer, glass activator and sealant. They also told me exactly which sealant to use with bronze frames.

At first this all sounded very complicated, but in practice it was simple.

The picture below is the finished work on one of the portlights; polished and new glass installed.

Polished Portlight