Dinghy and Outboard Repairs …. and Packing, Packing, Packing!

Dinghy and Outboard Repairs …. and Packing, Packing, Packing!

Wed 29^th – Friday 31^st July 2020

On Sunday evening we brought our inflatable dinghy and Honda outboard motor home from East Greenwich. We had problems with the outboard at the end of last season and had put it in for repair / service over the winter, but the shop weren’t able to reproduce the problem and weren’t confident they had fixed. They were correct, they hadn’t fixed it and it was running very poorly as we tried to shuttle to and from the dock last week. On Monday morning we phoned around but every service center that we called had a 3- week waiting list. We had a new spare carburetor (that Gloria had brought down to Tortola in 2017 when we were also having some issues but resolved without using the spare), so we took the bold step to switch out the carburetor ourselves. This went surprisingly well and on completion the engine started up first time … except now there was no cooling water coming out of the “pisser”. This had to be a separate issue and on dismantling the lower part of the engine we found that the water pump impeller was totally shot. In retrospect we are sure that this happened on the final use last year when we saw smoke from that area and the engine overheated. We think it was pure chance that we got some cooling water flow last week and we were really lucky that the problem revealed itself whilst we were working on the motor this week. We ordered the new parts and on Thursday reassembled everything. Again the engine started up fine, only this time the propeller was constantly in gear send water spraying everywhere and actually quite dangerous. It turned out that whilst troubleshooting the problems we had taken out the propeller shaft and inadvertently dropped a critical stainless steel shifting rod into the gear casing. We know this because we fished around in the gear case oil and found it! Anyway, third time is a charm and we got it all back together and it now seems to be running beautifully. We also took the opportunity to find the leak in the inflatable floor of our dinghy and were able to patch that. So now we should be in great shape for running around in the dinghy.

Other than that we have been busy finishing up the packing and storage of stuff that we are leaving in the house. I think we might have said this after moving out in 2012 but never again!

On a final note, hurricane Isaias has just formed off the coast Hispaniola and is heading north. We will move aboard tomorrow (Saturday) and on Tuesday we may get tropical storm conditions in New England!

Mike and Gloria

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Cotinga in slings the evening before launch (iPhone)

Cedar closet storage in our house (iPhone)

Utility room storage in our house - a narrow path remains to the main circuit breaker panel (iPhone)

Back on the boat … Are we crazy?

Back on the boat … Are we crazy?                             Tues 28 July 2020

It’s been two years since we got back to New England after our 2017-8 trip to the Caribbean and now we are about to set out on another year afloat. In January it seemed like a great idea … now we aren’t so sure!

When we returned form our previous trip we were delighted to have the chance to go back to work at Framingham State University and for the past two years we have been teaching chemistry and enjoying life on land. Our sailing was limited to Rhode Island waters, with small cruises to Block Island and around Narragansett Bay, all of which was lovely.  Over time we started to contemplate what our next adventures would be and specifically the notion that we might take the boat to Europe.  As these ideas evolved we realized that we needed more time and flexibility. In particular, we couldn’t imagine launching Cotinga in the spring, teaching to the end of May and then being ready to leave New England to cross the Atlantic just a few weeks later and so we decided that the time had come for us to retire. Our last semester at FSU did not go entirely as we expected because of covid-19. We never went back after spring break and taught the second half of the semester on line. It has to be said that teaching remotely is quite challenging and without the face-to-face interactions with the students and other staff members is nowhere near as much fun. 

Our broad plan, as we envisaged it at the start of this year, was to spend the early summer travelling on land and then launch Cotinga at the end of July to spend the latter part of the summer cruising New England. In the fall we would head down the east coast of the USA and once hurricane season was over, cross over to the Bahamas and then off-shore to the Caribbean islands where we would spend the winter. In the following spring we would sail up to Bermuda and then across the Atlantic via the Azores to Europe.  From there onwards, we might perhaps spend a couple of summers in northern Europe and then a couple of seasons in the Mediterranean, leaving the boat whilst we return to Massachusetts as our home base. Eventually we would sail back across the Atlantic and keep Cotinga in the Caribbean as a winter destination for the future.  Of course no sailing plans should ever be taken too literally and in January we had no idea that the world would be turned upside down by a global pandemic. In May, despite great uncertainty as to what we would be possible, we took the decision to proceed with our plan. We made arrangements to rent out our house for a year starting August 1^st and in 3 days time we will hand over the keys and move aboard Cotinga.

We still plan to head up to Maine for a few weeks and down the east coast USA in the autumn, but beyond that everything is up in the air.  However, we are fit and healthy and the impact of Coronavirus on our lives has been relatively minimal, so we count ourselves lucky and whilst we probably are crazy, we will try to make the most of this great opportunity.

Cotinga was launched on Wednesday 15^th July and is currently on a mooring in East Greenwich Bay.  In the next blog, we will fill you in on some of the many projects that we have done to upgrade the boat over the past two years.

Mike and Gloria

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Cotinga in Newport Harbor, RI, July 2019

Marina, Great Salt Pond, Block Island, July 2019

Town Dock, Great Salt Pond, Block Island, July 2019

 Lights over East Greenwich, RI, July 2019