Books for Sailors: SIMPLE COURAGE

During this cold raw bitter winter the weather has not been good enough to spend much time on the boat working on projects. But it is a good time to curl up with a good book especially one regarding aspects of the sea.  I recently finished a riveting book about an incident that occurred in the Atlantic Ocean back in the early 1950s. In December 1951 A cargo ship built in World War II called the Flying Enterprise was heading toward New York when it encountered a severe storm which cracked it’s hull and put the ship in a severe  list. It was not only carrying its crew but also a number passengers including children. The book is an excellent detailed account of what happened before during and after the ship sailed into harm's way. The book describes the harrowing rescue of the passengers and crew and the raw determination of the captain who stayed with the ship until the end. The book is called SIMPLE COURAGE: The True Story of Peril on the Sea and is a very good read or listen to If you like audible books  which is read by the author Frank Delaney.

A LATE WINTER CHECKUP

It has not been a snowy winter but it has been a cold one.  Which is why I've not been down to the boatyard to check on BIANKA in over a month. I was away for most of January. February has been a cold  and raw month. So when a sunny day came where the temperature approached 50 degrees Fahrenheit. It was time to make a visit to the boatyard to check on the boat. Many of the boats are still nestled under their shrink wrap covers. From the cockpit they looked like snow drifts.

 I didn't stay long just long enough to charge the batteries via the Dual Pro 4 charger which only took about an hour since the batteries were pretty much being kept topped up by the solar panels over the winter.

While the charger was going through its  charge cycle I drained the small amount of water that had accumulated in the bilge  since the last time I visited over a month ago. After that was done I splashed a little bit of the leftover antifreeze into the bilge to prevent any further water from freezing hopefully for the last time.

I picked up the homemade boarding  ladder extension which I had stored in the cabin for the winter.  A few years ago another boat had smashed into it and broken the strut that help keep it straight.  It was still usable for boarding but tended to slide underneath the boat when climbing up it. I'm taking it back to the house to to replace the damaged strut for the upcoming season.

I also spent a little time sitting in the cockpit staring out at the empty Harbor.

How different it looks without any moorings or boats on it’s waters. In another month or two the moorings will start appearing like returning birds after a long winter. A sign that the sailing season is about to begin.