ELECTRIC SAILING: Heading Home

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The Oyster Bay Oyster Festival is over and it's time to start thinking about heading back. Conditions were the reverse of the sail to Oyster Bay I made a week ago. The winds were now expected out of the west in the morning which was good for my easterly journey. Unfortunately, just like a week ago the winds were expected to be light only between five to ten knots. But, the sun would be shining so it would still be a nice day on the water.  But, like last week during my Columbus Day voyage I would need to get an early start in order to ride the last of the ebb current out of the Oyster Bay/Cold Spring Harbor entrance and into Long Island Sound:

Not quite as early as the trip to Oyster Bay. I figured a 6 AM departure would give me enough time to get out into Long Island Sound before the flood current started to enter in the harbor. I would be bucking the flood current for most of the day but, that's a sailor's lot sometimes.

The alarm went off at 5:30 AM. I made coffee and had a blueberry muffin for breakfast. I had everything ready in the cockpit including even having the searchlight nearby. I let go the lines off the mooring at 6:11 AM. I raised the sail  and  fired up the electric propulsion system for a 10 Amp draw and was moving along at about 1.7 knots in the pre dawn of the morning:

A slight breeze kicked in and BIANKA was soon moving along at 2.2 knots. Even though I was motor sailing I could still hear the noise of the traffic along West Shore Road which was over a mile away as the residents of Bayville started their early Monday morning commutes to work.  A solitary Seagull was keeping watch on a buoy and appeared to be checking that things were clear as I headed toward Cold Spring Harbor bound for the sound
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At 6:56 AM I was off Plum Point at the entrance to Oyster Bay Harbor. At 7:44 AM I was at Buoy 1 in Cold Spring Harbor having used 16.4 amp hours and the battery capacity had dropped to 92% .

At 8:43 AM I was in Long Island Sound off of Buoy 2 at Lloyd Point. The XBM battery monitor showed I had used 26.3 amp hours and battery capacity was at 87.4%. the current in Long Island Sound had also turned against BIANKA.

10:22 AM Found BIANKA off Eatons Neck and battery readings were 79.5% capacity and  showed the EP had consumed 42.8 amp hours in four hours of electro sailing. As I rounded Eatons Neck the Northport Power plant stacks hove into view:

They are hard to miss being 600 feet high and part of the biggest gas fired power plant on the east coast.
Here's a little Nav tip from Capt. Mike: When the Northport Stacks line up they point due north.

At 11:24 AM I was directly north of the stacks. BINAKA's electro sailing had consumed -52.7 amp hours and battery capacity was now at 79.5%. Usually by this point I would have fired up the Honda 2000 to start operating in hybrid mode and not draw down the battery bank much further. But, it was such a nice day even in the very light wind and I still was bucking the flood current so I kept motoring along. I had ducked into Smithtown Bay where the flood current was much weaker than further out in the Sound and was moving along at 2.3. knots.

At 12:05 PM the wind picked up from the northwest and I was moving along nicely at 3 knots so I backed down on the electric propulsion.

At 12:35 PM A gentle breeze developed so that I was moving along at 3.4 knots and I shutdown the EP completely after drawing down 65.4 amp hours and having a battery capacity reading of 69%.

Later in the afternoon I spied the Tall Ship MYSTIC that was docked in Oyster Bay for the Oyster Festival just north of BIANKA:

I thought they might be headed back to their homeport of Mystic Connecticut. But, they instead ducked  into Port Jefferson. Probably were on a cruise with passengers of Long Island Sound. 

I sailed on until the breeze started to lighten and fired up the EP once again to minimize the prop drag. By 2:22 PM The battery monitored showed 69% and amp hours used at 63.5.. I set the EP for a 10 amp draw. I continued on this way until about sometime around 4 PM when a nice 15 knot sea breeze made it across Long Island and BIANKA was soon sailing toward home at 5 plus knots which was a real nice way to end the day. At 5:10 PM BIANKA was back on her mooring. Where the final readings for the 20 plus mile electro sail were  85.3 amp hours and battery capacity was 58.9%. Battery voltage was 49.5 volts. I think a lot of the extra amps were to buck a hefty current coming out of the narrow harbor entrance as the current had once again turned a few hours before. Still BIANKA's electric propulsion system made for a delightfully quiet day on the water and showed that 20 mile legs are easily made in light winds without even turning on the generator during the whole trip.
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NOTES OF AN ELECTRIC SAILOR: Late summer cruise 2013

I decided to head out on a late summer/early fall cruise yesterday. Before I did I topped up the 48 volt propulsion bank for the Thoosa 9000 system using the Honda 2000i generator at the mooring. In the morning I used the helm instrumentation panel to read the battery voltages here were the readings:

BATTERY 1   13.3 VOLTS

BATTERY 2   13.1 VOLTS

BATTERY 3   13.1 VOLTS

BATTERY 4   12.8 VOLTS 

PACK VOLTAGE 53.2 VOLTS

I left later than I had planned and so had to buck some current while heading out of the harbor. Once I got out to open water I found the winds were light to nonexistent for most of the day. So I motor sailed for most of the eight hours in the light breeze drawing currents from 5 amps to 25 amps. After a trip of 18 miles I picked up a mooring in a nearby harbor and took the following readings of the batteries on the instrumentation panel:

BATTERY 1   12.6 VOLTS

BATTERY 2   12.5 VOLTS

BATTERY 3   12.4 VOLTS

BATTERY 4   12.4 VOLTS

PACK VOLTAGE 50.7 VOLTS 

The percent charge as read on the Xantrex XBM battery monitor showed a reading of 83%. I fired up the Honda 2000i generator using the 900 watt ZIVAN NG-1 battery charger until it reached the second stage of charging. I then switched to the Dual Pro 4 charger which topped up each battery individually until fully charged. It took three and a half hours to fully recharge the propulsion bank. During which time I also charged the battery for the 12 volt house bank and the Electric Paddle outboard.


BLOG UPDATE:  I was relaxing in the cockpit enjoying a glass of wine when I suddenly realized that I never took the Amp Hour readings off of the XBM battery monitor after I finished the sail. After six years I guess I'm just too comfortable with the electric propulsion system to keep an eye on all the parameters. :)  Perhaps I'll remember next time.

A SAILOR LOOKS BACK AT 2012

It's New Years Eve hard to believe how fast this year has gone by.  I did not put as many miles (a little over two hundred) under the keel of BIANKA  this year compared to years past but, I did have a wonderful year of cruising. Though work and some unexpected maintenance issues did get in the way. I also bought 200 feet of long overdue replacement anchor chain. I also installed AIS on board  which I will write about in the new year. I also installed  a new battery instrumentation panel  at the helm. Which made monitoring the battery current and voltages much easier. All in all it was still another great year as I look back on it.

January found me in the Leeward Islands starting off in St. Thomas, St. Johns  and then sailing over to the Spanish Virgin Island of Culebra for a nice little warm water  break from the winter.


This was also the month that the Bianka Log Blog reached over one hundred thousand page views. So it was time to celebrate too.

In February I found one of the batteries in the 48 volt propulsion string was no longer taking a charge.

I spent the next several months investigating the issue and finally figured that a parasitic load from one of the battery meters was the cause of the problem. With careful charging and test the battery is once again up to snuff and worked fine all season. I was glad I did not have to purchase a new battery.

March found me in Ocean City Maryland. After seeing a nice little warm weather window my gal and I drove from DC to a beachfront hotel with an 11th floor balcony view of the Atlantic Ocean for a few days.

 We had the beach to ourselves and were able to dine without making reservations. The smell of the sea also gets one thinking about getting the boat back in the water.


April 12th was the one hundredth anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. It bought back memories of when I was living on board BIANKA at pier 59 in New York. That was the pier  that the rescue ship Carpathia bought the lifeboats from the ill fated Titanic and was only a few piers north of the peir where the Titanic was supposed to dock.

May found me and my gal in the Bahamas. The Exumas specifically via stopovers in Nassau.  A new area for me and one of some great memories and interesting sights.



I also worked on my first major repair of the electric propulsion system in five years by replacing the shaft coupling. Replacing the original steel one with stainless steel.

June was all about getting BIANKA ready for the season and launching. The battery issue had been solved the mast lights checked. The prop cleaned and polished and finally BIANKA was splashed.

In July work reared it's ugly head  eating up two weeks and my gal's beach vacation ate up another week. But, BIANKA was in the water with 200 feet of new anchor chain ready to go when time permitted. Also I worked on some finishing touches on the solar bimini.

August was another two weeks of work followed by another week on the beach. But, I was finally able to get back on board just in time to see another full moon a real treat.

September is usually the end of summer for many but, I view it as a new beginning. Some become melancholy with the end of the Labor Day weekend while I look at it as the time of less crowded anchorages  So I was looking forward to making my annual cruise to New York.

September 11th was also the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

Since BIANKA and I were docked in New York then and actually felt the impact of the planes and witnessed the collapse of the buildings I felt somewhat of an obligation to try and be back in the harbor on the anniversary. But, it was not to be,  A broken pull cord and some frozen screws on the Honda 2000 generator soon put an end to those plans. Still I got to see another full moon on board so it was not all bad.

October had some of the highs and lows of the season. I saw a nice weather window and finally took BIANKA on the cruise to New York. I did something different regarding my electric propulsion system on this cruise. Which was to electro sail using about 10 amps to effectively negate the prop drag and actually propels the boat along a two knots when there is no wind. This technique worked really well and since EP is so quiet it does introduce the noise fatigue running and vibration that running a diesel would introduce.



After a night anchored by Ellis Island  it was a nice sail up the Hudson River:





where BIANKA and I anchored for a few days off of Hook Mountain enjoying the fall colors.



Two days after returning back to BIANKA's mooring Hurricane Sandy hit the area:


The storm surge lifted BIANKA and her mooring and dragged them across the channel. I found her over a thousand feet away across the harbor. Still floating and relatively undamaged. I was very lucky.  Since BIANKA had power available from her solar panels and wind generator I decided I would move back on her until power was restored back on the mainland. Which is where I spend most of the my time anyway during the season.  I had all the comforts of home even more so as I had power available.

The beginning of November still had the area recovering from super storm Sandy. Gas shortages had boat owners coming down to the docks draining there boat's fuel tanks so they could keep their home generators running. I recovered the Honda outboard that went to the bottom of the harbor when the dingy flipped during the storm. It will be a winter project to try and get it running again. There were a lot of  lessons learned from Sandy by me and many others too.

December was another month of a few weeks work that came my way. Just in time to pay some of the boatyard bills. Also it was time for holidays and looking back and also planning for the new year. I'm also way behind in some posts here on the Bianka Log Blog. So I will use the winter to catch up and publish about some of the projects I've been working on. Days are already starting to get longer and soon it will be time to starting thinking  the new year and season.

AUTUMN CRUISE UP THE HUDSON RIVER 2012

It seems there is always someplace new to experience on the water. After making the transit down the East River I rounded the Battery a little after sundown and I wanted to find an anchorage soon.  In the past I have poked into the basin behind the Statue of Liberty. But, it does not have a lot of room and if it was filled with a few cruising  boats on their way south I'd have to find another spot in harbor after dark and also fight the ebb current coming down the Hudson (North) River. So I decided to check out a new anchorage that looked inviting but, had never seen to many boats use. It is an area north of Ellis Island. So after rounding the Battery in Manhattan's southern tip I made a B line in the fading light for the area. Winds were out of the west blowing 10 to 15 knots and I put the bow as far west as I dared and dropped the anchor.

It turned out to be a pretty good spot. A little rolling at first but, it calmed down nicely until 4 AM when another roll woke me up. In the morning I waited until the flood current began to push up the Hudson and then weighed anchor and used the current to help push BIANKA along.  First past the still unfinished Freedom Tower:

Below is a photo of what it looked like during BIANKA's cruise in 2011. 

 A lot of progress was made but, last year I thought it might have had all the glass installed by this year. Hopefully, it will by next years cruise. Though there are signs that things will be reaching a peak soon. The parts of the tower that will be making up the transmission tower aka the spire on top have begun to arrive in the harbor as seen in this Tugster Post.

Continuing up the river the Empire State and Chrysler buildings soon showed up in my view with Pier 40 in the foreground:

A little further on I passed the Intrepid Air and Space Museum. Which had a new addition since last years cruise. That white bubble near the stern housed the  Enterprise Space Shuttle.

A week after this photo was taken Hurricane Sandy destroyed the tent which covered the spacecraft and exposed the shuttle to the elements.

Further on several those floating cities known as cruise ships where tied to up the land based city getting ready for their afternoon departures.

Soon BIANKA was passing the George Washington Bridge one of the bridges that make up the gateways to the City of New York. Near the eastern base of the bridge is the Little Red Lighthouse made famous in the book The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge:

 BIANKA then sailed past the Yonkers Recreational Pier.

The last Victorian steel pier on the Hudson. A leftover from the days before air conditioning when people headed toward the waterfronts to escape the stifling heat of summers without indoor air conditioning in their houses.

Further on the main reason why I wanted to make this fall cruise soon appeared as the dramatic Palisades started showing some of the fall colors.

There was not a lot of boat traffic on the river which made for a very pleasant sail. I did come across another boat sailing back to New York. I think it was the ADIRONDACK a day sailor based out of the Chelsea Piers. I was thinking as it sailed by this is what it must have been like on the Hudson in the days before the steamships started plying the waters:

A few miles further on and BIANKA would reach the intended destination of the cruise which I will write about in a future post.

CAPT. MIKE IN THE EXUMAS DAY ELEVEN: NORMAN CAY

It's our last day or I should say morning in the Exumas. We have a chartered plane that will fly us back to Nassau at 12 noon from Norman Cay. So we will have to pack a few things in this morning starting with an early morning on the reef we discovered yesterday afternoon.
Even better is that when we dove on the reef this morning there was absolutely no current. Always nice when you can explore a reef while snorkeling at your leisure. As I was snorkeling close to the rock cay I discovered the keel of a shipwreck:

Seemed to be about 50 feet long and still had the engine and prop attached. I wondered how it ended up here? Was it put adrift during some hurricane? Or did it run aground onto the cay in the middle of the night in the hey day of drug running in the area? A mystery but, still neat to snorkel around:


After our early morning snorkel on the reef we found it was back in the dingy to head to the other side of Norman's Cay. There another wreck awaited us. In he late 1970's and early 1980's Norman's Cay was used by drug trafficker Carlos Lehder to ship illegal drugs to the U.S. from South America. He bought the island lengthened it's air strip and improved it's docks to facilitate the illegal activities. A brand new plane he had ordered was carrying a load of grass. Real grass as in sod to simulate a plane loaded with drugs and doing touch and go landings on the island's air strip. Something went wrong and the plane crashed onto the flats near the island. It is this plane wreck we are heading to for our final snorkel in the Exumas:


Two large Puffer Fish came out of hiding to greet me:


The plane is slowly disappearing but, it is still a neat snorkel when cruising through the Exumas:


Two great snorkels is how we ended our trip in the Exumas after which it was back to the Surprise pick up our bags and fly back to Nassau. It was a wonderful trip but, I was also eager to head back home because I wanted to get BIANKA ready for the upcoming sailing season. The fifth season since I installed electric propulsion  on board. So after eleven days in the Bahamas I was kind of singing this song:

CAPT. MIKE IN THE EXUMAS DAY ONE: NASSAU

Well,  my girlfriend needed a vacation between teaching gigs and decided it was time for us to check out the Exumas in the Bahamas. Who am I to say no to eight days of swimming, snorkeling and boat drinks on a chartered catamaran even though it delays getting BIANKA into the water. So come along on the journey as I head to check out some new waters.

We come on the sloop John B

My grandfather and me

Around Nassau town we did roam

We had a direct flight into Nassau where we spent our first night. Nothing looked familiar from the last time I was in Nassau back in the 1980's. But, the ride to the hotel showed there was a lot of construction going on. Including a brand new Airport terminal nearing completion. The ride from the airport had some interesting sites. Many of the round abouts we drove around were decorated with borders of empty Conch shells:

The shells made a nice pink border, kept the weeds from growing and was a great way to recycle the shells. It also made me kind of hungry because one of the treats for me traveling to places like the Bahamas is I get to eat some Conch.  That chewy sweet tasting mollusk that I enjoy in all it's forms. I usually only get to taste it once a year or twice a year on trips like this.  

After a twenty minute ride we ended up at the British Colonial Hilton Hotel.  Though our cab driver did point out that the Nassau locals only refer to it as the Hilton Colonial Hotel. Preferring to have little reminder of the British presence on the island as possible. Though the original Hotel was built by an American the Standard Oil tycoon Henry Flagler and has a rather interesting history including being part of location shooting of several James Bond films including Thunderball .  It was not long after we checked in that I found myself  sitting in the outdoor restaurant enjoying one of the local brews:

In this case a Sands beer neither shaken nor stirred. I had a nice view of the Nassau Paradise Island (Hog Island) Lighthouse:

Built in1817.   They say this is and the oldest surviving lighthouse in the West Indies. It marks the entrance to Nassau harbor. If I turn my head to the right I can see the giant cruise ships lined up at the dock:

Later in the day as I sat in the lounge chair on the beach I watched as these floating cities heading out to their next destination.

Maybe it's just me but, I think the design on the side of this ship makes it look kind of fruity and cartoonish.  Speaking of cartoonish Nassau has it's share of tourists drink until you drop bars like Senor Frogs:

Not sure if it's wise to have a seven foot frog standing outside a bar where people tend to drink heavily.  

After watching the ship depart I headed into downtown area. The newly built straw market was all but, closed up  now that the cruise ships had departed. But, heading toward the waterfront I found a local fisherman who was selling some of his catch, conch shells and would also whip up some conch salad for you:

I was tempted to try some but, since it was getting close to dinner time I resisted and headed back to the hotel. Where I proceeded to conch myself out starting with this:

An appetizer of Conch Salad, Conch Chowder and a Conch Fritter. Followed by:

Some delicious Shrimp and Conch Curry for the main course.  After such a satisfying meal only thing left to do was get a good nights sleep before heading off to Staniel Cay in the morning.