Block Island, Day One

 Chef Eric making pancakes

06/11/02

    After picking up the mooring, Eric made pancakes for breakfast.  After breakfast, I cleaned up (each day, David and I alternate doing the dishes).  David had a nap (he too was sleep-deprived from the night before), and I rigged the preventer lines for the halyards (to stop them from clanking against the mast in the wind), put on the sail cover, and generally "tidied up" the deck while Eric set to work correcting the problem with the prop-shaft generator. 

The problem was that the pulley ratio was too high and the generator was creating too much power - a problem that would plague us throughout the journey.  His solution, since we can't change the ratio at this point (it would require pulling the prop shaft), is to place a resistor in series with the generator to reduce the power output. 

He pulled out a number of tupperware containers from a locker, filled with assorted electrical components; resistors, switches, bulbs, fuses, and other odds and ends.  All he could find were a 5 ohm resistor and another one that was much stronger and not suitable.  He settled on the 5 ohm and wired this into the system. 

We then proceeded to test the new arrangement by starting the engine, and I would put the transmission in reverse for a moment while Eric looked at the AMP meter.  He was not seeing any results and was unable to determine why.  After some fiddling, and a few tries of reverse bursts, he suddenly came to the revelation that this is a DC generator, and will only show current when running in the forward direction.  I then did a burst in forward (short, so as not to run up on the mooring) and we started to see current!  After finishing this project, David was now up and we all had tea (by now it was eleven'ish). 

As soon as we had arrived, Eric let me use his cell phone to call Sue.  When I called her at 0730 she was driving on the LIE, going to the Huntington Hilton for some business event.  She was surprised to hear from me, and I agreed to call her later in the day when she was in the office.



    After tea, we were ready to go to shore.  We had a problem, however, that we had been monitoring channel 68 on the VHF though the morning (this is the old port launch operating channel) and had heard a few occasions where a boat had hailed the launch, but had not yet heard a reply to any of these hails.  That led us to believe that the launch was not yet running, and we were afraid we would have to deploy the rigid dinghy, which would be cumbersome for the long ride to the dinghy dock at the boat basin against the 20 knot wind that constantly howls through the Great Salt Pond. 

As we were mulling over the logistics of dinghy deployment, we heard another boat hailing the launch, but this time there was a reply.  The reply said that the launch was not officially running, but he would come and pick up the crew of that boat.  Eric then jumped on the radio and requested that while he was out, he could perhaps pick us up too.  We were much relieved to hear a positive response, so we quickly gathered our bags, cameras, and garbage, and awaited the launch.  The launch driver advised us that when we wanted to
return later, he could be found on his boat "Good Vibrations", an Ericson sailboat which was at the dock opposite the launch dock.





We then walked towards "town", stopping at the fuel dock to make sure they have plenty of fuel and water for us, and to verify how early they are open.  We stopped at the hardware store along the way to get a bottle brush.  The woman at the store didn't know exactly what we were talking about.  We decided to buy a toilet brush instead, as this would provide the equivalent functionality.  Next stop was a quest for David to obtain guitar strings, in anticipation that the portable Martin "backpacker" guitar he brought would need to be re-equipped along the way.
We found a gift shop that carried guitar strings and he bought out their entire stock (two sets of strings).  From there we continued down through town, stopping at the library to look at their used paperbacks for sale.  We bought four paperbacks and a talking book, including Carl Sagan's "Dragons of Eden", a book which I had always wanted to read, but never got around to.  Next stop was the Mohegan for lunch.  I had an excellent cup of clam chowder and fried calamari, which had a few too many tentacles for my liking.  From there we went up to the Post Office, for David to mail his keys back home.  He had forgotten to leave them when he departed.

    After completing this mission, we walked south to the Southeast Lighthouse.  There really is some amazing scenery in Block Island, with the rolling green hills and rocky beaches.  Eric pointed out the numerous "kettles", which are roundish ponds that were formed by glacial
ice that remained in places on the island many many years ago.  Some of these kettles are so close to the ocean that it is said you can stand on a piece of land, holding a fishing pole in each hand, and go for freshwater fish with one hand and saltwater fish with the other hand. 

Bob, David & Eric at the South Lighthouse

We had a nice walk to the lighthouse, where each of us took a group picture, setting the camera on a well-suited rock.  From there we went to the Mohegan Bluffs, a high cliff where many years ago 300 Mohegan indians were driven off the cliff by an enemy tribe.  From there we took an oiled dirt road (they spray oil on the road to keep the dust down) back to town, ending up at the ice cream parlor where David and I got ice cream cones while Eric went and bought a New York Times.  After finishing the ice cream, Eric and David went off to the grocery store while I called Sue from a pay phone.  We walked back to the boat basin, where to our great relief, we found that the launch service was now operational.  Coming back to the boat just in time for happy hour, I took a short nap afterward and awoke in time for Eric's famous chicken curry.  Tomorrow we have a few things to do on the boat, then we will walk up to the North Lighthouse.