Mast Raising and Seals on the Hudson

Castleton Boat Club – 0 nautical miles, a walk around town

What you don’t want to do on SeaLight is to overfill the diesel tank, which is exactly what I did yesterday. This causes pressure in the primary fuel filter which causes it to leak diesel into the engine compartment, which drains under the floor and into one of the bilges, creating a huge mess. I did an initial cleaning yesterday after I started smelling diesel in the cabin, but last night as we sat with our friends in the cockpit I could still smell it wafting around so I spent an hour and a half in the morning flushing it out.

 

Once that job was finished I went outside to check the weather – beautiful and calm, perfect for raising a mast. I also scanned the river to see if I could spot another seal. Yesterday during dinner Jeff saw a seal surface, roll around, then go back down. He couldn’t believe it, so was thinking maybe he had seen something else, but later that evening as we were in the cockpit I happened to look out to the water and I saw a seal head rise up, have a look around, then slowly sink back down. We were definitely not in the lakes anymore.

We were first up for mast raising and I must say it went splendidly. The same crew all helped out and we had it up and secured within about 45 minutes. We did Ben and Kate’s mast next, which took a bit longer, but it went very well too. It was sure nice of Jeff to let us practice on his boat yesterday. We were all relieved seeing those masts up, transforming back into sailboats again.

 

After a walk up and down the small main street of Castleton and finding absolutely nothing open, we got back to work on the boat – adjusting turnbuckles, cinching cotter pins, installing the boom, tying the lazyjacks onto the sail pack, raising the main sail, running the lines back to the cockpit, making all the electrical connections at the mast, coiling and storing all the lines we used for securing the mast on deck, then finally cleaning and putting away tools. It took hours to do all this, and shortly before dusk we motored out to one of the mooring balls across the river, for which they only charged thirty bucks a night. Ana whipped up a delicious meal then I zipped back into the club in the dinghy and brought out Jeff and Jenna (who brought out a box of cookies and a bottle of wine…not to mention the slick winch handles Jeff gave to both us and Ben and Kate earlier in the day) for cocktail hour, and Ben and Kate rowed over in their dinghy to join us. We had a rambunctious toast to celebrate the raising of the masts then eased back for another evening of laughter and stories.