Friday, October 11, 2024

Solution to a Difficult Problem and Shopping in Coxsackie


Castleton to Coxsackie – 11 nautical miles, a walk around town

The only job we didn’t get to yesterday was putting up the headsail, which we did together then went for a little dinghy ride along the shoreline and found a huge bald eagle nest up in the trees. Steve had told us a story about one of the resident eagles who was seen scrapping with a seagull over a fish. Later that day somebody found the seagull on the dock, and all that remained of it was two perfectly placed wings minus the body, clearly left as a message to the rest of the seagull population. The message? Don’t fight with eagles.

 

We fired up the boat, rolled out the headsail, and began our way southwards on the Hudson. It was a real joy to see that sail up again. We kept the motor running at low RPM and enjoyed the ride, at least until I went below and found the bilges rapidly filling up with water. Remember that thing about sailing being hours of monotonous boredom, interrupted periodically by moments of chaos, panic, and terror? This was one of those moments. But first, the back story.

 


Last summer we struck an underwater rock while cruising in the Thousand Islands which did some damage to the keel bolts and caused water to start leaking into the boat. At the end of the season we pulled the boat out at Niagara-on-the-Lake to have Peter Jones patch things up, as he’s the best in the business. Spring arrives, the boat gets launched, and everything looks great, but soon a bit of water starts appearing in the bilge and we have no idea where it’s coming from. Over the summer I kept sponging up the water and investigating the cause. Was it lake water coming in somewhere? Was it a leak in our fresh water pressure system? Was it rain water getting in? It was very hard to tell and we pulled the boat apart trying to find the source to no avail. And by the time we began this trip, I was pulling out a salad bowl or two of water every day.

During the first leg across Lake Ontario, I discovered the water was coming in at a much faster rate, but we still couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. Today, as the bilge was rapidly filling, I got the bilge pump working then also started frantically pumping the water with a manual pump. Once I got the water level down I realized the water was coming from the back of the boat so I opened up the engine compartment and found water pouring out of a hose which came from the engine’s anti-siphon valve. Now, I had looked at this many times before as I knew this was a potential source of water, but never saw any water coming out of it when the engine was running. Now, I finally had my culprit. I am sure the valve had been getting progressively more jammed up and had finally seized in an open position, so after the terror subsided I was feeling damn happy because I knew how to fix this. On a side note, as I was digging around the engine I also discovered the negative terminal attached to the alternator had nearly burned off due to a poor connection, which explained the strange smell I had been picking up recently.

 

After arriving at Coxsackie and letting the engine cool while I mopped up the remaining water I removed the anti-siphon valve, cleaned it up, and redid the alternator connection, killing two birds with two stones. Then we went for a walk to explore the town

 

Coxsackie isn’t pronounced the way your dirty mind would expect. It’s Cook-Sookie, likely because a mayor in the past gathered the council members together and said, “Folks, something has to change. Visitors are laughing at our name and vandals are drawing penis figures all over the municipal buildings and public spaces. I have an idea….”

 

The free public docks were lovely and even had a sign with a town map proudly showing all the wonderful things there – an oyster bar, theatre, brewhouse, restaurants, creamery, antique stores, bottle shop, general store, vintage clothing. The only problem is that most of them were closed, but we did go into the General Store and buy a few things. They had some neat stuff, but prices were outrageous and I didn’t feel like paying four dollars for an onion, but I didn’t mind parting with $2.79 for a package of cinnamon flavoured toothpicks, then a bit more for two pots of fancy yogurt and two local IPAs.

 


Our town tour concluded with a visit to the library, which smelled like farts and had a substandard magazine inventory, limited strictly to home and garden topics – no guitar magazines, no Economist, no Cigar Afficionado. I did find a Dolly Parton cookbook that looked pretty good but I wasn’t ready to commit to a Coxsackie library membership and my shoplifting days are way behind me.

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