One Fish and Crew Motor Up the CT River

Two Fish is out of the water so we can fix our propellers.   A few days ago, we were in the middle of the mooring field when I realized that our engines could only run in reverse.  This was not my most relaxing moment, but we had a bit of luck and wiggled out of the mooring field using only reverse-sorry, no video.    We could see that the throttles were shifting the transmission, the shaft was rotating one direction in forward and the other in reverse, but the boat would only move in reverse, no matter which gear we were in.  We do not know for sure, but we think that the cause was the propellors not properly feathering.   To allow us to sail faster, our propellors twist to a low resistance position while sailing.   They also change orientation between forward and reverse.   This is very handy as it gives us more power in reverse.  If the prop gets frozen in reverse mode, then the boat becomes a beast to handle.   I will write a longer post on this when we have all of the facts.

Two Fish was hauled out of the water for further investigation.   The water in the Connecticut river is too brown and swift for good underwater work.   We hit a bit of bad luck when the boat was pulled out of the water.   The yard’s hoist operator managed to hook our propellor and damage the strut and shaft.   Our short visit on land became a bit longer.   “Let us make some lemon into lemonade.”  So Gail quickly arranged 1,000 things so our boat could get fixed.  Our friend Beth helped us buy a new strut.  The yard has taken responsibility and has been great as we added a few extra items (new bottom paint, clean topsides, check cutlass bearing etc…).   We have to wait 2 weeks for our strut so we have time for some fun.   We plan on exploring the Connecticut river and going back to NYC to prepare our apartment for a new, as yet unidentified, renter.

One Fish ready for a trip

One Fish, our dinghy, was ready for a trip.  She has been idle recently since we have been in mooring fields and have ridden yacht club launches.  Makes coming home late at night (8pm) easier for the crew.   We have made some improvements and wanted to see how they performed.  We added a heavy duty fuel filter, installed wheels for beaching in the Caribbean, moved our fuel tank to the bow and did some general clean up.    The boat ran perfectly.   In flat water, under a helpful tide she reached a top speed of 20.7 knots.   You have to stay focused when you are at that speed-the next mark comes up quickly.   The removable wheels are prominent in the photos but do not impact travel while underway.

Max speed with twin rooster tails from wheels

The river has a museum which taught us about the war of 1812, the industrial boom in the Connecticut River Valley, the steamships that plied the Long Island Sound and the 1970’s clean up of the river.  We spotted some of these features as we went upriver 10 miles to find lunch at the Blue Oar.   Not a bad place for a calm riverside meal.   Then we headed home at a good clip on mostly flat water.