Day Four: 5.30.2018 - Eclipse Gets Repaired!

Wednesday breaks thick with fog, so thick that we find ourselves in a pool of gray despite land being a close distance away. Mowing machines at work on the golf course break the peacefulness and pierce through the fog. By the time breakfast is done, cranberry nut bread using the grill as an oven, land has emerged and a bright sun beams down on us. Anchor up! My grade-school friend Roger Long lives in Niantic, so we'll visit him this evening. 

It's a beam reach all the way to Niantic but off New London the fog settles over us once more. Big high-speed ferries come in here, so we're obliged to give one long and two short blasts on our fog horn. It's doubtful they can hear us over their diesels, but they've got us on radar.

Three Bells Marina has agreed to lift Eclipse out so we can effect our repair. But first we take down both sails and lower the mast, and try to pass a rope under her hull and pull the centerboard up that way. Once under the bridges, the channel zigs and zags through the harbor as we wend our way to the marina.

The staff here is very, sometimes going out of their way to help two sailors a long way from home. They decide that since we're the last lift to be done that day, and we'll be the first in the morning, we can stay on the slings of the lift all night. Once the machine is parked, we explore the faults. Our first thought was that something was jammed in the centerboard well, but that was disproved yesterday. Perhaps the cable broke or became disconnected somehow.  We puzzle and puzz until our puzzlers are sore.  What we end up finding out after Eclipse is hauled out of the water that the point of failure is the centerboard itself, which split apart just above where the cable attaches, and the cable, with it's stop bolted to the end, has been forced up this crack about a foot. It's jammed tight, so Roger meets us and taxies us to a hardware store. A length of cable, various bolts, marine epoxy, etc.

Let's get to work. We'll need to cut the jammed cable, so I pull it down with vice grips, and to my surprise I'm able to force it back down the crack and into it's proper place! No need for a new cable with new clamps and all that. We force epoxy into the crack and close it with four bolts.  Kristen covers it all up with three layers of fiberglass cloth and more epoxy. It's warm out, we're in direct sun, and the epoxy sets up way too fast, but success is ours. Next up, showers!

Roger returns to treat us to dinner at Sunset Ribs, overlooking the channel we motored up a few hours ago. We meet Collett, his wife, and Wyatt, their son, and retire to their house afterwards for longer conversations and reminisces. Finally we settle down for the night rocking in the cradle of the lift.

The Ferry from Montauk Point emerges from the fog!  We are on edge because of poor visibility.

Three Belles Marina - Eclipse is being directed to the lift.

Eclipse on the lift as she is hauled out

Eclipse in her new home for the night as we begin work on the faulty centerboard.

Fortunately Kristen packed way more tools than was prescribed!

New bolts to hold the split centerboard and to prevent the cable from riding up into the crack again!  Kristen later fiberglassed the crack over and Gary sanded and painted