9. Port Washington, May 2025

We went up East River, navigated Hell's Gate, went past Rikers Island, LaGuardia Airport, and into Manhasset Bay and Port Washington.

I used an app called Dockwa which makes finding, booking and paying for a marina easy. We went for Safe Harbour Capri (https://shmarinas.com/locations/safe-harbor-capri/). More expensive than some (and some of our dock neighbour boats were positively intimidating!) but great facilities, all staff had such a good attitude - friendly and helpful. They also had the resources to help us with some technical work. Highly recommended.

We 'discovered' that Manhattan is only a small part of what makes New York epic. Additionally you have Staten Island, Brooklyn, and three other boroughs, and then sailors can reach Long Island Sound to the north east. We were struck by how much there was to discover every time you zoomed in to a particular area. The same in the Chesapeake, the same everywhere you discover this sense wow as the landscape unfolds. Bays, creeks, hills, woods, all teeming with life and 'amazingness'.

And, of course, this is not just North America but everywhere you go. Some of the things I could share with you from Sweden, England, Scotland... everywhere you go there is abundance and beauty.

Port Washington is highly recommended. Sheltered, charming, full of everything you could need and as a sailor you feel welcome. And access to Manhattan and New York is easy on the train, and same to the airports with uber.

At the back of the boat, the rudder has a rudder quadrant that connects to the steering cables and the autopilot linear drive, a rod that pushes the rudder back and forth to stay true to a compass heading. The issue that I had was that this is an open aperture to the sea, in theory leading into a wet-box that drains out again. However at some point it had been tampered with and was no longer totally sealed - apertures had been cut for the linear drive and steering cables - and my concern was that in a heavy sea I would take in water.

Beyond's house-bank is built out of 6v golf cart batteries. I am still trying to contort my brain into understanding the relationship between amps (A) and amp hours (Ah). We have four 6v batteries rated at 75 A with 225 Ah @ 20 hours. By connecting two in series we get 12v, same amps. By connecting these pairs in parallel we double the amps. That's my rudimentary understanding so far.

I thought about lithium but decided against it for convoluted reasons. By all accounts, from people I respect, they are actually quite safe (not the same technology as cars?), lighter, charge faster and you can use more of their charge. But I don't like what I hear about how the lithium is extracted, how toxic it is and how they are dealt with at end of life. Might re-evaluate when these are needing to be replaced but for now I am happy to go with known and well tested archaic lead acid batteries.

The batteries, despite assurances in Baltimore that they were fine, were gone and not holding a charge. As I was ordering the two replacements, I decided to double up and get two more. They needed fitting and securing. Fortunately, the big cockpit locker, if you empty it all out, actually has a bottom that comes out and you can drop them in relatively easily (batteries are heavy). They need to be secured and strapped down or they become dangerous acid filled projectiles. I made some strong plywood bases, lugs to hold them in place and fitted webbing to strap them down. They could do with battery boxes to go around them, primarily to contain any acid spills, but that will have to be later.

However, even doubled up I could do with a bit more! When the sun is shining our solar panels charge them nicely and we have enough to run the freezer (which is in truth a fridge), the autopilot and charge our various screens. When it's overcast the engine and its alternator have to come into play. But I am happy enough - because we are not going for a condo on the sea and complicated systems and air conditioning and what not, they will suffice.

Finally, the life raft arrived from LRSE (https://www.lrse.com/). Great people to deal with. Specialists and very helpful.

I had gone through complicated deliberations. As a solo sailor I was kind of cocky and thought that a life raft is a nonsense. I am choosing to go out and why would I feel entitled to call on help? Sort of. I also did a calculation of risks for any and all eventualities, mitigated against these (AIS, Jordan Series drogue, redundancies on critical systems etc etc) an d got to a stage where I felt that risks had been addressed.

But a friend said he would love to come along as crew and all of my theoretical calculations fell apart. As captain I would actually be responsible for someone else's life! In fact, with wife and children, was I not actually responsible for my own life as well? Much swearing and cussing and I succumbed to the annoying expense of a life raft.

Which had to be installed in an accessible and usable manner on the deck. Which meant a stainless steel cradle at additional expense. Fine.

And then what? How would you alert the world to your situation? An epirb (emergency position radio beacon) was needed. Fine.

Anyway, I found a piece of deck where it would not be too annoying. And, if I am honest, every time I look at it I am not annoyed but kind of reassured and pleased. Fine.

There is some drama with my AIS installation, but more on that in the next instalment.

And I set off on a hop and skip down New York to Sandy Hook again.