04/06/10
We’ve been in New
York for nearly a weeks now and it’s been quite surreal being here in The North
Cove (see:www.thenorthcove.com) a few steps from Ground Zero.
There is a collage of cranes on the building site which
is slowly taking shape. There has
been a parade of old friends coming to visit which has been very pleasant. And there are more to come.
We also have the Round the World Clipper race yachts (10 or so) just
arrived from
Jamaica, next stop New Foundland.
All the boats are the same design with a professional
skipper and mate with a paying crew of 16.
That’s a lot of bodies on a 74’ yacht
This morning about 9:30 Steve and I were cleaning in different parts of the
boat when there came a sharp knocking on the hull. When I surfaced to investigate the Dock
Master was pointing to huge clouds of smoke billowing out of an engine room
exhaust duct. I immediately killed
the shore power and opening the engine room door it was obvious one of the two
battery charger/inverters had failed big time.
The fire department arrived wielding axes and all sorts
of nasty looking gear, but fortunately by then it was all dying out.
After things cooled down Steve was able to remove the
culprit, while I was on the phone tracking down a replacement. Of course there are no European models
of this unit kept in the
US so I have
arranged to have one couriered from
Holland which we should get by
Wednesday or so. The faulty unit
was a slave and the master unit appears to be functioning exactly as it should. Apart from an engine room junction box
which had melted but didn’t damage the internal wiring and one of the vent hoses
and a lot of dirt and soot there doesn’t appear to be any other damage. We were very lucky we were on board and
not in the Middle of the Atlantic when this
happened.
The acrid smoke has left a nasty smell on the boat so I
have booked a Hotel for Demetra and Ellen for a couple of days while things get
back to normal.
To be continued...pix will come in two
batches.