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.