MV Dirona travel digest for Newport, RI 2017


Show Newport, RI 2017 travel log map Click the travel log icon on the left to see these locations on a map, with the complete log of our cruise.

On the map page, clicking on a camera or text icon will display a picture and/or log entry for that location, and clicking on the smaller icons along the route will display latitude, longitude and other navigation data for that location. And a live map of our current route and most recent log entries always is available at //mvdirona.com/maps/LocationCurrent.html.


   

3/30/2017: Goat Island
The view from our berth west to Goat Island. All those little white dots are mooring buoys—in the height of the summer season the harbor will be packed with boats. The satellite imagery for the harbor shows how busy it gets. Right now only one boat is on a mooring in the entire bay.
3/31/2017: Bullets
We use a Ubiquiti Bullet with an antenna at the top of the stack for WiFi connectivity. We use another inside to connect with a cell phone via WiFi. And, of course, we have a couple of spares as well. This morning we upgraded to the latest firmware which had the unfortunate side effect of breaking Secure Socket Shell (SSH) support from the router. SSH still works from Windows so this isn't a huge inconveince but it does disable the health checks from the router in our custom network router software. We could roll back the firmware version on the Bullets but decided to simplify the router-to-Bullet health check to no longer need SSH. More work than originally planned but probably a better solution.
4/1/2017: Socket
This morning we found the breaker for the pilothouse 120V outlets had tripped. We investigated all the electronics plugged into the PH outlets but the breaker would still trip. We eventually unplugged everything and it still tripped so it must be a bad breaker or a problem with the circuit itself. We got out the boat wiring diagram to investigate more deeply and Jennifer noticed there were two more outlets on the circuit up on the boat deck. Stepping outside, the source of our issue was pretty obvious.

It looks like water intrusion at the socket is the cause. This is the same socket where, when investigating a water leak in the stack area, we had found a loose wire at the socket. Two problems is too many, so we will replace the socket entirely with a water proof variant and replace the wiring that runs to the socket to ensure that all is new and dry. The parts are ordered from Amazon Prime and, for now, we have an extension cord bringing power up to the PH.
4/1/2017: Matt Boliver
Matt Boliver of nearby Middletown, RI has been following our blog and stopped by to welcome us to Newport.
4/1/2017: Street Lamp
The street lamps in Newport are actually gas-powered with a filament, just like a giant version of the Coleman lamp we used on camping trips.
4/1/2017: One Pelham East
A window seat for dinner at the Irish pub One Pelham East.
4/3/2017: Morning Calm
A beautiful calm morning after a couple of days of heavy rain and high winds. The rain rinsed off all the salt that covered the boat from the run to Newport. This was nice as we can't wash the boat until we get freshwater on the docks.
4/3/2017: Pulling Power
The Newport Yachting Center crew was out pulling power cables along the docks this morning.
4/3/2017: Burned Socket
Our Amazon Prime order with replacement parts for the burned socket arrived this morning, so we started in on the repair. The damage was more extensive than we'd realized. It looks like the worst possible failure mode where some current still flowed between poles in the socket but not enough to trip the 15A breaker in the pilot house. 15A is a lot of power and can produce dangerous heating. It appears that it was leaking power between the poles for quite some time prior to the breaker eventually opening. The lower quarter of the GFCI burned away and two inches of the feed wires were burned.

We don’t know if the GFCI failed to open, but the socket still leaked current between the poles perhaps due to water intrusion. It's a good thing that the breaker protected the circuit correctly. If that breaker had failed to open, then there is a 30A breaker "north" of the 15A but that would require twice the fault current to release.
4/3/2017: Work in Progress
We removed the old burned-up unit, cleaned up the 5200 that sealed the square stack opening and any loose core material, and sealed up the stack core with epoxy. Here James is smoothing down a marine-board plate that we'll use to cover the hole and mount the new box.
4/3/2017: Plate
The plate in place, covering the hole where the old socket mounted into the stack.
4/3/2017: New Box
Sealing the new outdoor-safe power box to the plate with silicone. It's a 100% sealed-up aluminum box with only two openings. The one in front will be sealed by an outdoor-certified socket cover and one in the back will be sealed by an outdoor-safe power wire gland.
4/3/2017: Burned Wire
This is the original feed wire that connected to the back of the socket. Two inches were burned.
4/3/2017: Wiring Socket
James pulling a new feed wire to replace the damaged one.
4/3/2017: Connecting Power
Connecting the other end of the feed wire to the junction box. There are no easy-to-get-at places in the stack, but this one was particularly difficult.
4/3/2017: Completed Job
This finished job looks pretty good and definitely is weather-safe.
4/4/2017: Dirona
David Meixell sent us some pictures he took of Dirona over the weekend. David and his wife Mary were in the area working on their Mason 44 sailboat Zephyr. The Mason was the first line of boats built by PAE, the manufacturer of Nordhavn. So Zephyr essentially is a sistership to Dirona.
4/4/2017: Kitty Corner Cat Clinic
Spitfire having his microchips scanned at Kitty Corner Cat Clinic in preparation for his EU health certificate. Bringing a cat into the EU from the US generally is straightforward, the only problem we have is the health certificate is valid for only ten days after it is prepared (plus the duration of the journey at sea), and must be couriered to the USDA in Albany, NY for endorsement. So we need to time its preparation for when we plan to leave. The certificate only needs to show proof of rabies vaccination, so once the vet has scanned Spitfire's microchips and sighted the original rabies vaccination certificates, they can prepare the certificate without seeing him again.
4/4/2017: Ice Cream
As we walked down Thames Street this evening, we saw literally dozens of people with ice cream cones and the local Ben & Jerry's was lined up into the steet. It was a rather chilly evening, so we couldn't understand the ice cream popularity. Apparently they were giving out free cones and it had been lined up like that all day.
4/5/2017: Vent
The burned socket we replaced earlier this week was well-sealed against the elements both inside and outside the stack, so it wasn't clear what caused the water-induced current leakage. Closer inspection of the engine exhaust cooling vent directly above the socket revealed that the vent is sealed on the outside but there is exposed foam core on the inside. The water is flowing down the inside of the stack when it’s really wet, entering the foam core of the stack at the exhaust cooling vent, and flowing down to the socket. Since the socket was well sealed against water entering (or exiting), it just filled up with water.

When we replaced the socket we corrected the exposed foam core problem at the socket by cutting back the foam and filling the void with epoxy. Since it's bad news to have water entering foam cores, we had another job ahead of us to remove the exhaust vent, cut back the foam, and epoxy fill the void to seal off the core and then replace the fitting.

We started that job this morning and on removing the vent we saw that the foam core temperature had been high enough over the years to darken it. This vent is the exit for the exhaust stack cooling system. Air leaves this vent surprisingly hot—we've seen temperatures as high as 250°F. There's an air gap between the pipe and the surrounding fiberglass, and the only point of contact is the flange. We chose to mitigate the temperature issue in three parts: 1) cut back the foam core a half-inch beyond the edge of the fiberglass and seal it with epoxy, leaving an even large air gap to the foam, 2) put two layers of fibrous high-temperature exhaust gasket between the flange and the fiberglass, and 3) put an insulating layer of the same material around the pipe where it exits through the side of the stack, while still leaving an air gap.
4/5/2017: Epoxy
We cleaned up the core and sealed it with five-minute epoxy.
4/5/2017: Gasket
James preparing to cut the insulating fibrous high-temperature exhaust gasket.
4/5/2017: Collars
Two gasket collars installed on the exhaust vent.
4/5/2017: Ready to Re-install
The now-insulated stack vent ready to re-install. The fibrous insulation material is exhaust gasket, rated well beyond 1,000°F. The strip of tape used to hold the insulation at the hole through the stack is rated at 450°F, so has lots of engineering headroom for this cooling air application. The tape is only needed to hold the insulation in place around the pipe during installation.

An additional potential gain from this work is we used to have a small water leak, just a small drip, into the engine room during very heavy rains. It appears that water may have been coming in through the foam core at the exhaust cooling vent. We've had one very large rain since then with no evidence of leakage.
4/5/2017: Camera
In Southwest Harbor, Maine we'd installed several IP cameras. We had an old, non-functioning camera on the lower starboard stack winglet that today James replaced with a new IP camera. So we now have five IP cameras, one forward, one aft, one on each lower stack winglet, and a fifth in the engine room. These cameras mostly are used for security, but also are useful for close-quarters maneuvering.
4/5/2017: Fastnet Pub
After a long day of boat projects, we had a relaxing evening at a corner window table in the Fastnet Irish Pub with Jennifer's favourite beer, Kilkenny. We'll soon be in the "Land of Kilkenny" (Ireland).
4/6/2017: Buskers
A tasting flight of locally brewed Whalers craft beer at Buskers Irish Pub. As did the nearby Fastnet Pub, Buskers also had Kilkenny on tap. US Irish pubs don't usually serve Kilkenny, so it was unusual to find the beer in two pubs so close together.
4/7/2017: Thermal Compound
When changing the motherboard in our boat computer a few weeks ago, we noticed very old thermal conductivity compound between the CPU and the active heat sink. Today we replaced it with some new Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound.

What a difference that made. Prior to replacing the thermal paste, the CPU at normal load was running a steady-state temperature of 75°C (167°F) and the CPU fan was running between 1700 and 1900 RPM. Running the same workload after application, the fan was down 500 RPM, running at a steady 1200. But even more notable is the CPU temperature is now down to 53°C (127°F). That's a reduction of 22°C (40°F) with the fan now parked in super-quiet mode.
4/7/2017: Barge
This barge has been moored near Diego's restaurant the entire time we've been here and was just moved this morning.
4/7/2017: Bikes
We got the bikes down for the first time since Charleston in January. Partly due to time, but also temperature differences, the air in the tires was very low.
4/7/2017: Waste Oil
We're still the only boat at Newport Yachting Center and the crew is spoiling us. They deliver any packages we get right to the boat and even though the marina doesn't have a waste disposal service, they offered to discard it for us if we just left a sealed container on the dock near the stern. We're really enjoying our stay here.
4/7/2017: Barometer
We've been seeing steady winds around 25 knots the past couple of days and, judging by the barometer, we've got more winds coming when it starts to climb.
4/7/2017: Newport Marina
Newport Marina is huge and completely empty. They don't appear to bring their docks up in the winter, but rather cover the power pedestals.
4/7/2017: IYRS
We peeked into the cavernous building housing the International Yacht Restoration School (IYRS). The wonderful smell of wood filled the air, particularly from wood being steamed for pliability. IYRS' two-year comprehensive "Boatbuilding and Restoration" program combines the craft of wooden boatbuilding with the modern problem solving skills and is regarded as the best in the industry in training the next generation of master craftspeople.
4/7/2017: At The Deck
Jennifer finishing off an exceptional bone-in steak at the At The Deck restaurant. The owners were sitting nearby and the place was full of locals. We had an excellent evening.
4/7/2017: Don't Mess With ...
We loved this "Don't Mess With Rhode Island Either" T-shirt showing tiny Rhode Island embedded inside a huge Texas. "Don't Mess with Texas" was a slogan the Texas Department of Transportation used to reduce littering on Texas roadways. The phrase has since become an identity statement for Texans and is the motto for the Virginia-class submarine USS Texas.
4/8/2017: Mmmm .... Donuts
Jennifer returning from a Dunkin' Donuts run with a bag of Boston Kremes. We've not been near a Dunkin' Donuts or any kind of regular donut store since leaving Baltimore.
4/8/2017: Sea Breeze
It seems appropriate that the first pleasure craft we've seen underway since arriving in Newport is from a cold climate. Selene 60 Sea Breeze is registered in Basel, Switzerland and last year crossed the Atlantic from Norway to Labrador via the Shetland and Faero Islands, Iceland and Greenland.
4/9/2017: SpeakEasy Cafe
In Florida, 50 degrees and sunny would not fill the patios. But in Newport all the restaurants have flung open their doors and windows and are packed with patrons enjoying the spring weather.
4/9/2017: Sunday Night
Different cities seems to have different popular restaurant nights. In Australia, Wednesday was always a busy night. Sunday seems to be a busy night in Newport (although our two test cases both occurred on warm, sunny days). For the Fastnet Pub, the draw might also have been the excellent live Irish music (the musicians are seated slightly right of center). Whatever the reason, the place was packed to standing room only.
4/9/2017: Parking Meters
Many east coast locations that are busy in the summer don't charge for parking in the winter. Some cover the meters, but Newport removes the mechanism entirely.
4/10/2017: Dunkin Donuts
We're not sure what the donut situation will be in Europe, so we're taking full advantage of the nearby Dunkin' Donuts.
4/10/2017: Calm
A beautiful, calm and sunny morning. We're still the only boat in the marina.
4/10/2017: Crane
Workers this morning were lowering docks into the water from shore with this big crane.
4/10/2017: Poacher
We briefly had another boat in the marina--this boat arrived late and left early. Some marina managers refer to this as "poaching".
4/10/2017: Docks
Workers connected up sets of docks that were lowered into the water yesterday and a skiff towed each train to a marina north of us with the workers helping the guide the docks out.
4/10/2017: Air Fill
We filled the dinghy and inflatable fenders with air this morning. With the colder weather compared to Florida the air pressure was quite low.
4/10/2017: Smoked Salmon
We really like smoked salmon, but haven't been able to find any since leaving New England last fall. Following the "greedy algorithm", we bought every package the local grocery store had.
4/10/2017: Thinkpad
James' laptop is long overdue for replacement. A new Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon arrived today. We've been using Thinkpad laptops since we worked at IBM in the early 1990s. IBM subsequently sold the laptop business to Lenovo. Thinkpads continue to be well-though-out designs and they're very strong.
4/11/2017: Jean of Arran
Moonset over the harbor. Jean of Arran arrived last night and took a mooring. This is only the second pleasure craft we've seen underway since arriving.
4/11/2017: Data Usage
We considered sticking with Windows 7 for James' new laptop, but decided to try Windows 10. Generally we like it, but the OS is a real data pig on the default settings. The screenshot shows our data consumption stats as part of our custom router software. The stats show consumption over each Wide-Area Network device for varying periods, including the start of the billing cycle where applicable.

Despite our going to Buskers last night to download software over their WiFi during dinner, we blew through eight gig of cellular data overnight, an amount we'd normally consume in a week. We followed Andre Da Costa's recommendations on limiting Windows 10 data consumption and that seems to have the bandwidth consumption back under control.
4/11/2017: Drain
James using a vacuum to clear a plugged shower drain and it's now flowing freely. When the boat was new, this used to happen fairly frequently, but hasn't for the last 4-5 years.
4/11/2017: Dinner with KVH
We had an excellent dinner with the KVH team at the nearby Clarke Cooke House. Clockwise from Jennifer's left is Martin Kits van Heyningen, Brian Arthur, John Croy, Robert Balog, Deborah Balog and Erica Buchanan. The last time we were in the Newport area, we toured the KVH factory.
4/12/2017: Three Boats
Another beautiful, sunny morning. A second boat arrived at the marina last night (at right of photo), bringing the total to three transient boats including Dirona and Jean of Arran to our left on a mooring. Both left shortly after the photo was taken, so we're alone again.
4/12/2017: Auto Reboot
Over the last few months, we have seen several instances of the nav computer locking up. The issues that have been understood have been hardware-related and since fixed, but there's no hiding from the fact that any Windows system running mission-critical software might rarely lock up.

Our nav computer is redundant and all navigation data is available on the Furuno MFD black-box. But many of the control systems on Dirona are hosted only on the nav computer. In spares we have enough parts to fully replace the nav computer, so there should be no outage that we can't correct. However, load-shedding, generator auto-start and sending alerts and warning are all driven by the nav computer, so we really don't want it down. We don't expect lock-up or failure to be frequent, but James has configured the Raspberry Pi to monitor the nav computer. If for any reason the computer goes down for more than 15 minutes (allowing time to patch and other administrative actions) the Pi will send an off signal to the computer power-supply to force power-down and then power it back up.
4/12/2017: 60,000 Miles
We crossed 60,000 miles on Dirona during the run to Newport and just got our new Nordhavn distance pennant.
4/12/2017: Nikolas Pizza
We had an exceptional pizza dinner at Nikolas Pizza, the best pizza we can remember for a long time. We've also brought James' new laptop along to download software using their WiFi as the marina WiFi won't likely be operational until mid-May.

As we travelled the world, we frequently saw cruisers bring their systems into town for connectivity, but we rarely did this as we usually had good connectivity on-board via cellular or satellite. When installing new computers, the amount of data that's moved is truly prodigious, so the comparison is not completely fair. But it's funny that, having rounded the world, it's in the US that we're leaving the boat to get connectivity.
4/12/2017: Sunset
A dramatic sunset looking down Memorial Blvd toward the harbor.
4/13/2017: Water Pipes
The marina crew were out running water pipes to the dock today. We're still a couple of weeks away from getting water on the dock, but it's getting closer.
4/13/2017: Starbucks
Jennifer's laptop was newer than James' old one, but it had taken a tumble a couple of years ago. Both hard drives had since failed, and the case is held together with packing tape. James' new laptop (Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon) laptop was such as success that we ordered another one for Jennifer. It arrived today and we stopped in at local Starbucks to download software to the new laptop and patch all our devices over lunch.
4/13/2017: Doors
Something looked a little odd as we neared walked back to the marina and we realized this pavilion has doors, but no walls. The structure used for large corporate events and weddings is fully disassembled during the winter and we've been watching it come back to life over the past couple of weeks.
4/16/2017: Water
We weren't expecting to get water on the docks until at least mid-April and likely later, but have been conserving on the the off-chance that we did get water sooner. After two weeks we're only down 200 gallons from the 415 we arrived with, and could easily go another two weeks.

Our style of operation, however, is typically to not go much below 200 gallons and to try very hard not to go below 100 gallons. Our logic is that if something goes wrong and we can't make water, we don't want to be without reserves. Today we brought the system back up to 415 gallons using the water maker.
4/17/2017: Breakfast
The morning was sunny, warm and calm enough to have breakfast outside.
4/17/2017: The Elms
We decided to take advantage of the excellent weather and go out for a bike ride along the seashore via Bellevue Avenue. During the Gilded Age around the turn of the 19th century, dozens of opulent stone mansions were built on and near Bellevue Avenue in Newport as "summer cottages" for the America's richest families. "The Elms" was built for coal baron Edward Julius Berwind of Philadelphia and New York at a cost of approximately $1.5M (approximately $40M in today's dollars).
4/17/2017: Vernon Court
Elaborate gate at the entrance to Vernon Court. The mansion was built in 1898 for Mrs. Richard van Nest Gambrill of Peapack, New Jersey and heralded as one of the ten great mansions in America. The architects were John Merven Carrere and Thomas Hastings of Carrere & Hastings whose also designed the New York Public Library and the US Senate and House Office Buildings in Washington, DC. The mansion now houses the National Museum of American Illustration.
4/17/2017: Breakers
The Breakers is perhaps the most famous of Newport's "summer cottages" and among the most visited homes in America with nearly a half-million visitors in 2016. The 70-room mansion was constructed between 1893 and 1895 for Cornelius Vanderbilt II, a member of the wealthy United States Vanderbilt family. When completed, it was the largest and most opulent mansion in Newport.
4/17/2017: Cliff Walk
Cliff Walk runs 3.5 miles along the seashore between the sea and many of Newport's mansions.
4/17/2017: Surfer
Several surfers were riding the waves that gave The Breakers mansion its name.
4/17/2017: Rocky
Carrying the bikes across a rocky section of the Cliff Walk. We knew beforehand that the Cliff Walk had several rocky sections and stairs, but the lightweight aluminum frames of our Giant FCR 2 bikes make them easy to carry.
4/17/2017: Cairns
One of the largest collections of cairns we've seen.
4/17/2017: Beechwood
Beechwood was built in 1851 for New York merchant Daniel Parrish. In 1881 the property was purchased by William Backhouse Astor Jr. who was the grandson of John Jacob Astor, one of the richest people in history and America's first multi-millionaire with an estimated fortune of $20M in 1848 (about $600M in today's dollars). In 2010, Oracle founder Larry Ellison purchased the property for $10.5M, giving many residents hope that America's Cup racing might return to Newport where it was held from 1930 to 1983.
4/17/2017: Tea House
The Chinese Tea House on the estate of the Marble House, another famous Vanderbilt Newport mansion. The fifty-room mansion was built for Alva and William Kissam Vanderbilt between 1888 and 1892 and helped spark the "summer cottage" boom in Newport. The total construction cost was was $11M (about $280M in today's dollars), over 60% of which was spent on 500,000 cubic feet of marble.
4/17/2017: Tunnel
This tunnel under the Tea House was one of several we passed through on the Cliff Walk.
4/17/2017: Sheep Point
The view from Sheep Point across Sheep Point Cove to Ochre Point. The red roof of The Breakers is in the background at left.
4/17/2017: Break
Enjoying a break along the Cliff Walk. It's a wonderful trail and we really enjoyed it, even if we did have to carry the bikes along much of it.
4/17/2017: Monument
We left Cliff Walk near its terminus at Bailey's Beach and biked along scenic Ocean Drive. This sphere as part of the Portuguese Discovery Monument at Brenton Point State Park, honoring the Portuguese Navigators of the Golden Age of Maritime Exploration from the early 1400's to the late 1500's. The sphere symbolizes an Armillary Sphere, a navigation tool made of an adjustable framework of metal rings representing latitude and longitude.
4/17/2017: Castle Hill Light
We passed the Castle Hill Light on our way into Newport. The light was built in 1880 and still is active.
4/17/2017: Coast Guard
The Castle Hill Coast Guard station was built in 1941, in a more sheltered location than it's predecessor on Brenton Point that was destroyed in a hurricane in 1938.
4/17/2017: Fort Adams
We can see Fort Adams from our berth at Newport Yachting Center and finally got over for a tour. This is looking back through the main entrance gate. The fort was built between 1824 and 1857 and when the original cannons became obsolete, they were converted to the fenceposts visible on either side of the entrance.
4/17/2017: Parade Area
Fort Adams is the largest coastal fortification in the US. The parade area is 800ft across and covers 6.5 acres.
4/17/2017: Newport Bridge
The view north from the Fort Adam's northeast bastion to Rose Island and Newport Bridge.
4/17/2017: Dirona
Dirona moored at Newport Yachting Center (in front of the brown brick building just right of center). We're still the only boat in the marina.
4/17/2017: Postern
Fort Adams was designed by French military expert Simon Bernard, who was famous for building near-impenetrable fortifications. At the south end of the fort where a land attack might be feasible, the fort has two ditches that attackers must pass through in order to reach the interior. This is the view from the interior ditch down the southwest postern, one of two secondary entrances to the fort along the south wall.

The postern passes through the fort's exterior and interior ditches before reaching the parade area. An enemy would need to reach a wooden door exterior of the fort, break down the door, then proceed through a passage guarded by musket fire through slits called "loopholes" along the sides, and break down another wooden door to reach the exterior ditch. They would then need to break down another wooden door to the next passage while taking cannnon and rifle fire in the exterior ditch, proceed through another passage under musket fire and break down a fourth wooden door before reaching the interior ditch. Then they would repeat the whole process once more to actually breach the fort. The odds of making it all the way through seem pretty slim.
4/17/2017: Ditch
Looking out onto the interior ditch with the southeast postern visible on the left. The ditch was covered by cannon and rifle fire from many directions and designed as a killing zone. Should an enemy reach the ditch, they likely wouldn't get much further.
4/17/2017: Tunnels
One of the few ways to breach a fortification such as Fort Adams is by tunneling under. So in addition to many above-the ground deterrents, Bernard also designed numerous "listening tunnels" that extend out from under the fort to enable defending soldiers to patrol underground and detect the sound of enemy digging and attack them before they reached the fort.
4/18/2017: Cruising Ireland
We just received three Irish Cruising Club guides: Cruising Ireland and their Sailing Directions for the South & West and North & East coasts. The pictures of the west coast look incredible. We can't wait to see it in person.
4/19/2017: Route
The turquoise boundary lines shows the ice extent on April 6th (upper) and 19th (lower). The limit has moved 70 miles south in those two weeks, so we'll not be taking any of the more northerly routes we plotted in Route Planning. So we have removed all but the one current intended route.

Those red markers slightly off the route between the ice boundary and Ireland are seamounts. We've highlighted their locations on the chartplotter because sea conditions there can be dangerous as underwater waves colliding with them can generate freak waves, even in calm conditions. And seamounts are likely locations for fishing vessels, so we want to be extra vigilant and stay clear of them. The depth changes sometimes are dramatic. At Milne Bank, the southwesternmost of the marks, depths soar from 14,000ft to 300ft in only a few miles—we'll pass a good 30 miles to the south.

We've also changed our planned landfall in Ireland to Kinsale, instead of Crosshaven on the outskirts of Cork. We've heard lots of good things about both, but Kinsale is slightly closer, has many good restaurants, and looks a more compact and easier place for us to provision for our west coast of Ireland cruise.
4/19/2017: Shore Outage
The marina crew had notified us that they'd have the shore power disconnected for a little while today. Right on schedule we got an email alert saying that we'd lost shore-power and the N2kView display showed an orange light for lost shorepower and another for excessive drain on the house battery. When the power came back, we got another email from Dirona's control systems indicating how long it had been down for.
4/19/2017: Bleed Pipe
Our turbo coolant bleed pipe (inset) started to leak for the second time (we fixed a leak while in Nova Scotia last fall). There is slight crevice corrosion at the fitting so it's time to replace it. The replacement is a bit expensive at $45, but it's easier to use the standard Deere part. We found out, however, that none are in stock and it's special order. We don't want a coolant leak before heading out on the Atlantic crossing, so we needed to do something.

We have stainless steel braid aeroquip tubing and field-installable fittings to be able to repair any faults in our Steelhead ES1100 crane. So we made a replacement for the turbo coolant bleed pipe that actually looks pretty good. We had to get the length just right so that the height monotonically increases between the turbo and the coolant header tank, without room for dips or places to trap air. The hose is quite rigid and doesn't move or vibrate at all. The hose and fittings are certified for 4,000 PSI and 400F so should be fine in this application with 20 PSI with an engine alarm temp of 231F.
4/20/2017: Lunch
Bratwurst sausages in the cockpit for lunch. With our outdoor heater on, we can be comfortable outside in as low as 50°F so long as there is little wind.
4/20/2017: Stop & Shop
Jennifer making a bicycle shopping trip to Stop & Shop as part of provisioning for the upcoming crossing. This trip is a little more challenging to provision for in that we can't bring any meat into the EU, so we need to be careful to have enough on board that we don't run out on passage, but not so much that we have to throw a lot away on arrival.
4/21/2017: Peapod
We placed a grocery order through Peapod for non-perishables on our list.
4/21/2017: Amadea
We noticed a lifeboat passing back and forth across the bay this morning. It was ferrying passengers from Amadea, the first cruise ship of the season for Newport. The next one, Victory 1, won't be here until May 19th. Amadea didn't get a very nice day for visiting.
4/21/2017: Oliver Hazard Perry
The education-at-sea vessel Oliver Hazard Perry returned to her home port at Fort Adams today after a five-night run from Bermuda. The ship is the first ocean-going full-rigged ship built in the U.S. in over 100 years.
4/22/2017: Meals
Jennifer cooked several dishes to freeze into portions for the upcoming three-week Atlantic crossing. We generally cook regular meals while at sea, but when conditions are rough or we've gotten busy with something, it's nice to have a quick and hearty meal available. We're expecting that the Atlantic crossing might be a little rougher than other passages, so we want to have a little more than usual.
4/22/2017: Propane Warning
When we turn on the house propane to use the stove or the barbecue, the "Gas" indicator light on our N2kView ribbon turns to blue to alert us that the propane is on. After 60 minutes, the light turns to yellow to warn us the propane may have been left on. After 90 minutes Dirona's control systems turn it red, light the "Chk" indicator red, and sends us both email. Jennifer was cooking long enough today that we hit the 90-minute threshold.
4/22/2017: Bad Can
Canned food can last safely for years and we've never had can go bad before. But four cans of tomato puree from Australia all were slightly bulging and the first one we opened spurted liquid. We discarded them all.
4/22/2017: Hound
Hound of Vinalhaven, Maine arrived into Newport Yachting Center today with a 'Q' flag flying. Like Oliver Hazard Perry, they had just completed an offshore run from Bermuda.
4/22/2017: Bannister's Wharf
The guest houses at Bannister's Wharf must be very popular in the summer right on the water. Things are still pretty quiet now.
4/22/2017: Fluke
We arrived just early enough at Fluke Wine Bar and Kitchen to snag a window seat overlooking the harbor. Great food, good wine and good service. By the time we left, the wait time for a table was over two hours.
4/23/2017: First Flight
We’ve been busy with other projects, and finally got a chance to test-fly our new Mavic Pro drone today. Read more ...
4/23/2017: Comanche
While we were out flying the drone, James glanced over at Newport Shipyard and immediately recognized the hull of Comanche. So we walked over later for a closer look.

The last time we saw Comanche was on December 26th, 2015 as the field departed Sydney Harbor in the 71st running of the classic 630-mile Sydney-Hobart ocean race. Comanche took line honors with a time of two days, eight hours, 58 minutes and 30 seconds, but didn't compete in the 2016 running.

The yacht has since set a new record in the 635-mile Newport Bermuda race of 34 hours, 52 minutes and 53 seconds, breaking the earlier record by more than 4.5 hours. And it beat the record for a transatlantic crossing by over 24 hours, travelling 2,880 miles in just 5 days, 14 hours, and 21 minutes at an average speed of 21.44 knots. In 2015, Comanche also set the monohull 24-hour speed record by travelling 618.01 nautical miles at an averaging speed of 25.75 knots in 24 hours. We sure could use that speed on our upcoming crossing. We sure could use that speed on our upcoming crossing.
4/23/2017: 500 MT
The 500 MT beast of a Travelift at Newport Shipyard. They have three others: a 70MT, 100MT, and a 200MT. Even their smallest could easily handle 55-ton Dirona. The 200MT is a new addition. When we were here late last year, they "only" had three.
4/23/2017: Mast
Comanche's 150ft mast in the yard next to the boat. The mast height was limited to allow passage under the Sydney Harbour bridge.
4/23/2017: Newport Harbor Light
The first Newport Harbor Light on Goat Island was completed in 1823 and was the first light to guide mariners into Newport Harbor. This light didn't adequately warn mariners of the shoals off the island's northern tip and in 1842 a new light was completed that stood off the end of the island on a dike. This light has been an active aid to navigation ever since.
4/23/2017: Goat Island Marina
The Goat Island Marina is popular in the summer, but the docks aren't even in the water yet. The boating season here certainly is short.
4/23/2017: Nikata
The Baltic 115 Nikata was built for racing, but also has luxury accommodations.
4/23/2017: Dirona
A view across the bay from Goat Island to Dirona at Newport Yachting Center.
4/23/2017: Pub
The Goat Island Marina Cafe and Pub won't be open for a while. At least not until they get the marina docks back in the water and out of the parking lot.
4/23/2017: Pilot
The two Northeast Marine pilot boats at their berth on Goat Island. We saw one of them heading out as we arrived into Newport a month ago.
4/23/2017: Erosion
The metal portion of the retaining wall has rusted away and the ground behind is eroding into the sea.
4/23/2017: City Hall
The Newport City Hall building was built in 1900. The white cupola is topped with a a gold cap and a weather vane in the shape of a viking ship, symbolizing Newport's maritime heritage.
4/23/2017: Pour Judgement
All that walking around is thirsty business. We enjoyed excellent Rhode Island microbrews at Pour Judgement. The place was packed—we were lucky to get a table.
4/24/2017: Newport Yachting Center
We took the drone out for another test flight in this morning's beautiful sunny weather. It’s fun being the only boat in a downtown Newport marina. Read more ...
4/24/2017: Spares
We occasionally go through our spares and supplies to weed out any extras we no longer need. We discarded a pile of old USB 1.0 cables as we don't need so many on hand, and also got rid of a few old disk drives. Here James is checking the drive in Jennifer's old laptop to ensure we can use it as a backup for the nav computer main drive should it fail.
4/24/2017: Dusk
The Newport Bridge at dusk viewed from our boat in the Newport Yachting Center.
4/25/2017: Weather
We've been studying the weather patterns and testing various departure scenarios. Conditions are certainly settling down out in the Atlantic, but not yet enough for a crossing. One tool we use is the weather modelling support of TimeZero, our PC-based chartplotter softwared. Using downloaded weather data that includes wind speed, barometric pressure, and wave height, period and direction, we can play our progress forward on our intended route and see what the models show for a given time and location. See MaxSea Grib Visualization for an example.

This screenshot shows the expected conditions midway through the trip if we leave on April 29th. On May 9th, where the blue boat icon is, the seas are expected to be 26ft seas on 11 seconds—definitely not something we want to experience. Weather data isn’t really accurate much beyond five days, so conditions could improve (or worsen), but it does not look good for a crossing.
4/25/2017: Inspection
Dependable Petroleum was on site today doing an annual inspection of the Newport Yachting Center's fuel system. We'll be buying 2,00 gallons from them just before leaving—glad they passed inspection.
4/25/2017: PassageMaker
The May/June issue of PassageMaker Magazine is now available, with the second article in our three-part series on cruising the world under power. The first article covered planning and various aspects of being underway; this article describes how we made the logistic complexities fade into the background so we could enjoy the trip; and the final installment will cover how we rigged Dirona for the trip.

The published articles are available online:
4/25/2017: Passports
We travel under our US passports, but keep our Canadian passports current as a backup. They were going to expire within the year, and we had mailed applications to Gatineau, Quebec from Daytona Beach with instructions to send the new passports to our Seattle mail box. When the packages arrived in Seattle, we had our mail forwarded to Newport and they just arrived today. Those passports have already covered a lot of miles. (The current issue of PassageMaker magazine describes how we handle surface mail and other logistics issues while travelling around the world.)
4/25/2017: High Tide
Heavy rains over the past couple of days combined with a high tide that is only 2.5 inches off the max for the year have resulted in flood warnings for coastal Rhode Island. This photo was taken an hour before high tide—the docks have floated up to within inches of the fixed portion of the ramp. An hour later and they were almost touching.
4/26/2017: Temp Sensor
James picked up a DHT22 temperature sensor from Amazon and is testing the code that reads it here on a Raspberry Pi. It's working well and they are under $10 each so we'll pick up a few more for subsequent boat monitoring projects. Also seen here is a 4-button membrane keypad that is also being read by the Pi. Because the Pi only polls relevant digital I/O pins, we'll need some way to hold momentary button presses so they can be read reliably by the Pi, which might be busy doing something else when the button is pressed.
4/26/2017: Fog
The weather has been overcast and rainy the past few days and for most of today we could barely see beyond the marina. The fog is just starting to lift now.
4/26/2017: Perro Salado
Delicious margaritas and an exceptional meal in a 300-year-old house at our new-favorite Newport restaurant, Perro Salado.
4/27/2017: Docks
More docks heading out to be installed. The last few days we've seen a lot more activity in the area is the season opening nears.
4/27/2017: Water
Contractors working on the water system today. We expect to have water available at the dock this week.
4/27/2017: Power
The power pedestals are coming out too and electricians have been installing them all day. We celebrated the arrival of water, but power is not as big a deal since we have a long cord running up to a shore pedestal.
4/27/2017: Iridium
The final stage of getting our new laptops up and running was to install and test the Iridium AxcessPoint Mail & Web software. This is our second level of backup for satellite data, and we'd only use it of both our primary KVH V7-IP mini-VSAT system and secondary BGAN system were unavailable.

Unlike our trip across the South Pacific, Indian and southern Atlantic oceans over the past four years, we don't expect to leave the V7-IP coverage area for most of our time in Europe. You have to go a long way north to leave the mini-VSAT coverage area.

While it's not that likely, if we decided to visit Svalbard, between mainland Norway and the North Pole, we would be out of the coverage areas for both BGAN and mini-VSAT. This would leave with coverage from Iridium only. In all of our boating thus far, we've never left the BGAN coverage area.
4/27/2017: Spoke
One of the spokes in James' bike rusted right through. We cut it off, but probably need to replace the wheel, or at least the spoke.
4/27/2017: Comanche
We noticed that Comanche no longer was hauled out and biked over to see if we could watch the mast being installed, but it already was in place. Comanche is so beamy at 25.6ft (7.8m) that she has been nicknamed the "Aircraft Carrier". That beam is obvious in this aerial shot from the new drone (Comanche is at the far right).
4/27/2017: Newport Bicycle
We stopped in at Newport Bicycle to see about fixing that broken spoke. The bearings also were shot, so we wanted to replace the wheel. They didn't have the right size in stock, but could get one in a day or so.
4/27/2017: Ten Speed Spokes
Ten Speed Spokes didn't have the right sized wheel in stock, but could get us one in under two days. And they also had a high-quality used one available. They had us on the road in thirty minutes. The new wheel looks great and we really like Ten Speed Spokes.
4/27/2017: Celtica
Lunch at another of Newport's Irish pubs, Celtica. No Kilkenny, but they did have Smithwick's, also originally brewed in Kilkenny, Ireland.
4/27/2017: Water
The plumbers signalling that, yes, we now have water on the dock!
4/27/2017: First Carrier Landing
The Mavic Pro is remarkably easy to fly but, as easy as it is, taking off and landing on docks or narrow places feels very tight. For our intended use case though, we really want be able to fly it off the boat. One technique we've seen used is to land by snatching the hovering drone out of the air. But the Mavic Pro doesn't have the large landing pedestal common on many drones, so this approach is less practical. Neither of us want to get our hands that close to high RPM props, so we need to be able to take off and land from Dirona.

The two candidate locations are the boat deck and the fore deck. The boat deck seems easier and more convenient, so we elected to try it. When you look at our boat deck, it seems reasonably big but, when trying to land as a pilot, you quickly learn to respect navy pilots doing carrier landings. There really isn't much room to work.

The video shows how close the drone must be to prop-destroying obstructions in order to land. Just watching the video gives some of the feel for landing with the crane on the right, rails on the left, and Dirona's exhaust stack in front. It's actually not technically that hard, but it sure does feel tight. The footage looking straight down on Dirona nearly alone in Newport Yachting Center shows why it's worth learning to fly off the deck. It's a pretty cool perspective that we typically don't get.
4/28/2017: [Maybe] We Can Do It
In 1991, baseball manager Tommy Lasorda extolled the virtues of a diet product in a television commercial that ended with Lasorda saying "If I can do it, you can do it". As we recall, the company ran afoul of false advertising laws and dubbed the commercial to have Lasorda instead say "If I can do it, [maybe] you can do it", his mouth movements totally out of sync with the words. We've parodied it ever since, saying "[Maybe] you can ...." with exaggerated lip movements about some topic or another. So when Vestas 11th Hour arrived into Newport this morning following a blistering nine-day run across the Atlantic from Portugal, we immediately said, "If a 65-foot racing sailboat with a professional crew can cross the Atlantic now, [maybe] we can do it".

Vestas 11th Hour is formerly Vestas Wind, the yacht that famously grounded on a reef during the 2014-2015 Volvo Ocean Race. Amazingly, the boat was recovered and transported to Portugal where the team repaired the vessel and in four months returned to the race for leg eight from Lisbon. The team will be competing in the 2017-2018 Volvo Ocean Race with new partner 11th Hour Racing. Newport is a host city for the race, and also is the home port for 11th Hour Racing and team co-captain Charlie Enright.
4/28/2017: J Sea Divers
J Sea Divers arrived today to give the bottom a clean in preparation for our Atlantic crossing. They did a great job in the chilly 55°F (13°) Newport waters.
4/29/2017: Ford GT
We saw this Fort GT outside Dunkin' Donuts this morning. This car strongly reminds James of what was his favorite car for years, the Ford GT40 Mk IV driven to victory at Le Mans in 1969 by Dan Gourney and A.J. Foyt.
4/29/2017: Donuts
Through experimentation, we've learned that Boston Creme donuts do freeze well. And, more importantly, they thaw well too. We bought a dozen to freeze for the Atlantic run. Nothing smooths rough seas like a creme-filled donut.
4/29/2017: Madeleine
The tourist season is just starting up this weekend in Newport and Madeleine is the the first harbor cruise we've seen since arriving a month ago.
4/29/2017: Vents
To maximize our outdoor time in chilly climates, we plumbed two outlets from our Olympia diesel boiler under the cockpit table. The plastic louvers had deteriorated over time, so we replaced the vents today.
4/29/2017: Crowds
It's starting to feel really busy in Newport this weekend. The sidewalks are packed and all the outdoor bars are crowded.
4/29/2017: Malt
We'd been meaning to check out Malt with it's excellent on-tap beer list for a while. With all the downtown restaurants crazy busy today felt like a great time to walk a little out of downtown. The crowds melted away and we had a great meal in a bay window table.
4/30/2017: Boat Wash
Now that we have water on the dock, we power-washed the boat and filled the water tank.
4/30/2017: Fastnet Pub
We typically go to the Fastnet Pub for their Sunday night Irish music, and of course, a pint of Kilkenny. The musicians often sing songs about Irish immigrants who live 3,000 miles from home. Hopefully we'll be seeing the other end of that soon. The staff all wear shirts with an image of Fastnet Rock. We'll likely be passing within about six miles of it as we near Ireland.
5/1/2017: Remote Control
When we first bought the boat, the only way to raise or lower the TV was to hold down a rocker switch on the side of the enclosure. We purchased a remote control adapter from the manufacturer (the yellow box) that adapted to the existing red control box, and also moved the red control box out from under the TV enclosure so we could access it if the TV wouldn't lift. The remote control never worked well, and when it eventually failed we adapted the rocker switch to the red remote control box, so that at least we could raise and lower the TV with a momentary press of the rocker switch, rather than having to hold it down during the entire lift.

We missed having a remote though, so we recently ordered a simple two channel remote from Amazon and wired it in to replace the original remote. It's ironic that a $15 generic remote has longer range and works better than the original multi-hundred dollar remote supplied by the lift manufacturer.
5/2/2017: The Landing
The Landing restaurant had not yet opened for the season when we walked past a few weeks ago. They were open and packed on Saturday, but had plenty of space on this Tuesday night and we had a great seafood meal at a corner table overlooking the harbor. After a day of heavy rain and thick fog, we were surprised to find ourselves sitting in the sun for dinner.
5/3/2017: Calm
A beautiful calm, clear morning after a couple of days of heavy rain and fog. The moorings are starting to fill in a bit.
5/3/2017: Donuts
We bought another dozen donuts this morning to help calm those rough seas. Not all made it to the freezer though.
5/3/2017: Spitfire
Spitfire continues to investigate every open panel or locker in the boat. He hasn't knocked any wires off up there yet, but we're certain that will happen eventually.
5/3/2017: Debris
We were investigating how to reliably read momentary contact switches from a Raspberry Pi. We use this for the Watch Commander. It's super easy to read external switches but the problem with momentary contact switches is the actual keystroke might only be 100msec (1/10th of a second). If the Pi is doing something else and doesn't look for even a 1/4 second, the button press may be missed. Our first approach was to use a latching relay where the relay is closed by the switch, then the power through the relay is fed back through a timer to keep the relay closed so there is ample time to read it. Then later the time expires and the relay re-opens.

This works well but surprisingly, a mechanical relay ends up missing some short key strokes. We then changed to a semiconductor relay which is faster, but still misses the odd key stroke. It turns out a much simpler and more reliable solution is have a separate process on the Pi polling the switch state. This takes a small amount of CPU but is absolutely bullet proof and is far simpler electrically. This is the debris from removing the relay and timer-based solution and moving to software polling in a separate process.