However, Jonny was alerted by the bilge pump going on with alarming regularity - every 30 seconds! He went below to check and saw that the bilge was filling up with water but luckily the pump was keeping up. He kept going below to check and the bilge continued to fill with water. Jonny manually operated the pump and used the shop vac to empty the water but still the bilge continued to fill with water. He was concerned that we had a leak in our shaft seal, but we were in the fast moving East River which was moving at full food stage at 5.5 knots and we couldn’t stop. As we went through Hell Gate our speeds reached a rousing 12.1 knots!
Fortunately, the bilge pump kept up. As we got abreast of Rikers Island, the pump stopped cycling which we also did not understand. Jonny had already called a boatyard on City Island to explain our problem and they fortunately agreed to take us in right away.
We arrived at the Consolidated Boatyard on City Island. Alex, the young yard manager was great. He and Jonny, working together, considered the situation and concluded the problem was that our freshwater tanks were leaking and draining and there wasn’t an issue with the shaft seal. They then spent the next hour troubleshooting the fresh water system and found that the washdown spigot on the foredeck had failed resulting in all 150 gallons of fresh water draining from both water tanks into the bilge. Fortunately, Alex was able to find the right fitting to fix it and within a couple more hours we were ship shape again. What a relief! If it had been the shaft seal it would have required a haul out and extensive delays. We dodged a bullet this time!
Alex offered us to stay overnight in his gritty boatyard which we happily took him up on since the Harlem Yacht Club had finally responded to our many calls saying that they had no room for us anyway. So we gratefully settled in and walked Archie up and down City Island’s single funky main drag.
It turned out that Alex’s family owns a local restaurant called Black Whale and he encouraged us to come by for a drink and dinner. We took him up on his offer later that evening and enjoyed a delicious dinner.
Alex was there and he introduced us to his parents and pretty girlfriend, Luna, who is a server there. Later in the evening Alex came by and sat with us and we chatted some more. He’s a very engaging and motivated young man. He seemed to know everybody and we found him to be very responsive and interesting.
The next day we decided to just stay put in our slip at Consolidated and not bother trying to move to Harlem Yacht Club. Our major goal for the day was to go the Bronx’s little Italy on Arthur Avenue which we had visited on a previous visit. We took Archie on his first bus ride and spent the next few hours traipsing from one incredible Italian specialty shop to another buying ravioli, sausages, cheese, salami and more.
I found a perfect birthday present for my sister ands we had lunch at the terrific Michelin starred restaurant called Zero Otto Nove (Naples’area code). Archie was a model canine citizen in his diabetes service dog vest. We were proud of him!
We got back to Zendo by 3:00 and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and reading. After feeding Archie we walked back to the Black Whale to have a drink - the Negroni is one of their specialties. We ended up sitting outside next to Jim, the police officer we met during last year’s visit. We chatted for quite a while with him and the friend he was with. For those who have been reading our blog you may recall that last year Jim had shown us a local park where the dogs can run free, He had also shown us his boat and marina and that was where we brought Zendo last year to avoid the hurricane that came all the way up the east coast. Of course Alex came by the restaurant and his girlfriend Luna was there as well. This is what we love about City Island. We’re starting to feel like we have a lot of friends here!
Heading back to Zendo, we had a good dinner of the salads we had purchased a few days ago from the fish market in Cape May. Tomorrow we’ll resume our journey and head up to Milford, CT for the 4th of July.
Water intrusion is always a scary time. Glad it was minor.
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