M.V.Tropical Horizons II: 2021-01-10

Leaving Half Moon Bay Marina into Haverstraw Bay.

We woke up to a drizzly foggy morning at Half Moon Bay Marina after yet another great sleep on Tropical Horizons II. This would be great practice for using the radar! As usual, Tank and I would go for an early morning walk to stretch our legs. Along with all the usual pre-departure tasks, I spent some time speaking with the captain of a larger yacht who was also moored in the marina. He had been admiring Tropical Horizons II and is looking forward to seeing her again someday. He was kind enough to take our garbage along with his and he handed us our power cable, water hose and mooring lines as we shoved off for another exciting day on the water. We had no idea what excitement was waiting for us!

It was a foggy, drizzly, overcast day on the river.

This would be a tricky departure as I would have to make a very tight turn backing out of our slip into the marina before being able to head back out. What was tricky was the presence of a wave break directly behind us. It was a challenge, but again, slow and methodical movements shifting each engine in and out of gear along with short pulses on the thrusters had us out of the marina without incident. We then headed out of Haverstraw Bay and back up the Hudson, our next stop, the Hudson River Maritime Museum.

Even in the fog and mist, the Hudson revealed some very impressive homes.

One of the many train stations dotting the shoreline as trains carry passengers to and from the city.

The weather had us using the radar, sounding the fog horn and navigating in lower visibility for most of the morning. Karen was happy to have the covered side decks that she could continue shooting photos from. I practiced finding targets on radar and correlating them to the chart plotters and what we were seeing. It really was great practice using the instruments in these conditions. The fog was not so thick that we couldn't see in front of the boat, but thick enough that our visibility was reduced to perhaps 1/4 to 1/2 mile.

Approaching West Point Military Academy

Founded in 1802, the view from the river is quite impressive.

As the morning moved along and the rising sun burned off the fog, we started seeing further and further up river. We were finally able to turn off the fog horn, and running lights and I was able to enjoy the scenery around us. Then it happened! I looked at the engine gauges and noticed the starboard transmission oil pressure was quite low. I tapped the gauge and that did nothing, it didn't seem to be a gauge issue. Immediately I called Capt. Steve over and had him take the helm as I scrambled down to the engine room to investigate. What I found was not ideal!

I discovered an oil leak occurring in a high pressure hose that came off of the transmission. At that moment I immediately add oil to the transmission only to watch it leak back out of the hose. I headed back up to the helm and let Capt. Steve know what was going on. We decided to shut down the starboard engine and run on the port engine alone while I figured out a way to repair the hose.

With the engine shut down, the hose no longer had any pressure in it and I was able to use some rescue tape that I had on board to attempt to seal off the leak. After a quick tape job, I started up the engine, only to find that the hose was now dripping out the ends. As the tape warmed up it just formed a bubble where the leak was and simply burst! What now? Plan B was already forming in my mind. I had many pieces of double walled adhesive lined heat shrink tubing. These were cut off ends that my company would normally throw out, but I collected in a bag, knowing that some day they would be useful....this would be that day. I had a heat gun on board, so I started with a second attempt at fixing this hose. The first thing I would have to do is, with the engine shut down, to remove the hose from the transmission, remove the tape and clean off as much of the oil as possible. I then place a long length of the heat shrink tube on the hose, the hose was so hot that I had to work quickly in order to get the tube in place before it started to shrink and stick to the hose. With the first piece of tubing in place, I heated it up with the heat gun until I saw the adhesive oozing out the shrunk down ends of the tube. I then decided to add a second piece of tubing over the first piece for extra reinforcement. After both pieces were in place, I then found two small hose clamps to clamp off each end of the tubing in an effort to avoid any leaking on either side of the repair. I then reinstalled the hose onto the transmission and once it was back in place and tight, I fired up the engine. Upon first inspection there were no leaks....this was good! I placed and absorbent mat just under the hose where the repair was so that I would be able to easily monitor any leakage, topped off the transmission oil level and made my way back to the helm. We put the engine in gear and brought up the RPM's to match the port engine. The oil pressure seemed to be holding! I went back down into the engine room and checked for leaks again and all seemed to be holding with the exception of a bulge in the tubing where the rupture was in the hose. I cleaned up the engine room while keeping an eye on the repair and satisfied that it should hold I made my way up to the helm station. I'm not sure how long it took to repair this but I did miss some sights such as Bannerman Castle. I was completely soaked and must have lost about 10 lbs. It was time for a shower!

The rugged beauty of upstate New York along the shoreline of the Hudson.

Pollepel Island in the distance, the ruins of Bannerman's Arsenal clearly visible.

Passing Bannerman's arsenal, built from 1900 to 1918 as a residence and storage for his military surplus business, subsequently suffering a massive explosion in 1920 and fire in 1969 the island, now owned by the state of New York is off limits to the general public.

Picturesque towns along the waterfront.

What I was not expecting to find...a Buddhist temple.

After a shower, I felt much better and headed back up to the helm. The rest of the trip towards the Hudson River Maritime Museum was fortunately uneventful. We made the turn west into Kingston NY and found our spot on a high wall tied up with other antique tugs and boats.

Another Marina/Yacht Club with a reception venue.

Tank, blowing bubbles in his sleep,

The Culinary Institute of America.

Plenty of interesting architecture to be seen as well

There are modern homes.

Colonial homes.

So many interesting styles.

The lighthouse marking the entrance into Kingston NY.

The entrance was a little stressful as there was a rowing club that were launching and retrieving rowing shells from the water. I didn't want to send anyone in the water nor did I want to have to deal with those long oars taking up the water way. We managed to find our spot and docked the boat with a little help from a fellow boater. Once we shut everything down and plugged into shore power, we headed off to explore this very busy town. In-spite of the COVID 19 restrictions, the patios were busy with face masked waiters serving meals and the downtown area was buzzing with activity. The boats on display at the museum were interesting, including the tug boat Mathilda which was built in Sorrel QC, an area I worked in when I was a commercial diver.