San Juan Islands 2013 - Days 2 & 3

Slept well on the mooring at Spencer Spit.  Sunday, July 28th dawned foggy . . .

But it burned off fairly quickly.  We motored through between the spit and Frost Island, and headed toward harney Channel.  Scott Reed called on the radio to let us know he was coming through Thatcher Pass.  The wind was surprisingly good, so we all raised sails.  Great sailing and we were fast enough to quickly leave the other boats behind so we tacked back and forth.  Until the main sheet block popped loose from the traveler that is.  Unlike the Viagra commercial I was able to fix it without being towed with a back winded jib.  :)

The wind got pretty light as we sailed by Shaw Island and the little town of Orcas, then picked up again once we were past the ferry dock.  We could see Deer Harbor through Pole Pass but turned to port and took the more scenic Wasp Passage instead.

We had reservations at the marina in Deer Harbor.  We got in ok but Bill & Sue got pushed toward a big stinkpot at the end of the dock behind us.  They (briefly) snagged the painter from the dinghy on the swim platform.  Jeez, you'd think they'd ripped it off the back of the boat or something.  Much ado about nothing from what I could tell.

On the way in Deborah reported lots more water in the v-berth.  I tasted it and it was salty, not fresh, so not condensation.  Crap!  Once I'd pulled everything off the v-berth bunks I was able to open the locker and found about a gallon of water up there.  Not good.  Sponging it up showed the water was coming in around the old paddle wheel through hull. The little store at the marina didn't have any epoxy but I lucked out and Scott Reed had some Marine-Tex epoxy putty.  After about an hour-and-a-half I managed to get a ring of it around the leak.  It didn't stop the water coming in though.  I decided to let it be, put things back together, and continue with our vacation, bailing as necessary.

Monday, July 29th.  Checked the v-berth before we left and mopped up maybe a cup or two of water.  Marine-Tex is still tacky but the leak seems slower.  Yay.  Scott Reed left before the rest of us, headed for Shallow Bay on Sucia.

Bill checked out the lack of damage to Nordic Star one last time . . .

Then the two Capri 22's headed up to Sucia with Scott Seaman in his Catalina 22 Mk II.  On the way through Spring Passage to President Channel I sailed over far enough to check out the harbor on Jones Island.  Need to spend the night there sometime.

Adventuress sailed nearby then tacked back south.  We continued north along Waldron Island and eventually found Scott Reed anchored in Shallow Bay.

We anchored and ate dinner.

The wind came up as the tide was rising.  Not good as we started dragging.  I'd put out 65-70 feet of rode in 14 feet of water, but it was over 16 feet now, and rising.  Rather than blow down on the larger yacht downwind of us we moved closer to shore behind Bill & Sue.  Not one of our better communication times on the boat, but once we were anchored the boat stayed put.  Bill and Sue moved up and reset their anchor as well.  The wind howled most of the night and I had to take down the boom tent and anchor riding sail.  I didn't get much sleep until the tide started to go down and I was sure we wouldn't drag again.

We did get a pretty spectacular sunset.