tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44421857568309210342024-03-14T09:29:09.669-07:00Sailing VerbotenAdventures sailing "Verboten", our 2001 Catalina Capri 22, in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14860993511326142999noreply@blogger.comBlogger71125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4442185756830921034.post-25503456872398389502014-06-21T23:01:00.000-07:002014-06-21T23:01:59.256-07:00Best sailing day ever?Had what may have been our best sailing ever today. Wind was great, Deborah was unfazed, and the boat was apparently tuned just right!<br />
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The forecast was for about 12 knots, which for Verboten means the main and blade. We set it up and out we went. High 5 knots and 6 knots by GPS on our first run across the lake. That's a good sign! <br />
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As we continued sailing, the wind kept building to the point I was thinking about reefing. Deborah said no, though, so we kept on sailing. GPS started to say 6.3 to 6.4 knots sustained speed on starboard tack, 6.1-6.3 on port. Heck yeah! Got a big sustained blast at one point so I eased the sheets and headed down to a broad reach. Next thing I know we're doing 6.7, 6.8 and even 7 knots - for more than just a blink of the GPS too. Yeee haaaa! We're planing!<br />
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When I checked after we got home, the wind peaked at 13 knots with gusts to 19. With our tall rig and no reef. Whoa!<br />
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We were a little overpowered through some of this, primarily because the head of the main sail wasn't up to the mark, and I hadn't adjusted the outhaul to flatten the sail. Once I fixed those issues the gusts didn't affect us as badly yet we were still maintaining speeds over 6 knots a lot of the time. That's pretty good for a boat that's not supposed to do more than 6 knots!<br />
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Biggest problem we had all day was getting the boat hove to so I could have a potty break. These boats just won't settle down and drift like a full keel boat.<br />
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Icing on the cake is that it cost me all of about $8 in fuel (2-ish gallons of diesel) for the 90 mile round trip. Loving the new Jetta TDI!<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14860993511326142999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4442185756830921034.post-22480521357144206542014-05-31T23:33:00.000-07:002014-05-31T23:33:07.383-07:00First Sail of the Year!It took a bit to get here but we finally got in our first sail of the year. Boy did it feel good to be on the water again. <br />
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Getting to this point took a bit of work. If you've been following my blog you know that we had a leaky through hull while we were in the San Juan Islands last summer. Having the boat sink at the dock would be pretty embarrassing, as well as expensive, so the through hulls had to go.<br />
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Getting them out was harder than I expected. Or maybe I should say getting the depth sounder transducer out was. The leaky speedo paddlewheel came out with a couple good wacks.<br />
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Some serious grinding ensued to get to bare fiberglass. <br />
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The new glass had to be held in from below.<br />
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Then the holes filled in from the top, more glass, and resin.<br />
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Next came filling the holes from below, then fairing compound (epoxy with "microballoons")<br />
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Then sanding<br />
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barrier coat, and painting the bottom. Turns out the barrier coat doesn't self-level. Oh well. <br />
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That VC17-m is shiny stuff when it goes on. Too bad it doesn't stay that bright copper color. It was all blue for our first sail.<br />
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About $400 in all, I think. For two 2 inch holes, and two full coats of bottom paint.<br />
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On Sunday (before Memorial day) we drove down to the lake and launched Verboten. Heidi came along to help, which was nice. Tuesday evening I drove down after work and finished getting the boat ready. I put on the boom, main sail, etc., and brought the battery home for the charge I should have done while it was in the driveway. <br />
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Still got some odds & ends to do, like replace the worn out bungie cords on the bow, but I'm ready for a great summer on the lake!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14860993511326142999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4442185756830921034.post-21503601500074377742014-04-25T20:43:00.000-07:002014-04-25T20:43:02.650-07:00Spring mayhem!It's been an interesting couple of months around here . . .<br />
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Two months ago I get a call from Deborah while I'm at work. The washer dumped an entire load of rinse water on the floor in the utility room. She was headed out to take April to the hospital to have kidney stones removed so I needed to drive home to deal with the disaster.<br />
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No problem, I though. How much damage can one load of rinse water do? Well, the answer is, over $12,000 worth! Once I got home it was obvious that I wasn't going to be able to deal with the damage myself. I called the insurance company and they referred me to ServPro. Called them and started the ball rolling to get a crew here to start ripping out drywall, floors and wet insulation. Then I moved the washer and dryer out onto the back porch and started pulling up the molding along the floor. Meanwhile the water kept wicking up the walls in the utility room, master bath, kitchen, and master bedrooom.<br />
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ServPro came in the next day and started the mitigation process. Ripped up the floor in the utility room and bathroom, cut out the wet drywall and insulation, drilled holes in various interior walls, and set up fans & dehumidifiers. After 3 days things were making progress but they weren't drying out near the water heater; we came home to find it temporarily moved behind the fridge and we got 4 more days of fans & dehumidifiers.<br />
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The insurance came through with $7K for the restoration part of the process. That helps, especially if I do a lot of the work myself. Given what ServPro quoted for the floors I decided to let them do the walls and I'll do the rest.<br />
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What I didn't mention was the fact that our project manager was out for 4 weeks on medical leave. Apparently they didn't pass the torch and things kept dragging on. We finally got them to repair and paint the walls in the utility room so I could put a new floor in and we could stop going to the laundromat. That was 3-4 weeks after the flood. <br />
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The bathroom had wallpaper; the guy who put in the replacement drywall mudded over the wallpaper. Not sure what he was thinking, but I called and said that wasn't going to work; they needed to rip out the wallpaper and do the job right, so it could be textured & painted. 3 weeks later they *finally* got started. By then Deborah was totally frustrated. I was sick for a couple days, which turned out to be helpful - I was here to see the work and talk to our project manager, who was back on the job. They did a much better job. <br />
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As part of the project we decided to replace the carpet in the bedroom with the same vinyl flooring we were putting in the bathroom. We got a super deal at Home Depot and bought all 11 cases they had in stock locally. Friday evening was spent pulling all the furniture, except the bed, out of the bedroom. Saturday morning I ripped out the carpet and got all the staples from the carpet pad out of the floor.<br />
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Gaby, our 2nd granddaughter, came over and helped me put in the floor. She started out carrying cases of the flooring in and handing the pieces to me. By the time we were done she was measuring, cutting, and fitting the pieces while I focused on the more complicated sections that needed to be cut around doors, etc. She did a great job and you can't tell the sections I did from the ones she did. It was nearly 9:00 PM before we were done.<br />
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Sunday was spent putting the molding in the bedroom and moving the furniture back in, plus getting the toilet back in the bathroom. Wasn't that fun!? It took the rest of the week to get the bathroom molding done, caulk around the tub, and generally get the place back to normal. Two months, all told. Jeez.<br />
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In the middle of this disaster we had a few other adventures. <br />
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First Deborah and I made a quick trip to Florida to check in on my grandparents. That involved fun things like replacing the guts on two leaky toilets, caulking around the master bathtub where the grout had come out, and trimming a bush with a chainsaw. Dad and Jan were there part of the time, which was nice, and helped get some of the work done.<br />
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While pulling something out of one of the kitchen cabinets I happened to notice a can of pineapple that was about to explode! We managed to get it out, and into a bag, without setting it off, then we started to clean out the cupboards. There was stuff in there that was over a decade old! Yikes! We filled a garbage bag.<br />
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Deborah and I did find some time for sight seeing, taking a trip to Blue Springs and New Smyrna Beach. It was a nice change from the cold/rainy weather we'd left in Oregon.<br />
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We came home to a letter from the insurance company (the same one I use) letting us know that they were cancelling the insurance on the house in Florida because there's nobody living in it. Sweeeet. NOT. My sister is working on getting a policy through another company. Hopefully they won't be quite as particular about whether it's permanently occupied or a "vacation" home.<br />
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Sooo, at this point you're probably thinking things couldn't get worse, right? Ha! <br />
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We drove to Salem to see Brandi and Al's new baby, Charlotte, one evening after work. On the way in that morning I'd noticed that the car didn't feel right when it shifted. Driving up to Salem on the freeway it seemed to shift a lot more than usual. Sure enough, on the way back it stuttered 3 times and the check engine light came on. Code = transmission issue$. Me = not amused. <br />
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I reset the light and kept an eye on things. MPG down, shifty, but no light. Until we went back to Salem and the same !@$@$# thing happened again! We'd just rolled over 100K miles a couple weeks ago. ARRGGGHHHHH!<br />
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Let's see, brakes are due, 100K mile tune up due, and now several thousand dollars for transmission work. On a car we're still paying for. Well doesn't that suck. <br />
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We stewed over it for a few days, then decided we might as well look at a replacement. I'd already decided that I wasn't interested in another Hyundai. We've had 3, and they were all ok, but the last one just didn't hold up as well as I'd hoped. Plus I thought we could do better on the MPG front. <br />
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Hybrids were pretty much out, due to the extra cost, so the next alternative was a small diesel. That made it easy - VW Jetta TDI clean diesel. Dad's had 5 or 6 VW diesels and has had great luck with them. We stopped by the new Power VW dealership in Corvallis for a look after work one evening. Not bad at all. The next day, after doing some online research and deciding which options we wanted, we did the deal. They gave us a decent trade in on the Sonata and matched the $1K factory rebate. Deborah wasn't thrilled with the color but I think it's growing on her. I'm loving the mileage (over 35 mpg commuting) and performance - lots of torque when that turbo kicks in!<br />
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Things haven't been ALL bad around here, though . . .<br />
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We tried out the new travel trailer and went to a wine bottling party at the end of March. That was fun and the trailer worked out great!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14860993511326142999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4442185756830921034.post-33970769557114088922014-04-25T18:50:00.001-07:002014-04-25T18:50:10.236-07:00Snowmageddon IIApparently I forgot to post this back around February 10th. . . .<br />
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It's been an interesting and unexpected extended weekend. Woke up on Thursday morning to a winter storm that was supposed to dump a few inches on the ground. University closed <br />
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It kept on snowing . . .<br />
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and snowing . . .<br />
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I did shuttle duty, picking Gaby up from school around 9:30 and Deborah up in Corvallis around 10:30. Don't know why the schools or Deborah's office weren't closed. It's not like there wasn't plenty of notice.<br />
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The drive was . . . interesting.<br />
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Friday morning there was a bit of a lull so Deborah and I drove down and knocked the snow off the boat before the second wave of snow hit. <br />
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I did the Grandpa shuttle thing, picked up April's kids and delivered them to their Dad. The roads weren't as bad as I expected but with over 8 inches on the ground they weren't great either. The truck was chained up at this point. Might need to get front chains for next year.<br />
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The snow just kept on falling. We stopped measuring at 11 inches in the back yard . . . .<br />
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Total topped out around 15 inches!<br />
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The next thing, on Saturday morning, was freezing rain. On top of the snow. That made a crunchy mess. By noon it wasn't too horrible so Deborah and I headed out for groceries, meds, and lunch at Elmers. The roads were sloppy.<br />
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Today (Sunday) we woke to find there'd been more freezing rain overnight. As the weather warmed to above freezing the ice started falling from the trees. Sounded like popcorn or something as it hit the frozen snow.<br />
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We went down to the boat to knock the snow off again. Glad I did as the rain made it really heavy and the mast was bent in the middle!<br />
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This looks much better but I need to come up with a better frame for next year. <br />
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Drove home, got James and we dug out his car.<br />
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Out again at 1:30 to take April to work. What a freaking mess! The roads have ruts that are over a foot deep (on the sides) in places! You'd think the city could get a grader out or invest in a couple of plows to clear the stuff out.<br />
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Left again a bit before 3 to pick up Heidi and go see Monument Men. The roads were a bit better but it was starting to get foggy. Warm weather over snow = fog. Yeah.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14860993511326142999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4442185756830921034.post-46566709705570783022014-02-08T23:35:00.000-08:002014-02-08T23:40:34.482-08:00We got a trailer!Once again serendipity has struck the Sinnett household and we find ourselves the proud owners of a 2010 R-Vision Trail Cruiser 23QBC travel trailer that's only been used 4 (yes 4) times!.<br />
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We've been toying with the idea of getting a travel trailer for a few years. Deborah had one in the past and enjoyed it. We've gone to a couple of RV shows over the last couple of years and I've been watching Craigslist. Nothing serious and nothing that jumped off the page at us. Until a few weeks ago, that is.<br />
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Deborah's been walking in the mornings with her long-time friend Danita for the last few months. In the course of their walks Danita mentioned that she had a travel trailer that she needed to sell. Next thing I knew we were taking a look at it to see if the floor plan was something we like. It was.<br />
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Front walk-around queen bed . . .<br />
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Unlike with the boat, I went to the bank the first time she asked. Same expectation that they'd say no. Same result, that they didn't. And it does look good in our driveway<br />
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The battery was toast so I got a pair of 6v golf cart batteries. When I went to install the new battery box I got a surprise - it didn't fit! Some creative carpentry and I've got a platform that should do the job.<br />
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Most of the systems check out fine but I've got a bit of work to do on
the fridge. It works fine on electricity but didn't want to fire
consistently on gas. Probably a spider in the burner. I'd be working
on it this weekend if it wasn't for Snowmageddon II (see tomorrow's
post). Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14860993511326142999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4442185756830921034.post-65625854272071137812013-12-29T16:09:00.000-08:002013-12-29T16:09:17.958-08:00Christmas ExtendedWe had kind of a drawn out Christmas this year. First, Deborah and I decided to start early. I paid for her sewing lessons for the year and bought her a thread caddy with 100+ rolls of thread; She bought me a La Crosse wireless weather station and a new exhaust system for the truck. Romantic, huh? The truck sounds 1000% better and I suspect we'll get better mileage too. That will be nice when it comes to towing the boat.<div>
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Christmas Eve was busy with the girls, most of the grandkids, Brandy and Al with Chloe, and Doug and Linda here. Fun times. On Christmas day I had a gift certificate to her favorite spa for her and she had an egg poacher for me. We've used it twice already! </div>
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Yesterday (28th) James, Zach & Krista came over to celebrate a late Christmas with us. James brought some awesome orange-molasses cookies and Zach & Krista gave me a cool pair of kitchy lamps for the family room. </div>
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Then we headed to Portland to pick up Jessy and Homero from the airport. They'd been in Mexico visiting his family. This morning (Sunday) April, Gaby, Jose and Gaby's friend Anna came for waffles then we had Christmas with Jessy. </div>
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All in all a nice Christmas. Next stop New Year's Day and our 14th anniversary.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14860993511326142999noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4442185756830921034.post-50000251557124797052013-12-10T23:48:00.000-08:002013-12-10T23:48:20.768-08:00Sailing friends and snow in the ValleyIt's been a while since my last post. Hasn't exactly been sailing weather around here though, so I guess I can forgive myself. :)<div>
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Several years ago Deborah and I decided to get away from the Thanksgiving insanity and head north to Victoria, Canada, for the holiday weekend. We thought it was time to go north again this year so I emailed Bill and Sue (Capri 22 "Windsong"), who cruised the San Juans with us this summer, and asked if they wanted to meet us in Vancouver. They asked if we wanted to visit them in Kamloops instead. So we did!</div>
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Kamloops is a long drive so we left on Tuesday afternoon. Our timing was impeccable and we hit Seattle at rush hour. We did have a nice view of the ball fields and skyline while we sat in traffic.</div>
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We spent the night in a motel in Burlington then drove the rest of the way on Wednesday morning. Tales of the infamous Coquahalla Highway had me prepared for feet of snow, treacherous driving and semi's sliding everywhere. Ummm. Nope. </div>
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Bill & Sue have a beautiful home on a bluff at the south end of Kamloops. The new Garmin GPS led us right to their house without any hiccups. We spent 3 relaxing days, eating, visiting, and getting the grand tour of the area. It's high desert and reminds me of Bend and the Gorge, only with steeper hills. </div>
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We checked out Snow Peaks ski area, had turkey with all the trimmings for (our) Thanksgiving (theirs was in October), and spent Black Friday fighting traffic and people to go shopping. We also got to play a cool Canadian game called Crokinole; Sue and I whipped Bill and Deborah, but who's keeping score? :)</div>
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We headed home on Saturday 10 long hours on the road, after a great visit. Bill and Sue really are great hosts and wonderful friends.</div>
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The last week at home has been really interesting. The forecasters were projecting an inch or so of snow in the valley. I woke up about 4:30 AM on Friday and there was about 1/4 inch of snow on the ground. By the time I got up it was over two inches,</div>
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and by the time I decided to drive in to work for a 9:00 phone call there was 3 inches! Wow. Corvallis had even more snow, so after about 90 minutes, with the snow coming down like a blizzard, I grabbed my laptop and drove on home. </div>
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The University closed at noon and didn't open again until today (Tuesday) at 9 AM. By the time it was done snowing on Friday evening we had 6 inches at our house.</div>
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Jessy came over and made a snowman, which wasn't easy with the powder snow. We managed with a shovel and bucket though.</div>
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Saturday we entertained Jessy and Jose, first with a trip to get 3 of us haircuts, then with some sledding in the back yard.</div>
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Now, what's all this snow got to do with the boat? Not much, right? Well, true, but Deborah did buy me an early Christmas present. A La Crosse weather station with anemometer, rain gauge and indoor/outdoor temperature/humidity measurements. Plus an online interface. Awesome!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14860993511326142999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4442185756830921034.post-61208499113781874082013-10-11T20:55:00.001-07:002013-10-11T20:55:01.434-07:00Year end meeting<p dir=ltr>The county had a year end meeting with the moorage holders yesterday. Looks like they did some maintenance that should make next year nicer. They really are trying hard.</p>
<p dir=ltr>There's a new online registration system too. It looks good and should make things easy when its time to renew.</p>
<p dir=ltr>Now all we need is rain in March.</p>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14860993511326142999noreply@blogger.com0Albany, Albany44.63651 -123.10593tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4442185756830921034.post-21852380552453839492013-08-14T17:25:00.001-07:002013-08-14T17:25:11.946-07:00Boat BBQ saves the dinner!<p dir=ltr>First try at a post from my phone...</p>
<p dir=ltr>I got home from work Friday evening and Deborah and Jessy were preparing shishkebab. Deborah had lit the grill but it ran out of gas before I could start cooking. What to do? Grab the boat BBQ!</p>
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After breakfast Scott S left, headed for Cypress Island and eventually back to Bellingham; he checked in via radio later as he was entering Pole Pass. We followed Bill & Sue out of the marina, then led the way to Speiden Channel. Scott Reed left sometime after we did(!) <br />
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The wind was blowing nicely so we raised the main and motor sailed down the channel. The closer we got to San Juan Channel the stronger the wind and the larger the waves, even with the reef in we were getting pounded. We were beating directly into the wind after we made the turn toward Friday Harbor so we dropped the main and just motored our way there. The wind was still howling but at least there was less fetch so the waves were smaller.<br />
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We got to Friday Harbor in the early afternoon; Lou and Rochelle met us outside the entrance to the marina, then went off to anchor. Our slips were ready so we went to tie up. We had a bit of an issue getting tied off, as the girl on the dock wasn't able to catch the (tangled) bow line and we nearly ended up running into Windsong who docked at the same time. No harm no foul, though so it was all good.<br />
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Deborah and I went into town to get lunch and ice. We saw Bill and Sue headed out for a geocache while we were eating at Blue Water Bar & Grill. After lunch we walked up the hill and Deborah bought some supplies at the lavender shop, then we went to the grocery store to get ice and supplies.<br />
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Scott Reed came in a while after we got back. Things were just getting started for Happy Hour on Windsong when Lou and Rochelle portaged their dinghy across the dock and joined us. 7 people in a Capri cockpit is tight but do-able. <br />
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I wanted to go see <a href="http://captnjim.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Captain Jim</a> while we were in Friday Harbor so I walked over and hailed Wild Blue. I've been talking to him on the <a href="http://bbs.trailersailor.com/forums/tsbbcomp/trailersailor/index.cgi" target="_blank">Trailer Sailor</a> bbs for a couple years. He and Joan come up from Texas and work for one of the whale watch operations during the summer. They already had a guest, the managing editor of the Waggoner Guide who'd just finished a circumnavigation of Vancouver Island in a C Dory 22 (I thought a Catalina 22 at the time). After visiting for a bit I returned to Windsong for more snacks & visiting.<br />
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Friday, August 2nd. Cloudy with a forecast of 10-20 knots, 1-3 foot seas and rain. Not really what I was hoping for with a long run from Friday Harbor to Anacortes. Worst case, we could sit out the weather at Spencer Spit if Rosario Strait was too bad.<br />
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We got an early-ish start, leaving Friday Harbor between 8:30 and 9:00 am. That put us on target for relatively light currents through Upright Channel and hopefully across Rosario Strait. This time it was Bill & Sue, Scott Reed and us. About 15 minutes out Scott's motor conked out but he quickly figured out that he'd been running on the internal tank. Whew.<br />
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There was a bit of wind so we motor sailed through Upright Channel with a bit of push from the current. <br />
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Once we got around Upright Head we dropped the main; the wind was going light and I wanted it down in case the 20 knots materialized in the Strait. We managed to avoid the ferries going through Thatcher Pass and motored into Rosario Strait. Nothing else going on there, though, except the rain and Navy fighters flying just above the clouds. Noisy! No wind and maybe a knot of current pushing us north. Super!<br />
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The run across the Strait was pretty uneventful. The current was really running through Guemes Channel and we hit over 7 knots on 1/2 throttle! We went around the point and I called Cap Sante for our slip assignments. That was when the fun started. <br />
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The radio was busy with 3 or 4 boats arriving at the same time we did. First, they couldn't find Bill & Sue and Scott's reservations. Since I made them all together it shouldn't have been hard. We had a slip, though, so I said I'd dock and walk up to the marina office to work it out. Except there was a boat in my slip. Just like several other folks had reported. Luckily Jim Lee had let me know that the Left Coast Dart was out of town and his slip was available. We docked in his slip and I headed to the office. Scott found his reservation and let me know what his number was.<br />
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The office was mayhem. They were finally able to locate the reservations for Bill and Scott and I relayed the info. Ha. I'd barely made it 30 yards from the office than Scott radioed that both of their slips had boats in them. Back to the office. End result was that we stayed in Jim's slip on J dock, Bill & Sue were sent to C or D dock, and Scott got to share a slip with a power boat on G dock. Apparently they had 4 boats that were supposed to leave that had mechanical failures and were unable to do so. Later on Bill & Sue moved to the end of J so we were at least close.<br />
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After everyone was settled in their overnight locations Bill and I helped Scott lower his mast for an early-morning departure. Then we walked down to Pier 61 where Bill & Scott treated us to a very nice farewell dinner. <br />
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Saturday, August 3rd, we started prepping the boats for retrieval. We got things organized then motored over to the "loading zone" by the lift. I went and got the truck (it wasn't blocked in!) while Deborah started putting boxes on the dock. We got everything off that we could, then I shoved the main, still on the boom, into the cabin. Bill and Sue pulled Windsong while we were ferrying stuff to the truck. They got the boat settled then met us at the small boat hoist and helped drop the mast. <br />
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Dropping the mast turned out to be more of an adventure than I expected. First we couldn't find our way there - there was a covered slip hiding the dock. Then we put the 50 pound ball and cable from the crane on the wrong side of the mast. My windex may never recover from the thrashing it got. In the end we were able to get things sorted out and the mast came right down. Way safer than the ginpole. I think. :)<br />
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Once the mast was down we motored back to the lift and practically right onto the sling. I went to hook up the trailer while the attendant got Verboten ready to lift. After a 1 inch adjustment she was exactly where we wanted her. We strapped everything down, said bye to Bill and Sue, and were ready to go in about an hour. Record time to get road-ready.<br />
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The drive home was much better than the drive up. Not nearly as much traffic, though there were a couple bottlenecks. About 7 hours total with stops. <br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14860993511326142999noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4442185756830921034.post-32956424878565241362013-08-07T00:10:00.001-07:002013-08-07T00:10:24.140-07:00San Juan Islands 2013 - Day 4 & 5Tuesday, July 30th dawned sunny and the wind had blown out to something more moderate. Scott Reed beat us out of the bay again, headed for Stuart Island. We'd decided to run down the west side of Waldron Island instead of back down President Channel. The wind was good so we sailed much of the way from Patos Island crossing the international boundary and fighting fairly strong currents.<br />
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At one point the wind really began to build. There was a lot
of slack in the lowers so I decided we should reef. In the process I
managed to get the outhaul stuck so we did the rest of the trip with a
reef in. Need to pull the boom apart and figure out what I did.<br />
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Off of South Pender Island Deborah noticed that the chart plotter had turned off. She was unable to get it working again. While we hove to for lunch I tried to get it working again. No luck. Scott Seaman took the lead, heading for John's Pass between Stuart Island and Johns Island. We ran into Lou and Rochelle just as we were getting there. It's a narrow winding passage but there was plenty of water below the keel.<br />
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We motored around to Reid Harbor and ended up tying up on the Linear Mooring. Scott Reed was in Prevost Harbor on the other side of the island. Lou and Rochelle tied up behind us, Bill & Sue and Scott S on the other side. We tied up so our cockpits were all facing each other and had a nice visit. Reid Harbor has the steepest ramp I've ever seen for getting ashore. Not sure why they didn't put in stairs.<br />
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Lou loaned me a multimeter, sent my way via his dinghy on a line and I
was able to locate the issue with the chart plotter. Turns out one of
my newly crimped connections came loose, which blew a fuse. Luckily I
had the crimping tool along and a spare fuse.<br />
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We were treated to another great sunset.<br />
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Even the seagulls were well behaved.<br />
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Wednesday, July 31st. Just a short trip today, across Speiden Channel to Roche Harbor. Bill and Sue went ashore to do some exploring, then we headed for Roche. <br />
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The trip started out with a stop at Cemetery Island for Bill & Sue to find a geocache. The original plan was to tie Windsong alongside Verboten, but Deborah suggested that I just transfer to their boat instead. Much easier so that's what we did. Deborah and I motored the boats around for about 10 minutes, while they got the cache, then I transferred back onto Verboten. We motored across to Roche Harbor, keeping an eye on the fog in the strait.<br />
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The Coast Guard was in a hurry to get somewhere.<br />
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We got settled in at the marina. . . .<br />
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Then went exploring.<br />
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Sculpture park<br />
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The Mausoleum<br />
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Cottages<br />
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Lime Kiln<br />
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There are some huge, expensive, yachts in Roche Harbor (but the men's restroom reeked!)<br />
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We had happy hour on Verboten and then watched another terrific sunset!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14860993511326142999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4442185756830921034.post-52152391348786038062013-08-06T19:58:00.001-07:002013-08-06T20:31:10.139-07:00San Juan Islands 2013 - Days 2 & 3Slept well on the mooring at Spencer Spit. Sunday, July 28th dawned foggy . . .<br />
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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. :)<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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 <b>around</b> 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.<br />
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<b>Monday, July 29th</b>. 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.<br />
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Bill checked out the lack of damage to Nordic Star one last time . . .<br />
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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.<br />
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Adventuress sailed nearby then tacked back south. We continued north along Waldron Island and eventually found Scott Reed anchored in Shallow Bay.<br />
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We anchored and ate dinner.<br />
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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.<br />
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We did get a pretty spectacular sunset.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14860993511326142999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4442185756830921034.post-38300745754665793072013-08-05T23:27:00.000-07:002013-08-05T23:27:02.622-07:00San Juan Islands 2013 - The Drive up and Day 1.Well, we survived another week long sailing trip to the San Juans. :)<br />
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We left around 10:00 AM and headed north toward Seattle.<br />
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The run to Anacortes should take about 6.5 hours. Ha! Seattle traffic SUCKS. We got stuck and by the time we got through to Everett it was obvious we were going to get to the marina after the lift closed. Deborah called and canceled our reservation there and made one at the The Marina Inn. Her favorite room, the one with the jacuzzi tub, was the only one available. She was heartbroken . . . not. We swung by the marina on the way to let Bill & Sue know that we weren't going to make it.<br />
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Friday morning we launched the boat, raised the mast, and loaded everything aboard. The new gin pole worked great to raise the mast. We motored around to our slip and finished setting up the boat, blew up the dinghy and got organized. We had a great dinner at Pier 61 with Bill and Sue. <a href="http://www.pier61.com/" target="_blank">http://www.pier61.com/</a> Nice view of Guemes Channel and good food.<br />
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<b>Day 1</b><br />
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Saturday morning we headed out of the marina for Spencer Spit with Bill & Sue following in Windsong. It was a beautiful sunny day and a good start to the trip. Found some water in the v-berth by the battery and wrote it off as condensation. We were supposed to use channel 25 as our flotilla frequency but neither Bill nor I could transmit. We went to 69 instead.<br />
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When we got to Spencer Spit we found one mooring ball open, so we took it and had Bill & Sue raft up with us. After a bit the boat next to us left so they scooted over and got their own mooring. I went ashore and paid the fee. After a while motored around the spit and found Scott S anchored on the north side. He came over to our side and rafted up with us for the night.<br />
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We had Happy Hour on our boat; we broke out the Verboten Vino and Deborah whipped up some snacks. It was a nice way to introduce everyone and a great end to the first day.
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14860993511326142999noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4442185756830921034.post-62972398190799426202013-07-23T22:23:00.001-07:002013-07-23T22:23:39.640-07:00Vacation!Today was my last day of work until August 8th! The livingroom is full of totes and duffel bags, most of the food is ready, so all we need to do is prep the trailer, load up, and hit the road! Anacortes on Thursday. Yeah!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14860993511326142999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4442185756830921034.post-80409782475392820072013-06-28T22:22:00.005-07:002013-06-28T22:22:41.598-07:00The county came through!Got the email tonight, they reviewed my appeal and they're going to credit us the full amount for our slip. As I thought, they were looking at the specs for a wing keel. That means I'll only have to pay about $25-50 next year so let's hope the lake fills.
Started work on my a-frame ginpole setup for raising the mast. Thought maybe I could put it together without any screws or bolts. Used a couple of hooks from tie down straps and a chain link. Nope, didn't work. I cut a wooden piece for the top, need to get some clips or hose clamps to hook it all together tomorrow. Should be good from there, I hope.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14860993511326142999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4442185756830921034.post-70317280033085840312013-06-22T22:21:00.002-07:002013-06-22T22:21:27.795-07:00Another day working on the boatNoah spent the night so I put him to work this morning. I drilled out the holes I'd filled for the genoa winches, bedded them with butyl, and crawled below. Noah held the screwdriver and we got them all seated. I put them back together and boy do they sound nice!
Deborah and Noah went into town to get him a haircut and meet Heidi for lunch. I kept working. Drilled out the holes for the cabin top winches, then cleaned them up (hadn't done that yet) and reinstalled them too. Nice clicka clicka sound. While I was at it I went ahead and put screws in the 4 holes in the bow where the downhaul block used to be.
It was getting too hot to work so I went inside until about 4:00. Closed up the boat and sprayed everything down. Didn't do anything for the cabin (will do that tomorrow) but it did clear off all the shavings and a lot of the dust. Fuel locker was pretty filthy so I cleaned that out too.
Once that was done I decided to try replacing the halyards on the boat, instead of taking the mast off. Tied on some baling twine and pulled out the main halyard with no issues! Pulled the new (red) one back through to the block at the base of the mast. Set up the (green) jib halyard and repeated the process. That one got stuck between the sheave and the pin that holds it together. I guess the whipping was a bit too thick but a few pokes with a screwdriver got it past the problem and I pulled it through too. Since I have red/green halyards I decided they should match the bow light for port & starboard. A bit of poking with a bent wire and I was able to switch which one went to which sheave. They're going to look awesome!
Tomorrow I'll vacuum out the inside of the boat and maybe take a first shot at assembling the new a-frame to raise the mast.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14860993511326142999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4442185756830921034.post-30568397356212513622013-06-17T22:57:00.002-07:002013-06-17T22:58:55.787-07:00Holes and epoxy and winches, oh mySaturday morning & early afternoon was spent on the boat again. Pulled the port chainplawhich showed signs of leaking last year, and found wet core. Damn! Seems the 5200 didn't work so well there. Go figure. Reamed it out as best I could and drilled a couple of holes below so I could fill the empty space with epoxy. Used the dremel with a 1/4" router bit and ground back the core in all the holes.
Taped up the holes from below. Wrapped the chainplate in wax paper and stuck it in the hole it goes in, so I wouldn't have to mess with trying to grind out a new hole. Found one of my horse syringes and grabbed a tube of 6-Ten. Filled all the holes and dealt with a couple of drips, then went in to wait for the epoxy to set.
Heidi and the twins took us to see the new Superman movie while we were waiting on the epoxy. It was fun and done fairly well. Not the cheesy replacement for the Christopher Reeves version that I expected.
After we got home I broke down the genoa winches, cleaned them up, and oiled/greased them. They were really dirty and sound much better now.
Sunday morning I bedded the chainplate and put the new clutches in. By the time I was done it was time to get ready for our Father's Day BBQ. We had a great time, with some excellent burgers, and excellent company.
Parked the boat with stuff left to do. Next weekend I'll finish up the winches and decide what to do about the chainplate screw that didn't get tight. Of course it's the one that doesn't have room for a washer below. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14860993511326142999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4442185756830921034.post-30032051113849395482013-06-15T00:21:00.000-07:002013-06-15T00:21:00.427-07:00Let the preparations begin!Pulled Verboten out of the storage lot and into the driveway this evening. Finally getting started on the long-delayed maintenance so the boat will be ready for our San Juans trip.
Pulled off the spinlock PXR cam cleats and discovered the holes don't line up with the ones in the new XAS2 clutches. So, instead of 4 holes to fill on each side I've got 7 on starboard and 8 on port. 4 of each will get re-drilled and used for the new cleats.
I also pulled the winches off. The genoa winches came off fairly easily, though I did draft Deborah to hold the screwdriver. The cabin tops were another story. I could NOT get the bases off. Catalina apparently glues them to the coachroof with 3M 5200.
Tomorrow (ok, today) I'll finish prepping things and then fill all the holes with 6-Ten thickened epoxy.
Need to figure out what I'm going to do about a compass for our trip. The Richey cracked (froze?) and all the liquid is gone. Second one to go bad on me, though the other didn't crack. *sigh* Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14860993511326142999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4442185756830921034.post-78145759914356901162013-05-27T09:20:00.001-07:002013-05-27T09:23:11.638-07:00There's no water, bring on the wind!On the sailing front, our season at Fern Ridge is definitely shot. It's been raining here for a week and the lake has only picked up maybe an inch. If that. Guess the rain hasn't gotten that far south. On the plus side, there was a public meeting a couple weeks ago and the County Parks folks confirmed that they'll hold our mooring fee over to next year. Plus we get to keep our parking permits. They didn't have to do that and I <strong>*really*</strong> appreciate that my money isn't wasted.<br />
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On a happier note, I've had the landsailer out twice now. First time Heidi and the twins came along. We were going to the coast but decided at the last minute to avoid the crowds and stay local. There was nothing big going on at the fairgrounds so we drove over there instead. The gravel lot was rough but it worked pretty well. Heidi and the kids tried it out too. DaVeda lifted a wheel!<br />
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The gravel was rough and the nuts on the wheels loosened up a bit, so we blew a bearing. Pretty sure I heard it go. So, I went online and ordered new bearings from a gokart place. They seem to be a bit better than the ones I bought locally. I found that even with the nut tightned down, there was some side-to-side movement; I added a spacer washer to each axle to ensure they get tight. . I also added a block down low on the mast so we're pulling back instead of down. <br />
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Despite a forecast of rain and light wind, the breeze came up yesterday afternoon, so I took the landsailer out to the fairgrounds again yesteerday. This time the asphalt parking lot was empty enough that I decided to try it out. Between the smooth surface and new bearings what a difference! Plus the wind kept picking up so I was flying!<br />
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I even flew a wheel a few times in the puffs!<br />
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<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/67036973" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14860993511326142999noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4442185756830921034.post-84278129146233901182013-04-29T22:08:00.000-07:002013-04-29T22:08:51.145-07:00I went and did it . . . This evening I bought a landsailor! <br />
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It's a knockoff of a Manta Windjammer but a bit smaller - 5.5' wide vs 6' and 8' long vs 10'. <br />
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It's short enough so it *almost* fits in the back of the truck. One wheel ends up sticking out of the canopy and the mast too. I probably need to get a flag for the mast.<br />
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It needs a bit of clean up but I think it's going to be a blast!<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14860993511326142999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4442185756830921034.post-91949874031896413242013-04-28T20:29:00.003-07:002013-04-28T20:29:26.822-07:00It's not looking good . . . Article in the Eugene Register-Guard (<a href="http://www.registerguard.com/rg/news/local/29786998-75/lake-says-fern-ridge-boats.html.csp">http://www.registerguard.com/rg/news/local/29786998-75/lake-says-fern-ridge-boats.html.csp</a>) makes it seem likely that we're not gonig to get enough water to sail there this summer. <br />
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"<em>In the first three months of 2013, only 5.09 inches of precipitation fell in Eugene, less than a third of the normal 17.14 inches.</em></div>
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<em>It marked the lowest total since the beginning of local weather records in 1892 and only continued in April, which has seen only 1.44 inches — about half the normal amount.</em>"</div>
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And an inch less than 2001. *sigh*. On the plus side, the county may provide refunds or hold over the money we already paid until next year. That would be nice.</div>
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As an alternative I've been considering a few alternate options. </div>
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1) Buy a Stand Up Paddleboard from Costco. Price is not compleetely unreasonable but I've never tried one and I'm not sure that's what I want.</div>
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2) Buy an old 13' sailboat from Al. That would solve my sailing bug but it wouldn't handle both of us and it gives me another trailer to store.</div>
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3) Buy a land sailor that I saw on Highway 20 on the way home on Friday. That's what I'm leaning toward at the moment as it would give me a year-round activity and this particular one should fit in the truck, or on it if I get a rack.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14860993511326142999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4442185756830921034.post-11442326640901874492013-04-25T20:24:00.001-07:002013-04-25T20:24:14.250-07:00Will the lake fill?April 25th and there's not enough water in the lake to launch. Last report said there were only 5 boats in at Richardson Park Marina. I'm not one of them, I need a foot more water.<br />
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AAaaaaggggghhhhh!!!!!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14860993511326142999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4442185756830921034.post-10946804886834684022013-04-24T22:23:00.000-07:002013-04-24T22:23:23.067-07:00Trailer UpgradeMy buddy Lou, whom I taught to sail last summer, did me a huge favor this weekend and raised the winch/strap on my trailer.<br />
<br />Ever since we bought Verboten I've had issues getting her on the trailer at the end of the season. The issue was the placement of the winch a good foot below the bow eye. How can you pull the boat forward when the winch pulls it down?<br />
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Last summer I pulled the winch off and raised it a foot with wooden blocks. That seemed to help, though I still had to pull it forward a few inches with the come-along. Over the winter I talked to Lou and we decided that he could make something to address the issue. So last weekend I pulled the boat up to his house and Lou made a new winch mount that raised the strap about 14 inches.<br />
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Lou is an artist with a grinder and welder! What we ended up with was a sturdy triangular box with a roller (which he made from pipe and washers) at the top. The winch goes on the forward side of the box and the strap goes over the roller at the top, then to the boat. Elegant.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14860993511326142999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4442185756830921034.post-44768461608927103222013-01-21T23:08:00.000-08:002013-01-21T23:08:55.288-08:00Electrical Mayhem Part DeuxIt only took two COLD days but the job is done! <br />
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Sunday morning I pulled Verboten into the driveway and got to work. First half of the day (demolition) actually went pretty well. I disconnected the battery, then went to the stern and cut apart the wiring in the old battery box. The stock wiring for a Capri 22 Mark II is 10 AWG. Imagine my surprise when I found the wire running from the battery in the v-berth was 16 AWG! Yikes, talk about too small!<br /><br />Once I had things cut apart I pulled out the original wires and ran them forward as far as they'd go. That turned out to be about 1/3 of the way through the quarterberth locker. No problem, I thought, I've got 20 feet of wire for the solar panel run, I'll have plenty. NOT! Turns out the run from the battery box to the v-berth is longer than the boat! Who knew! So I went and bought more wire (8 feet each of red & black). Which wasn't enough, either. <img alt=":shock:" src="http://www.capri22.net/phpbb/images/smilies/icon_eek.gif" title="Shocked" /> <br /><br />At this point I had the wire run from the solar panel to the new charge controller done, though the controller wasn't mounted in the v-berth locker yet. The wire run from the panel to the same locker was done too and ate up more of that 8 feet of wire than I expected. I spent quite a bit of time mulling over placement of the switch and trying to figure out how to get the bits I hadt left to work. Nope, can't do it. By that time it was around 5:00, the temps were dropping, and the halogen light was no longer keeping the cabin warm. Plus I ached all over. So I called it a night.<br />
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This morning I woke up to snow! Not what I really wanted to see, especially since it was over a layer of frozen fog. I ran to Napa and picked up 2 more 10' spools of wire. No snow closer to town. Weird. Oh yeah, the partial gallon of distilled water I left in the boat was full of ice. Yeah, it was cold in there.<br />
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While Deborah was in town I got to work. First order of business was fitting a 3 way switch into the side of the v-berth. I don't have a 2-5/8 hole saw so it was dremel to the rescue. About 30 minutes of work gave me a round(ish) hole that was a perfect fit for the switch, and a big pile of powdered fiberglass in the locker to vacuum up.<br />
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Once the mess was cleaned up I mounted the solar charge controller in the locker and connected the wires from the solar panel, which already had ring terminal ends on them. I ran the wires for the connection to the battery, then went to work on connecting the ends and hooking everything up. I salvaged the buss from the original setup in the stern, and used it to gang together the negative wires, then started on the swiitch. Guess who was 2 ring terminals short. D'oH! Must be time for lunch and a break. Got the portable 120v charger out of the shed and hooked it up to try and get a full charge on the battery then went in to warm up and eat..<br />
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Deborah got home after a bit so back to the auto parts store for more ring terminals. I hooked things up and . . . nothing! WTF?! Time to start checking things over. Continuity seems to be fine, the switch is working as expected, so what's the problem? A bit of monkeying with things and I figured out that the master breaker on the main panel wasn't working quite right. It was sticking and wasn't actually turned on. Hmm. Hopefully that was just a symptom of the freezing cold weather and not something that I'll have to replace in the spring. <br />
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Once everything was working I decided to try hooking up the "load" on the charge controller to the #2 position on the switch instead of the charger wire, which I tied off to the #1 with the battery. Even with the switch in the off position I got a circuit that way. Not sure I completely understand why but the switch internals apparently don't work the way I think they do. Went back to the original plan and I'll do something else with the load; maybe a 12v fan.<br />
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Got things cleaned up (what a mess I made!) and ran the boat back down to the lockup around 4 PM. <br />
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So, I've now got 2 clean wiring paths on appropriately sized wire. Setting the switch to #1 turns on just the battery; #2 is just the solar panel, which makes the LED lights flicker, so maybe not too useful; 1+2 is the winner with both the battery <strong>and</strong> the solar panel. #0 turns everything off, which is probably a good choice when we're on the road towing.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14860993511326142999noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4442185756830921034.post-77119806731145118882013-01-19T17:37:00.001-08:002013-01-19T17:37:40.096-08:00Electrical MayhemLast season I kept seeing these weird, cyclical drops in voltage, to the point that the GPS/Chartplotter would throw a low voltage alarm. The solar panel charge controller showed a green light when the panel was plugged in and unplugging it had no effect on the fluctuations. I checked the wiring, tightened up the screws and redid a couple of crimp connectors. <br />
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That seemed to help, but by mid-season I had to replace the battery. The voltage cycling continued but seemed to throw alarms less often. The new battery didn't seem to hold the same voltage as the old one (when new) but I chocked that up to different manufacturers. <br />
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Fast forward to last weekend. I've got a new multimeter and the sun was out, so I decided to go check on the boat and take a look at the wiring while I was at it. <br />
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Eventually I worked my way back to the stern battery locker (my battery is in the v-berth) where I started to test the connections there. When I got to the charge controller I was a bit baffled to find 12.7v on the power in and power out sides, especially since the panel was putting out 20-22v depending on whether the sun was behind a cloud or not. And the green "ok" light was on. Hmmm. I disconnected the charge controller and did some testing with it only connected to the panel. 20-22v at the power in, fluctuating 3-4v at the power out. Ah ha! It's dead! I guess 5 years of nearly constant use, in a not very dry battery locker, was too much for it.<br />
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I drove down to the local RV place to see what they have. $150 for a controller capable of charging 4 banks of batteries, but only intended for dry applications. Uh, no, I don't think so. He did give me a website with the exact replacement (except with a blue case) for the dead Sunsei controller. I went home and did some research. There aren't many inexpensive (less than $150) options that are appropriate for a small sailboat. One option is the SunSaver line, which has all of the electronics sealed in epoxy. Perfect! Not waterproof but way better than the exposed breadboard on the Sunsei, so I ordered one.<br />
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This one looks to be "smarter" than the old one, plus it has an extra set of connections for a direct load from the solar panel. That will come in handy if/when I decide to put a powered vent in. A powered vent or fan won't get any light under the tarp in the winter but it will if it's hooked up to a solar panel. Hmmm.<br />
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Today I ran to Knechts for some wire, fuses, and connectors so I can hook things up. I've been mulling over the way the wires run from the battery in the v-berth, back to the stern battery compartment, then to the electrical panel. Everything is connected together, including the 120v Guest Charger that boils batteries, and I really don't like that. Plus it seems like an inordinately long run for no good purpose. The manual for the SunSaver calls for the controller to be within about 6 feet of the battery, which means it goes in the cabin. Sounds like a new wiring plan is needed. Here's what I came up with . . <br />
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I'm basically doing away with all of the connections in the stern except for the solar panel. The Guest Charger will come out, though I'll leave the 120v outlet and extension cord; those are handy when I need to run a shop vac or other 120v tool on the trailer. <br />
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Depending on the wire size, I'll either reuse the existing wire that runs from the stern to the battery for the solar panel or I'll replace the run with the 10AWG wire I bought today. I'll pull the original battery cables out and run them forward to the battery; I hope they'll be long enough that I can just reroute them without having to add an extension. That will give me a single run from the solar panel to the controller/battery and another, shorter, run from the battery to the main breaker panel. I think that will be more efficient and less prone to issues. I'll add fuses to both lines (battery/main panel and solar controller/battery) which should improve the overall safety of the system (there are no fuses now).<br />
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Should be an interesting adventure tomorrow . . .Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14860993511326142999noreply@blogger.com0