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.

San Juan Islands 2013 - The Drive up and Day 1.

Well, we survived another week long sailing trip to the San Juans.  :)

We left around 10:00 AM and headed north toward Seattle.

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.

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.  http://www.pier61.com/ Nice view of Guemes Channel and good food.

Day 1

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.

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.

 

 

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.

Vacation!

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!

The 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.

Another day working on the boat

Noah 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.

Holes and epoxy and winches, oh my

Saturday 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.

Let 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*