Collapsible Head

The bucket, lined with a biodegradable plastic bag, hangs from the board by its flange. The ring seat sits atop the board, cradling the flange. The bag gets tied after use and sealed inside another bag or container in the cockpit, to be taken ashore later. For solid waste only. Ring is yet to be finished (varnish, I think). It's all disassembled and put away after use, natch.

 

Anchors

 The green milk box in the background holds the anchor line. The 5 kilo main claw anchor is snugged under the shelf just ahead of the box. I snagged another, smaller claw anchor at the maritime flea market, to replace the grapple anchor, which I don't trust to stay open. The smaller claw is the secondary anchor and is kept with its own tackle under the cockpit seat, handy in case of emergency, the bitter end tied to the boat. The grapple may get used as well at some point, so it's not going anywhere.

Scuttlefish blog

This is one of my favourite blogs. Check out his entry about Stan Rogers:

http://thescuttlefish.com/2015/04/stan-rogers-barretts-privateers-and-the-20th-century-sea-shanty/

Race Rocks

I've been reading Bill Wolferstan's Cruising Guide to British Columbia, Vol. I: Gulf Islands (thanks for the loan, Jim!) and came across this interesting bit about the southern tip of Vancouver Island. I'm not sure I'll get there any time soon, as my thoughts go more toward the north, but it's a good read. I thought my brother Mike in Germany might enjoy it:

Race Rocks

    Race Rocks, the southernmost portion of Canada west of Ontario,was named by officers of the Hudson's Bay Company. Captain Kellett of the Royal Navy survey ship HMS Herald wrote in his journals in 1846: "This dangerous group is appropriately named, for the tide makes a perfect race around it". Over 35 vessels have experienced disaster over the years in the immediate vicinity of Race Rocks. Some of the more notable of these were the Nanette, a 385-ton barque which foundered only a few days before the light at the Rocks was first lit in 1860; the Rosedale which ran aground on Rosedale Reef in 1862; the Idaho, a total loss, the Rosamond, the Eemdyk, the tugs Hope and Tyee; and the steamer Sechelt (all 48 aboard drowned). All of these disasters occurred during the winter months, predominantly October to December.
    In addition to these larger vessels, a number of small craft have succumbed to the rip tides and breaking seas which sometimes build up around Race Rocks. The tide rips can be very deceptive. At times the strong currents cause only a ripple on the surface, but a passing freighter may send in a swell which meets the current at a certain angle causing huge breaking seas to develop without warning. The lightkeepers have rescued many who were close to disaster but were too late several years ago when a Cub sailboat went down just south of Rosedale Rock. All four aboard drowned.
    The 105-foot black and white striped lighthouse, one of the most distinctive and attractive lighthouses on the B.C. coast, is made from four-foot-thick granite blocks, cut, fitted and numbered in England, and brought around the Horn in 1858. This light and the Fisgard light outside Esquimalt were the first two lighthouses to be erected on the B.C. coast.
    On Christmas Eve, 1865, the first lightkeeper at Race Rocks, George Davis, watched helplessly as his brother, sister and three friends struggled and drowned before his eyes when their small boat overturned while trying to cross to the Rocks. His own boat had been carried away in a gale a few days previously so he was unable to go to their assistance. Davis (age 30) died within a year, many said, from grief.
    Race Rocks is also a fascinating area for diving (at slack water only) and for observing marine life. It is common to see up to 20 seals at one time, their heads bobbing in the current. Other visitors include the California sea lion basking on the smaller rocks, and stellar sea lions in passage. 

-p.108, Chapter 10 - Albert Head to Becher Bay

Here's what the chart looks like:

And here's where they are:

Coffee

I am fussy about coffee. I have a hand-cranked grinder on the boat for the beans. Here's how I made coffee last week (again, the green cast is from the boom tent):

I like a mug with a big handle. And it's good if it's insulated.

Boards work!

It wasn't a great day for wind, but I just had to try out the newly finished daggerboards, so I headed out two Sundays ago. There were lots of power boats stirring things up, and a number of big boats with lots of people on them roaring back and forth bothering the whales. I guess the whales were up to no good, so they had to be watched.

The boards worked great. I'm glad to finally be done with that project. Or should I say, that part of the project?

The wind was so fluky I couldn't make it out past Ogden Point pier without powering up the outboard. But once I got out, there was some wind for awhile before it died for the night.

Here's a little video of the best breezy bit:

I wanted it to show Mount Baker better, but the camera didn't do that.

Readier than Ever

Finished up the boards, finally! I can go sailing again.

My thanks once again to John for letting me use his space and materials. In exchange I helped him lay up one of his dinghies.

(In case you're wondering what that bandage is doing on the cockpit floor, it was where the table leg fit. I found that every valuable little thing I dropped on the floorboard found that hole. Lifting the floorboard requires first taking off the cockpit seat tops—too much work, thus the bandage.)

Since it's been so sunny lately I decided to try on the non-waterproof cockpit cover that came with the boat:

It uses the pvc hoops for extra spaciousness. It's open at the back, and doesn't go down as far as the rain cover, so there's more air flow. Lani says that, contrary to what I would have thought, a darker tarp is cooler underneath than a lighter one.

I made a cover for the iPad out of clear vinyl, to protect it from splash and rain. It kept ending up on the cabin floor before, so I fastened straps to the cabin door to hold it. This is the first iteration. Lots more vinyl to play with.

The doors look green 'cause the cover's on. The nail in the vise grips was for melting the holes in the webbing; heated with a mini-torch (but not on the cushion!).

Auto helm!

Yesterday was sunny, with a cool southerly onshore breeze of about 10 knots. We sailed close-hauled out toward Albert Head, where the wind picked up to about 15 knots. That was the first time I've gotten splashed by waves blown back from the bow. In gusts we were heading up to spill wind, and I had the mainsheet in my hand. We turned around and reached down towards Brotchie Ledge, reached back to McCaulay Point, then ran in to the harbour and doused sails in the lee of Berens Is. I never felt like the boat was out of control. The broad reach was a blast!

The Navionics app said we (Firefly and I) did 7.3 knots at one point on the reach toward Brotchie Ledge. Checking the Current Atlas, there would have been about a .5 to .75 knot current going with us, so we were going about 6.5 knots!

This video was shot on the outbound leg and shows Firefly sailing herself comfortably:

The music in the background of the video is Saint Germain's Tourist album playing on the iPad which is also recording my trip on the Navionics app.

Easter Sunday sail

Fantabulous Sail

Today the weather and my activities finally coordinated and I got out for a sail. The wind was 10-15 knots from the North, which—apart from being chilly (12º C)—is ideal for here, since there's no build-up of waves. Being an off-shore wind, there were calm spots and there were nice gusts.

Overtook and passed this 24' Shark:

Mind you, they were well inshore and therefore didn't have the wind I did, but then again I encountered great turbulence as I went closer to Brotchie Ledge. But of course, I had three sails and no lead weight to drag around.

Oh! hafta mention: good weather helm was happening! I don't know why it wasn't before. Maybe it was me.

Next shot is from the Navionics app on my iPad. This was the first time I'd used it at sea and it gave me gold cups for max speed yet (6.8 knots—take off a couple for current, I'd say), duration (2 hours 47min), and distance (10.3 nautical miles). I forgot to start it until I was at the harbour limit, and I don't know why it put in a dashed line from across the way before the start. I added the orange direction arrows using Skitch. She went to windward pretty well (tacked into the harbour).

Funny thing is, the people at two Apple stores and the Telus store told me the iPad doesn't even have GPS. Navionics says "Wi-Fi + 3G models use Wi-Fi, GPS and cellular towers." This is called assisted GPS and as far as I can determine is better than just plain GPS. Thanks to my friend Vladi, who insisted his older iPad worked just fine with Navionics, I persisted.

You can find a Navionics chart for the above (without my route on it, of course) at http://webapp.navionics.com/?lang=en if you want to check out the details. That was the first time I'd sailed along that west shore toward Esquimalt Harbour.

A nice touch was seeing my friends Marian and Wayne waving to me from the trailer park as I came in.

Boards Done!

I did two things to the boards, so I'm not sure which took away the vibration, but I remember Phil Bolger saying that shaping them more hydrodynamically was key. The first thing I did was to cut off the rounded tips. Then I modified the after edge so that it came to a point:

The edge at the bottom in the photo is the trailing edge. I ground it to about an eighth of an inch thick at the edge, ran the fibreglass past it on the first side, filled in the triangle with goop after that first side had hardened, and glassed the second side out over the gooped part. The result is a point that doesn't have wood in it, so if it gets dinged it won't let water inside. The boards slide in and out of the boxes easily now, since I also made a third adjustment: I smoothed out some of the bumps.

I'm so glad to be done with that part (well, almost: I do plan to paint them). I'm feeling like I can focus on sailing her now.

New Boom Tent

Oh, one more thing: I made a new boom tent, as the first one was shedding plastic dandruff all over me whenever I touched it. This one is laminated instead of woven, and promises to have UV resistance:

It's translucent.