Day Two

From the log book:

The day started out a bit gloomy, with dark grey clouds scudding along the US side. I got up around 6:30. Had 2 eggs & one slice of bread with jam. I forgot the salt! Tasted okay anyway. Followed by coffee. I also forgot the canned milk! I have a bit of coffee mate, so I'm using that sparingly.
     Almost felt like staying put, but decided to check out the NW side of the eastern Chatham Island, to see what Wolferstan was talking about. I found it not such a good-looking anchorage to my eye; maybe for a big keel boat, but too open.
     The space between the east & west Chathams was interesting, full of seals hauled out on the rocks (why don't I think to take photos? too busy) but more of a wind funnel than Puget Cove.
     Decided to go around to the west side of the western Chatham to check it out. Nothing there worth mentioning. A dock for workers to tie to, for servicing the towers.
     Jim had mentioned that the west side of Sidney Island had a nice cove for anchoring, so I decided to go and check it out. I didn't think that Sidney Spit would afford much shelter from the wind in this SWerly.
     Before I left the Chathams I stopped in a little cove and put a reef in the main, then headed out under main alone. It was a long sail from the Chathams. The wind was quite strong, whitecaps all over, tidal rips here and there. The GPS said I was going over 5 knots at times.

     About three-quarters way to Sidney Island (red circle above) I ran over some kelp I hadn't spotted, which stressed the rudder and broke the downhaul line! Eek, no rudder suddenly! I let the sail go and we broadsided for awhile. No waves came aboard.

     Fortunately I was able to pull the pin that goes through the top pintle to keep the rudder from coming up, and got the rudder into the boat. Replaced the downhaul line with stronger stuff, put the rudder back on, and amazingly enough was able to replace the pin.
     After that I was knackered, and I remembered Phil saying that he stayed behind d'Arcy Island one night, so I went around to check it out. I thought I might stay the night, but it wasn't a good spot for that with this wind. (I think I got the wrong spot.) So I anchored and had lunch: cheese & jam on bread + coffee. Felt a little ill; whether from stress or sun, I'm not sure.

The cove is just beyond the anchored boat.

     Headed out along the eastern side of Sidney Island and found the cove that Jim had mentioned. It's perfect as far as being calm, but there's still lots of wind in gusts. Set the anchor around 3:30.

The cove is just west of bird poo (Mandarte) island.

Private wharf, Mandarte in the distance.

About the reefing problem

This is what I did to ensure the sail stays on the track when I reef: I added a piece of track over the stainless bar that holds the two sides of the tabernacle together. It means I have to take it off before I lower the mast, so I used only two screws. There's no sail pressure on it; it's just for holding the sliders when they're not being used. It means a little extra work when lowering the mast, but I think it's worth it.

First Voyage

From the log book:

First Day

Left Hidden Harbour at 2:25 pm. Wind moderate from SW. Sea lumpy. Tide falling.

Went outside Trial Island. Big waves! Very big waves, from wind and tide. Rounded the bottom of Discovery Island and came into calmer water, but really gusty winds off the island. I was spilling wind from the main, so I took it down and motor-sailed under jib & mizzen into the cove between Alpha/Griffin and Discovery.

Anchored in Puget Cove. Nice little cove but windy. My first anchoring! The boat is now sailing around, tethered to the anchor. The wind comes up through the slough to the south.

This pic was to reference my position to check for anchor drag at some later time.

Nice west coast forest & rock. No trespassing.

Looking East toward the U.S. Many freighters passed out there.

I used my lead line to test for depth and it's about 10', going up another 2' by 11 pm, then down 6' by 6:30 am.

Lead line with 1-lb fishing weight lead, marked in fathoms (to 4). Packs in bag.

Anchor & rode in green box. Anchor goes over the side, attaches to painter.

Supper was wieners & beans which I'd frozen in a ziploc. Then a piece of bread and honey for dessert. 

Used the Whisperlite with the new fuel pump. I like it better than the propane stove because it's not as scorching hot.

I took the sails off and furled the mizzen 'cause I don't want anything flapping around. 

Took the daggerboards out 'cause they were too noisy. 

The sleeping bag is excellent. 

Next time:

- Bring bird book, knot book, zoom camera. 
- Salt & pepper!
- Canned milk!

- Print out relevant parts of Murphys for easier access.

48.4394° N, 123.245° W

Lights!

I bought a 12-volt LED bow light for Firefly and thought it would be pretty easy to install.

Well, it was pretty easy to install the light itself... but the wiring of it wasn't so easy! First-off, I learned that I shouldn't just use any old wire, but rather proper marine-grade stuff. The difference? Each strand of copper is tinned! So it looks like it's aluminum or something.

I started with the switch. I used a part from the portable stern light that I got; I had no idea what it was for, but after pulling out the threaded insert and drilling the hole out a bit, it was perfect for holding the switch:

John helped me solder the leads to it, one of which was for the fuse. The switch is on the starboard side of the companionway. I've since written "OFF" to the left with magic marker, as it's "ON" in the above photo.

I led the wire forward along the cabin side and through the forward bulkhead to the "focsl", where I tied it in to a post set-up I made. I'm not sure if it's kosher, but it's what came to mind to do, rather than having wires just hanging around (enough of that already!):

 There was a lot of head-banging and cussing involved in putting this together. As I lay on my back trying to squeeze myself into the bows I was always sliding down aft. Looking up, I had the flashlight hanging in the lines you see going across below, and my glasses on upside-down so the bifocal reading part of the lenses was up. Barely workable, but got it done!

The wire leading down to the left above goes to the battery,

a 12-V gel cell that John donated to the cause. It's now turned around and firmly squished in between that water tank in the bows and another cube of water between it and the mast. It's not going anywhere! Notice that it's a "sacred" battery—don't know what I did to deserve that! ;-)

Lights on!

For the stern light, as I mentioned above, I bought a portable one that operates on 4 "AA" batteries. It came with a post and a clamp and some other stuff that was undocumented. I thought I'd be using the clamp (to clamp the post to the boat), but after trying it out I considered it too mickeymouse, so I made my own post holder at John's out of fibreglass:

I just happened to have a screw that tapped into one of the holes in the bottom of the post!

I didn't go with a portable bow light because of access to the bow being so restricted—I didn't want to have to be going forward to set it up or turn it on and off. But the stern light is a no-brainer for that. It will be stowed until needed.

Of course the rudder won't be up when the light will be in use, but I may consider putting a window in the mizzen.

Another project completed was finishing the bottom edges of the boom tent and putting extra loops on so that the edges could be tied from higher up, for summer air flow-through:

The sides of the boom tent can now be either up a foot, or down closer to the deck. It sure makes a big difference in comfort, having the sun blocked out of the cockpit!

Roughest day

Sheesh! That guy from a couple posts back was so right about the waters around here. ("It's that insane dirty dancing of wind and tide that makes you wish the band would just go home.")

The wind was a nice SSW 12-13 knots...

but it was dirty dancing with the tide, so it was really bouncy. Going to windward was slow but steady, and once I got half-way to Albert Head the wave action settled somewhat.

But then near Albert Head the wind freshened and I felt overpowered a couple of times, ragging the main. So I reefed, for the first time on the water.

I got the tack and clew down eventually (need to get cam cleats!), and went into the cove on the north side of Albert Head for calm water to tie in the reef points I couldn't reach from the cockpit. Once again I considered junk rig... but, so much work to make it happen!

The run home, with the mizzen furled, was bumpy and fairly fast. I've discovered that the wave action in videos looks much tamer than it is in reality. Wind here is about 16 knots. The boat is quite dry and handles waves well without shipping any—in a word: buoyant.

View from the shore (notice "SSW 17 kts gusting to 20 kts"):

Roughest day. Nothing broke.

Saturday sail

Friday was too windy, but Saturday looked like it was shaping up nicely. I got out in about 8 knot winds, way over by Witty's Lagoon. I noticed that the tide was sweeping me toward Race Rocks quite swiftly, and the wind was getting a little iffy, so I headed back. Three cruise ships came along at the same time. This one threw up some fierce waves, and then the wind, which was supposed to have built nicely to 15 knots, quit. So I motored home.

It happened that David Bowie's Cat People (Putting Out Fire) was on my sound system. It wasn't intentional, honest!  :-)

Almost forgot to say that the jib telltales are working much better:

I made a little button and button hole with some whipping thread and a dowel, to capture the jib downhaul so the telltales don't get caught in it, just forward of the bottom telltale.

Why I didn't go out on Friday

In a word: WIND!

Kite and sailboarders had a great time.

Race to Alaska

The qualifying first leg has been completed, and most of the boats have made it in. (I don't have any info on the strictly person-powered boats.) The wind was SW around 18 knots against a fairly strong ebb tide. The people I talked to said it was wet and cold. The first boat, Team Golden Oldies in their 38′ Crowther super Shockwave, arrived around 8:45am. Oops! I just found the results page; they arrived at 9:18. The Victoria Team Mau for whom John built a pedal drive came in 6th—good show!

Here's what Dirk Visser said about the Strait on the SCA blog:

"The 40 miles from PT to Victoria can be nothing but a rippled millpond, or possibly the sternest test you have ever faced as a mariner. Any local waterman will confirm: 'It's big water'.
Back in the day, planning a run to Neah Bay or La Push we used to just say to each other with a shrug of the shoulders, 'the Straits can always be rough!'.
It's that insane dirty dancing of wind and tide that makes you wish the band would just go home. On one ocassion I can remember the relief of just getting out to the open, unprotected, Pacific Ocean!"

Here's my only good photo of the fleet in the Inner Harbour on Friday afternoon.

I don't know what team this boat above is, but I know I've seen it written about. It has tandem sliding seat rowing units; one person per oar, it looks like. Many of the multihulls had a similar set-up, with a sliding seat on each outer hull. I enjoyed that it has twin daggerboards, just like my boat does! They're flat on the outside and foiled on the inner side, in rectangular (why not shaped?) boxes. All high-tech hardware and rigging, including a carbon fibre bowsprit.

Here's the Race to Alaska web site. They start the main course Sunday at noon.

Back to Firefly

I finally got the new rudder blade finished! I installed it yesterday. Unfortunately, I was so wrapped up in the experience I forgot to take photos (what else is new?). Suffice to say one would have great trouble distinguishing it from the old blade in a casual viewing. The downhaul arrangement is different, though: I fabricated and attached a stop so that the blade can only go so far around when it's down. This will mean much better performance, and hopefully fewer or no vibrations from the engine (too long a story to go into here).

Now, to get out there and try it out!

Um... what happened to all that great wind we were having??