Back to Hidden Harbour

I really enjoyed sailing out of Oak Bay. I met a number of friendly, interesting and active sailors; the area is great for sailing in—except for the currents and all the reefs, which can be learned; and the marina facilities are good. I'm not keen on Starbucks coffee, but the café is a good place to meet up, and the food is good. 

But I found I just wasn't getting to the boat as often as I wanted to, because it required driving through town and was a bit far to cycle. I found myself not going because I knew I'd be coming back through rush hour traffic. Mind you, it was still not a bad situation; mostly it's about me wanting not to drive as much as possible, or cycle in traffic at night.

So I checked back with Jim at Hidden Harbour in case he had a slip available. He did, so I took it. Now my boat is a twenty minute walk from home.

Here we are leaving Oak Bay:

 

The following video was taken as we passed the Robson Reef marker opposite the Oak Bay Beach Hotel. The wind was 10-15 knots from the North and the tide was falling, so we had both wind and a good bit of current going our way. That marker just flew by. The water looks a lot calmer than it was.

The next video is for Robin, the designer and builder of the boat, who still likes to sail her, but now from his chair. :-) All the best to you, Robin! Firefly was just screaming along under main and jib only, and coming into a lot of chop from the currents. It's actually the tail of the video above, so in the same area. Again, things look calmer than they really were. The noises of the waves slapping the hull are accentuated, though, so it sounds like there was a lot of banging.

I find that the mizzen complicates things on a run in a fresh breeze, and can make steering too exciting for me, so I de-power it by lifting the boom up to the mast with the topping lift.

After we gybed around Gonzales Point (where the golf course is), the wind started to settle down, so I set the mizzen. The following photo is looking back at Harling Point:

The next video is not too much farther along; approaching Clover Point:

Near the end, looking to port, the Olympic Mountains in Washinton State are in the far left background. The Sooke Hills start rising up from Race Rocks and we can see some of Metchosin. Race Rocks are where you turn the corner around the bottom of Vancouver Island to head out to the ocean.

Something I noticed on this trip is that I have a hard time seeing the luff of the jib, which is usually what I sail by, heading down when it starts luffing. I think part of the problem is that I'm so far back of the mast that the luff of the jib is almost in line with it. Sailing from the leeward side, the belly of the main gets in the way. Maybe if the boom were higher it would be better. Something to think about as far as a possible new sail is to make sure the boom is higher up.

I ended up firing up the engine at McLoughlin Point, as the wind was right on the nose and the Victoria Clipper was coming out, thus ending a very satisfying sail of about two hours. We were able to find our new slip fine on our first water entry to Hidden Harbour marina, where Firefly spent a couple months in the parking lot last winter. 

This trip was a historical event for me, as it was the first voyage in Firefly in which I didn't come back to the starting point! A real voyage through unknown waters—yahoo! 

I'm still learning how to sail Firefly, and I expect it'll take awhile. I'm in no rush, but it would be nice to have enough familiarity with and confidence in her to do a little cruise in the summer! Then there's all the anchoring part to figure out...

The new berth:

Notice we're close to the ramp (upper right):

This is what the weather looked like the next day at Oak Bay:

Goodnight, little Firefly!

Christmas day sail

Almost didn't go out. Jim (of s.v. Gout) convinced me. Here I was on a nice sunny Christmas day in my boat. How could I not go out sailing in it (the boat/the day)? How many people have that luxury? The wind was northish, light and patchy (not enough wind, I had thought), but we sailed well, Firefly and I. We went out about 12:30, got back by 3:30.

Passed Phil coming in as I was going out. He was still under sail; I was just setting mine & dousing the engine.

  

The upwind sail was excellent, except I found that the new boards chatter on the windward side—presumably because they're too thin and don't fill the slots. They do slide in and out really easily, which is nice. Thinking they might be too thin yet, I had brought a nice long wedge with me. Putting it between the the top of the board and the case didn't help, of course, 'cause they're so long and the torque is all from below. The plan is to flood-coat the weave, then finish with a layer of gel coat. That may make the boards thick enough to stick in the slots enough to keep them from chattering. If not—maybe another layer of 6-oz cloth?

The following video shows the new daggerboard on the starboard side, as well as the jib sheet lead and cleat set-up. My one wedge is installed here as well. The sheet leads and cleats work great, by the way.

This photo might show the setup better than the above video does, with less drama:

This video lets you hear what the chattering sounds like and also see my extension tiller attachment which needs tidying up:

What I discovered this time sailing was NO LEE HELM! Yay! Don't know why it was different. Because the boards are a few inches longer? The helm was mostly neutral, with the occasional slight weather helm. Definitely no fighting with the tiller here.

I got out to the middle of Baynes Channel, between Ten Mile Point and Strong Tide Islet, past the far weed bed, and realized the current was taking me out very quickly and the wind was dying, so I headed back. On the run back, once out of that current, I had my pb&j sandwich and bemoaned the fact that I'd taken my espresso pot home in some previous act of insanity. Had all the fixins but the pot, and I wasn't going to make just any old coffee in a regular pot, dammit!

On the run back from Ten Mile Point I took the boards out. I wanted to see if speed or handling would be different. Of course I didn't notice much on the run itself (no way to compare), but as I turned the corner into the space between A and B fingers I noticed she wasn't responding well to the tiller. Then I noticed she was drifting into someone's lifted outboard prop, so I quickly slid the starboard daggerboard in, and made it past. She still seemed to be drifting! Over-steering worked. The main came down just before we reached our slip, and we barely had enough way on to turn in to the slip. The mizzen had been de-powered as we were coming by the gas dock, by pulling the boom up against the mast with the topping lift.

The run home to the barn:

A nice way to spend Christmas day!

Boards glassed

First, a photo of Victoria Harbour entrance, late afternoon, late fall, from the shore of Lime Bay near Spinnakers (lat 48.428964, long 123.384120).

4:38 pm, December 9, sun is setting into the Olympic Mountains across Juan de Fuca Strait from Victoria. Harbour control tower is the button on top of the square building at the far left (Victoria Harbour is an aerodrome). To the immediate right of that is a Coast Guard vessel.

Last week I saw a nice cruising rowboat, so I took photos of it:

The owner/designer/builder happened by before I left, so I talked with him a bit. He calls it the Westshore-18. Sliding seat, carbon fibre oars, large fore hatch. He said he built it near Sidney and recently moved, and it's not in production, but should be soon. We discussed changing out the channels that the sliding seat runs in for some sort of inverted form, so they don't collect debris. I hope he does produce it, because it looks great to me.

I've recuperated now from organizing a Christmas dinner for 50 residents and their guests where I live.

So I took my boards back to John's and rounded over the edges. The router with a round-over bit didn't do what I wanted, so I used the grinder...

...and lots of 40-grit sandpaper (hence the glove)...

...and a round file to get into the notch.

Then the boards were saturated both sides with polyester resin and left to dry. They're now glassed on both sides with 6-oz cloth and polyester resin:

I think the notch will get some extra glass mat. But first I plan to test them on the boat to see how they fit. They'll get a final gel coat to finish them off.

(Update 27 Dec: Corrected Haro Strait to Juan de Fuca Strait in 2nd para.)

Record high + snow

Victoria airport hit a record high for November 27 of 17ºC on Thursday.

That was also the highest temperature in Canada for the day.

And then, on Saturday the 29th, this:

(No, that's not ice on the surface of the water; just ripples.)

Good to see the boom tent is working!

New boards

First off, here's our weather this afternoon. It was cloudy and rainy but calm earlier, now Oak Bay looks like this:

Yesterday I got the daggerboards cut out:

The cardboard was more for spacing than final form.

Final form of the bottom came from drawing with a compass on the board.

They're ⅝" exterior grade ply, good one side. John took one look at the board and said, "That's a skinny ⅝!" And he's right, it's more like 9/16". I'm intending to put a good bit of polyester resin (and 6-oz cloth) on each side, so I'm okay with them being a little "skinny", as now I won't be worried about making the boards too thick to fit in the slots.

Daggerboard blues

Went and checked the boat a few days ago. She was dry as a bone, dock lines and bungees showing no wear despite recent strong winds. I didn't stay long, so didn't take the boom tent off, just lifted the corner to get in. I enjoy being inside with the setting sun making things bright:

 

I noticed, last time I used the daggerboards, that after I took them out, one of them wept for awhile, water streaming out from under the layer of glass cloth.

So I took it to John's and ground off the glass cloth. I found that much of it was no longer fastened to the plywood.

My key just dove in. Time to build another daggerboard!

John sold me some ¾" ply. It had a bit of a wow in it, so I just cut it out rough to try it before going any farther, in case the wow would jam it.

I took it to the boat to test it out and found that it sticks in the slot. I'm not sure if it's because of the thickness or the wow. So my plan is to get some ⅝" ply and give it a good layer of glass each side. This will make it strong enough, yet still thin enough to not stick in the slot. I'll just make one for now, to see how it goes. If it goes well, I'll do the other, too. I'd like to round the bottom, get rid of those corners.

Meanwhile, no sailing happening!

Bungee cords, anchor rode

Yesterday the wind hit 56 kph from the WSW (240º) at 4 pm. I was at my boat then, and saw that she's quite protected from that direction. There was a lot of shrieking and halyard-banging coming from the rigging of the larger boats on the more exposed docks. The water off the Island was all big whitecap waves.

What I've noticed is that there's a fair bit of movement of the docks and the boat, and the boat was getting jarred when its motion was stopped by the dock lines. I didn't want my cleats pulled out, so yesterday I got some solid rubber bungee cords and put them on (photos are from today). 

Bow dock lines:

The loops in the dock lines are lineman's loops.

 

The port aft bungee cord was too long, so I replaced the inboard hook with some light line and fastened it to a cleat. I may just get a smaller bungee:

The starboard aft one was the perfect size to hook into the eye bolt that I installed for the corner of the boom tent. Both of these aft ones were hooked to the eye splice on the dock end of the dock lines.

 

I like the next photo for the reflections:

The bungee cords worked great: there was no jarring as dock lines hit the end of their extensions in that big wind. And they were still attached today when I went.

Yesterday I also repositioned the cam cleats that I'd installed on the boom for the jiffy reefing, using small horn cleats for that instead. I realized that I needed the cam cleats more for the jib sheets than for the jiffy reefing. 

Port side:

Starboard side:

Today I also put the mizzen back on. You can see it in two of the photos above. I took it off because of a storm forecast last week or so, and put it back on today thinking I might go sailing. But no wind. So, because of seeing how protected the spot is, I left it on. It's too much of a hassle to take off and put back on again, and I don't think it's going to come to harm.

The other thing I did today was to attach the small grapple anchor to the 150' or so of poly 3-strand. This is for an emergency so I at least have something ready to heave over. The 5 kg claw (Bruce) will need its own line. I'm thinking of getting nylon for that.

I tied the bitter end to an eye under the deck and handed the line into a bag. It's kept under one of the cockpit seats so it's handy. I didn't use a shackle because the shackle is supposed to be the weakest link—but really because I didn't think it through. However, there are still a couple of shackles there: one holding some ⅜" chain to the anchor, and one between the ⅜" and the ¼" chain that you see above—so I could use this line with the big anchor if I wanted.

Andrew's photos

Thanks to Andrew Madding for some nice photos of Firefly on the water with all sails set. These are from October 19, a mostly calm day. As Andrew was passing by shooting (unbeknownst to me), I was working on rigging up the latest iteration of the jib sheet lead.

The telephoto makes it look like an entirely different place!

On one side, the Oak Bay Beach Hotel,

And on the other, cormorants, the sea,

and mountains...

 

Every nice day since, unfortunately, I've had other things needing to be done.