Day Three

Bad night last night. Too much shakin' goin' on. I'd just start to doze, when some waves would hit and shake me awake.

     I'd looked at the current atlas for best homeward (ebb) tide, and it showed early, early. I decided that, if I got up in time, and if the weather was good for it, I'd head home.

     Woke up to rain in the night, then woke again later because all was too calm. The wind had died completely, after shifting to more from the west. The water was darkly glassy.

     Woke up at five and decided this was it: I was going home. Had a slice of bread with pb&j, made a pb&j sandwich and put it in a baggie for lunch later, handy to the door.

     Filled the small gas can with the great spout, after emptying its contents into the engine.

     The bottom of the cove was clearly visible, with my anchor line in white showing clearly, snaking around through the thick leaves of sea weeds. There was a rock that showed, 100 yards or so to the east, that wasn't visible at the higher tide. Lucked out on that one! I put the daggerboards in and weighed anchor, fired up the engine and headed out at 5:40.

     Went south back the way I'd come, except this time I stayed to the east of d'Arcy Island, in the main tidal bore. The tank of gas took me past the Chathams. I didn't want to be running out at an importune time, so I put more gas in once I was inside Oak Bay. Kept motoring past Gonzales Point (golf course) and through Enterprise Channel (Trial Island), where the current from the rising tide was already against me. The tide here generally ebbs in the morning and floods in the afternoon.

     The gas ran out off Holland Point, and I had a bit of a time getting the engine started again after it'd run dry, but eventually up she fired and off we went. I've grown to appreciate the engine.

     Lots of fisher people were out, off Oak Bay (photo above) and at the entrance to Victoria Harbour. The Coho had to slow down to get through the rag-tag fleet.

     I almost fell asleep after Clover Point, as I was so tired. When I finally got to the dock I had a headache and everything was moving. The return was four and a quarter hours of solid motoring. I packed a few clothes and headed home. 

     Slept an hour; expected to sleep three. It was a very deep sleep. Had cereal and two coffees, wrote an email, caught up on some web stuff, and came back to the boat to sort things out and clean up some. Now it's raining. I just put the green boom tent up. Time to pack up the food and head home again. 

     Very nice to be back at a sleepy dock again! Things don't move quite so much.

14° Nearby Fog

Salish Sea, BC, Canada

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!