Trip recap

OK.  Here we go.  A recap of the trip from Seattle to San Francisco.
Papa Fox, Jugurtha and myself  left Shileshole at 1300 the 12th of August.  We headed to the fuel dock and filled up.  Beautiful sunny day out.  No wind.  This would be the theme for the next couple of days.
We filled up and powered out of the marina heading for Port Townsend.  Made it into PT around 2100 or so and met up with Pete and Rachelle.
Rachelle made her newly famous "Stormy Margaritas" and then we had my always famous chili.  Right to bed after that.

 
The next morning we walked to the West Marine to get some line as I could not find my rigging bag.  This also would a running theme.  This boat is not that big but yet I am forever losing stuff.  I still cannot find the "wood crabs" (clothes pins).

Here we are going out the fairway.  Till next year Shileshole.  See ya!
Jugurtha went up the mast to install the new checkstays while we were in PT.
I am posting the picture below against my better judgement.  A present from Papa Fox.  

  Tuesday afternoon we started to motor to Neah Bay and got their around midnight.  No wind.  None.  At that point, the 14th of August we had motored a total of 18 hours.
Jugurtha fixed the wiring in the aft stateroom.  The reading light was wired weird.  While he did that, Papa Fox and I stitched the strope for the 3rd reef.   Papa Fox made <something> for dinner as the motor droned on, pushing us at 7 knots to NB.

Motoring to Port Townsend

We anchored in Neah Bay on about 100' of chain and waited for Pete and Rachelle to raft up on Appa.  They got into NB around 0100 or so.  We had a celebratory bottle of wine and then hit the rack.
In the morning we stayed on the anchor and made the lee clothes for the dinette area.  It took us 3 hours to get that thing installed.  Looked pretty good I thought.  We never tried it out to it's full potential though.  Only used half.  I think we regretted the decision to leave the table up and use just part of the lee clothes.  One more place to bunk might have helped when it got rough out.

The idea is that 2 people could sleep in this area with all the crap at their feet.
Jen got to NB at 1500 on the 14th and we started to unload the truck and load the boat.  Bag after bag made it's way onto Appa.  Food and gear for 6 people is a lot of stuff.
Prior to Jen's arrival, we fueled up Appa.  60 gallons in the main tank with another 16 gallons on reserve.
Jen left about 1700 or so and we started to load the dinghy on the deck and make everything ready to go for the trip south.
Chris bought a salmon from the fishermen next to us and Papa Fox filleted it and I cooked that baby on the grill.  Veggies along the salmon.  Holm had his vegan eatings and all was good.

Getting the tender on the foredeck

Chris and his "catch".

The travellers.  Non Sequitur and Appa

The crew together the night before we leave.

The morning of the 15th was cloudy and foggy.  Non Sequitur left at some point in the early morning and we shoved off about 0930 or so.  We immediately had to use the radar.  Once out of the bay area and about one mile offshore the fog lifted a bit and we could stand down the lookout on the bow.  Thanks Chris!

No wind once again and I set the Perkins to run at 2000 RPM.  We wouldn't shut it off for 24 hours.

Cape Flattery

Someone on the crew got seasick right off the bat.  I found these old Air Canada barf bags.  They came into use.

Heading south till butter melts.
More tomorrow.  This bloggerating is exhausting.

That San Francisco treat

Details later but we are here.

Look what I found

Found these in the aft head. Lol! Previous owner was a Canadian.

Turning left at Tatoosh!

Its 1052 in the am and we are motoring at 6.5 knots with SOG of 5.4kts.  No wind and lumpy out here. Sounds like we are going to be motoring for a day or so. Ugh.
Spirits high. Crew well. Papa Fox feeding us. Had salmon fresh off the boat yesterday. This morning scrambled eggs with more salmon.
We are off tatoosh right now!
I feel very lucky to have such good friends helping us get Appa down the coast.
Crew is papa fox, Holm, Rich, Chris, Max and me.
Still waiting for the blue blue water of the Pacific! Doing from phone so it is hard to type. More later.

Well, I am writing this at 2237 on Tuesday the 13th of August.  I am trying to be very aware of my feelings right now.  I am getting a chance to do something that most don't do.  Make no mistake if it wasn't for having a very very understanding wife and some great kids, I wouldn't be in the middle of the Strait of Juan de Fuca writing this.  Yesterday was a big day and I tried to soak it in.  It was like the first day of summer break back in elementary school.  You just knew that it was going to be over sooo fast.
Jugurtha is on watch at the moment and we are headed to Neah Bay. We left Port Townsend at the crack of noon and have been motoring since.  No wind to speak of.  This is better than what has been going on though.  During the past couple weeks they have had 35 knots of west wind tearing down the Strait with big waves.  Nah.  I'll take this.  Flat water and motoring at 8 knots.
 Neah Bay is one of those areas that most NW sailors know about.  They wait for a good weather window and then jam on down the coast to San Fran or San Diego. That is exactly what we are going to do.  The crew is going to meet us tomorrow around 1400 or so.  Load the boat, go over safety stuff and then eat.  After that we'll hang out and talk weather.  Friday morning, if the Gods see fit, we'll flash up the motor and poke Appa's nose out into the Pacific Ocean.  I can't wait for that blue water.
We left Shileshole on Monday the 12th under bright, beautiful skies.  Had a lot of running around to do so we didn't push off the dock till around 1300 or so.  Got in to PT at 1945 after an uneventful day of motoring.  Met up with Pete and Rachelle off of Non Sequitur and had dinner.  I made chili and they did fish and veggies.  Damn good but then food always tastes better on a boat.
This morning we did some boat projects and then walked to West Marine to get some line.  It appears that my rigging bag decided that it did not want to come along and is nowhere to be seen.  Grrr.
So boat projects.  Jugurtha wired the aft cabin reading light up correctly so when the deck lights are on, the reading light does not also come on (love French wiring).  Ran the checkstays up the mast.  Taped up the area where the mast goes down into the cabin.  Sewed the strope on the mainsail.  Various other jobs.  Nice day.
Tomorrow we will rig the lee clothes in the main cabin and get fuel.  That is about it.
I wish I could add some photos from today.  Google is not updating my photo account with the photos that I took today.  So here are a couple of other ones.
More photos when Google decides to release them.

Samey keeping the windows clean.

 

Pressure gauge for the fuel system

Trying to use some dead space in the boat lockers

My good friend Chris helping out by staying at the top of the mast for about one hour while I royally screwed up the wind indicator.  

Aluminum+Stainless steel=@#@$%#^!!!!

I am bleeding as I type this.  Cut myself fighting this stainless steel and aluminum monster.

That bastard in the photo above is my genoa car with sheave.  It is from 1991 or so I imagine.  Plenty of time to learn how to piss me off. Harken makes something similar still but they are about $900 apiece.  The sheaves on both my cars are shot.  The sheave will try but only with  a lot of help.
See that blue box under the car.  That holds the ball bearings in when it is not on the track.  Of course I know this after I took the other car off.  Ball bearings everywhere.  Grrr.  Being in a rush as usual and not thinking.  Dumb.
Anyway, I emailed Harken and found out that they will sell me sheaves for the low low sum of $266 each.  Crazy marine prices.  Part number 608 in case you were wondering.  So they come in on Friday.
I am currently STILL trying to get the sheave off the other block.

 That bolt is stuck on there.  Corroded.

If you zoom in you can see that the plate is stuck on the stainless steel part.  I think if I was able to have Thor slam on it with his hammer, that might dislodge this damn bolt.  I hacksawed through the other side of this thing.  That took about 10 minutes and 3 blades.
The photo below is the evil twin of the one above.  20 minutes of hacksawing to get that out.  5 blades also.  That bolt is 3/8" and is it strong.  See how the bolt is welded in the sheave.  No amount of hammering is going to fix that.

I put the dinghy wheels on.  That was an exercise in total frustration.  The stern of our Mercury dinghy is unlike most.  Of course.  So I had to remove some hardware from the dinghy to put this hardware on.  I had to epoxy the old holes and then I had to screw up drilling the new holes.  Filled those in and drilled again.
It seems that no matter what I am mounting, if it has screw holes in it, I mess it up royally.  Finally got those bastards on the back of the dinghy and one more thing checked off the list.

 Supposedly those wheels are going to save us backache and time.  Put the wheels down and the motor can stay lowered and the wheels protect the prop from hitting.  Unless you run up on a lone boulder that saddles those wheels.  When I do that, I post a picture.
I am officially on sabbatical now.  No more work.  No more money coming in only going out.  This will be interesting.

The going away cake from the gang at work

Next up I have to insulate the reefer and freezer better and then I have to finally get insurance for the boat that will cover us while in Mexico.  It is harder than you think.  Most insurance companies want three people on the boat with "blue water experience".  Which is what exactly?  None of the brokers can give me a satisfactory answer.  They ask where have you sailed and they say that counts or it doesn't count.  They don't ask for proof either.  At least not yet.  I have a couple emails out and we'll see what they say.

I do more!

I do more!!  That is what my daughter says when she wants to do more fun things.  I am not sure if I'd consider boatwork to be a fun thing but I could think of worse.......maybe not.  Working on boats would be outlawed by the Geneva Convention as cruel and unusual punishment.  It is a form of torture for sure.

We went to Whidbey Island via the car for the 4th of July and had a great time.  Pete and Rachelle showed up and we drank some beers and blew stuff up.

That blow up real good!  Man I loved SCTV,

Gingerbread sparkler that scared the hell out of Sam.

I spent about $300 on fireworks.  Got a bunch of sparklers and the like.  Also some mortars and some other cool rockets.  Lots and lots of fun. Kids had a blast also.

Staking our spot on the beach

Trying out the shirt that Grandma got her

I put the speedseal on however....

I put the new Speedseal plate on the raw water intake pump and noticed that it only has 4 holes whereas my old one had six,  Speedseal even sent me 6 screws.  Now this part has been sitting in the nav station desk for 3 months now.  I just got around to installing it.  I fired an email off to Speedseal and we'll see what they say.  It doesn't leak now and it is a very slick setup.
Before installing the Speedseal, I changed out the positive wire for the engine starter.  The engine never really cranked over with vigor and i have always suspected the cable.  What with it's crappy crimps and extra long length not to mention the laughable gauge (4 gauge I think).  I put in a 0 gauge and shortened it by 4 feet.  That starter cranks now.  Have to look at the engine mounts to make sure I didn't crack them.  Hit the starter and BOOM! that engine was running.

Much bigger cable to the starter.  No hesitation starting that Perkins now.

Hard to see but there is a bald eagle in the photo

We saw Huey Lewis and the News on the 7th of July at the Zoo

Went to see Huey Lewis and the News at the Zoo by our house with some friends last Sunday.  Great concert.  Walked there and back.  Even stopped at our neighborhood bar on the home.  Good times.

I took the kids and my parents to the SYC Port Madison outstation Saturday to give Jen a break.  We spent the night and had a great walk in the morning to the beach.  About a 3 mile round trip walk.  Sam made it about 3/4 of the way and wanted to be carried.

Here is Ben flying around in the bosun's chair.  It is his new favorite thing.  Spends about an hour up there at a crack.  I have been tying the halyard off on the bosun's chair rather than use the shackle as I didn't want him to accidentally open it and fall.  Problem with that is the halyard twists and twists and then the block at the head of top of the mast flips over and jams the halyard.  So Ben went to the top of the mast and fixed it.  He liked being 70 feet in the air he told me.  You can't rip a bandaid off of him because it hurts too much but he'll go to the top of the mast on questionable halyards.

Sam is finally warming up to the dinghy.  Now she wants to go fast and the minute we get somewhere I start hearing the cries of "I want to go fast in the dinghy!"

These are the mounts that I bought from Defender for the solar panels.  Pretty slick, eh?  After I mounted the panels, I went to see a buddy's boat and he had the same mounts.  I'm not as slick as I think I am.

Got these 2 140W panels installed on July 5th and haven't been plugged into shore power yet.  The batteries haven't been down much either so the panels aren't really getting much of a work out.  I've seen 15 amps going in at one point but the batteries go to float pretty quick and the amps drop down.  I like what I see though.