Time to give love to the ground tackle

Well, now that it is the turn of the year, I use this occasion to trigger many of my offseason maintenance projects. Most recently, I pulled out all my ground tackle to give it some love after a hard year of use and abuse.

For me this entails pulling out all the chain and line and detaching the chain at both ends from the anchor and the 3 strand. This top photo is the ground tackle laying beside Aeolus on the dock. I do this to switch the ends of the chain, so one side isn't always getting the abuse. Since I mark my chain with colored cable ties for depth markings this means I have to cut all those off and remark the chain with the proper depths in the new direction.

The most fun is cutting off the 3 strand splice and re-splicing it to the chain. It is so much fun to splice lines and I got to sit on the deck of Aeolus on a rare sunny morning last week and do it up just nice and pretty.

As part of this I actually cut down my chain a bit as I had about 220 feet plus 150 of 3 strand, and have yet to come anywhere near the chain alone. So I cut off 20 feet of chain and now have a total of 350 feet of total capacity. My chain is 3/8 BBB and my line is 5/8 3 strand. Primary anchor is 35 lb CQR that has never dragged or caused any concern. This ground tackle lets me go 5:1 in 70 feet of water, and in our local cruising waters we have no need for more than that. Especially since our tackle is oversized to begin with, it is rare even in a good blow that I have used more than 3:1, and again I have never dragged even in 40 knot blows at Sidney Spit or near Sooke in BC.

The anchor locker on a Gulf 32 is just big enough to accomodate this amount of tackle. You can just see my lovely Lofrans Tigres windlass at the side of this photo. Anyway, it is great to have the tackle in great shape and be changing filters and everything else as part of the winter projects. We hope to get out for a quick sail tomorrow, on 1/1/09, to start the year off right.

We had an absolutely amazing sailing year in 2008. A quick list of destinations would include: countless trips to Jones Island, trips to Portland Island, many trips to Stuart Island, Spencer Spit, Sidney Spit, Victoria, Beecher Bay, Oak Harbor, Saanich Inlet and Todd Inlet, South Pender and gosh other places that don't immediately jump to mind. We sure pass a lot of water under her keel considering we are not full-time cruising.

Frozen Friday Harbor

As all residents of the NW can attest, it has been a bitter cold spell around these parts. Temperatures many nights around 12-15 and highs in the lower 20's. For the islands, that's pretty cold. No problems on Aeolus, as the electric cabin heater keeps the insides at about 45 and the water temp is a steady 48 or so, protecting everything below the water.

Winds have been pretty strong recently, with many boats at the marina banging around violently since their owners don't live here or check their lines and therefore...I recently bought some new double braid and spliced new dock lines. Boy I love splicing double braid, it is so fun and satisfying. Not to metion Way Way cheaper than buying pre-made dock lines. Here are a few shots of Friday Harbor from this week:

Checked backing plates under forward headliner

To complete my inspection of everything under the pilothouse headliner, I opened up the forward section this week and peeked inside. Remembering that I had found corroded aluminum backing plates for the traveler, I feared I would find similar shoddy plates for the forward anchor points for the mainsheet blocks. Turned out everything was solid and good. I tightened things up a little bit and put her back together with the reassurance that all was well.

In one photo you can just see two wires, a red and black, coming through. These were already cut and old, and I don't quite remember what they used to do. I think they were part of some old mast wiring that I replaced.

For any Gulf 32 owners out there, I had been quite concerned about the strength of the attachment between the pilothouse top and the sides. When I first saw a Gulf 32 I thought to myself: My gosh, that's a design just asking for a wave to rip the top off the boat. Well having thoroughly inspected the attachment all the way around, I must say it is far more robust than I had thought. It is made of thick, solid figerglass that only has plywood core in the middle sections. At the edges where it attaches to the cabin, it is solid and probably 1/2 inch or more thick. There are frequent bolts, and between the lip of the sidewall that wraps under, and the top itself, there is well over an inch of material being clamped by the bolt. My conclusion is that anything strong enought to rip the top off the pilothouse is strong enough to rip the mast and you and everything else off too. The windows continue to be the weak link, which is why I am glad I upgraded mine to aluminum frames and thick safety tempered glass.

Trip to Sidney BC & Goldstream Provincial Park

It has become a bit of a tradition to go to Vancouver Island around this time of year to enjoy the sights and see the salmon run at Goldstream Provincial Park. Ever since Amy and I honeymooned in Victoria and saw the salmon run in 1996, we've been hooked. This year we had the opportunity to do it in especially fine style as Amy's parents now live near us on San Juan Island and were part of our master plan. We had them drive two cars onto the Friday Harbor to Sidney ferry, and we sailed over and met them on the other side.

The crossing was windless, unfortunately, but I did experience a real highlight while motoring near Spieden Island as the entire south grassy slope was covered with the exotic sheep that live on Spieden. Quite a sight. I motored right along the shoreline. Also, Spieden channel is a real hot spot for all native wildlife too, as the sea lions and waterfowl all congregate there. A current note to anyone going this way is to remember that on a strong ebb, the current actually flows NORTHWEST along Spieden Island, as it is forms a large eddy. Surprising but true, and quite useful. We did 8 knots or better all along Spieden instead of normal speeds of 6 to 6.5.

Crossing Haro straight is always fun, and was uneventful, except for our excitement at crossing into Canada.

What a great way to do the trip this year. The grandparents met us at the parking lot for the Port of Sidney having ferried over and we went straight off to see the spectacular salmon run at Goldstream, along with seemingly every tourist in Canada. By the way, the Port of Sidney was affordable and easy for overnight moorage and I recommend them. I was glad to see the BC park staff is trying to upgrade the trail system at Goldstream so folks are not causing bank erosion so much. Other than the throngs of people, it is truly a perfect place. Wall to wall fish and eagles and all within a stones throw of Victoria or our home in Friday Harbor.

After salmon fun we went to Oak Bay and had a scrumptuous lunch at Ottavio's Italian deli on the main drag. Great place and a beautiful sunny day. We then spent the night in downtown Victoria, the big city!, and came home the next day in easy fashion, getting to sail a bit on the way back.

The total travel time from Friday Harbor to Sidney was about 3 hours, give or take. Another great weekend centered around Aeolus.

Bottom and boot stripe painting

Boy it has been too long since I've updated this blog. Between being gone most of September on a mountain bike trip, and starting a new position with the San Juan Preservation Trust, my time for sailing and boat projects has been much reduced. Still, there is plenty to report.

I've been hauled out at our local boat yard, Jensens Marine, for the past week or so. It had been two years since I last hauled and painted and the Petit Trinidad SR that I'd used before has done just fine. But needing to paint and replace my zinc and my desire to paint the boot stripe all made doing it this fall a good idea.

After endless review of Practical Sailor and other internet sources, I decided to go with an ablative paint this time around. Bottom paint has become crazy expensive, but the West Marine PCA Gold, which is Petit Ultima SR repackaged, is still a relatively reasonable $180. Beats the hell out of the $280 prices for most other highly regarded paints. I'd rather not build up too many layers of hard paint over my epoxy barrier coat.

Anyway, the big news is that I found no blisters at all. Hoorah! I scraped the hull to remove any loose stuff and sanded a few rough spots and she was good to go. I got 2.5 coats on with 2 gallons of paint. After the bottom dried I taped to sand and paint my bootstripe.

My entire hull is still gelcoat and the bootstripe, like the white hull, is oxidized beyond repair. I've buffed and waxed the hell out of it and it still just oxidizes over. Plus, I'v never liked the soft blue color of it.

So I decided to paint the stripe with Interlux Brightside Dark Blue. I sanded, painted, wet sanded, painted another coat, and then wet sanded, and painted a third coat. Good enough for this sailor. I tipped with a cheap foam brush, which does a way better job than even a moderately expensive bristle brush. I added just a bit of Interlux Paint thinning liquid too, to improve flow at our cool 50 degree temperatures.

After I put her back in the water I'll tackle the hull. I've bought a nice 6" random orbit sander/buffer and will go to it. I will also paint the top stripe the same color.

One of the pleasant surprises of this haul out was meeting a fellow sailor with a sort of sister ship in spirit. "Barefoot Contessa" is a one-off built in Canada by a now defunct yard, and her owner, David, has to be a Michaelangelo of sailboats. He has been in the yard some two months and entirely stripped the bottom, epoxy barrier coated her, bottom painted her AND painted her entire hull a very nice blue. Guy is a perfectionist. Not a bad line on her. Hats off to him and he's a swell fellow to boot.

Boys trip to Stuart Island

Going to Stuart Island has become a real treasure. It's only 11 miles from Friday Harbor, and therefore only a couple hours of travel in favorable conditions. Reid Harbor is so pretty, and although it can be crowded, it never feels too busy for some reason. We'll never go to Sucia again because it felt like a Kmart for boats, all crammed together and the poor island itself all trashed. Reid always feels clean and quiet.

We had friends in town and I thought it would be fun to do a "Boys trip" since they have two boys as well. The other dad and I took our four boys and did the trip, their first overnight in a boat. They were so excited, and we were too. Unfortunately it was dead calm or rained the whole way there and back, so we didn't get to sail, but the rest of the experience was blissful.

When we first got there, I couldn't believe it but the oldest boy said he was going to jump into the water off the boat. Now, as you may know, the water is 52 degrees on a sunny day. Sure enough, despite my doubts, he jumped right in, followed closely by my kids and the other dad. I didn't take the bait, but they sure had a refreshing swim.

The next day we hiked to the lighthouse. After not doing so on any of my previous trips to the lighthouse, I finally took the plunge and bought some of those cool T-shirts for sale at the school. I got a "No child left inside" shirt and the boys got pirate shirts and the like. They have a website for their stuff: www.boundarypasstradersnw.com

When we got out to the lighthouse, I was psyched to see they had opened the new museum in the old barn. Three volunteer docents were present, all Stuart Island folks, who were more than happy to answer all our questions.

Turn Point is an amazing combination of outstanding scenery, incredible natural history, fascinating nautical history and great cultural history. One of my favorite places in the entire country I'd have to say!

Despite pounding rain the entire hike back, our group of intrepid kids were absolutely happy and unfazed. If you act like it's normal and no big deal, then the kids do too!

We had an amazing trip as always, to one of the most desirable spots in the entire Salish Sea.

Trip with the boys to Spencer Spit, Lopez Island

I've been gone from my blog for a while and so need to catch up a bit. A few weeks back, in early August, I took our two boys and did a great overnight trip to nearby Lopez Island. Around on the eastern side is a famous state park called Spencer Spit. It is a magnificent place, in setting and in recreational opportunities.






We went for the night with Amy and grabbed a mooring buoy on the north side of the spit as there were south winds forecast. We dinghied to shore and hiked out to the end of the spit which points directly at rugged Frost Island. The gap between the end of the sand spit and Frost Island is maybe 50 feet. A tight fit at low tide for sure.

This old cabin is a recreation of a homestead cabin used by the first white folks in this area. The spit is great for walks, kayaking, and all sorts of playing.

While out on the very point, we looked up at the steep cliffs of Frost Island and I saw a bald eagle being bothered by crows and a turkey vulture. The eagle was eating and the others were hoping for scraps. Nearby to this was a lonely deer on the steep slope.


We had to motor there, but coming home was a nice sail. We were able to beam reach right along Shaw and into Friday Harbor. Great stuff. I have to add this photo of a beautiful two master that was right beside Aeolus. What a beauty. A great thing about sailing in the San Juans is that there are lots of visiting boats, many of them quite beautiful.

Aborted Barkley Sound trip still fabulous

We're just back from our eight day vacation aboard Aeolus where we attempted to reach Barkley Sound. A long story short is that consecutive days of gale winds prevented us from going past Sooke and so we turned tail and enjoyed the always blissful Gulf Islands.

Entering Victoria was a real highlight, having vacationed in and around there so many times. We even got a slip right in front of the Empress Hotel, complete with street performers. The journey out Cattle Pass was smooth and fast, hitting 10 knots SOG with the ebb. Nearing the Discovery Islands a 20 knot SW wind hit the strong ebb and the seas became rather rough. Unfortunately, it made all of us a bit seasick, much to our surprise. Seems our time down in CA away from Aeolus had robbed us of our sealegs and we paid the price. Hadn't even taken any real preventative measures as we hadn't expected it to be rough on the way to Victoria. Oh well.

Just an appreciative word on Canadian Customs operations. It is incredible how pleasant and brief and painless our entries into Canada are. We are in their system now and invariably their polite agents ask only a few required questions and not more than 2 minutes later you are walking away with a smile on your face. One of a multitude of reasons we so happily return to Canada for our sailing vacations.

Funny and painful story about our first night there in Victoria. After we had moored at our slip, and while we were out being tourists in town, two big fat super wide fake tug boats pulled in on either side of each other and blocked our exit!! When I returned and saw this, I was quite unhappy. Neither owner was around. The space between their boats was maybe 9-10 feet, and we have a 10 foot beam. No go. I couldn't believe it. We had planned a 3 am departure in order to catch the right currents at Race Rocks. I left notes on both boats hoping to contact them and arrange something. No luck. What are the chances two of these behemoth fat floating buoys would pull in alongside each other??? We were SOL.

We had to wait until 9am the next morning before the people started moving out. This was an omen it turned out. We headed out to Race Rocks to hit it at the end of the ebb near slack. Rounding Race Rocks was a real highlight of the trip. Deservedly notorious, that darned point had high winds every day we were nearby. The morning we passed west things were fairly calm with only 15-20 west wind and 2-3 foot seas. All things considered, that's nothing for Race Rocks. Views were extraordinary. Unbelievable really. The forecast was for 35 knot winds and the current was turning to a strong flood, so we were done for the day. Making progress west against 35 knots and 4 knots of current is not practical. That afternoon and night the wind was indeed 35 knots and even tore through our fairly protected anchorage in Campbell Cove near Beechey Head. An anchorage I would recommend, by the way. Great views and access to places.

We woke at 4am or so the next morning to try and catch the winds at a calm point just to get past Sooke and further west. I knew from my study that the winds consistently die down as you get further west, barring a frontal system. 35 knots at Race Rocks means 30 knots at Sheringham point, and 10 knots at Pachena point. No luck. At 4am the wind was still 25 knots and forecast again to raise to 35. Just snotty conditions out there. All the long range forecasts called for more of the same. We enjoyed the day at the large and wonderful E. Sook Regional Park. Great beaches and great hiking. Really worth the trip. This shot is of us at Beechey Head, looking out over the Straits of Juan de Fuca. It was foggy, and very windy. This hike is fantastic should you find yourself in the area.


The next morning we got up early again and had the same result. Winds blowing snot and no sign of relief. At this point, having already explored the nearby area, we decided to head back to the Gulf Islands as we only had a few days of vacation. Heading east, the Race Rocks area was again only somewhat rough. Anything less than supreme violence and you feel you cheated the odds. We got there precisely, and I mean precisely, at slack at 6:20 am, and the strong west wind only helped push us right along to where we wanted to go. Seas were moderate and I'd estimate at 2-4 feet, conservatively.

We headed on a beautiful broad reach right over to Oak Bay Marina where we docked, took showers, and headed into town for a delicious lunch at an italian deli. Oak Bay was very convenient, and though lacking the grandeur of Victoria, it is otherwise easier. The little village a few blocks from the harbor is upscale and packed full of bakeries and tasty places. We were in heaven.

We left Oak Bay and headed to Sidney Spit for the night. The wind turns the corner and comes up from the SW there and we had a great sail all the way up. We grabbed a mooring buoy in the park and it blew hard all afternoon and evening. Good 20-25 knots and there is a lot of fetch from that direction at Sidney. Amy took the boys in the dinghy to shore, a long 1/2 mile row. On the way back, it was quite rough and I was a bit concerned for them. She made it fine, but had had quite an adventure and was dead tired. This shot doesn't do the wind justice, and I felt voyeuristic while my poor wife struggled against the wind and seas, but I knew in retrospect she'd like a picture.

The next day we went back west but this time into Saanich Inlet and down to Tod Inlet. What a wonderful discovery. Tod Inlet is the closest thing to Desolation Sound we have ever found down south here. It is narrow and forested and hot and sunny and sheltered. While there, we had nothing but blue skies. The water temperature was in the mid-60's! The next day we hiked up to Durrance Lake, which is a whole different story, and then came back and Amy and Elliott took turns jumpin off of Aeolus into Tod Inlet. It was heaven. This shot is of Owen and I on the public dock in Tod Inlet.

Leaving Tod Inlet we headed around the corner to our favorite Gulf Island spot of Portland Island. It is a much larger version of our favorite San Juan Island spot of Jones Island. Great trails, great beaches, great ecology and not many people around.

Exhaust riser story continued

Nothing being straightforward on a sailboat repair, replacing the exhaust riser did present one twist. Turns out Universal/Westerbeke no longer makes their riser with a 1 5/8 outlet. My entire exhaust system is 1 5/8. After much research and head scratching, I discovered that they only make a 2 inch outlet these days. The good news is, I think, that the new riser is made from some aluminum alloy as it is much lighter and hopefully less prone to corrosion from the saltwater than the cast iron.

Well, to avoid replacing my entire exhaust system, which we all know is way expensive with a new muffler and all that hose and through hulls and the rest, I needed to find a way to step down from the 2 inch riser outlet to my 1 5/8 hose. Found the answer with Centek. They make a fiberglass reducing coupler that goes from 2 inches down to 1.63. Found that part in stock down in L.A., which still beats waiting for it to come from Florida.

Also had to purchase a short piece of 1.25 NPT schedule 80 black iron pipe to connect the new flange and the new exhaust riser. Now I have everything assembled and am just waiting for the reducing coupler to arrive on Monday to complete the installation.

Time for new exhaust riser

I often wonder what people do who are not obsessively fastidious about maintenance. Seems you either think about every possible chink in the armor all the time, create and follow an incredibly detailed checklist of items, or suffer the consequences of stuff breaking at predictably inopportune times. I've always been in the first bunch myself: too compulsive to neglect things, too lazy to create the list, and too attached to health and happiness to risk inaction.

Being of this first type, some mysterious but undeniable voice in my mind recently said: "Hey, it's been a few months since you last checked your exhaust riser for rust, don't you think it's about time to check it again before you head to Barkley Sound?" So not being one who likes to ignore those voices and then have the double guilt of it failing and knowing you could have prevented it, I set about to check the little devil.

Getting to this on the Gulf is not too tough. At least it is not buried deep back into a crawl space as I've seen on many other sailboats. On the Gulf 32 you just have to remove the floorboards and there she is. Earlier this year I had treated the riser with a rust stop spray to see what that would do. As far as I know, and I'm pretty sure about this, this riser is the original one to the boat and so has endured use since 1988. That's a long time for an exhaust riser, and this one only lasted this long because the boat was lightly used and did most of it's work in fresh water on the Columbia River.

Well when I checked it, I noticed quite a bit of rust and the unmistakable surface buckling of rust having gotten under the surface of the metal and gone deep. As I started to chip away at the rust, I went deeper and deeper, until I began to worry I was going to break through to the inside. Although this never happened, I did go might deep before reaching something solid. Something odd though, is that some of the material I removed had the chalky feel and grey appearance of graphite, even though it was by all accounts just rusted metal. Anyway, I knew right away that I had to replace this riser as I couldn't trust it any longer with that much metal removed. Sure enough, when I started the motor, a very small amount of water seeped out of the spot where I had dug out metal.

So I've ordered the replacement part from Gallery Marine here in Seattle. It is a 1.25 inch Universal exhaust riser with a 2 inch exhaust hose end. When I get the new one installed, I'll add a picture and tell the story of whether it was straightforward, or not.

Trip to Port Townsend for Memorial Day

We've just returned from a wonderful trip to Port Townsend; a long awaited journey. We've heard for many years about the great nautical and interesting elements of Port Townsend , but had never before gotten around to going there. That finally changed this weekend.

We always head out for wild natural areas when we have a chance, and this was our first ever voyage to go visit a city. It was actually Amy's idea, as I had been choosing between a return to Portland Island or Saturna. Once she suggested it, it seemed the perfect idea. Besides wanting to visit Port Townsend, it would give us a taste of some time on the Straits of Juan de Fuca prior to our trip to Barkley Sound later this summer.














As these pictures show, we had absolutely sublime weather for our Saturday departure. This first shot shows the Cattle Point Lighthouse with the Olympic Mountains in the background as we ride the ebb out Cattle Pass. Leaving for Port Townsend from Friday Harbor requries an unususaly difficult tidal reckoning. It is best to exit Cattle Pass with an ebb, as going against much current there is pretty tough in a sailboat. However, you face the opposite need when approaching Admiralty Inlet and Port Townsend. There, you really should approach on a flood if you can, as it can be very slow going otherwise with no way to find an eddy or get out of the current. So the best time to leave Friday Harbor on Saturday was about 2pm. This way we caught the last of the ebb out Cattle Pass and then the start of the flood around Smith Island. By the time we approached Pt. Wilson it would be flooding full speed. Well everything worked perfectly according to plan. We were amazed at the lack of wind in the Straits, as even the forecast called for 15 knots, but as you can see it was dead calm. This shot is of Smith Island, a place where if it is nasty anywhere, it is nasty here, as it is an area with fetch in all directions. But, you can see it was like a mill pond. We motored the whole way averaging a healthy 7 knots. Only on our close approach to Pt. Wilson during max flood did we get any noticeable chop. After a bit of bouncing around, it calmed right back down and we headed to our night in Boat Haven marina. Wow, is that marina tired and in bad shape. Between mediocre original construction, deferred maintenance and poor capital planning, it was in the worst shape of any public marina I have been to. Made me really appreciate how nicely the Port of Friday Harbor is maintained. Hats off to our local crew.

At Pt. Wilson, we had three cruise ships pass us in succession. All within a mile of us and within a mile of each other. The first one was the prettiest with all the colors. Such monstrous things to behold from the water.














Sunday dawned clear and bright and we had the immeasurable joy of sleeping in late (kids did too!) and realizing we had nothing to do and all day to do it. Heaven. No need to elaborate on our day in Port Townsend. We had a great time exploring the beaches and checking out the old town. My favorite thing was realizing that right around Port Hudson marina are three of the most amazing nautical business in the country: Carol Hasse sails, Brion Toss rigging, and Pygmy Kayaks. Jeez, all within 100 yards of each other. I paid mental homage for their contributions to us sailors and kayakers. Otherwise our favorite place was the Chetzemoka city park around the corner from Port Hudson. We laid and played there for hours.

Today, Monday, we headed first in the morning to Fort Worden State Park, which reminded Amy and I so strongly of our time at Ft. Baker in Marin County. We grabbed one of the mooring buoys near the pier. Being Memorial Day, it was especially poignant to visit the museum on site, which is chock full of guns and bullets and the paraphernalia of war. After visiting, we sat outside and debriefed with Elliott the whole war thing: interesting machinery, horrifying purposes, defense, offense, cost/benefit. Something more than him just being upset or amused.

We also visited the Marine Science Center which had very nice touch tanks and interpretive materials. Hats off to them. Being science educators ourselves, Amy and I both appreciated the quality of the center.

The forecast for the afternoon was for 5-15 or 10-20 NW in the Straits, depending on the spot. We left Pt. Wilson at precisely 1:30 pm for just the same reasons we had left Friday Harbor at a precise time. And again our tidal calculations worked out perfectly. Once outside Pt. Wilson we hit about a 1 mile stretch of pretty rough bouncing due to the last of the ebb hitting the incoming swell from the Straits, despite their being no wind. Even with all our bouncing up and down, we were still cruising along at 7.5-8 knots. I estimated the biggest waves to be about 4 feet and with that nasty steep short period of undercut swell. Aeolus loves that stuff and we were soon past that point and up closer to Smith Island. Still no wind, and so still we motored. We were never able to raise the sail! Can you imagine going back and forth across the eastern Straits of Juan de Fuca and not having enough wind to sail either way? Crazy.

Elliott fell asleep in the cockpit and I was concerned he may get bounced off his seat so I rigged a tether around him. He later woke and liked leaning on it!

We averaged 6.8 knots on the entire 30 mile journey from Pt. Wilson to Friday Harbor. Took just over 4 hours. What an amazing trip.

Final details of pilothouse window installation

As I've written before, I replaced all the side and front windows in the pilothouse as the Gulf 32 came with acrylic windows in plastic frames and they were extremely crazed and dead. Couldn't slide the darn things without busting a fingernail and only then with an appropriate decibel of cursing.

Anyway, when I put them in this winter it was 35 degrees and raining, which is always how it is here in winter. I didn't take the time to do some of the detail work.

In the last few days I pulled the windows out and finished up the job in final form. This involved two changes. One is I replaced the caulking I had used, which was Mortite, with the appropriate and amazing butyl rubber. The other change is that I epoxied in the corners in the places where the aluminum frames do not turn as tight a radius as the old plastic frames did.

I cannot speak highly enough of butyl rubber for window caulking. It was what was used orginally, and when I pulled out those 20 year old window frames, that rubber was as soft and sticky as the day it was installed. Hard stuff to find though. I had to get some while down in Portland, Oregon from an RV supply store. They use it for the same reasons I did. It comes in a 1 inch ribbon about 1/8 inch thick. Perfect stuff.

As the pictures here show, it is easy to place around the frame and then just tighten up the window and trim off the excess. Having used every sealant and adhesive product out there for various jobs, I again cannot say enough how easy and perfect butyl rubber is for this application when compared with any other option.

I thickened the epoxy up with silica and found shaping the corners an ideal job for my dremel tool. With the sanding attachment, I was able to shape the corners exactly how I wanted them and effortlessly. Because I did not need to use cloth for these small corner applications, as they are not structural but only to prevent water from entering and provide a good sealing surface, I was concerned about the epoxy being just a bit brittle and didn't want to cut it with a blade of any sort. Using the dremel worked so perfectly I smiled the whole time I did the job. Shaping all 7 or 8 corners took all of 10 minutes or so.














So the windows are back in, and done, done, done. Boy they are beautiful and work like a dream. So clear and so strong, a wonderful upgrade to our Gulf.

Trip to Stuart Island

With close friends coming up from Oregon we knew we had to do something extra fun. These particular friends are very adventurous and love all sorts of wilderness travel and so we thought in our short amount of time with them we would head to Stuart Island, which feels as far away as possible without going up into Canada.

We loaded up and departed on Friday night for the two hour trip to Reid Harbor. I had hoped that the max flood would push us along nicely all the way north but it turns out that on the back side of Spieden Island the current flows SOUTH in a big flood and we were slowed to 2 knots against the very strong current. We had to motor the whole way with the absence of any wind. The east side of Spieden is very scenic and we had harbor porpoises all around us in the gap between San Juan and Spieden.

Once into Reid Harbor we joined about fifteen other boats at the head of the harbor by the state park dock. The highlight of the trip was hiking out to the Turn Point Lighthouse on Saturday. It is a short 2 mile walk and the reward is an extraordinary overlook and historic lighthouse buildings.

Besides the usual bald eagles, harbor seals, harbor porpoises, and other miscellaneous local fauna, we were treated to the sight of a Peregrine Falcon that clearly resides on the sheer cliff face of this NW point of Stuart Island. We also found the tidepooling to be especially rich down on the rocks for such small pools. Very large limpets, diverse chitons, sea urchins and all the usual critters in small pools near the mid tide line.

That night I went out for a solo sea kayak paddle in our Helios inflatable and retraced my steps from my Anacortes to Port Hardy sea kayak trip of 1999. I had stayed in Reid Harbor on that trip and crossed from Stuart over to Canada. As I paddled the route again that night, I had wonderful memories of that 30 day 300 mile journey. Paddling a sea kayak is as smooth and natural and comfortable as anything could be to me. When our boys are bigger, we will take expeditions together.

Our friends had a great time, we think, and on our return to Friday Harbor on Sunday we enjoyed 15 knot winds and a sustained beam reach at near hull speed almost the entire way home. Heaven.

Gosh our Gulf sails beautifully and smoothly. No herky jerky bouncy jitters. Just smooth and solid and easy.

New dodger completed

When we purchased Aeolus almost all her equipment was original to her commissioning in 1988 or so. The original owner had outfitted her quite nicely for cruising but then never taken her to sea. That is how she ended up with the great windlass, radar and other nice upgrades. Among the original components was a dodger that I have written about previously.

I had sewn the old dodger back together in a few places to get another year out of it last year, but knew her days were done. This winter I scheduled to have it replaced by San Juan Canvas here locally and they have just finished their work. We are thrilled.

We more or less used the existing frame, which I quite like for its design and strength. The new dodger has waterproof fabric on top, and is reinforced with Top Gun at all stress areas. The color is Captain's Navy sunbrella.

The great people at San Juan Canvas are wonderful to work with and do a solid job for an affordable price. I highly recommend them to anyone in the market for custom canvas work.
www.sanjuancanvas.com

Here are a few pictures of our new dodger.

Wheel wrap idea

Here in the cold NW it is often uncomfortable to steer the boat when the wheel is ambient temperature of 38 degrees. Never mind what we are doing out sailing in those temperatures, but suffice to say that if you wait for it to be a pleasant 65 you sail for two months a year. So I started to look into wrapping the wheel with leather, as you see on many boats.

My gosh the price of those leather kits was outrageous. I balked.

Being cheap and always eager to find creative solutions to problems, I thought of what else I could use to wrap the wheel. The answer came quickly: bicycle handle bar tape. It is intended for exactly the same weather and conditions and is a fraction the cost of leather wrap.

After a trip to my local bike store I came back with some nice handlebar wrap and wrapped the wheel up nicely and finished the ends with Rig-Rap. It feels awesome and certainly does the job of improving grip and insulating the wheel. I would recommend this approach to anyone else who would like to solve the problem and save some money.

Fabulous day at Jones Island State Park

Yet again we took a trip to nearby Jones Island State Park and yet again we were rewarded with an absolutely perfect trip. We've come to think of Jones as our own private playground because despite its large size and extraordinary beauty, we always have it to ourselves more or less. This time we took Becky and Martin with us and their beautiful son Benjamin, who has the brightest red hair and the most pleasant personality.

We actually got to sail a little bit on the way up as winds were coming right down San Juan Channel at about 5-10 knots. I've been working on the finer points of sail trim and was very happy to be experimenting with mainsail twist. Our old main didn't have telltales and so I couldn't tell in fine detail what was going on up aloft. Now I've learned how to tension the mainsheet not only for boom placement but also for mainsail twist. When I got it just right today, we picked up a few tenths of a knot and she just performed like a happy lady.

Once at Jones we anchored in our usual spot and dinghied over to the beach for the routine of lunch and laying around. Temperatures today were in the 57 degree range, which in the sun felt like 95 to us heat deprived folks. We then took the amazing walk around the west side of the island and were dazzled once again by the ever changing views, the diversity of habitats, and the very pleasant character of the trail. At one point you are looking south to Yellow Island on dry grassy slopes, and a mile later you are among red cedars, salal, and views north to Spieden Island and Saturna up in B.C.. Just heaven.