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.