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.