Memorial Day escapade

My family got away for the Memorial Day weekend by sailing off to some wild places. We journeyed first to the north side of Jones Island and dropped anchor in time to watch a magnificent sunset. The next day we went to Prevost Harbor at Stuart Island and enjoyed ourselves immensely. Had we given it a moment of thought we would have brought our passports and gone into BC to Portland Island or Wallace Island for a deeper get away, but one cannot shrug about the San Juans too much.

I'm not up for writing much right now, but will suffice to say that we hiked, and relaxed away a great few days. Swinging at the Stuart Island school was a highlight for the boys, and being among the clouds high up on Stuart for a balmy afternoon was a highlight for Amy and I. Altogether a wonderful time. I'll let some pictures tell the story:

Elliott snoozing on the way to Stuart

Amy and the boys on the top of the world-At our favorite place in the islands

A Stuart Island get away, far away.

Last week I had the opportunity to get away for a few days to tackle some boat projects, and since none of the projects required electricity, I was able to cast off the dock lines and set sail to wilder places. The weather finally turned warm and sunny, and so I was ecstatic to have time on Aeolus in a beautiful place and a taste of summer.

Decided to go to Stuart (not that any reason is needed) because the forecast winds were shifting from north to south and neither anchorage on Jones provides all weather protection. Where Reid and Prevost both are virtual hurricane holes. I went to Reid. 

The projects I tackled included:

• New engine intake hoses. Upgraded all related hoses to wire reinforced hose from standard water hose. Better flow in tight bends and durability/strength in a high impact area.
• New septic hoses in a few places. 
• New sink drain hose. Upgrade from standard water hose to reinforced septic hose. Primary reason here was to keep good flow despite a tight bend, where the water hose would kink a bit, and the septic hose maintains it's shape. 
• Excavate, clean and scrub the starboard settee locker. Yikes. 
• Clean the fiberglass around the bilge area with Soft Scrub-my favorite cleaner on the boat for really dirty things. Went through many rags wiping old oil and dirt from the area around the engine. 
• Did new varnish on my bright work grab rails. 
• Miscellaneous other cleaning of brass, glass, floors and such. 

Photo on Stuart from previous trip. On this trip, this spot was all green with exploding growth, and I had it to myself.

The harmonics of a sweet sail

Among the experiences in this world that defy description or even comprehension, the feel of a sailboat when sailing well is high among them. We can all conjure a quick list of the things that we know, but would struggle to articulate. Certainly love, or even deep pain. You know it because you have felt it, or you don't.

This reminds me of one of my favorite Robert Frost poems where he says simply:
"We dance around in a ring and suppose,
The Secret sits in the middle and knows."

This "knowing", which I would argue is not intellectual in nature, not manifestly articulate, is beautiful and ineffable.

But somewhat like using a filter on a telescope to look at the sun, I will attempt to throw a few words around the edges of the feeling and see if a sort of impressionist image can take shape that at least suggests the true thing.

Amy and I went for a Mother's Day sail this weekend and were excited to have some wind for our journey north to Roche Harbor. Friday Harbor often has a spot of wind, but for unknown reasons it will die once you leave the harbor and turn north or south. For this reason Amy was advising me to not raise the sail until we saw what was happening outside, and the weight of our experience made me relent. But the wind remained and so up went the canvas and off went the motor. Every boat I have sailed has a different helm and feel and sweet spot, but the groove feels the same. For Aeolus, that spot requires wind of 15 knots or more. We had 15-20 knots of wind from the WNW and were heading NW. Skies were typical of spring, with cotton ball clouds and sun enough to warm your bones.

Aeolus on south side of Jones Island, her home away from home

Replaced Thru-Hulls and Seacocks-Down the rabbit hole

I hauled Aeolus out last week to do bottom paint and replace all my below the waterline thru-hulls as well as install proper seacocks and backing blocks. My bottom paint lasted two seasons and was finally tired. I recoated with West Marine PCA Gold and expect another couple years. Slime appears on it over time, but it has appeared on every paint I have ever used here in the NW, including Trinidad SR. Anyway, bottom paint is straightforward and not the topic of this post.

No, the topic here is the big kahuna of cutting big holes in the boat and filling them in. I'll try to put some order to this process as it was pretty epic.

Gulf 32 Thru-Hulls and original equipment
When we bought Aeolus she still had plastic gate valves screwed directly onto the thru-hulls with only a 2"X2" and 1/4" backing square and the nut that comes with the thru-hull. Dreadful. I replaced the plastic gate valves with Marelon ball valves back in 2007 even though I knew the mating of bronze and Marelon was less than ideal, because it beat the hell out of what had been. Although none of them leaked, I had reason to doubt the condition of the meager backing blocks and the status of the bronze itself, and I was of course anxious to get proper flanges installed and redo the whole works. I put this project off from my last haul out because I had a lot going on and I think I was a bit intimidated by the scope of what would be involved. My concerns about the thru-hulls, and project, turned out to be justified. The photo below shows the sink drain thru hull before being worked on.

Turns out that all thru-hulls on a Gulf 32, and I presume on all Capital Yachts boats like Newports, are glassed in flush head fittings. That's right, glassed in, flush head. I'm sure these were used on Gulf's simply because they were used on the faster Newport boats and they had them laying around the shop. However, this installation method is unusual, and means that they are impossible to replace without major surgery on the boat. Most every other boat in the boat yard, especially cruising boats, will have mushroom head thru hulls. If that had been the case on Aeolus, I would have been able to do the whole job in two easy days, no problem. Instead, I had to tackle a major deconstruction and reconstruction project for four full days of 12 or more hours each.

Spectacular weekend of fun

Over the next few days I will have a number of posts relating to a recent flurry of boat activity, and I will start today with a quick recap of a spectacular weekend of sailing last weekend. We left Bainbridge on Friday and made the long journey up to San Juan Island. It takes a good 5 hours of travel time all told, and though much of that is on ferries, it is still a bit long. Nevertheless, the closer we get to Friday Harbor the happier we become and the night aboard Aeolus was splendid.

In the morning we gathered up one of Elliott's close friends from the island and headed straight over to Spencer Spit on Lopez Island. There was no wind, so we had to motor, but it was still great.

Peregrines, Sea Lions, and the Windrope boys

The boys and I did wander and play for a few days last week, on land and sea, and had all sorts of fun that is funny. We went to Stuart Island first, and hiked out to the lighthouse as we have numerous times before. The skunk cabbage was starting to bloom and it is quite a sight. The rope swing on the way up to the school was in fine shape and Owen had the biggest swing of all since he is smaller and I can lift him higher.

Reid Harbor was deserted but for us, and we saw only one person on the entire island. People stay away by the millions...and wallow in the urban decrepitude! So alone, we watched as the resident Peregrine Falcon swooped and intimidated all the birds around. We witnessed a big bull sea lion hanging out right off Turn Point below us. It was majestic. There is a grassy bluff up above the lighthouse a ways that is certainly one of the prettiest places in the whole NW. It is off the trail a bit, and looks out over everything with the most picturesque duo of a doug fir and madrone right at the point nestled together. It is a pinch me spot.

Good times, trip, on the horizon

Soon to head off for a good long trip with the boys where we will play away many days in the islands again. Poor Amy has to work. Head to Stuart, hike and climb around, head into BC and over to Portland Island, and who knows where else? Five easy days, sailing on a breeze, lots of good food and wild, deep time. Time to think. Time to play. Time to sit next to each other and not say a word while watching eagles soar. Ah, just the anticipation of it fills me with joy.

We have such an intimate connection with the Salish Sea and her many islands, and I am just so grateful for every single day I am able to explore a bit more. Our sons have little clue that what they do with us to explore nature is so unusual and unique, and that is fine with us. They'll follow their own path eventually, like this one or not. But come on, look at this beautiful boy and imagine he doesn't get this into his bones?