Whirlwind prep for haulout, plus

Next weekend I will be hauling Aeolus out for bottom paint, a new transmission, deck painting and whatever else I can fit in. So this weekend, I went to Aeolus to do the prep work for the haulout and take care of a few miscellaneous items on the To Do list. It was a whirlwind effort, and I barely sat down until time for dinner each night.

New KiwiGrip on Port Cockpit side

This shows a before picture of removing the teak and dealing with the 5200

One of my primary tasks was to thoroughly scrub and clean the topsides in preparation for putting KiwiGrip on the deck. The original gelcoat surface has worn smooth, and it has become too slippery standing at the mast to raise sail and reef on the sloping dome of the cabin top area. I'd slipped too often for comfort. So I started off my weekend by doing a very, very thorough job of scrubbing the entire deck with normal deck soap. Hit all the nooks and crannies etc. One of my other goals is to paint the hull stripe, which is long overdue as the original blue gelcoat is beyond resurrection. I've rubbed, and polished, and waxed and loved and polished and waxed that darn hull stripe and no matter what I do it needs it again in six months. Forget it. Time to paint with Perfection Mauritious Blue, a gorgeous two part epoxy deep blue color that will look beautiful for years with almost no maintenance.

Why do we go?

We are just returned from another wonderful weekend sailing in the San Juan's, and just before leaving we were asked by some dear friends about how much trouble it must be to gather ourselves and the boys together to make these trips. In essence, they were asking why we go. Why do we go to all the trouble for just a weekend?

I've heard this question from people before, and I am always dumfounded by it. It is asked with full interest and sincerity, and without any hint of judgment, and yet the affect on me is as though someone has asked me to explain why I breathe air. It is nearly impossible for me to know where to start.

Perhaps you also go, and get asked this question, and feel similarly unable to craft a reply that rings true to what you believe?

Anchor chains galvanized

After six years of heavy but not full-time use, our 3/8 BBB anchor chain had started to show the early signs of needing some attention. Rust had started to form on all links, and though it was only light, it is a rapid deterioration from that point to bad places. Given our approaching trip around Vancouver Island, I am making certain that everything is in the best shape possible and this motivated me to look into getting our chain re-galvanized.

Here around Seattle there are several places that will galvanize chain, and I suppose they each have happy customers associated with them. I decided to use Emerald Galvanizing in Ballard, and was happy with the service and price. They charge $.80 a pound with a $100 minimum. Evidently they are unusual in that they are able to run your chain through a centrifuge to break up any stuck links. I dropped off my main chain and secondary chain on a Tuesday and picked it up early the next week.

Transmission oil change solution found-Updated

We all recognize that having an oil drain hose installed on your diesel is one of the seven wonders of the sailing world. To change your oil as simply as hooking up your vacuum pump to the hose connected to the oil pan is a thing of immense elegance and time savings. Aeolus has this arrangement, and I am repeatedly grateful for it. Our previous boat, an Ericson, did not have this, and so I had to insert the little hose down the dipstick hole and hope for the best with reaching the bottom.

MG 360 with dipstick hole as intended oil drain access

It is not merely the time savings and ease of operation that these oil drain hoses afford that makes them so valuable, but the mechanic in me is well aware of the benefits of sucking the dirty oil from the bottom of the pan, thereby sucking out the metal shavings that are a part of engine wear and tear and that further contribute towards engine problems.

So what about our marine transmissions! I changed the oil in my old Hurth tranny at least once a year, and it involved sticking a small diameter hose down the fill hole and hoping for the best that I was reaching the bottom and getting all the old oil and shavings out. So with my new transmission, a Twin Disc MG 360, I thought about finding a way to install an oil drain hose just like with the diesel.

Turns out, not so easy.

25 knot close reach to Stuart Island weekend

Wow it was great to have Aeolus back in Friday Harbor so we could take her out for the long weekend to Stuart and Jones. It had been since last summer that we were at these favorite places because we had brought Aeolus down to Bainbridge after Desolation Sound last summer. So distance had made our hearts grow fonder (hard to increase upon our previous devotion to these places) and we anxiously returned to our favorite waters.

Single reef in place, close reach in 25 knots

On Saturday morning we left our slip and raised sail just off Point Caution in promising winds. Soon enough we were in the teeth of a 20 knot wind with gusts to 25 and it was coming from the West. Strong west winds are really nice in San Juan Channel because you can be on a reach going north or south. The 25 knot gusts on a close reach were making us fly right along, but also making my family a bit nervous, so I went forward and put a reef in our main and furled up the genoa a bit. With one reef and a partial genoa we returned to our heading toward Spieden Island and had a wonderful sail at near hull speed all the way.

Twin Disc MG 360-New transmission for Aeolus

Note: The post below tells the story of choosing and installing the Twin Disc MG360. I've unfortunately learned the hard way that this transmission will corrode badly if you install it like it is. My Hurth never showed a speck of rust after 20 years, but Twin Disc for some indefensible reason has built this transmission out of metals that corrode aggressively. I've been told after reporting this problem to Twin Disc that they recommend painting the transmission and shifting mechanisms before install. BE WARNED. See my later post for pictures of the corrosion.

Among the more significant decisions any sailor can make is how they propel their boat. Sails and rigging are huge, obviously, and yet the engine/transmission might in fact be higher on the list of anxieties given their importance at key times. Here in the Northwest, we are blessed with the finest cruising grounds in North America, and plenty of winds here and there. And yet, in our summer months we are often calm, and even in winter, we can go days with less than 10 knots. Because we have such a cornucopia of islands, each not far from the other, and because our currents are tremendous, regularly exceeding 5-10 knots, we are unable to rely upon sails alone to travel safely.

Twin Disc MG 360 right out of the box. Note separate oil fill.

Making storage pockets-Gratitude to Don Casey

I've just completed yet another project with the help of Don Casey. When I think back on all the things I have learned from his books, I am left with a tremendous amount of gratitude. Any teacher who helps us learn something interesting or useful has our gratitude and rightfully so. But when it comes to a sailboat, there are just so many, many things to know, and the consequences of error can be so high, that a good teacher is priceless.

That's a fleece hat in the right pocket. There are four pockets total, each 5" wide.

Mr. Casey, I have never met you, and you will never read this, but thank you. Truly thank you. I maintain our boat myself, and I've learned so very, very much from your books that I could not begin to articulate the totality of it. From diesels, to paint, to rigging, to electronics, to sewing, I have learned things from you that have made my boat, and my skills, far better.

This latest Don Casey inspired project was to make new storage pockets for Aeolus. Like on most boats, there are a million little things to store, and some of them you access quite frequently. Also like with most boats, the places to store things are deep, dark and far away. For things like your sunglasses, sunscreen, lip balm, your iphone, a warm hat, sailing gloves--for these things, you would like them to be readily identifiable and available.

Enter this project.