Photos

Kay brings Kevin back on board

New Equipment Photos

Garmin Antenna

SSB DSC Antenna

Two new deck glands and one old one (exciting stuff!)

Electronics

There are electrical installations afoot on Quijote these days.  A new DSC antenna, an Iridium satellite transceiver, and a couple new solar panels are in the works. 

The DSC antenna is for the SSB radio and allows ship to ship reception that is independent of the HF antenna.   That will allow another boat to hail us in an emergency even while the SSB is in use gathering weather data or whatever.  I should note that last week’s practice cruise marked the first time the SSB radio has successfully been used to download a weather file.  It was nice to have open access to the skies for the trial.  At her home slip in Lake Union she is in close proximity to the Ship Canal bridge and closed in by land, so transmission has been less successful.  I discovered some issues with the Bluetooth connection between my Laptop and the Pactor modem, but I seem to have those sorted out. I have a PC session running on my Mac so Windows is behaving a little differently than I’m used to running Windows from a PC.  By necessity, things like Bluetooth and Internet connectivity have to be tied in to the hosts (Mac’s) operating system.

The Iridium transceiver requires an external antenna and the new solar panels each have power and ground wires that will connect to charge controllers, so all these new wires have to make their way from inside the cabin to up on the back deck.  Getting those wires routed and passed through to the deck in a way that doesn’t make the boat leak is the present challenge.  I hate drilling holes in my boat!  One reason for taking care of all this at once is that I can at least consider using the same holes for multiple purposes.  Of course that means bigger holes.

Another Few Days to Practice Stuff

We did another Quijote practice cruise last week, had some fun and learned a few things. Kay, Tina, Kevin and I headed out into Puget sound through the locks on Wednesday and spent the day working with the sails to get procedures ironed out.  I especially wanted to confirm that the new custom sail bag I ordered was a good size for both storm jib and storm trisail.  The bags are designed to be tied to the deck and the sail can then be hoisted out of or folded directly into the bag.  Having sails readily available on deck makes it much more likely that they will be used when needed, rather than have to haul bags up from under the v-berth.  The bags worked well and each sail fits nicely, so I went ahead and ordered a second bag after we got back.

Wednesday was a blustery day; it was nice to get some sailing in. Since the wind was from the south, we tied up to one of the mooring balls on the north shore of Blake Island.  The thinking at the time was that the island might give us some protection from wind and waves. It may have, but it was still a pretty unsettled night, shipping and ferries adding to the watery mayhem. 

In the morning we inflated the dinghy and motored ashore for some exercise, then motored up Rich Passage, into Port Orchard and on to Liberty Bay. We then practiced setting a stern anchor using the aft bow roller for the first time.  We found that controlling the rhode while paying it out is a lot of work and is best done with leather gloves. We used 40’ of chain and 120’ of 3/4” braided anchor line shackled together.  We tied another 200’ length of 3/8” double-braid to the end of the rhode to allow us to plant the forward anchor farther forward.  Then backing up, we let out forward anchor and brought in stern anchor until the 3/8” line was back on board.  At that point we had a good 4:1 scope in 30’ of water for both anchors.  Splendid!  Next time we’ll start with the bow anchor and use the dinghy to set the stern anchor.

Before dinner (Tina’s Brie and Sun Dried Tomato Pasta) we used the dinghy to practice pulling a person overboard (MOB) up out of the water and onto the deck.  We were able to do the job pretty well using the halyard winch on the side of the mast if it was a light MOB or a strong winch cranker, but a small woman trying to haul a large man up onto deck was hopeless.  Thankfully we discovered that the outboard engine hoist was perfectly suited to the job. We disconnected the pulley from the hoist and reconnected it to the halyard and the bottom of the pulley to the MOB harness. Then we ran the tail of the pulley through the jib car to the deck winch.  the combined mechanical advantage of the pulley and the winch made it much easier for light women to pull a heavy guy out of the water and the components were all conveniently at hand.

We spent the night in Liberty Bay and the following morning we did some circles around Liberty Bay to get the hang of the Life-Sling. It was fortunate we did as we quickly discovered that the line snarled into a rats nest after twelve years of inactivity.  I have since purchased a replacement life sling, but it will be well worth trying it again to make sure the line pays out properly.

A TIP of the Sombrero to Mexico

One of the big items on my to-do was finally put to bed just this week: the cancellation of the Temporary Import Permit opened by the previous boat owner for entry into Mexico. The so called TIP had to be cancelled in order for a new one to be issued.  Of course you can’t just ask the Mexican government to cancel the permit.  You have to fill out a form, supported by a small pile of documentation: the original TIP (thankfully still in the original owner’s possession), Coast Guard documentation, passport copy, etc.  I sent it all off to Mexico City and waited nervously, wondering if competence and good fortune would win out.  The wait went on for five weeks while new reports of petulant behavior toward Mexico by our government made me certain that the paperwork would disappear.  But the Mexican government came though.  With cancellation behind me, I’ll need to have them issue a new TIP in my name, but that can wait until we're in San Diego

Raft-up and Practice

Kay, Kevin, Cody, and I spent some quality time out on Puget Sound last weekend.  From Lake Union, we transited the locks mid-day on Friday, stopped at Shilshole to secure transient moorage for the evening, and then headed out into the rain to practice.

The weather was forecast to give us light winds and rain on Friday, better wind and sun on Saturday, and then light wind and partly sunny on Sunday.  That’s pretty much the way it worked out.

We started on Friday afternoon by hoisting the working sails, practicing tacks and jibes, and giving new and returning crew a feel for the boat. Everyone performed well and was in good spirits in spite of the rain, which varied from light sprinkles to a steady downpour according to its whim.

We also set the spinnaker on Friday afternoon to allow us to iron out the wrinkles in our sail handling before the winds picked up on Saturday. While the rain didn’t make life too difficult, or even uncomfortable, it did get the spinnaker soaking wet, which would prove to be troublesome on Saturday.

Returning to Shilshole Friday night to dry out, Kay whipped up a tasty feast for dinner and we met with Mary Lou and Knute for an after-dinner social hour.  Mary Lou and Knute own an Island Packet moored at Shilshole.  They filled our heads with salty sea stories and our glasses with wine. Lovely!

Cody joined us Saturday morning, Mary Lou and Knute saw us off, and we headed out again, this time into the sunshine and a frisky breeze.  This time the spinnaker wasn’t as cooperative - it got twisted and wouldn’t slide free as it usually does because of the friction from being damp from the day before.  As we drifted toward a small boat regatta outside the marina, the only thing for it was to fire up the engine, turn into the wind, and lower the soggy, tangled mess onto the deck where it could be dried and sorted out.

It should also be noted that part of the problem was our jibe technique.  Thankfully that is exactly what we were there to work out.  When we don’t use a spinnaker pole it is a fairly simple matter to release the spinnaker sheet and pull the sail around the front of the boat to jibe.  With a pole and a wet sail to manage, it gets more interesting.

What worked well was to furl the sail, turn the boat while transferring the pole, and unfurl the sail again.  It worked every time and should be much easier to manage in stiffer wind and waves.  Bravo!  We experimented with different pole heights and lengths, and with using the lazy sheet to serve as a foreguy to keep the pole off the shrouds.  It was a productive afternoon of work and we were feeling pretty good about it by the time we started toward the Coho Ho-ho raft-up.

The raft-up was a lot of fun.  I think there were seven boats in all tied up with several anchors out. It was very social with lots of great food shared by all.  Kay provided a big pot of salmon chowder from our boat.  There was enough food to feed an army.

On Sunday we spent some time working with our storm sails to get the running rigging worked out.  The sails have never been used before.  The storm jib hanks onto a removable solent stay which stores at the base of the mast when not in use, then is tensioned to a pad-eye on the foredeck aft of the forestay when in use.

The storm trisail slots into a groove in the mast.  Because it doesn’t use the boom, it also serves as a spare mainsail in case the mainsail or the boom is damaged.

Then finally, we just sailed, relaxing and enjoying light winds and sunshine before heading back through the locks and returning home.

Thus ended our first shakedown.  The second will take place in the first week of June.

Quijote's New Alternator

Progress is afoot! I finished installing the Balmar alternator with an external regulator over the weekend and it appears to be working well.  The new regulator has triple stage charging and temperature sensors on the the alternator and battery bank.  It’s nice to have the upgrade finished.

Now that the government shutdown has ended (however briefly), the shop that was charged with finishing the bearing assembly rebuild for the steering wheel has finished the job, so my next project is to reassemble and adjust the steering cables, throttle cables, and steering wheel.  More crawling around on the boat.  Oh boy!

Now if the weather would just warm up.  The last thing I want to be doing is crawling around on the deck with a couple inches of snow on it.  It’s a much better day for practicing sight reductions for celestial navigation.

Balmar 100A alternator (white) on Yanmar 50hp

External regulator showing alternator temperature in degrees Celsius