11/12/2011

There's not much to report about today. Just a long boring day on the road. I got to Salt Lake City as the sun went down and the volume of traffic went up at rush hour. Much of the hour and a half drive through SLC was stop and go due to accidents, etc. There is also a lot of road work going on with concrete dividers to the right and very narrow lanes. I white knuckled it through trying not to hit the dividers while still staying in my lane. It was very nerve wracking. I am stopped in Scipio for a quesadilla and a cerveza. It's early but I think I'll go to sleep and see when I wake up. Tomorrow may start today.

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11/12/2011

After an extra day's wait for my travel documents to show up I was off to catch the 5:50 ferry from Salt Spring. Next was the ferry from Vancouver Island to the mainland and then South! A quick stop at the border and I was in the US and heading to see my friend Tracey at Mountain Lamp retreat. We had a good, if short, visit before hitting our respective beds for the night. Morning brought breakfast, some Tai Chi, and a warm good-bye. I got a fairly late start but still managed to get in about 800 km before pulling into this rest area and getting the bed set up. Time to call it a day and get some sleep.

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10/17/2011

I headed out for the Labor Day weekend with a buddy. We planned a day sailing north and then heading south to Winter Cove on Saturna Island for a BC Multihull Society get together. The second morning we had a 'communiction breakdown' that resulted in us hitting a rock. The board still went up and down easily so I convinced myself the damage was minor and carried on. We even did okay in the race the next day. A couple of days later I went to Annette inlet where the water is warmer and dove down for a look. I was horrified to see the damage on the board and I pulled the boat the next day. Once home I pulled the board out and was even more horrified. The bottom, the trailing edge where the board exits the slot and the head of the board were all damaged. I set to work on the board and case trying not to think about how needless the accident was. In between board and case work I redid the paint and nonskid on the cabin top, rebuilt the tiller, etc, etc. I had planned on going south around Nov 15 but I had some paint ruined by rain and I'm tired of working under a tarp so I'm going south on the first and I'll do whatever I haven't finished when I get there. It is sunnier and drier there so I might as well get on with it. Here's a shot of the board mid-repair.

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10/17/2011

While my boat was on the hard I managed to get a week of sailing in with my buddies Rob and Peter. Rob owns a Contour 30 and Peter is too smart to buy a boat. We had a great week cruising the Gulf Islands and the Sunshine Coast of BC. The picture is from Smuggler's Cove.

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10/17/2011, Salt Spring Island, BC

Well it's been a while since a post. I got home eager to replace the folding strut brackets and get sailing. It was a much more involved repair than I had imagined so I took my time. While waiting for some glass repair to cure I decided that the non-skid on the boat had outlived its usefulness. I redid the beams and the tops of the floats. I used a product called KiwiGrip and I highly recommend it. Many more small things got repaired before launch and it took me until August 5 to get the boat in the water. I am very happy with the repairs and the boat is sailing beautifully. The attached photo shows the corroded brackets I replaced. Apparently the wrong alloy was used in the original construction.

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04/25/2011

I spent until 4 pm the next day waiting for repairs. In the end I had new bearings and seals put on all four trailer wheels and headed out. After 8 hours or so I pulled in for some sleep then I got up and drove some more at about 3. Drive, sleep, drive, sleep, it isn't much fun but you rack up the miles. The next day I stopped in Washington and visited my friend Tracey at the Mountain Lamp Community. http://www.mountainlamp.org/
I headed to the border and had a long goodbye with US Customs. Consequently I was too late to make it home to Salt Spring that night so I slept in the boat for one last night. I caught the 7 am ferry and was home 8. My buddy Ed came over and helped me get the boat up the driveway and into its "spot". Now to get everything ship shape again and get the boat back in the water!

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