11/13/2011, Marina Seca, San Carlos

Well I made it. The boat is on stands and ready for some work. Once here I found a bad break in one of the boat supports on the trailer and another small one starting. I will get them fixed and carry less weight in the boat from now on. It has been raining but today should be the last. In the mean time I will get organized and enjoy some Mexican food and cervezas.

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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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