Back on the Water
06 July 2013 | Nearing Point Conceptio
Fred
A friend asked if I would help him deliver an Alaskan 64 motor yacht to Settle from San Diego and of course I said yes. What else am I doing other than changing oil and fuel filters on Tapatai. That's another whole story as 3 separate people were unable to get the engine started and now the injector pump is headed to the shop as that is the suspect. More on that later.
So we left July 5 at 1100 from Point Loma Marina with Captain Ken, Bob, John, the owner, Chris and me and had a somewhat uneventful trip to Santa Barbara. Uneventful weather wise as it was clear, no wind, and flat calm allowing us to go 8.3 knots burning about 7 gallons per hour. Eventful from the point that around midnight Bob came up and said "what happened to all the water? Can't even brush my teeth." No showers just dish washing which I did and I am really frugal with water even at home. We have a water maker that will make 50 gallons per hour and thought we filled the tank which is 300 gallons. Looking at the gauge it read EMPTY, so what happened. Waited until Ken got up so we could start the generator and run the watermaker and when we did all seemed well. We ran it for a couple of hours and looked like a quarter of a tank. Laying in bed I was thinking through it and thought that we had a leak or a tap was open. I kept looking in the head to see if it was that tap and eventually water started coming out so I shut it off. That wasn't the culprit as Bob and I both opened it trying to get water and a lot of faucets are backwards so you don't know if it is off or not unless you see water.
The owner got up and we told him of the problem and he went out on the boat deck and looked at the sink and sure enough the tap was open. He says that happens occasionally so we just converted 300 gallons of sea water to fresh and then gave most of it back. Problem solved.
Got into to Santa Barbara around 0800 and tied up at the fuel dock and topped off with about 500 gallons so we have 1550 gallons which is plenty for the remaining 1100 miles. Left around 10 after dropping the owner off and now we are proceeding along the Central California Coast dodging oil rigs in the overcast on our way to rounding Point Conception, notorious for high winds and seas. Our weather looks pretty good so hopefully we will have a smooth rounding.
Next stop will be Port Townsend where we will drop off a Mainsail and Genoa from a Swan 59 along with a 20' tube containing the battens for the main and assorted sheets that Bob bought for a friend who is restoring a 65' Sparkman and Stephens yawl. Looking forward to seeing the boat and project.
All for now and will try to update wifi permitting.