Two Harbors
16 November 2007 | Catalina Island
Jeff
We're in Two Harbors, Catalina Island. Been here two nights in company with two other cruising boats from the PNW. They are leaving for San Diego this evening and will do it all in one jump. We are thinking about running out our 7 days rent on Catalina Island. We paid for 2 and can stay for up to 7 days for the same fee. We're thinking about moving to Emerald Cove in the morning, and maybe poke around to some of the other bays on the island until Wednesday, then move to Avalon for a few days. They have the same deal. Pay for 2 nights, get 7. But of course there is lots more to spend money on in Avalon, so we'll just have to see how that works out. Next stop will probably be Oceanside. That seems the best choice for day hops to San Diego where we will do the paperwork Cha-Cha.
The weather is perfect. Just a little chilly in the shade. Blue sky, with a few clouds now and then. Sweat pants and a T-shirt until 10:30, then shorts until the sun goes behind the hill. The solar panels are almost keeping up with our daily AH usage. But we hosted the two other boats last night for a chart party sharing all the info we have managed to acquire about the anchorages and services available down to past Cabo. Of course we had all the lights in the boat burning bright for the two or three hours we went over our notes and charts, so that drew the batteries down a bit. Hopefully we will gain some back during this nice sunny day.
So far the throttle cable has been our only mechanical failure. We have a main halyard sheave that has developed a hard spot. We climbed the mast and took a look. There is some contact between the sheave and the side plates at one place during the rotation of the sheave, then it frees up until the next rotation. We sprayed it with silicon spray. Got lots of black to run down the mast, and that seemed to free things up some. I think the silicon spray cleared some accumulated aluminum dust. It's not worth stopping for a real fix at this point, and so will just live with it. If we have to, we can use our spare main halyard, but that would really load up the one winch on the port cabin top, so we'll just keep an eye on it for now.
We have not used the watermaker yet. It's still virgin. Maybe if Emerald Cove is less crowded, we'll pull out the owner's manual and see if we can make some water. It would be good to find any troubles with it now, and not wait until we pass into Mexico.