Port Townsend, in the rain, 10-AUG-2018 – There will be no wind today until after three pm, just PNW rain: may be a quarter inch (6mm) per hour. It is a dark Seattle winter day in early August. The temperatures are higher (low sixties), but no sailing.
We’re on our shakedown cruise.
We sailed from Lake Union to Port Ludlow on Thursday. The drama of the dangling cutlass bearing screws having been resolved – see below. We passed through the locks, this time as the experts giving asked-for-advice to newbies.
It took about an hour and half to get through the locks, and were past the train bridge by noon. It is 25 nautical miles to Port Ludlow, where we planned to spend the night. We made about 3.6 knots until the wind died. We motored the last ten, arriving about 7pm. This was the first time we used our new EV1 autohelm.
The EV1 did not complete its compass calibration until we anchored in Port Ludlow.
The entire Puget Sound area continues to feel the financial pressure of Seattle money looking for a place to go. The undeveloped surroundings that were Port Ludlow are now full of houses completed and uncompleted. It was a pleasant sail and uneventful night at anchor.
We haven’t been to Port Ludlow in a bunch of years. It was one of the first places we sailed to and anchored. We reflect on the changes in our level of expertise. We mourn the loss of wonder at these surroundings, but we are now completely relaxed in everything we do.
Port Ludlow, 11-AUG-2018, 07.15 – Jennifer sleeps in the forepeak, John Riley sleeps in the aft cabin and I write in the main cabin. John traveled from Tacoma to Port Townsend Friday and met us as we anchored off the public dock. Like the old New England adage, you can’t get there from here, John traveled by bus to Seattle, then ferry to Bainbridge Island, then bus to Port Townsend.
We three walked the 2-1/2 miles to Jennifer’s house across from the fairgrounds and picked up the oar from the windvane and the 170% Genoa that we had accidentally left behind and then rode two buses back to the harbor. It was the longest distance John has walked since his stroke.
We haven’t broken much yet. We found I did not properly tighten the hose clamp for the raw water feed from the pump to the heat exchanger. Lots of excitement as the engine overheated in the narrow channel south of Port Townsend.
The very expensive Evans coolant paid for itself at the moment. We pegged the meter and the coolant did not boil over. I believe this saved the head gasket, if not the entire cylinder head. Sometimes I get it right.*
We have been heavily rained on and neither the windows nor the new Genoa sheet track leaked, but we have found a small leak in the hatch in the forepeak. Having it professionally repaired is an expensive multi-week project. DIY is difficult, but something I might tackle if we were not leaving so soon. Instead we’ll apply some 3M 4000, which generally fixes such things.
The fix to the anchor locker cover did not survive one use. The wonderful and very hard epoxy putty shattered when stress was applied to the screws. I have another more involved, but sturdier fix in mind.
The cutlass bearing seems to be holding uo fine and does not seem to be leaking, but I thought I might have heard the bilge pump run, so I am ordering a counter to count the number of time the pump runs.
The jury is out on the EV1 autohelm. Friday, the first day we used it, after calibrating it, the course held was a continuous wide swing, like a snake another Maxi 95 sailor commented. He recommended we buy a Rudder Reference Transducer, so the auothelm knows the rudder’s position rather than merely the boat’s heading. However, yesterday, Saturday, it seemed to hold course easily. I need to make a decision by Monday to have the device in time to install it before we leave. If you have thoughts, please comment.
I am tickled by the bus-based technology that we are assembling on Caro Babbo, and dismayed that a firmware update on our phones took away a feature we use often when aboard.
Our new electronics all transmit data from their sensors across the NMEA 2000 bus (actually an automative and manufacturing CANBUS). In turn each device and software program uses that data. Two examples: when we turn on the autohelm, it transmits Caro Babbo’s heading (where the boat is pointed, as opposed to the direction it is actually moving). The radar uses this information together with the AIS boat information, transmitted by the Vesper AIS, to overlay vessel name and other information on the radar display.
The OpenCPN navigation software now displays both our course made good (aka course over ground) and the vessel’s heading. It allows us to (1) be confused and (2) see the effect the wind and current is having on Caro Babbo.
A new firmware upgrade from T-Mobile disconnects the phone from the cellular data whenever the phone is connected to a Wifi connection, whether or not the Wifi connection is connected to the internet. On Caro Babbo, all of the navigation instrumentation is on a Wifi network that is not connected to the internet. We must choose one or the other but not both as we could until this upgrade.
Our satellite communications are all set up (see http:/CaroBabbo.com for information on contacting us when we are out of cellular range), and we need to start paying much closer attention to the weather.
Today, we’ll start working with the windvane self-steering.
John is up and it is time to wake Jennifer. We’re at eight days and counting.
P.S. Jennifer’s car was stolen from Lee’s Landing we just learned. Stay tuned for more info
The cutlass bearing turned as many things do, not to be an effect of any malfeasance. We spoke with the manager of Tacoma Screw in Seattle, who instantly told us that the screws had stretched. She told us to install new screws with anti-seize compound and all will be well. The threads in the keel were all intact, and it went back together in a few minutes (and $800 later – yard fees).
*Yes, I realize that if I had gotten it right the hose would not have come off the pump.
