May 1, 2008 A quick thank you to all who came to our going away party this Sunday. It was a blast seeing everyone one last time. To all those who couldn't make it, we hope to see you out there somewhere in the big ol' blue marble we call earth. Double thank you to those who brought us going away gifts. It wasn't necessary which makes it all the more special. Thank you so much. We will be finishing up the A list of boat projects before heading out. Like I mentioned before, some things can wait but we have around 40 items on the to-do list. You can see the list here.
May 5, 2008 OK so I said I wasn't a mechanic and I meant it. I reinstalled the genset and put all the components back on the unit. This included the water pump, fuel lines, exhaust manifold, raw water supply and hoses and electrical wiring. Then, crossing our fingers, we turned the key (really, its push the button) and after a few cranks, she started up. Success! Wait, what is all that smoke? Shut her down! Shut her down! This
was at 1 am or so. So we went to bed and woke up the next morning
to take a look at what was going on. We started the genset up
again to see what would happen, ready to hit the kill switch.
This time she started up and no smoke appeared. But there was
also no charge coming from the unit. Now we had to figure out
what happened last night and how to fix it. I was convinced that
we had somehow messed up the stator/rotor assembly and the friction
caused the smoke. Then I started checking online to see what might have gone wrong. Learned a lot about stators and such, but that didn't really help. I then consulted my genset manual. In the maintenance section there was something about €œflashing the field€ but no explanation of what that was, just how to do it. Back to the internet. It seems that generators have to build a charge from a small existing magnetic field contained in the unit. If that field is lost, like say by pulling the unit apart, it needs to be restored. You have to provide the field by "flashing" the unit with your 12v battery. Hooray internet. So I followed the instructions to flash the field in our unit. The guy describing his process on the internet said to do it quick as a spark will occur when you flash the unit. When I made the connections there was no spark. Hmmm. Started genset. No charge. Hmmm. Think, think, think.
That worked out fine, as a wetsuit I ordered and received on Friday was the wrong one and was going to receive the replacement on Monday as well. More to follow including details on all our projects these past few weeks.
May 7, 2008 We are finally getting out of our slip. We have worked non-stop to get ready and are down to the final few items. Tomorrow is final provision trip and a quick trip up the mizzen mast to install a radar refector. Looking forward to living on the hook and mastering the art of anchoring. We have marked the anchor rode and organized the anchor locker. That's after I dumped the 200' of chain off the dock and into the bay. Had to pull it up by hand. It was full of South Bay mud. More metal in there than dirt I think. Yuck. Everything is getting lashed down and we will finish tomorrow. Going to leave at 7pm to arrive at San Clemente Island around 10am on Friday. Then we will stay for 3 days before heading to Catalina Island.
May 8, 2008 Well we ran out of time tonight. Didn't make sense to rush out before we were totally done. So we will finish up the loose ends and head out tomorrow. Good news is that all the projects we wanted to finish are done and by having an extra day we can get some other little things done as well. Another good reason to stay is that we both had a terrible night sleep. That's pretty typical when you have big plans the following day. We both kept waking up thinking about little things we still needed to do before we left (like organize our safety gear). So we had only around five hours of sleep and it was a shallow, not a deep sleep. As we plan on leaving at 7pm or so for a 15-18 hour overnight trip, we definetly needed more sleep than that to be safe. As for the overnight trip, here is our watch schedule: 9pm-12am Jodie Before and after that we will both be awake and share the watch. There are many different schedules that other cruisers prefer, the 3 on, 3 off works for us. If it seems that I am getting the better part of the schedule with only one watch, well, hey I wrote the schedule. Just kidding. Jodie prefers the 3am to 6am watch. She naps out in the cockpit after I wakeup at 6am. Plus, she finds it very difficult to do the 12am to 3am watch. Like I said this is what works for us.
May 9, 2008 We are all set to depart. Here is where things get tricky with the web site. We can only post to the site when connected to a wireless network or an internet café. So we will continue to write our sailing log and update the web page when possible. It could be several weeks between updates. But when it happens it will be a big post of all our activities. Please check back and follow along with us. Now here are some pics of some of the projects we have been working on:
The installed docking lights (These get big ohhs and ahhs at the dock)
"Blipper" radar reflector (located up the mizzen mast)
Scuba compressor mounted below
Completed Genset
Scuba tank rail mount
Surfboard rail mount
Fuel rail mount (1 gas, 4 diesel)
Refinished boarding ladder and added step by the top hand holds
"3rd crewmember" Selfsteering windvane
Lash down everything...
The glassware. Wish us luck with these. Well thats some of what you got to do to get your home ready to sail in open waters. Now that most of the work is done, can we please go sailing?!? Take care and we'll talk to you soon.
May 10, 2008
We left San Diego last night at 6:00pm. The seas were angry that day my friend. Just kidding. Conditions were mild with a west wind of less than 5 knots and west/southwest swell of 4 feet. We ended up motoring the whole trip and arrived at 10:30am today. That being said we feel like crap. It is always difficult the first few days on the ocean. There is no preparing for the motion and long duration of exposure to the elements, no matter how mild the conditions may be for the passage. It is called getting your sea legs. We haven't found ours yet. Just a matter of time before we get used to the change in environment. Neither Jodie nor I got real seasick; however Logan didn't fare so well. He got sick all over our bedding that Jodie just washed before leaving. Looks like we will get a crash course on doing large items of laundry on the boat later today. We are resting right now as the May Grey is in full effect. We will tackle the laundry when the sun makes an appearance later this afternoon. As for Pyramid Cove, it is not very well sheltered from the south swell or east winds and you can't go ashore as the entire island is a Navy base. So why are we here? Well for one it is the closest anchorage to San Diego. Two, no one else is here right now (Video Pyramid Cove). We have never really anchored before by ourselves, except to eat lunch in San Francisco Bay. Honestly, that really doesn't count. So for our first attempt at dropping and setting the hook we wanted some privacy. At Pyramid Cove we knew we had a fair shot at getting the privacy we wanted. We discussed where and how we wanted to anchor, going over hand signals as one person is at the helm and one on the bow. We did this several times and only had to make one or two hand signals up when we actually set the anchor. All in all, things couldn't have gone better. We dropped the hook in 33 feet of water, used the engine to move us slowly back as the chain was released, and the hook dragged for 5-10 feet then set on first try on 100 feet of chain. Later"¦ We
have finished cleaning the sheets and comforter. The wind has
kicked up to 10 knots from the west and handling and hanging the sheets
is a little difficult. Jodie is still feeling the effects of the
passage but I am feeling close to 100%. She is amazed at how I am
able to actually do things like rig a fishing pole. Scorecard:
Fish 1 Michael 0. I am a little concerned at how close we are the bluff that we have anchored under. The bluff shelters us from the west winds. If the wind comes in from the East for any reason (it shouldn't) we might swing into shallow water or the kelp that has stacked up over there. Jodie says to re-anchor the boat if I am worried about it. But the hook has been set very well and we didn't budge this afternoon in the gusting winds. So to reset it now just before dark seems like a gamble. Just like betting that the wind won't blow us into the bluff. Next time we anchor, we decide to anchor in a little deeper water if it means we get more room to swing on the hook. We take down the sheets and eat some cold fried chicken while night sets in. Three other boats have joined us in the anchorage now, and they all are a little farther off the bluff than we are. I doubt I'll get much sleep tonight worrying about the boat.
May 11-12, 2008 Well I ended up waking every hour on the hour and getting out of bed to check on where we were at in the anchorage. At 3am or so we were swung around to the bluff and we were still a good 60 or 70 feet away. Yea! I can sleep now. They always say distances are deceiving on the water and they are right. I thought we were quite a bit closer than we were. Well, we tried to get some sleep but there were a couple seals outside that had a different idea. They must have seen us when we went to check out the bluff outside and they spent a good deal of time swimming up against our hull and blowing air bubbles beneath us. They were having a great time and driving us nuts. Those cute little seals aren't so cute after all. Happy Mothers Day to our moms! The next day we just relaxed and planned for our trip to Santa Catalina Island. We got up early, around 5:30am, ate some breakfast and departed at 6:00am. When we raised the chain, there was some kelp that was wrapped around it. The kelp remained at the surface as the chain was raised and more and more started collecting there. When the anchor broke the surface it hooked all that kelp on it in a big ball. Jodie was at the helm and she started moving us slowly out as I ran below to get a knife. Kelp cuts easily and in short order I had the anchor into the bowsprit and secured with pins and a chain hook. We motored around the south part of San Clemente Island and then headed north along the eastern shoreline.
We arrived at Catalina Harbor at 3pm and drove around to find a spot to set the hook. We are pros' now that we have done it one time"¦ Funny thing is the guide book says to find a spot across from this place called Ballast Point. But the whole harbor is filled up with mooring balls! They filled it up and now there is hardly any room to anchor inside the bay. There are three small boats (less than 25 feet) inside and five various boats outside the harbor actually anchored on lee shore. Not where you want to be, especially as 20-30 knots winds are forecasted for tomorrow. Just as we arrive, one of the smaller boats inside is pulling up their anchor. So wew head to that spot, but determine there is no way we can fit there. We choose another spot by the mooring balls and slide over to check the depths in the area. The depths seem ok and we choose a spot that we might fit into: Front of the mooring balls, next the cliff, behind the small sailboat. Geez. Really not what we planned on before we got here. But it is what it is, and we swing around yet again. This is the forth pass and we set the hook. When we let the chain out we end up almost on top of the small sailboat we wanted to be behind. So we decide to try again. We bring the hook back up and swing around to a slightly different spot. Go through the routine of dropping the hook, letting the chain out and setting the hook. Much better location this time. We find out later that there is a young woman and baby on board the small sailboat who never even came out as we were parked on top of them. We would have come out just to make sure that the new boat anchoring would not do something stupid, like try to anchor on top of us. It all worked out and we got to practice the anchoring skills in a more challenging environment. We settle down for the afternoon enjoying the nice setting. Video of Catalina Harbor here. Time to reward ourselves with a nice hot shower. So we fire up the genset and turn on the hot water heater and top off the batteries at the same time. Speaking of batteries, they pretty much consume your attention when at anchor. Not to mention that I have a 120 watt solar panel sitting on our dodger that is not connected to the house system yet. So all we are doing is draining the house batteries and not adding to them unless we run the engine or genset. Tomorrow is solar panel hook-up day.
May 13, 2008 The wind is blowing a steady 15 knots with gust up to 25 knots. I keep going forward to check that our anchor is holding steady and it seems to be holding fine. You can tell by putting your foot on the chain as it goes over the bowsprit. If it is vibrating, that means its moving along the sea floor. Ours is not and the chain is being pulled taunt as the gust hit us. We don't have as much scope as I would like, 3:1 is out there right now. I would prefer 4:1 but that would mean another 30 feet of chain out and we cannot afford the swing room for that additional chain. But the anchor is holding and the wind should be easing up as dusk approaches. I spent the rest of the day connecting our solar panel to the battery system. It goes well as I attach a dual battery solar charge regulator to control the voltage to the two separate house batteries. At the end of the day we are putting 5+ amps back into the batteries and I have yet to add our flexible panel into the system. It is a smaller 32 volt panel that should add 1.7 amps per hour during the peak charging cycle. I will have to add another 120 volt panel before we head out to Mexico and beyond, but this will have to do for now. The wind is still blowing but it tapers off between gusts. The boat hasn't moved an inch and that gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. It should be peaceful tonight as the sun sets and wind calms down.
May 14, 2008 Today is dingy day. We have to organize it and get it into the water. I also want to rig a motor purchase system to help us get the motor off the rail and onto the boat. I have placed a boom bail on the end of the mizzen mast to attach the purchase system to. I have an assortment of rigging gear in a Tupperware container that I believe has the proper items to rig the purchase system. We clean up
the dingy and hoist it up over the rail and into the water. We
then bring her back to the back of the boat and lift the motor up with
its purchase system. Jodie is on the back deck handling the
purchase rope and I am in the dingy guiding the motor down to the stern
of the dingy. Everything goes as planned and the dingy is ready
for a quick trip to the dingy dock, about a half-mile away. This
all took around 2 hours to complete. So we eat some lunch first
and then get into the dingy for our first trip to town. Now we
have been at the anchorage for two days and at sea since last
Friday. So it has been five days since we have set foot on
land. Its kind of weird thinking about walking on land.
Maybe you have to be here. We tie up at the dingy dock and walk into town, another half-mile trip. It's more a resort campground than a town. Visitor center, grocery store, restaurant/bar and a dive shop. The whole town it turns out is owned by some company and everyone here works for the same company. They work in various jobs for the company, shop at the company store, eat at the company restaurant and live in the company housing. Around 90 people live and work here year around. Most importantly, they have washing machines and driers. We plan to go back tomorrow to do some laundry the old fashioned way: by machine.
May 15, 2008 We enter Two Harbors, Isthmus side, which is the east side of the island. You can see Los Angeles from here across the water. The San Pedro peninsula area comes out and is the easily seen from the east side of the island. We set about doing our laundry and a few people come by. One is a fellow who is anchored on a mooring in Catalina Harbor by us. He asks us if we are new workers here as the season is starting and there are a lot of new faces around. We state that we are anchored outside the moorings in Cat Harbor. I am trying to get internet access from the restaurant/bar from the laundry room and he informs us of a secluded area nearby that has a good wireless signal and the all important power connection! Major score here with the power connection. Then shortly after he starts his wash and leaves, the maintenance worker comes by to empty the money out of the machines. We start chatting and she promptly adds an hour of time into the driers for us to use! Sweet! It was a nice way to welcome us to Two Harbors and we really appreciated it. So after the driers finished we headed over to the "back bar" area where we could find the power source and free wifi. We take the corner table by the plug and hook up. We would have never found this spot without some help. We have always been "Survivor" fans and we lamented about leaving right before this season's finale. We left on Friday and the finale was playing on Sunday. But CBS lets you watch full episodes on the internet. So after uploading our web page and checking emails (hello and thanks to all who have written us) we settled down to watching the season finale. We watch a third of the episode before we headed back to the boat (it is a two hour episode), after checking that we could restart the show at the exact time we paused/stopped watching it. We will save the end for sometime next week. When we got back to the boat, we had some lunch and then I set about tuning up the dingy motor. The idle was set too low and it was running a bit rich. Turn a couple screws and she seems to be running fine now. Plenty of work for one day. I have some more things on the to-do list for tomorrow.
May 16, 2008 Today I dove into the engine room before I dove into the water. We had a water pressure issue that had been dogging us for a while. The water heater has a pressure release valve that has been bleeding of excess pressure while we have been hook up to city water. We had a pressure regulator on the inlet that keeps the pressure at 35-40 psi. However the pressure regulator on the water heater was malfunctioning and bleeding water internally from the water lines into the starboard tank where the bleed line leads. While in the dock it was nice because it filled our starboard tank slowly while we had shore water connected. When the boat would start to lean to the starboard side we would shut off the city water supply and draw off the starboard tank till it was low and repeat the process. Now that we are disconnected from the city water and on our own water pump however, this is quite a problem. First it takes power to run the pump. If the pressure valve is bleeding water out of the system, the pump wants to maintain pressure, so it cycles back on. This was occurring every 45 seconds or so. The water would be returned to the starboard tank, so there was no water loss, but the power consumption is a problem. Not to mention, if we are drawing off the port side tank, the water would be returned to the starboard tank. I hope that that makes since. The thing to understand is that we had a problem with the hot water pressure release valve. So I ordered a replacement part before we left and I installed it today. Problem fixed. While I was down there I fixed the oil pressure sending wire of the genset and tightened the alternator belt on the main engine. So here is where the water scare comes in: While fixing the water pressure valve some air got into the tank and water lines. Now when air gets into the line the water pump can act a little funny. Like run non-stop as if you are out of water. Air has less density than water and takes more pressure to compress it, which our water pump could not accomplish. So the pump cycles on trying to bring up the internal water pressure to the 35 psi range. The tricky part is that it took the pump around an hour after I worked on the hot water heater to start acting funny. We have been drawing off both tanks since last Friday. I have been switching back and forth between tanks to keep the boat level in the water. So after an hour of things working fine the water pump starts running like crazy. We try to figure out what is wrong, forgetting about the air in the lines problem. It seems we are out of water. We cannot figure out how we have gone through 350 gallons of water in one week. We rack our brains trying to figure where the gallons have gone until Jodie remembers the air in the lines problem and how it can cause the pump to run.
I celebrate by snorkeling on the nearby shoreline. I get a treat as a baby white tipped shark and a small stingray swim past me as I make way around a location called Ballast Point. It is my first time snorkeling here and I will get Jodie out now that I can tell her that the 55 degree water is not an issue in our wetsuits. We will get wet and try out our underwater camera that was a going away gift from Jodie's co-workers (thank you again).
May 17-19, 2008 It was a beautiful day today so we got into the dingy for a ride. I had Jodie take command as I walked her through the entire dingy startup routine. I had always gone though the process of starting and warming up the engine and driving us around. But today it was Jodie's turn. I wanted her to be able to handle the dingy alone should something happen to me and she needed to go ashore. So step by step we got the dingy going, including having her pull start it. Now I better not piss her off too much on the boat because now she can take off without me! She did great and we started heading out into the ocean. It's kind of funny because if I was driving out of the harbor into the ocean, Jodie would probably get nervous going out there. But she was driving and she took us straight out! We cruised up the north side of the harbor and then crossed the mouth of the harbor to the south side. We went another mile before turning around and headed back. The cliff faces were awesome up close and I wished we had brought the camera. When you are sailing up and down the coastline, you would generally stay a minimum of two miles offshore, sometimes as much as fifteen to twenty miles. So you never get a really good look at the coastline as you sail past. Getting to see the coast line up close in the dingy was a special treat and something we will definitely continue to do in the future. After our water tank mystery a few days ago I thought that it was time to finish hooking up the water maker. We have an 110v system that makes 40 gph. We had not finished hooking it up for a variety of reasons. I had installed the major components but had not finished all the plumbing required. Water making is a simple yet complicated process to achieve. It goes like this (simple version). Take seawater and push it through a fiberglass membrane at 800 psi to separate the pure h2o from the rest of the seawater. Direct h2o into water tank, brine overboard. Now in man hours to install this system, it is around 40 to 50. So it can get a little complicated with strainers, pre-pumps, pumps, power, thru-hulls, membranes, test faucets, hoses, valves etc, etc. All the hoses had been run and were in place for final fitting which I completed. It was time to turn it on. We had purchased the system more than a year ago, but you need an unpolluted water source to test the system. So I had never finished the installation and tested it. Also, once you start using it, you have to keep on using it every week or pickle it to preserve the membranes. Seemed like too much work at the time so we never bothered to complete it. We hit the switches. First booster pump. Then high pressure pump. We checked for water coming out of the newly installed thru-hull. Yep. So far, so good. After an initial 15 minutes of running the pumps we start to increase the pressure on the membranes. We slowly turn the dial which increases the pressure. 100, 200, 300, check the line for leakage, 400, 500, 600, deep breath, 700, 800. We go to the test faucet in the bathroom. Water! Through the membranes! Then POP! From under the settee a loud pop and water is flowing out. We shut down the system. For the next hour I am checking and rechecking lines. Looking at the instruction manual and scratching my head. It was working for a minute. What's up? Here is what happened: When the unit was originally shipped to us, an elbow was split coming off one of the membranes. Now this is not something you can get at Home Depot. It took me around a month to get some of these things. In the mean time I am reading about how you cannot let the membranes dry out. They are pickled and need to be kept moist in the solution. So I stick a bit of paper towel in there and sealed it with saran wrap. A month later when I get the elbow I throw them into box. Six months after that I come across said box, and 2 months later I install the elbow as I mount the membranes under our settee. Now I know what you are going to say: I forgot the paper towel. I didn't. I removed it when I replaced the elbow. Just not all of it. Some had managed to separate and clump up inside the outlet and didn't come out with the rest when I removed it. So when we started making water, it started making its way into our control box. There is a water gph meter as part of the unit and the paper towel bit got jammed as it tried to pass through the meter. There it got stuck and caused the backpressure which had popped our lines from the fittings under the settee. So I took apart the control panel (again) and removed the small paper towel bit. We restarted the water (again³) and this time it finally worked. We let it run for two hours to clear the pickle juice (Sodium Metabisulfite) out of it and finally began to refill our tanks. Thank goodness. BTW, I tested our city tap water and it had 360 parts per million of solids. Our reverse osmosis water registered 80 ppm. Makes you wonder what's in that stuff we been drinking our whole lives!?! Go get a household R.O. system quick.
May 20-24, 2008 We've been hunkered down for the past several days as a low-depression has moved over Southern California bringing winds and rain. The winds have been on average a sustained 15 knots, sometimes climbing as high as 25 knots, with gusts in the 30-35 knot range. We prepared for this weather event by removing as much from the deck as possible: straightening lines and deflating and mounting our dingy to the cabin top. We placed our dingy cover on and strapped down the dingy using two ratchets.
It's been quite a ride day after day as the winds continued to gain strength. Our anchor held fast and the snubber did its job as we were blown back again and again. On the second day of the storm Jodie noticed another boat in the anchorage slowly dragging back and threatening another boat anchored just next to us. The boat that was dragging had come in the night before just after sundown and anchored in the middle of the harbor. It was now 11am the next day and there was no one to be seen on the boat. I quickly radioed the Harbor Master to inform him of the boat that was dragging towards our neighbor and the mooring field. He quickly responded and came out to wake the occupants of the dragging boat. It was at this time that our neighbor became aware of the situation, but all she could do was watch at this point. Fortunately the crew of the dragging boat was still aboard and re-anchored to the side of the harbor. Jodie had been nervous the entire time the wind was blowing and she would constantly check the harbor to make sure we were not dragging. So it was no surprise that she noticed the boat dragging across the harbor. After seeing one boat drag, this caused her to worry even more and drive me bananas with questions like "are we ok?", "do you think we're closer to the mooring field than before?", "are you sure we are ok?", etc. After this weeks rocking and rolling in the anchorage, we defiantly have our sea legs under us. Even Jodie hasn't felt sick this week. Things have calmed down but we haven't left the boat in four days. Better to be here on the boat than onshore worrying about her. Hopefully the rain will stop today and we'll get the dingy back out and make a trip into town.
May 25-30, 2008 Well we did not mention that during the last day of the big blow our windlass (what raises and lowers the anchor) went on the fritz. I went out to let the snubber out a foot to avoid any chafing on the line. When I had finished letting the snubber out, I wanted to release the chain a bit as well to allow the snubber to stretch to its new length. I hit the down button on the windlass control to let out the chain. Then I raised my foot and released the button and the chain just kept on being played out! I yelled to Jodie, "Shut her down!" This is a phrase that is getting used a lot lately. The windlass is controlled by a set of solenoids that are controlled by the foot buttons at the bow. Down below in the forward berth I found the solenoid control box. I removed it from its mounting location and proceeded to take it apart. That was after I was pissing and moaning about having to buy a new $150.00 control box or rig up something else with off-the-self solenoids. So I removed the control box top and went about testing it with a voltage meter and manually powering it up. Everything seemed to be working fine. I can only assume that the solenoid actuator got hung up in the connect position. It is a plastic pusher in a plastic housing. So I sprayed some silicon spray inside the walls and made sure the springs were in the proper location and reassembled and reinstalled the unit. The control box has been working fine ever since. Jodie laughs at me for always assuming something is completely broken and having to spend X to replace it, then fixing it myself. I doubt I'll change though. Number 2. After this the shower overboard pump starts to go haywire. It pumps but doesn't pull any water out. We need a shower pump as the floor is just about at the same level as the water outside. So we pump it overboard. Now this is considered grey water and perfectly acceptable to pump directly overboard. Our sinks go directly overboard as well, however they are above the waterline and do not require any pumping. So I take apart the pump and it seems fine. I clean it up and reinstall it. I also use my electrical wire fish to run through the pipes each way to clear any clogs. After reassembling, the system works. Until the next time we use the shower. You know how great it is to start taking a shower, only to have to cut off the water 3 minutes in? Now do that twice. Fun. Long story short, there was a filter strainer mesh screen that was clogged and as soon as it was cleaned everything was back in working order. Ok. Next we have the genset. Yep. Problems with the genset. Kind of. We had been charging the batteries (more on the batteries in a second) and after an hour the genset just shut itself down. First we checked the fuel. Fine there. The genset has two safety shut-off features. One is an oil pressure shutoff and the other is a temperature shut-off. So I check the engine for any signs of oil leaks and there is none. Next I check the temp and unit is pretty hot. The genset has an internal antifreeze/coolant system that passes through a heat exchanger that is fresh water cooled. No radiator like in a car. This uses seawater to cool the coolant. So I check my coolant level and I can't feel any (impossible to see as I can't get my head above the cap), but you are supposed to have the coolant a little low to allow for expansion. So I top of the coolant and it only takes a couple of ounces before it starts to spill out the overflow. So that's not the problem. Next I go to the seawater system. Maybe the impellor has come apart. Before I remove the impellor cover I want to shut the thru-hull valve that feeds it so seawater doesn't come flowing in. The valve won't shut. Here we go. I remove the hose and there is kelp coming halfway out of the thru-hull. I try to pull it though but it just comes apart in my hand. I dread getting a wire to jam back and forth just because of the amount of water that will flood in as I try to clear all the kelp out. Now the water isn't that much of a problem, we have bilge pumps to clear the water out. But it is wet and messy, not to mention all the kelp bits all in the bilge. Now I really love what I do here if I do say so myself. We have an air horn that is connected to a can of compressed air. Very much like a horn that would be mounted on bike handlebars way back in the day. It is a safety horn used to signal other boaters. They mostly get used at midnight on December 31st. I grab our air horn and I reconnect the hose to the thru-hull and disconnect the other end. The hose is 1" o.d. and fits very nicely into the business end of the horn. I open the thru-hull and blast the air horn. I don't hear a horn, but I do hear the sound of a lot of bubbles on the outside of the hull rising to the surface. Very nice. Thru-hull is all clear and we restart the genset and have no more problems. Number four. This one blows more than the air horn and is the only real problem we have encountered since we left San Diego. We have two sets of house batteries that provide us all our power; each called a "Bank". Each set is comprised of two 6 volt batteries linked in series with each other to produce 12 volts. With our battery monitor we do our best to monitor the batteries to keep them charged up. On the monitor we notice that Bank 2 is pumping amps into Bank 1. Bank 2 has 12 volts and is dropping fast as Bank 1 has 10 volts and is sucking the juice from Bank 2. We have never seen this before and have no idea what is going on. So we fire up the genset and charge the batteries till each have 12.8 volts and then proceed to go to bed for the night. The next morning we find that Bank 2 still continued to supply Bank 1 with energy and had basically depleted both banks. A quick test with the voltage meter shows that one of the 6 volt batteries in Bank 1 has shorted across two of its three cells and now is only 4 volts. So when combined with its partner they only make 10 volts. Bank 2, with its 12 volts, wants to be a buddy and help out Bank 1 and as a result they both go dead. So we have disconnected Bank 1 and are now relying solely on Bank 2 to handle all our 12 volt systems. Not the end of the world, but we will need to replace all 4 batteries at the same time or else the new batteries will not work as effectively with the older, still operational, battery bank. So, we are heading to Oxnard to purchase our new batteries. We would have left sooner, but we had been waiting for a new solar panel to arrive here that we ordered early this week. We will install the batteries and mount our new 120 volt solar panel to our bimini while we are there at the dock in Oxnard. Hopefully the new batteries combined with the additional solar panel will help us keep up with the electrical demands of the boat. Mind you we have been very frugal using the 12 volt system, but you have no idea (we certainly didn't) how much just the 12 volt refrigeration system consumes.
We fill our time by exploring the island, meeting the locals and diving into our library that we have built up. I have collected some classics and other material that I would not normally read. With the new concept of time, our goal is to spend some of it by diving outward beyond our current definition of ourselves. We may find that we will not like or appreciate some of the material, but we shall be no worse off for it.
May 31, 2008 On Friday, we received an additional solar panel that we had ordered on Tuesday. Our existing 120watt panel produces just enough to keep up with refrigerator during half of the 24 hour day. This contributed to the reason our batteries died, the other being age. We needed to recharge the batteries the amount (really 120% of the amount) the refrigerator and other electronics took away each day. This placed quite a stain on the old batteries and they said "Thank you, but no more. Goodbye." So we have our additional panel that I can install in the Channel Islands Harbor located in Oxnard, California. We can also purchase four new 6 volt batteries there and take care of some much needed grocery shopping. There is a boat supply store located within a quarter mile of the marina. I'm sure I will get to know most of the workers by name before I am done. Today is Saturday and we will depart early on Sunday to Santa Barbara Island. Around noon, a small pontoon boat, also called a deck boat, arrived and anchored close by us when I was ashore disposing of our trash. Jodie was still aboard and she pointed out the boat when I returned. "Those three (kids) are anchored pretty close to us. And they have put out a stern anchor" (a secondary anchor off the back of the boat that keeps you from changing position). "Do you think we could swing into them?" she asks. "Nah" I say. Looking over to the boat that is around 50 feet away. "They won't be here overnight with that boat. There is no place to sleep. It's only at night when we swing around on the anchor." Then at 1pm, they jump into their dingy and leave. With a tent and sleeping bags! Poof and they are gone. Now what to do? Well, we MIGHT not swing into them. And if we do, it will be really slow and just a bump. We scratch our heads, respectively, and think about moving. This after almost threes weeks on the same anchor set, going through 30 knot gusts and now we are forced to move the day before we leave because one boat parks on top of us when we weren't looking. Lesson learned. Next time we will speak up. This time we shall move. Really, not a huge deal. Now the wind is picking up, as it does each afternoon. We decide to wait till things calm down before picking up the anchor and resetting. Here comes the wind. Steady 15's with gusts to 20+. Normal conditions for the afternoons here. With each gust however, that little pontoon boat starts to drag. Pretty soon it is quite evident that the pontoon boat is moving. And now it's moving not past us, but into us. When they tossed out their bow anchor, they placed it (unknowingly) across our chain on the bottom. Now the pontoon boat anchor is sliding down our chain with each gust of wind. The stern anchor is the only thing keeping their boat from coming right down on us. If we pull up our anchor, it will hook into their anchor and we will be towing a 25 foot pontoon boat around the anchorage in gusting afternoon winds. We are stuck and that pontoon boat is practically along side our boat (I can almost jump onto it). We are swinging from left to right in the wind, and the pontoon boat isn't because of its multiple anchors. Jodie calls Harbor Patrol and Rudy comes out. He calls the owner (turns out it's a rental) and since the owner can't contact the renters he goes about resting their anchors. When he retrieves the bow anchor we are pulled way into the anchorage. We had anchored at the inside edge very close the mooring field. Well that's where our boat was sitting most of the time. Now we were being pulled to almost directly on top of our anchor as Rudy is using his boat to haul up the pontoon boat anchor rode. He ties up the rode to his boat and pulls away, then cuts power, and by hand, hauls up five feet or so as he drifts backward. Then repeats over and over. Remember, its gusting 20+ knots through all this and the wind and waves are causing a mess with bottom silt being kicked up by the dragging chain in the water. Much respect to Rudy. Rudy finally gets their anchor up, and quickly frees our chain from it. We then begin our drift back to our original position in the anchorage. He tosses their anchor back into the water making sure it's on the far side of our chain. He looks over and shakes his head, raises his hand in a "What can ya do?" motion and heads out. Thanks Rudy, you rock! We hear on the radio that the rental company will be charged a service fee which I am sure will be passed onto the renters. That's too bad for they are just kids. But Rudy worked his butt off to free our chain and someone has to pay for the service. We noticed when Rudy had freed the pontoon boat anchor that there was very little scope (length) that they had let out on the anchor rode. This was why they were dragging. Now Rudy didn't board the boat and let out more rode, so there was nothing to keep it from dragging again. It just wasn't going to hit us anymore (for the time being). We waited for the wind to calm down a bit before we moved. We definitely did not want to sit close to a dragging boat. At 7pm we lifted our anchor and moved to the far side of the anchorage, about 300 feet away. That night the winds came up again and when we awoke the next morning to leave, the pontoon boat was sideways in the anchorage and positioned right where our boat was located before we moved. One thing for sure is that we learned a lot about anchoring at Catalina Harbor during our stay. Michael
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With
the lack of spark when flashing the unit made me follow the leads to
the back of the genset. I removed the rear plate cover; I
discovered some black bits of carbon. Seems when I reattached the
motor to the generator I didn't realize that the carbon doohickey
needed to be removed first. So I smashed it into the housing and
when we started the engine the friction cooked it up proper. So I
will need to replace the carbon part. I ordered it, and it will
arrive on Monday.
At
9am the wind started to come out of the west and we rolled out the
headsail and motor-sailed the rest of the trip to Catalina
Harbor. We had some hitchhikers who came aboard before we
left. About a half a dozen San Clemente flies had stayed with us
as we headed to Santa Catalina. I tried to shoo them away but
they wouldn't get off the boat. Then a big 
We
were also visited by several groups of pacific porpoises. They
are the smaller cousin of the dolphin and always a real treat to
see. Didn't get very good pictures of them as the sun was not out.
We
bleed the line by opening all the faucets and, voila! Water pump
pressurizes and stops! Thank goodness. At this point I go
about repairing (priorities!) our water tank gauges (gauges that lead
from the bottom of the tank to a sensitive pressure gauge and had some
surgical tubing that has cracked at the back of the unit). Quick
fix there. Port tank 25% full, starboard tank 75% full.
Remember the port tank would bleed into the starboard tank due to the
faulty hot water heater valve. So now all is well with our water
system.
Since
we are on an all chain rode, I constructed a nylon and rubber
"snubber" to attach to our chain. This consisted of two 30' long
5/8" diameter 3-strand nylon line combined with two rubber
shocks. The snubber provides a cushion effect when the chain is
pulled taunt by wind and swell. You do not want to jerk your
anchor out of its holding spot, and the snubber helps prevent this from
happening. We let out an additional 30' of chain and attached the
snubber to the chain and bow. The only thing left to do was
wait"¦ 
The
winds have still been very "fresh" here in the afternoons and
continuing on into the evenings. There has also been some strong
gusts late at night/early mornings which is quite unusual. Our plan is
to leave here early on Sunday, making a day run from Catalina harbor to
an anchorage at Santa Barbra Island, about a 6 hour trip. Then
the following day make the longer 12 hour run up to Oxnard. A
straight shot would take 16-18 hours but that would require us to do an
overnight sail, or expose us to the 25+ knot gusts that are predicted
in the afternoons. By taking the smaller trips it will be a
longer total distance, but two day sails are better than one long
journey and being hit by the forecasted winds that we would encounter
on open water near the end when we are tired.