Thoughts

Australia

Australia

We managed to squeeze in one more sail before we departed for Australia for the winter where we met up with David and Stephanie in Reid Harbour on Stuart Island. Our plans to meet up with Ken and Judi on the way to Stuart were thwarted due to my misunderstanding. Never mind hopefully we will catch up with them on our return. 

Reid Harbour on Stuart Island

We had a great sail through the San Juans. The place was deserted and it was not raining! We sailed right into Reid harbor and lowered the sails to pick up a mooring buoy which always allows a good night’s sleep. David and Stephanie were already there having cleared customs in Friday harbor a day or so before. We all met up later for supper, the obligatory game of risk – the challenge continues – and had a few drinks. It’s great to see them again before they head off to Kansa for the winter and we go to Australia.

Stephanie very kindly knitted Katya a fantastic woolen Frog Hat, complete with eyes. It was very kind of her to make it. Katya wore it until we left for Aus.   

The following day we went for a leisurely autumn walk to the Turn Point light house. All the leaves were turning and the colours were magnificent. We passed the Stuart Island school, both old and new, and did not see another soul along the route. Again we have been lucky with the weather. It was clear day and we stood on a cliff overlooking the border to Canada.

Stuart Island school

Looking across to Canada

Not just your average outhouse....

Probably the best Pit toilet in the US?

Jude and I were wondering how we were going to satisfy Katya’s desire for a fun Halloween. Being on a boat trick or treating is not really feasible in the Marina. We found out that the local shops on the high street in Anacortes make a big show of Halloween so Katya made her outfit and off we trooped. Katya had a great time and picked up a stack of goodies. Most certainly the highlight was when TC and Kelly, a couple who own a boat near us, very thoughtfully dropped off a bag of goodies for Katya, including a pumpkin pie, a whole stack of sweets and toys including a trick lollypop made of fresh garlic and a toffee apple with a gummy worm inside.  

Halloween goodies from TC and Kelly

Trick or treating in Anacortes

Our final preparations for our departure were nearly over. Some small jobs were completed on the boat including having the water maker tested and pickled. We were very pleased that it still worked and did not have to replace the membranes. The packing commenced and everything that was required (and some that was probably not) for a 4 month visit was squeezed into three rucksacks.

We were really looking forward to escaping the bad weather now. The sun had been very elusive for the past few weeks and we were in desperate need to see it again.

Australia

After and uneventful flight to Sydney we were met by the whole of Jude’s family. It was wonderful to see them all again. Also wonderful was the warm weather and a decent shower and a hair cut after 3months growth!

Mike turned 50 on the day we arrived so we helped in the preparations for his birthday party, which turned out to be fantastic. All the usual crowd of friends were there and much fun was had by all, and a few drinks as well.

Since arriving we have been catching up with more friends. Jude has been spending lots of time of time with her parents and I have been trying to get as much swimming in as possible. I have even been jogging a few times. Shock and horror to my system! Who knows I might even get fit as well as well fed. We took Katya to Canberra to visit a couple of great museums. We all had a great time and were very impressed by the exhibits.

Exhibit at the National Australian museum

Questacon science museum

Katya taking part in an experiment at Questacon science museum Canberra

It is wonderful staying with Mike, Irit and the kids. They are so hospitable and I only hope we are not too much of an inconvenience.

Feeding the Cockatoos

.....and the geese

Fruit Bats in the park

Katya decided that she wanted to go to school whilst we are in Sydney. Homeschooling must be getting to her! So we went for an interview at the local public school, which is a stones throw from the beach, and she started the following Monday. Katya is loving it and has made some new friends. She especially likes the uniform which is a novelty as her school in Denver did not require uniforms.

Mike and Irit's house in Sydney.

Cousin Hugo, Katya and Cousin Rosie just before going on a jet boat ride

All very wet on our return...

Autumn Storms

Well it looks like summer has finally faded into the distant past. The sun is lower on the horizon during the day and the days are drawing in. By all accounts it has been an exceptional summer in Washington state and British Columbia, with over 85 days without rain in the past few months. Until this week that is. The temperature gauge is in single digits overnight and barely makes double digits during the daytime. We have had the first series of autumn storms passing through, one of which gave us 47 knot gusts in the marina (glad we were in the marina). The rain is now back and the forecast for the foreseeable future has no sunshine included and has either rain or showers every day. This cold and wet weather brings a new set of challenges for us liveaboards: Staying dry, warm, how to dry wet clothes and dealing with condensation in the boat, which gets worse with a greater temperature differential between the inside of the boat and the outside. So keep the inside cooler and have less condensation or keep the boat warm and have lots of condensation. Naturally the problem gets worse at night when the temperature outside drops and the differential is greatest. Jude is putting on extra layers each day. I don’t think she has got to putting on two pairs of socks yet but I can see it coming. Katya is coping with it well and does not seem to feel the cold as much as we do. I have been prone to that rather annoying habit parents seem to acquire and that is to regale stories of hardship “when we were young” Katya sighs, rolls her eyes and mutters expletives as I tell the story of how “when we were young” Sara and I used to share a bedroom in our house in Wales, that during the winter used to have ice on the inside of the windows and have mushrooms growing on the walls. The house was only heated by wood burning stoves so to get warm involved going outside, sometimes into the snow to get logs.  Bla bla bla. You get the drift. It also reminds me of the famous Monty Python sketch four Yorkshiremen. “ Oh you were lucky”  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo&feature=youtube_gdata_player To top all this off the rain has shown up a small leak in the forward cabin where the windlass (a device that brings up the anchor chain) comes through the deck. For those who own boats will know, leaks on boats are part of the everyday struggle. They appear, you spend an inordinate amount of time tracking them down, they are always in the most inaccessible place and when you fix one another one appears. This very small leak, a mere drip, requires taking the windlass off the deck resealing it and replacing it. It is probably a days work and may involve another problem showing up. Needless to say we are now looking forward to arriving in Sydney, seeing Mike, Irit, Gabe and Daniel and going for a swim in Mahon (rock) pool.

One of the jobs on our amaranthine list is to get the life raft serviced. The life raft is a six man inflatable raft that weighs about 40kgs. It sits on deck and in the event of impending doom you are supposed to throw this overboard, watch it self-inflate and calmly step “down” into the raft. i.e. you are only supposed to get into it when the boat is about to go under. These life rafts are supposed to be serviced every 3 years and ours is overdue for a service. Given that we are planning to go to Alaska next spring we thought it would be prudent to make sure it works. We therefore booked the raft in for a service and ourselves in for a 3 hour course on “life raft Deployment – The doos and don’t’s of abandoning ship” So we all trooped off to Tacoma, south of Seattle for our course. We were given a fine demonstration of the art of life raft deployment and were pleased that indeed that there was a liferaft in the sealed container and not a bag or rocks, and that it was in good condition. Phew. A new one costs around $6,000.  We were shown how to deploy the raft. How to get into the liferaft from the sea. How to make sure that we cut the line that attaches it to the boat if the boat is sinking. Always a good thing to know, and many other facts that we were blissfully unaware of but are actually quite important.   

We are all managing to quench our thirst for internet related activities despite having no fixed line, unlimited plan, blazing fast internet. We have a 5GB 3G data plan with ATT which provides access through the tethering facility on the iphone. It is not the fastest I admit but I bet it is faster than dial up. It won’t allow us to stream any movies and we have to watch the excess use charges, but it is sufficient. One thing that is frustrating is that we cannot leave it on all the time as our computers seem to be browsing on their own and use data when we are not using them. We did turn off Windows updates after we found that one update was over 500mb. I replaced the ancient Windows XP PC that was on the boat when I bought it with the one that we had at home. This has now had all our navigation software installed, runs our radar and is connected to the flat screen so we can watch rented movies. We unsubscribed from cable TV in Denver two years ago and went to Netflix only TV. No commercials and a good selection. Katya does miss Netflix but is reading a lot instead. Although she has read many books she finished her first “major” book yesterday and is moving on to the next. I have been reading books to Katya and Jude in the evenings. When the temperature drops, we climb into bed and I read a book to Katya and Jude. At the moment I am reading “The Light on the Island” an account of a 20^th Century families’ adventures and strife living on an island in the San Juan islands. The book was kindly lent to us by Ken, a friend of Steve and Sandy who lives on Lopez island.         

Back in Port

Firstly apologies for all the spelling and grammar mistakes in my posts. I must read them four or five times before I post them and don’t see mistakes and then when I read it once posted they leap out. I also have to decide whether to use American or English spelling (Harbour, or Harbor, specialise or specialize etc) I wonder where American spelling comes from? Is it just a simplification that occurred during the days of colonial rule or did it happen after with some purpose or history. I must look into it. 

We left Montague harbour at 8am on another sunny day, somewhat despondent as we knew that our summer sailing was coming to an end. We are destined for Anacortes, our port of origination, and the home for the boat over winter. We have to clear US Customs in Friday Harbour on San Juan Island, which is always a tedious and somewhat uncertain process, and then sail through the islands to Anacortes.

Canadian Ferry

We motor for about an hour through Plumper Sound, charging our batteries as we go, and head into US waters. No sooner than we had taken down the Canadian courtesy flag and raised the US flag and Quarantine flag as we enter US waters, a speeding US Border patrol boat came upon our stern and asked us to slow down and be prepared to be boarded. We answered the usual questions: where have you been, where are you going, where do you live, who is on board, how long have you lived in the US, do you have any guns, explosives, drugs or citrus fruit etc etc. These guys were OK and actually smiled unlike most of the US Border Stasi.

We sailed downwind the rest of the way to Friday Harbour at a leisurely 4 knots with cloudless skies and were the only boaters around for as far as the eyes could see. Jude had lunch on the go and we sat on deck watching the sun parched landscape pass by. The Customs official told us that Washington has had the driest summer on record. 80 days without rain, and still the prospect of another 10 more days to come.

We tied up to the Customs dock and got on the phone to let them know that we were looking to check in only to be advised that we would have to wait about an hour as the ferry from Canada was checking in passengers and they were short staffed. So we sat on the boat (we are not allowed to leave) and waited. Eventually an officer came and asked us to move to the guest dock and go to the office to check in. 2 hours later I completed the process. Urrrrrrr.

One of our favorite book shops is in Friday Harbour, it sells second hand books at about half the price of new ones and has a great selection. So off we went to stock up on books for us all. We will need to shed some soon as space is becoming an issue. Katya bought some more novels and school books and Jude and I bought some books on baking and Marine weather (very exciting). Oh we also bought a novel called Passage to Juneau which is about a sailing trip to Alaska, which we hope to be doing next year. We have all be reading quite a bit over the summer. Books that have taken our fancy and that have been recommended to us.    

It was now 6pm and we have to sail the 20 miles to Anacortes which will mean sailing through the islands in the darkness. We have not sailed in the dark since we sailed the boat up from San Diego. It always makes a trip a bit more exciting as not only is the navigation more complicated but obstacles, such as crab pots, logs, small boats, become harder to see in the darkness. A steady stream of ferries ply the waters through the islands and we have to make sure they can see us as well.

Dusk sailing from Friday Harbour to Anacortes

San Juan Islands Ferry at night

We safely navigate our way into the narrow entrance of Marina, carefully avoiding the unlit pilings, only to find that our slip has another boat in. It is too late to contact the dock manager so we maneuver into another vacant slip and tie up. It is a little tricky in the dark with only two crew!  

We have now been tied up to the dock for a few days and we are enjoying the easy access to shops and showers. We had been at anchor for about 6 weeks and any trips to land had to involve the dinghy or kayaks and all the ungainly transfers between boat and land. Its seems strange that we sleep soundly (mostly) while at anchor but if you think about it your boat and life is suspended from a single piece of chain about 1cm in diameter. It does not sound that secure but if we have set the anchor correctly it should in fact hold us even in a blow of 50-60 knots.

I have started the long list of jobs to prepare the boat for winter and when we are away. Priority number one though is to fix the aft head (loo)! Well we have gone for more than a month without a problem with it so that is not bad. This time it seems like a terminal blockage and the thought of what is to come is not a pleasant one. I have to empty the bowl as best I can and dismantle the pipe work. I can feel my stomach muscles going into a spasm just thinking about it. It turned out that the pipe from the bowl to the holding tank, which has an internal diameter of about 2.5cms (1ins) had narrowed to about 7mm. a build-up of “mineral deposits” was restricting the flow. I replaced the pipe and now I reckon the loo is capable of macerating and disposing of a young oak. And yes I did have to reach over the sink a few times.

Other jobs that have been completed since we returned are:

Change the engine oil and filter (required every 150 hours)

Change the sea water pump impeller

Change the 3 engine fuel filters and bleed the system

Change the engine coolant

Service the outboard engine (oil, plugs and filters)

Arrange for a diver to check the sacrificial zincs

A general clean and tidy of the boat

The good weather looks like it is finally coming to an end. Yesterday it was 17 c and today it has not got into double digits. Rain, heavy rain and showers are forecast for the next two weeks! I am sure we will be looking forward to getting to Sydney in November.         

We have secured a slip at the marina for the winter at a good rate and have a few people who will keep an eye on the boat whilst we are away. We are having some cockpit covers made that will enclose the whole cockpit which apparently is essential for travel up to Alaska with the rain and cold that will be experienced.

Katya seems to be growing every day. We had to go shopping yesterday and buy her some new clothes and shoes. She now takes the same shoe size as Jude! After the harrowing expedition to the mall, we went to see a lecture on sea creatures of the Salish sea in Bellingham as part of Katya’s homeschooling.

Well its back to work on reducing the items on the list.