Last weekend I decided to take the boat out for the weekend and go to Orcas, as it had been almost SIX MONTHS since I had gone anywhere, what with the painting, the battery install and the crappy weather.
I didn’t really bother prepping for it the night before and then on Saturday morning I had to reinstall the new alternator which I still hadn’t done yet. Which turned out to need a new belt, necessitating a run around town to various places.
After ALL THAT, we were finally off (I was taking Emma to help me get some of the rust off, and glad I did cos o boy, comedy of errors).
So I’d forgotten to charge the batteries up from the 30% I store them up, the solar was still not reconnected and the alternator I’d just installed wasn’t working, so no charging from anything. Great.
In addition, I couldn’t find anything after 6 months dockbound, nothing was secured correctly and I kept getting lines tangled. This is exactly why I always tried to get out at least a couple of times a month usually else it’s a disaster!
Adding to our woes there was a MASSIVE ebb tide, meaning we had 3 knots + against us up the haro strait for most of the trip. Motoring along at under 3 knots in the cold is NOT a super great time. We finally managed to scrape into Roche harbour (just over half way) after six hours, where we anchored and called it a day.
Good job as literally 15 minutes later the wind got up to gale force and stayed there, complete with sheeting rain.
Luckily the next morning came and it stopped raining and we motored the last couple of hours to Orcas. We got a guest slip at West Sound Marina, and charged up for an hour or so while we tidied and secured everything.
Then my Orcas friends (Elysee, Mal and Christian) arrived and we had a super fun sail around West Sound in 10-20 knot winds! It was sooooooooo fun and really was a good way to have the first sail of the year.
Later on, back on dock I tried to fix the alternator, managed to invert the + and – and energised the casing among other misadventures, blowing 3 fuses in total. At 20 bucks a fuse. Doh.
At least the alt wasn’t fried, though I am still having a little trouble getting it to work. More soon!
Here are some pictures from the sailing and us having fun to balance out the MASSIVE AMOUNTS of moaning in this post
And here is one from the (rather cold) trip back. WINTER SAILING = BUNDLE OR DIE
bonus shot of frost INSIDE the cabin on Sunday morning. Brr.
Awesome that you got out! It puts me to shame. I’ve been thinking of a quick trip to murder bay but quickly lose interest when the forecast calls for frost. Same with boat maintenance. Good thing I’m not the one three months away from casting off on a long term trip.
It’s SO much harder to do anything in the winter, whether it’s fixing stuff or going out for the weekend. It’s the combo of damp and cold just makes you want to hide away and watch netflix
Dayam! it looks cold with that indoor frost! Lots of smiley faces…. I don’t know how you guys manage.
Especially after blowing 20$ fuses!!
Sailing fixes everything!