Saturday June 27 in Port Angelies
Trip hasn’t started yet, but the work has. It’s another day in Port Angelies crossing our eyes and dotting our Tees. Knot practice, re-lashing dinghy and jerry cans, replacing cams in the rope clutch after finding them not holding the main halyard.
Not all boat work though..yesterday afternoon found us doing some crew overboard practice in the afternoon everybody got some time at the helm and feel for the boat and no fenders were lost in the process. We also practiced setting the whisker pole. This is something that is significantly easier on a small sloop in shore but a big heavy cutter offshore requires some serious crew coordination. Our pole is a telescoping aluminum pole capable of extending out to reach almost 25 feet and the staysail stay prevents us from swinging it over to the other side easily.
These delays due to mechanical failures are frustrating when the weather windows are good, but are almost welcome when the forecast is rough and we are looking at 10 to 15 foot seas offshore on Monday so it’s a good time to get these things done and Port Angelies is fairly good place to gets things done. It’s not a fun town but there are good resources here....all be it a long walk in and out of town..
The recondition propeller was not able to push the boat over 5 kns and calm seas and definitely not into the wind that we were in on our shakedown sail over here. So we have ordered a new max prop (not a small purchase) and it is being delivered on Monday currently coordinating with divers. We have found a diver, but he has never removed and installed such a complicated propeller as the feathering “Max prop”. The other alternative that we are weighing is taking advantage of the travel lift here and changing the prop in the yard. We don’t have a prop puller and experience ourselves with this, so we’re probably looking at hiring somebody. Most likely it would be more expensive to haul out and do it however there is the fear that one of the bespoke Max Prop parts gets dropped during installation and we are even more delayed.
As far as weather is concerned if we get out of here Tuesday morning, I think we can be well timed for cape Mendocino rounds later in the week as the sea from this blow is laying down. We do have 10 footers diminishing at the entrance of straight of Juan De Fuca when we would be arriving at the ocean and some periods of motoring beyond that, perhaps necessitating going in for fuel and making our calm rounding of Mendocino a impossibility. Always lots to consider dealing with the capes on the West Coast.
More to come. Spirits are high.
Capt B out