Monthly Archives: August 2012

Hello from Sydney, BC

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Go toward the light and turn left and you can go to Hawaii.

Another stunning trip into the hinterlands of wild British Columbia. We’re sitting at a Starbucks with their lovely wifi having paid for a night in the Port of Sydney Marina. We made it to Oak Harbor on Vancouver Island in record time. We left Tacoma Saturday around 10:00am and by Sunday afternoon we were in Port Townsend. With fair weather it seemed a shame to waste the moment so we headed across the strait. We’d had great wind all the way from Port Madison, so naturally once we were in the strait the wind died on us. We knew it was too good to be true.  Through a combination of motoring and motor-sailing, we arrived in Canada around midnight. Entering a new port at night is always a thrill. I don’t recommend it, but it happens.

We’ll do more thorough posts later when we have better internet, but for now we can report that we were waved out of the U.S. by finback whales, the first time we’ve seen those. Then I can report that there is nothing more thrilling than orcas breaching in the distance, then surfacing by the boat in the light of the moon, even if the boat is under motorsail at the time. I like sailing at night. There is something remarkably peaceful about it.

Mike rediscovered his interest in leper colonies and he’ll post more about that later. We had a great anchorage off D’arcy Island until the wind kicked up. So we sailed up to Sydney Spit. It was just too cold and windy to stay long so today finds us at the Sydney Marina. Time for showers and to stock up on groceries. Nothing too exciting to report but I can say for sure that I’ve never slept this much in my life. Sleep. Read. Eat. Sleep. Then sleep some more.

Downloading photos takes too long by wifi, so we’ll wait for those. But stay tuned because we’ll be adding a Product Reviews section (no one asked what we think of these things but that never stopped us before) and adding to the Cheap Tricks section in the future.

Meanwhile, we need to see more whales!  And could the sun please make an appearance?

 

Cheap Tricks

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This trip turned out to be the mother of invention.

While we were anchored in our new favorite spot this weekend, the sun came out. Yes, yes, I know what you are thinking. So what? Well, that’s what YOU think. There’s no ‘so what’ about it. When the sun comes out two things happen: people get happy, and people need shade. That’s because up here our delicate skin burns to a rosy crispness after only a few minutes of high-latitude sun exposure, even with loads of sunscreen. We are pathetic sunbathing losers, to say the least. Washington state: land of the pale. I wanted to sit in the cockpit and read Bernard Moitessier’s [amazon_link id=”0924486848″ target=”_blank” ]The Long Way[/amazon_link] so I needed some shade. Out came the UMBINI.

Glad you asked! An umbini is one of Mike’s clever little inventions, proving once again that he is the most brilliant man in the universe when it comes to solving problems in a cost-effective way. As I sat in my warm shade reading I had a sudden flash of inspiration that this blog needed a little infusion of energy in the form of our own ‘Practical Sailor’ tricks. Thus the category of ‘Cheap Tricks’ was born. This is the first post!

You have to read the whole post before you get to see the umbini. This photo is of the home of the most terrifying sea cave, a cave so scary and dark and fraught with diving cormorants that I thought I was gonna die. It's behind the rocks.

The umbini is a creation born, as most are, out of necessity and shallow pockets. The year: 2010. The trip: Barkley Sound, Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Three weeks of fabulous. The boat: S/V Moonrise, our intrepid Cal 34. Back in the day, Moonrise didn’t even have a dodger, much less a bimini. And the ‘boat kitty’ had no money for one. So we were faced with a lot of sun and weather exposure on this 3 week cruise. We needed something, anything.

During a trip to Costco, probably loading up on supplies, Mike found a ‘sport umbrella’ for 40$. Basically this is a huge umbrella with little side ‘wings’. It’s meant to be used as a portable shade for sporting or music events, or for laying in the park with your best friend. But he thought he could retrofit it to work on Moonrise. And he did!

Here's a teaser view of the inside.

He cut half of the pole off and attached a loop to the top of the thing so it would hang easily from the backstay. Then I cut the fabric on the back side of the umbrella, reinforced the curve with sunbrella, and hemmed it on the sewing machine.  I attached side relief buckles to hold it closed behind the backstay. We attached webbing with grommets around the bottom of the thing and added small bungee cords. These wrap underneath the safety lines and the stern pulpit to hold the sides down. Voila! The Umbini is born!

It is dead easy to deploy and you can even sail with it up as long as you are going downwind. It has two little windows with mosquito netting on them that allow airflow when unzipped. When motoring in fog or rain, it protects the helmsman from getting wet. And, of course, it offers shade from that fair weather friend, the sun. The icing on the proverbial cake was that the umbrella was exactly the right size for our cockpit. I think we will patent these because they are so cool.

Just sailing on the deep blue sea under his umbini! We're sailing under jib alone. And yes, it is summer, in spite of how it looks.

40$ and and about about 2 hours of work. Not bad for a cheap trick. Stay tuned for more cool ideas for ‘thrifty’ sailors!

 

Sloops, Ketches, Cats, and All That Junk

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I’m going through another one of those phases dreamers and planners go through. You know that phase where you allow the mind to wander off into the hinterlands of possibilities and then come back with a few good ideas? That’s the phase I’m talking about. The combination of a curious mind, hours of downtime, and access to ‘The Google’ means that I’ve been engaging in what is becoming known around here as ‘self medication’.

Usually that means I’m looking at boats on Yachtworld, Craigslist, and Sailboatlistings. Okay, well, yes, I’m doing that, of course, but one can only look at the exact same boats for so long before they begin to run together in one’s proverbial mind. So I started focusing on rigs to expand my search criteria.

Here’s the deal: I’m looking for a boat that can take us anywhere we want to go. Anywhere! It has to be comfortable, it has to perform well, and it has to be easy to sail. I am not getting any younger, as proven by my recent birthday. The steps we need to take in order to get this plan off the dock will take a few years, making me that much older when we start out. We want to sail places like down the coast of Chile, Easter Island, the Galapagos and beyond. By the time I get to do that, I’m probably going to be pushing 60. Yikes!

So it occurs to me that I should be looking for a boat that will be easy to sail not only now, but in the future as well. Otherwise, I might not enjoy it as much as I’d like to, and there will be too much of my relying on Mike and his man body (which is also not getting any younger, I might add.) In addition, it’s not so easy to sell a boat in ‘this economy’, so this makes it more important than ever to choose the right boat to begin with. So I’ve been doing some research on different rigs, particularly the cat rigged boats with unstayed masts, and the junk rigs, which also have unstayed masts.

Initially the idea of an unstayed mast filled me with trepidation. But as I began to educate myself more about them I began to change my mind. I like the idea of having less sailing hardware to worry about, and I’m reading that these boats are very easy to sail and do well in all types of seas and weather.  The junk rig has not caught on in the U.S., but it’s making quite a showing in Europe where there is an active Junk Rig Association. Apparently they are now making sails that allow the boats to really give the Bermuda rig some stiff competition.  And for sheer beauty on the water there is nothing to compare. Last year I bought the book Voyaging on a Small Income, by Annie Hill. The title says it all and I recommend reading this book if you, like us, are among the 99%.  The Hills are definitely of the ‘go simple’ opinion. [amazon_image id=”1888671378″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Voyaging On A Small Income[/amazon_image]

This boat is currently for sale in Sydney, BC. I'd love to see it.

Mike has always admired the cat rigged Nonsuch sailboats. Alex Kimball, the man who did the painting of Moonrise, owns a very beautiful Nonsuch and he and his wife live aboard the boat. They plan to take her down the coast of Mexico and through the Panama canal, then continue on to Europe. At a raftup last spring we were able to go aboard Alex’s boat and let me tell you: that is one beautiful vessel. The decks are completely clear of trip hazzards, too. When I heard they were planning to go ocean voyaging in the boat, my ears pricked up. I began to think outside the Bermudian box.

Then, on our recent ferry trip over to San Juan Island, I saw the loveliest boat on the water. It was a cat ketch rig and it was just beautiful. Maybe it was the Freedom 33 cat ketch that is for sale up on San Juan Island. Need to tack? Just turn the wheel. The sails tack themselves. Who knew?

Isn't this lovely?

I don’t know why these boats haven’t caught on around here. According to what I’m reading, they are simple to sail, well balanced, and economical. It’s not like these rigs are new. They’ve been around for ages. The junk rig has the added benefit of having sails that you can make yourself if necessary. In the UK, they race junk rigs alongside Bermuda rigged boats so I guess they are not exactly slow if you have the right sail shape. Alex Kimball’s Nonsuch beat the pants of lots of other boats in one of the Puget Sound Cruising Club ‘races’ this spring. I suspect the lack of popularity has something to do with boats being designed to the rules for racing or something like that.

So I don’t get why I’m not seeing tons of these out on the water. Could it be part of the herd mentality that keeps people from thinking outside the box?  I’d really like to get on a few of these boats to find out. If you’ve ever sailed on one of these kinds of boats, or you know any one who has one, please post. I know just enough about this to be dangerous, but I’d like to know more. What else am I going to do while Moonrise is still on the market?

From the Junk Rig Association site. What's not to love? Go there and check them out.