Saturday, October 8

29 days to go.

Michael and I spent 7 hours working on the boat on Saturday. There were gale force wind predictions and it was raining. We brought the boat to the dock at Corinthian Yacht Club and tried to figure out the best place to mount the new life raft. Just forward of the dodger would be the safest place since it would be near the cockpit in the event of a disaster, but we could not figure out how to get bolts through the deck without interfering with the hatch. We talked about fabricating a stainless steel brace, but without the skill.... We examined the possibility of mounting it on the doghouse forward of the mast, but it would be awkward to get to the bolts to fasten them once the holes were drilled in the deck because of the liner. We also looked at mounting the cradle at an angle against the forward edge of the doghouse, but were concerned about sheets getting tangled. At Michael's suggestion, we removed the life raft valise from the hard pelican case and dropped it with the abandon ship bag in the starboard cockpit locker. This actually is a great solution because it is close to where we would need
it and not so heavy that it would be more difficult to manipulate than crawling out on deck to release it from the cradle and hard case. We decided that the locker would be the safety locker with life jackets, abandon ship bags, and such. We moved the fenders and docking lines to the port side cockpit locker. I will keep the cradle and pelican case until the rest of the crew arrives to make certain they are in agreement with the plan. If they are, I will return it and save $500.

We went for a sail to try out the storm jib and storm trysail. To raise the storm jib, we needed to take the furling staysail off of the roller furling foil. You need to work at the mast to raise and drop the staysail halyard. The luff of the storm jib gets fed into the foil located on the stay. We then raised the jib. The most difficult part of the job was working with the tiny shackles on the head and tack of the staysail. We decided that in rough and cold weather, it would be near impossible to change the sails, so we mounted a quick release snap shackle for the head of the sail and a key shackle for the tack. We measured and tied sheets to the storm jib. The new shackles seemed to work fine with the roller furling when we replaced the storm jib with the staysail at the end of the day. We did try to use the furling system with the storm jib, but because of the way the Harken roller furling system works, the extra long halyard running off of the head of the storm jib guaranteed a jam almost immediately. We set the storm trysail up in the second track on the mast and raised it with the spare main halyard. We realized that we needed to fasten the tack to something and the forward reefing line with the snap shackle worked well for this task. The foot of the storm trysail is not fixed on the boom. We rigged a sheet from the clue of the sail through a spinnaker block and around the large winch. We raised the head of the trysail to just a foot or two above the spreaders. The spare main halyard is also operated from the mast, and while at sea we should probably use the regular halyard to raise and lower the trysail. The regular halyard can be operated from the cockpit. Because of the lazyjack system, and the sheet system, one would not change tacks easily with the trysail
set.

Both sails worked well. We had gusts into the mid twenties, so we were dreadfully under powered with those sails alone. We tried heaving to, which was one of the goals of the day. Heaving to is setting small sails in heavy weather and winds to keep the forward quarter of the boat into the waves for safety. When you heave to you give up making forward progress in exchange for not turning over and having a more comfortable ride waiting out a storm. Based on the Pardy's "Storm Tactics" we used the trysail and storm jib, turned 50-60 degrees from
the wind and then turned the rudder to steer into the wind. We did manage to stall and keep the boat's forward starboard quarter facing the waves for quite a while with almost no effort at the helm. Because we did not have real storm conditions, I am not certain if this was the
optimum way to heave to for the Pacific Seacraft. I know that some boats back the jib while keeping the mainsail on the leeward side in order to heave to. I hope we have the chance to learn additional ways of doing this prior to needing to do it in a storm.

It poured the whole time we were sailing, which felt like proper preparation for the trip. Visibility was less than one mile. We saw only one other boat outside of the harbor. Frustrated with our slow progress, we unfurled the genoa, lowered the trysail, and then raised a reefed main. All sails got a workout, as did the crew. Going into the harbor at the end of the cruise, we needed to dump our 120% genoa, because it jammed when we tried to furl it. Back on the mooring, we raised it again and furled it seemingly without effort.

Looking into the cabin of the boat, we had two wet sails, three wet fenders, the empty pelican case, tools, lines, the liferaft cradle, clothes and equipment strewn about, and water everywhere. It dawned on us how challenging it was going to be for four of us to live on the boat for several weeks. It is going to be important for stuff to get stowed immediately after use, and for all of us to live neatly out of duffel bags. Because the boat has two hanging lockers, our bulky foul weather gear can go in those lockers, but the rest of our personal things will have to be stowed in our bags. Michael and I thought that two or three bags could be stored on the port settee, and one or two bags under the starboard main cabin berth.

Back at the mooring we stowed everything, and Michael tightened lifelines. At his initiative, we then went to work on understanding the head system. We discovered that the holding tank was being filled by the lecstan toilet system, which defeats the purpose of the onboard sewage treatment system.The full tank accounted for a persistant foul smell. In fact, things were so "stuffed" that flushing the toilet resulted in water streaming from the tiny deck level vent. We turned all the handles to point in the right direction, emptied the tank, and put a cleanser into the system. We tried to determine if the macerator was operational. No conclusions, nor could we get it to work, but since the current toilet was a retrofit, it could be that the macerator was disconnected at some point. The lecstan system should eliminate the need for a macerator, but had I done the retrofit, I would have removed it if it was no longer hooked up. During this process, we discovered some mislabeled thru hull fittings. Every day brings a new discovery.

We also tried to hook the satellite telephone system up to the PC and failed. I will work on that some more, but from the dry comfort of my study.

Michael was kind enough to help me pull the dinghy and outboard for the season, using the crane and power washer at CYC. I got home late in the day looking and smelling like a tangle of yellow flotsam, and feeling oddly accomplished.

Donna