B G – Page 2 – S/V Kinetics

Blind Bay at Last

July 24th 2024

It took a few days longer than expected but I finally made it to the San Juan Islands. Specifically to Blind Bay, Shaw Island. My first attempt on Sunday morning was a mistake. I got my butt kicked in the Straight of Juan de Fuca where the waves were steep and fast. I wasn’t really expecting the conditions I found myself in and stuff was flying everywhere down below. After an hour of bashing into the waves I decided to turn around and try another day.

I sailed back under jib and planned to spend a couple days waiting for calmer conditions down in Port Hadlock instead of retreating back to Boat Haven marina in Port Townsend. When the breeze died off I discovered my jib furler had come apart so I had to drop the headsail on deck and added that to my list of things to deal with at anchor. I was having one of those days where a boat owner wonders why you do this. You start thinking about how it might be nice to just be sitting on shore somewhere with nothing to fix. This trip was not getting off to a great start, a familiar feeling.

I spent an hour trying to find a good spot to anchor in Port Hadlock. I eventually settled on one which was not really very good. Holding was poor but the boat didn’t drag too far. I did end up a bit close to some boats on moorings. I won’t anchor in this spot should I return here. It’s a challenging place to anchor as it’s deep and all the shallow areas have mooring balls in them. Here’s a pic of my morning shoreline view.

On Tuesday I finally got a break in the weather that let me get across the Strait. It was a sunny day, the seas were nearly flat and the winds were 10-12 knots. I was able to sail more than half way across on a beam reach.

The tides and current were with me most of the way. I sailed through Cattle Pass, between San Juan and Lopez, on the full flood tide, for a nice fast ride of over 10 knots. The breeze faded and it was back to motoring for the rest of trip to Blind Bay.

Eagle Harbor to Port Townsend | Alternator Trouble and Friends

July 20th 2024

After a couple of nice days in Eagle Harbor visiting friends and picking up a few last minute items (and a couple unexpected gems) from The Chandlery at Winslow Wharf I headed north to Port Townsend on another nice warm day. On the trip north up Puget Sound I crossed paths with the Adventuress under full sail crossing from Shilshole west bound on an easy beam reach under a light breeze.

In an annoying repeat from a previous trip north my alternator has failed. There were signs on the way over to Bainbridge Island but I thought it was just a bad volt meter. This is all too familiar because this same failure happened the trip before last to Canada. However, I am on my way to visit the same friends that helped save that other vacation a few years back by fixing the alternator. So I’ve been tied up in Port Townsend for a few days but after help from these generous friends I should be back on track. I like it here is PT. Might be a nice place to retire.

Update on the alternator (7/24): So far the new to me alternator has been performing well. The Balmer regulator was programmed down to 50% as this alternator is far more than is needed for the battery bank and I also wanted to reduce the strain on my water pump. Excellent advice from my friend Dan!

Sail Kinetics Summer Update: New Mainsail, Starlink Connection, and Radar Ready

July 13th 2024

Getting very close to heading out for 2 plus months of cruising this Summer. New mainsail from Ballard Sails on the boat; lots of food; Starlink to stay connected (have to work a bit); lots of maintenance done; I think I found a place for all the newish dinghy bits; new radar installed; I’m as ready as I can be.

I’ll attempt to post updates along the way and pictures of course. More pictures than words I think. I suspect anchorages are going to be crowded for a few more weeks. Hopefully there will be room for one more.

Spindrift Dinghy handling

After 10 years plus of using an inflatable dinghy the switch to a hard dinghy has meant a few adjustments to how I store it, stow it, and manage it under way. The Spindrift 10 is a fun combination of row boat, sailing dinghy, and outboard tender. Mine is a nesting version so it can be taken apart, flipped upside down, and nested together making it a small package that fits neatly on the foredeck.

I’ve now rowed it, sailed it and motored with it using the Torqeedo 3hp OB. So far, so good. I expected it to be different than the inflatable and it is. Getting in and out requires more care. It is not as forgiving of mishandling as my former a big rubber tubes of a dinghy, so driving it into the side of the mother ship is a bad idea. It will also get banged up when it goes to battle with an ugly dock. All expected. The reward is a dinghy that I can row and actually get someplace in. I can have fun with it as a sailboat! And, when needed, it moves along well with the little electric outboard.

Using the outboard on the Spindrift also highlighted the other big difference. Weight distribution matters. Moving to the center requires a tiller extension (I found one on Amazon that works). I get noticeably better performance from the OB doing that. With two people in the dinghy the extension wouldn’t be needed. The same challenge with weight distribution happens when rowing with a passenger . Whether the passenger is sitting in the bow or the stern, the balance of the dinghy is not ideal. We didn’t try two person rowing (side by side). That seemed like a friendship killer but it might work. If you have stuff to carry it could be used to balance the load.

The next big change was getting it on and off the mothership when towing is not prudent. The inflatable was always hoisted up by the towing bridle, bow first, and lowered onto the foredeck. This method is not really a good option with the Spindrift 10. The transom submerges and after lowering there is a good gallon or two of water to bail out. I also don’t like the idea of the hard dinghy swinging around in the wind which the inflatable often did. So I think the best option is to hoist it horizontally.

Spindrift 10 with hoisting rig alongside sailboat ready for bring aboard

With some gunnel protection (trying out some jumbo pool noodles) installed and a Dynema hoisting rig the Spindrift comes up and over the lifelines and onto the deck with just a little persuasion. I can set it down there and undo the 5 fasteners holding the two halves together. The halves are light enough (guessing 40-50lbs each half) to easily flip, stack, then tie them down. The oars, three piece mast, boom, dagger board and rudder also need to get put away.

If you want to watch a great YT video of a cruising couple, Sailing Yacht Florence, with a Spindrift 9 here is the link. I should thank them for this as it was very helpful in my deciding to buy this dinghy from the person that originally built this one. Here is a link to their WP page on the same.

Canada again and a dinghy change up

I’ve been ignoring this blog so here is a brief update for Spring of 2023. I made it to Canada last year. Explored parts of Desolation Sound for the first time over a three week cruise. Visited a few familiar places on the way up and some new ones as well. I typically avoid marinas but anchoring out in some locations proved difficult and it was easy to find dock space in early September. With solar power and a water maker I don’t really need to tie up but it is nice once in a while to not deal with anchoring.

I dragged anchor for the first time on a particularly windy night off Lopez Island. Completely due to my being rusty with calculating scope. Re-anchoring in 25-35 knots single handed in a dark, crowded anchorage, produced some adrenaline. The next day I realized my mistake determining water depth with a the depth sounder set to keel depth not waterline. I also decided that if someone anchors too close astern, removing the option of letting out more chain, it’s best to move before the weather deteriorates and the light fades.

The trip was nice overall and I enjoyed having a new paddleboard along to explore and get a little exercise. I tried stern tying for the first time, single handed, and found it doable in the right location and conditions.

One element I missed (again) in this type of cruising was the lack of sailing opportunities. There is often not enough wind, wrong direction, or the legs are too short. Consequently 75% of my miles were under power and some of them were towing an inflatable dinghy. The soft bottom dinghy design is very draggy so even in flat conditions, towing it results in reduced cruising speeds. Over a long day it adds up. They also perform poorly in other ways too. I use a 3HP electric OB or row it. The former is just okay and the latter is terrible.

So earlier this year the old inflatable went to a new home and I went in search of something else. I decided to try a hard dinghy. Ideally one that could be rowed, had a sail rig to play with when the big boat was at anchor, towed well and was driven easily with the small electric OB. I was told by friends to not go with anything smaller than 10ft for lots of obvious reasons. However, I don’t have davits on Kinetics so a 10ft dinghy has to be light weight and not cover the entire foredeck. The solution seems to be a nesting hard dinghy and those are mostly kit built.

Late in 2022 I found a Spindrift 10 for sale and grabbed it. Unbolts into two halves that nest making it a compact, an easy to store, 5ft x 4ft-2in package on the foredeck. I found a YT video of a cruising couple with a Spindrift 9 and they seem to love it. It sails fairly well but I haven’t had much time to use it yet. Same for rowing. Still need to try out the outboard on it. There are a few things I want to customize to make it easy to manage as the new tender for Kinetics but it should be fun figuring it all out. Below is a friend taking it for a maiden sail.

2021 a year of change

With the world gripped in a second year of a pandemic there was no escaping the changes to daily life this rained down on everyone in 2021. I’m fortunate in many ways that I only have first world problems to manage. I did very little sailing in 2021 mostly because there wasn’t anywhere I could go; that I wanted to go might be more accurate.

I decided that with borders closed and local cruising grounds often overrun by boaters with limited options, 2021 was a good time to finally tackle a long overdue refit of the mast. It turned out that I was not alone.

This mast project turned out to be the most difficult and problematic one I’ve done yet. What went wrong? Almost everything. It’s hard to relive it by retelling. From contributing to a failed personal relationship, to thousands in extra costs because of pandemic supplier delays, bad weather, rushed work, competing mast projects, a back injury, and more, this one is now #1 on my list of Murphy’s What Can Go Wrong Will.

The mast is now finally back in the boat but not without a fair amount of pain and suffering (of the first world kind). While the rigging was being stripped off the mast to allow it to be painted we discovered a few issues that needed attention. This lead to my deciding to replace the standing rigging to fix the issues and get onto the newest version of the rod fittings. Unfortunately this resulted in an unforeseen 8 week delay waiting for parts to come from Europe. Add $2,000 for mast storage to the yard bill. The company I hired to paint the mast had quality control issues and mast had to be painted twice. By now La Nina is in full swing and the weather is just plain awful but my boat got its Christmas present. I started the project in September thinking it would take two weeks. Ha.

It will be another month or two into 2022 before the rest of the rigging can be completed as the weather is still awful. However, the mast looks great and is corrosion free and should out live me. The masthead has been redone with a new light, repositioned wind sensor and remounted VHF antenna. There is all new wiring and a spiffy new combo steaming light and deck light combo. The boom also got a lot of attention with a focus on a reworked gooseneck. Overall, things are looking good and like all projects gone bad, they don’t look quite so bad once you get it all buttoned up. Maybe 2022 will be a bit nicer for everyone.

Port Ludlow 2020

Fortunately boating/cruising is one of the things we can safely do in the year of COVID-19. This is actually our second trip of the summer. We spent the 4th of July watching homeowner fireworks in Liberty Bay near Poulsbo, WA. It was a good first outing of the year. Because the Canadian boarder is closed, and likely to remain so for the cruising season, we’re going to keep it local this year. The trip to Port Ludlow in early August was a great 3 day weekend. We anchored out away from the cluster of other boats, only moving in closer on Monday after most everyone cleared out. We dinghy’d in to take advantage of the abundant number of walking trails in and around the harbor. Everyone was good about wearing masks and we “masked up” whenever we met someone on a trail. This is a popular stop of cruisers for a reason. Just far enough away from Seattle to feel rural and it offers lots of quiet on shore hiking, kayaking around the harbor in protected waters and a fuel dock if you need to top off. Need to take more pics next time.

There were more powerboats than sail here this weekend

Looking towards the marina from across the harbor

A short pan of the back of the harbor. May video skills need work!

Cruising with love

This past summer I had the pleasure of spending two weeks sharing the PNW cruising grounds with someone very special. It was a truly memorable experience for both of us. Despite it being about the wettest two weeks in September we made the most of our time in both the San Juan Islands and the Southern Gulf Islands. We sat out the rainy, windy days, at anchor reading, cooking, or playing cribbage. I should say, me getting tromped at cribbage but having fun all the same. We visited a few of my favorite places and some new ones where we found many places uncrowded. With it being past the start of most school sessions, and Fall on its way, the crowds were definitely thinned. Next year maybe we’ll get a bit further out to see some new territory; Desolation Sound or maybe Barkley Sound. Here are a few pictures.

Round The County 2019

This is #5 for Kinetics. Not our best result. In fact, it might be the lowest overall result for us despite making almost no mistakes. The winds were very light both days and that’s not good for the Nordic 44. We pushed hard all day. On Sunday we made so many sail changes we lost count. We exchanged places with Sir Issac a few times and thought we might finally finish ahead but they slipped past on the final beat home to the finish into Lydia Shoal. Those with a longer history might have a different perspective but for me the winds have continued to be lighter every year with more and more shutdowns along the course. This plays well for the lighter boats that accelerate more quickly from a dead stop and carry feather light kites.

Still, when it’s not pouring down rain, the scenery is great. The stop over in Roche where we rent a nice house, cook great food, sit around the fireplace, and relax, also makes for great memories.

Race Your House 2019

Another year, another RYH event with Sloop Tavern Yacht Club here in Seattle. We used this year’s race as a practice and warm up for the upcoming Round the County race in the San Juan Islands the following weekend. It was good we did. There is always that familiarization that that needs to take place after not being on the boat for a few months. Conditions were quite nice for November in the Northwest. The course took us across the Sound, and there the wind died, and at that mark and we made a tactical error. I should say, I did, which cost us time and let our competition get by us. The wind went from North to East in that rounding and having an A2 running kite up was not the best plan. We recovered and put the A2 up later in the leg more towards the East side before another upwind leg and final downwind leg to the finish. We managed to eek out a 2nd in class on rating. Fun day, and the competition in our class was good.