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Pastimes : NNBM - SI Branch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mannie who wrote (26764)	6/9/2003 5:53:40 PM
From: abuelita	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 104197

hi scootie looking back on it, when harold went back for his wallet only to discover it was on the car dash all along, that was foreshadowing. we left later than planned and i won’t bore you with all the little things that kept cropping up to delay our departure but when we finally shoved off around 3:45 friday afternoon, it was a relief. about 15 minutes out of the marina, we called canada customs and gave them our ETA at horton bay of 7:30. it was then we discovered we had left tide tables and current tables on harold’s desk. not to worry though, we’d just wing it. the sail to active pass was superb – but the wind was variable as usual and our speed ranged from 3 to 6.5 knots. t was on the helm and harold trimmed and it was great 'cause we make a good team. it’s a pity we forgot the earth flag. we dropped the pick for the night at horton bay and the surface of the water was like glass during the evening. we feasted on barbequed chicken marinated in hot thai sauce with a greek salad and wine to wash it all down; counted stars, admired the moon and fell asleep feeling eternally grateful to be fortunate enough to be living in such close proximity to all this beauty. the next morning we lolled around a bit and around 11:30 decided to motor to winter cove for the night. BTW, we motored because these particular channels are narrow and have hidden dangers lurking under the surface. when we finally reached plumper sound, about 15 minutes out of winter cove the wind picked up, and our motor died. harold quickly raised the sails and we sailed the sound for about a hour waiting for the motor to cool down – it had overheated. we decided to sail back to point roberts but quickly realized that we couldn’t get out of where we were because it’s virtually impossible to sail through any of the passes leading out to the strait of georgia. the only thing to do was to sail to ganges harbour on salt spring island, stay over night on the boat and take the ferry home sunday morning. The winds, of course, were variable but the channels were wide and there was ample room to try and catch the wind. crossing navy channel though was just not happening – the wind had died again and this was a major traffic area for ferries, tugs and barges and other things that would have difficulty avoiding a sailboat in the doldrums. luckily we were towing our dinghy with its 4.9 HP merc. harold rafted the dinghy beside the boat and the little merc got us safely to wind where we once again were flying under full sails. it took us five hours to get to the yacht club in ganges. the day had provided an unplanned but wonderful sailing opportunity that we wouldn’t have had, had it not been for our engine failure. so, there is always that silver lining. oh, i forgot to mention, my hat flew off and harold heroically tried to catch it, scraping his sunburned back and skinning his knees in the process. he failed in his valiant attempt and we had to do a donut and he managed to fish it out with the pole for me. <s> anyway, we tried the motor again, and this time it started, but not sounding quite right. We probably sucked up a plastic baggie or seaweed in the salt water intake causing the motor to overheat, but then again – maybe not. maybe it was something else that would come back to bite us if we ran the motor for more than half an hour again. but we weren’t going to worry about it then. we were really tired and decided to visit the local pub after taking the dinghy to the gas dock to fill the jerry can. i took a picture from the dock outside the pub that i hope does the view justice. the merc wouldn’t start for our return trip to the boat. it was a long one and a half mile row back – harold was not a happy camper. what else was going to go wrong on this trip? we spend an uneventful evening – the steak was good. the wine was better and we fell asleep feeling just a little less smug. we hung around the marina till about 3:30 sunday afternoon because we had to catch the flood tide in order to get through active pass in the shortest possible time. we calculated that it had taken about a half an hour for the motor to overheat the day before – that would be the maximum length of time required to get through the pass if we had to fight the tide and/or current. when we left, the wind in the ganges harbour throat was quite brisk making it somewhat of a challenge to raise the sails which i consider to be a struggle at the best of times. boy oh boy, what i wouldn’t give for self furling. anyway harold got the main up and was just about finished hoisting the jib, when some “hardware” from the main sail clanked onto the bottom of the cockpit. picture it. sails flapping, hardware falling, rose getting very paniky. but harold has it all under control. stays calm, fights with the phuckingsail and gets what fell out back on - all the while i’m trying to keep the boat straight into the wind and i’m not keeping an eye out for the seemingly hundreds of crab pot buoys floating about waiting to entangle themselves on the props of careless sailors. you got it! i sailed over a crab pot line and it got tangled up on our prop. but, we had our sails set, the wind was VERY brisk and we were dragging this sucker. harold grabbed the long pole with the hook thingie and got hold of the line – yelled at me to get a knife which i did (no one is on the tiller at this point) – passes the pole to me which was like trying to hold up a couple hundred pounds of pressure while he hung precariously over the back rail to cut the rope. he did and i tumbled backwards, but we were rid of the thing and underway once again. did you ask, are we having fun yet??? so, we sailed up the throat of ganges harbour to trincomali channel and as we rounded a point approaching the last leg to get us to the pass, the wind once again shifted and we were tacking endlessly and making practically no headway. at about 6 pm we did the dinghy raft thing again (we got the merc working again), turned on the boat motor as well, left both sails up and entered active pass. what a picture. the pass is in a “S” sort of shape, so from the right hand side we headed towards maryann point on a diagonal course in order to motor/sail the shortest distance.we are really moving - we've caught current and we're going lickity split. luckily no ferries were in the pass at the time. we rounded close aboard to maryann point coming to the last bend in the pass and i comment on how close we are. no problemo - the chart indicates a depth of over 3 fathoms at datum. no sooner had those words come out of harold’s mouth when we hit a reef. i’m on the tiller and land hard on my knees and hip and can’t believe what had just happened. i’m not sure what happened next – how we got off of it… we’re both pretty shook up. now we’re out of the pass. both motors are still running. both sails are still up. harold checks the bilge to see if there is excess water in it. there's not. the strait of georgia is perfectly calm and there is no wind. we keep an anxious eye on the thermostat, but the motor helped by a flooding tide brought us home without further incident. we spend a half an hour putting the boat shipshape before we head home for a couple of very phucking stiff ones and jump into the hot tub which we had the foresight to get operational two days before the weekend. so, how was your weekend? rosita