Saturday Sail 11/20/2010

Still lovely sunny weather here, with High Pressure in charge and the Jet Stream keeping all the weather passing to our west and north, so off we go...

Cruised for a couple of hours in the cool WSW breeze that dropped from 15kn to 10 as we were out there. A very relaxing & enjoyable afternoon. Air temps around 60 and the Bay is at its Nov average of 55 degrees.

The Canadian geese are flying south, in impressive V shaped formations of around 60 birds. Very cool!

All good on Planet Silver Fox.

Ralph Out.

November Sunday Sail

Has been a sunny week, with a large high pressure to our west keeping the skies clear and the wind out of the north at 10 to 15kn, I have been very keen to get out, but Saturday afternoon was spent successfully getting the water pump rebuilt and installed - which I was very pleased with the work and outcome. Another system that I am now very familiar with.

Sunday there was not much wind in the morning so we did chores and went out around 1330 to a nice breeze out of the NE and going E. We broad reached North and had a quinoa salad for lunch, then had a great close hauled sail back to the outer distance mark (K). It was good sailing in the relatively flat water, fully powered with the #1, probably 8 - 9 knots.


The instruments were working as were the other jobs I had been working on! But the speedo only seems to work at high speeds. We sailed back up the harbor as we put the boat away and were back at the dock and buttoned up by 1700.

Maintenance Update

Drip is visible in this sideways pic.

Noticed a water leak from the engine water pump, researched it, and the camera confirmed the leak was from a weep hole. Which means a seal has failed. There are 2 seals in the Oberdorfer pump, one stops the raw water getting back into the motor, the other seal stops oil and gunk getting from the motor to the impeller.

Accessory Drive w/water pump removed

I removed the water pump - the hardest part is removing the lower bolt attaching the water pump to the housing, as the bolt is very hard to access. Used a paint can opener to get the old seals out. Got replacement parts from Moyer Marine - 2 seals, a gasket for the impeller cover, and a spare Impeller. The original impeller is just over a year old, and still in good shape. Total cost including shipping came to $78, and with UPS the packaged arrived the next morning (regular ground shipping).

I cleaned the pump pieces and rebuilt the pump with the new pieces, being careful to place a seal on either side of the weep holes and I cleaned and refilled the grease cup.  Reinstalled the water pump and fired up the engine - everything seems to be working perfectly, and no more leaks. Nice.

While the pump was off I also cleaned the rust from that part of the engine and hit it with Loctite Extend to protect against more rust.

I have been testing the speedo for a few days now, testing the electrical connections, etc, and cleaning the connections. The impeller appears to be working, and the unit seemed in excellent condition when I opened it up, so I was unsure what to do. In testing at the weekend it seems to be working at higher speed, but jumps around a lot. But it is better than nothing, and I'll keep working on it.

Recently I also caulked in the refurbished depth sounder, and it is working fine, but gets confused in shallow depths.


Also last week I installed the auto pilot mount and tiller pin with epoxy, for a permanent installation.

I also made and installed the lee-board, and topped off the battery water (distilled).

Single-handed Saturday

 Sat 10/23/2010. Brigite had to take care of some things, so I went for a sail alone. It was a nice sunny October day with a light SW breeze.

Put up the chute in the channel, and cut it close with the fising boats at the entrance to the cut. The wind was ahead of abeam, and I was just making it out, sometimes having to flog the cruising main.

Once out the wind started to drop, I went to First Island and the wind crapped out. I tried to will the boat on, but no dice. I turned around, but the GPS said I was still going East - out the channel! The tide was forecast to be slack, but I still had over a knot under the boat.

A massive container ship was steeming in from sea, with a HUGE bow wave, and I was thinking I need to get outta here! But I wasn't going anywhere on port so I tacked to starboard and got out of the channel. The Container ship eased off the gas, and passed through the bridge at only 12 or 14 knots, with me well clear of the channel.

I was close hauled coming back, sailed over EOV, and tacked for home, making it in around 5pm, just in time to go get the car from the repair shop. The last part of the sail was magnificent as the wind came up to where we were fully powered up with the #3 & Cruising Main and in flat water.

Just had time to button the boat up and give it a full rinse before bolting to the car place.