October 8: Cat Harbor Cruise

I left Ventura Harbor on Saturday at the crack of dawn so I could make it to Cat Harbor before dark.  Although I knew my friends Curt and Mary planned to be at Cat Harbor sometime that weekend, we ended up arriving at the harbor entrance within feet of each other.  No planning or coordination involved!   I ended up having to anchor in a tight spot, which probably would have been okay had the winds been the ten knots forecast.  I was awakened at 3 am by gusts hitting 28 knots and nearby yachts large and small blowing all over the place.  There was also a treacherous underwater rock a few feet off my stern.  I knew I was going to be up the rest of the night keeping an anxious watch.  I was doing okay until an inexperienced crew on a nearby 35 footer decided to leave in the dark and hooked onto my chain in the process.  They swung down on me of course, so now my anchor was holding both boats.  The extra load brought us onto the rock with an occasional sickening thud.  Meanwhile, I directed the process of taking the load off their anchor so I could unhook it while their crew worked at keeping the boats from banging together. Eventually I got it cleared and they took off.  While that was a major relief, I still had a huge megayacht 20 feet upwind and the nasty rock directly astern while the wind continued to gust from different directions.  I determined to try to hold out until daybreak, an hour or two away.   With my system full of adrenalin, it wasn’t hard.  As soon as I could see, I upped anchor and, after re-anchoring three more times without feeling secure, I decided a mooring was worth the money at this point.  Ended up in a very quiet, smooth spot where I caught up on my sleep and finally was able to relax and enjoy.  I did take the time to do a quick dive to inspect the bottom of the keel and rudder to make sure there was no serious damage.  While it was only a very quick look, I saw only missing paint, no big gouges or misaligned rudder.  I’ll have my regular diver do a more thorough inspection, though.

With the drama and trauma out of the way, it was all about kicking back, relaxing, being with friends and enjoying nature.  Not much to the little 'town' of Two Harbors, but if you look carefully, there's always something to see.  

Carol will be arriving tomorrow on the ferry, which is good since my friends left this morning.  Ahhh….the life!!

 

 

October 1, 2015

My old buddy Curt and his wife Mary are about to head south with the Baja Ha Ha and their first stop will be Cat Harbor.  Since it’s about time for my apparently annual cruise to Catalina, I thought I’d join them there for a little send-off.  So the week was spent getting provisions and prepping the boat for cruising.  Now I’m waiting for the weather to settle down and hoping I don’t come down with Carol’s cold.  I wanted to leave today, but it’s going to be windy and nasty, and tomorrow a little front is coming through.  (Besides, you NEVER start a cruise on a Friday!)  Maybe Saturday.

In the meantime, I’ve done a bit of reading on my radar problem, and the best bet is that the magnetron is shot.  While I don’t think I have the 2000-3000 hours of use they are normally good for, they can and do fail prematurely.  It’s a $470 part.  It would be easy to replace on a bench; halfway up the mast is a different story.  I’ll deal with it when I get back from my little cruise.

September 24, 2015

I finished the holder for the binoculars, air horn and drink, but the week was really all about the dinghy.  Mounting the new BeachMaster beaching wheels turned out to be a long, tough job.  Yes, figuring out the exact positioning was tricky, and it took a bit of time to get backing plates made and find the right-size access hatch.  The real bugaboo, however, was that when I cut the hole for the access hatch, I found that the entire under-seat space was filled with foam.  Digging it all out was a long, miserable, bruising job.  But I did it and eventually got the wheels neatly and securely mounted.  The wheels are a great product, definitely worth the money.  The engineering is brilliant:  easy one-handed deployment and folding up.  Unfortunately, the dinghy is still VERY heavy, so hauling it up the beach is still tough, even with the wheels.  In soft sand or mud, the wheels sink in so much they are useless, even though the tires are good-sized.  Sigh.......

September 17, 2015

The firehose gunnel guard for the dinghy is just about done.  Only the stern corners need attaching, which will be done after the new beaching wheels are mounted.  The wheels arrived this afternoon from New Zealand, so I've got my work cut out for me for next week.  I also made good progress on a holder for the binoculars, air horn and drinks; just need to varnish and glue next week.  In addition to new projects, I topped off the water in the batteries and did a little research on the intermittent failure of the engine hour meter.  Looks like the easiest and cheapest solution is to add a separate new meter.  No progress on the radar diagnostics yet.  Still haven't found someone with the same model to check the display.  No more surfing this week either, but I did do some lap swimming, waxed the board and picked up a couple of little necessaries for going.  Also scoped out Mondo's, the local spot for the inexperienced and inept like me.