Update on 2015 AND Sailing the Channel Islands with my sis.

Wow, I can't believe how long it has been since I have written a post on my blog.   I will try to catch those who follow this up on my 2015 year of sailing on the Spirit of Adventure.

New mainsail 2015

 Upon returning from Cabo this last year I contacted Precision Sails where I had bought my new sails and explained to them the beating my mainsail had taken on the trip.   They were great and explained to me that even though I thought I had bought a "cruising main" I had really just gotten a daysail main with no extras for heavier weather.   They gave me a discounted price on a new "cruising sail" with heavier cloth and reinforcement points all over it.   The also said they would repair, at no cost to me, my ravaged main and I could use that as a back up in the future.

We were all happy with this and I must say that my newness in ordering the first set of sails was probably most of the problem.   I learned and they are a great place to buy sails.

Shortly after the new main arrived, I had the boat hauled and the bottom painted.   It had only been a couple of years, but the Cabo trip back up the "bash" actually wore away one of my bottom paint layers.   I was happy to pay for this so as to ready Spirit of Adventure for some more sailing.

Channel Islands with my sis.

My sis (Diana) and I left Long Beach on Friday, June 12 @ 10:30 AM.   We headed for Santa Cruz Island for some rest and relaxation and some great sailing and snorkeling.   Our first day out was everything we asked for.   We sailed all but maybe a half hour and by sunset were headed to Anacapa Island.   During the day, as we progressed North along the coast line, we encountered many, many birds on the surface of the ocean.   They were always accompanied by 100's of dolphin.  They would briefly leave their feeding to come frolic alongside Spirit of Adventure.   We got some great pics and video.   Diana sacked out early so she could relieve me from first watch.  Just after she went to sleep, I saw the spouting of whales on the water ahead of me.   It ended up being four large humpbacks.   They were feeding deep and would come to the surface, spout and then show me their tails as they would again dive deep into the ocean.   About 9:00 PM, I decided the wind was dying and we began motoring our way North.   What a beautiful night as the motor kept the cabin toasty and the auto pilot kept us on the desired heading.  The watches rolled by easily for the both of us.   All in all, a great first 24 hours of our trip.

Morning dawned with Santa Cruz Island in sight and dead ahead of us.   The water was still very smooth and glassy.   We arrived at Little Lady's Harbor around 11:00 and found that the small cove was filled to capacity with two other sailboats.   I quickly checked the charts and found another cove called Diablo Anchorage, just South of Lady's.   It was empty and beautiful.   As we pulled into the cove, what we thought were large logs on the beach turned out to be elephant seals.   Each weighing in at 500-1000 lbs, they were magnificent.    I had stored the inflatable on the bow of my boat for the trip up and so I untied the hold-downs on it and flipped it up over the life lines.   When it hit the water, it sounded like a gun shot.  Our beach friends thought so also and scampered into the water and quickly swam out of the harbor to find quieter sleeping.   We were sad to see them go, but about four of them returned and were on the beach and rocks the following morning.

For the next six days, we relaxed, did a little boat work, made some fine meals and explored the beach area when the sea lions were out fishing.   The beach area was made up of pebbles and rocks and there was a pretty large cave that didn't extend back more than 30-40 feet.   The beach had some beautiful flowers in bloom and some fresh water.   Snorkeling was great and Diana really took to the water in her wetsuit, fins, mask and a new snorkel that I had purchased for her.  I had gotten myself a new "shorty" wetsuit which kept me warm even when diving down twenty feet under the water.   One thing happened that was kind of interesting... One day I rowed the dinghy into the beach and wanted to snorkel off of the beach.   As I rowed past the rocks where a male and female elephant seals were sunning themselves, they started "barking" or making their elephant seal noises at me.   They were quite disturbed and when I pulled the dinghy up on the beach, they got in the water and waited for me about 30 feet off the beach.   They kept barking and letting me know that they were not happy with me.   Now, my wetsuit is black, so I didn't know if they were mistaking me with a "different" kind of elephant seal or what.   I really wanted to go snorkeling so I waded into the water and hoped I could persuade them to share the water with me.   As I swam out, the smaller female swam right under me and turned and looked up at me as she passed.   They didn't bother either Diana or myself the rest of the day.   Diana's GoPro camera came in handy when mine stopped working.   I could not charge the battery and later purchased a new battery when I got back home.   The dinghy (inflatable) worked great!

My YB tracker of this trip... no, we did not sail across the land.

After a couple of overcast and windy days, we finally got some sunshine and decided it was time to leave.   We had set a bow anchor (off the front) and a stern anchor (off the back) of Spirt and as we were preparing to leave, I would row the dinghy out to the stern anchor and then pull it up and put it into the dinghy and row back to the shore.   We had the engine running and ready for departure but the anchor line decided that it would wrap itself around the propeller shaft.   It stopped the engine and prompted me going into the water, swimming under the boat and untangling the line from around the shaft.   What I thought I could do in one dive took about four or five attempts before I freed the line.     We headed North and went around the upper end of Santa Cruz Island.   The bottom of the island is rather narrow and the opposite was true with the Northern end.   The winds were great and we sailed under reefed main and partial headsail for several hours as we rounded the island and turned South.   I set the course for Santa Rosa Island.   We scurried across the channel between Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa Islands and soon were on the South side of Santa Rosa Island.  The island was lower than Santa Cruz and seemed more wind blown.   We sailed on past the island and turned our bow toward Long Beach which was a distance of about 100 nautical miles.  

Now the name of my boat is "Spirit of Adventure" which sometimes means that we may have mis-adventure.   The wind died about an hour into sailing from Santa Rosa to Long Beach and so I furled the sails and started the engine.   The engine worked well, but the boat didn't go anywhere.   I would rev the engine and still nothing.   Well, the sea was calm so with Diana staying up on deck, I climbed into the bilge.   Immediately I could see that the propeller shaft was not connected to the transmission and had slipped backwards as to depart from my boat at the earliest opportunity.   Diana is really the best and I have related before just how well we work together.   I would push, nudge, pound and pray and finally I got the shaft into the slot and transmission collar.   The problem was that it was not far enough in to be able to secure it properly.  After several attempts at other methods, I secured the shaft with a couple of hose clamps and zip ties.   As we  s l o w l y  began to motor,  all held together and soon we were motoring at 6 knots back to Long Beach.   On hindsight, I realized that the anchor line wrapping itself around the prop shaft popped the shaft loose.   Later, in the safety of the marina I got the shaft properly seated and tightened down.

We arrived back in our slip with grins of happiness on our faces over another great adventure.    What fun we had and I can hardly wait to do some more exploring again with my sis, Diana.   Thanks for being a great 1st mate!

 

Having fun with my engine...

February 2015

Universal M25 XPB engine

Well, I know that most readers would rather be reading about some adventure I am having on "Spirit of Adventure" and that is exactly what I am going to write about.   Of all of the systems on my boat, the electrical system is at the bottom of things I know about.   Seeing all of those wires running here and there really annoys me because I have no idea where they go.   I had re-built the fresh & salt water cooling systems and seem to have figured that out, but when I found a wire dangling and not attached to anything and my engine would not start, I examined more of my engine wiring and decided it all had to be replaced.   The adventure begins.

The old wiring harness... Oh yes, my engine is under the cloth, hiding from me.

It is fairly easy (but costly) to buy the wiring harness that comes directly from the manufacturer.   The first harness sort of begins at the front of the engine with the temperature sensor and alternator then runs to the starter and finally back to the rear of the engine.   It seems like there are at least twenty wires needed to get the electrical energy from the batteries to the engine and from the engine back to the batteries.   Then you throw in my two solar panels which really are great and you have a jungle of wiring.   Well, I simply (oh yes, I can say that now) took an old wire off of the engine and found that particular wire on the harness and attached the new one where I had removed the old one.   Now, this seems simple but it involves laying on your side, kneeling on your knees for hours and even standing (sort of) on your head.   As I attached the new, I pulled the old out of the back of the engine and just knew that I was doing a great job.    The only problem was that when I got finished, I had a wire left-over that I could not remember where to attach it and also, when I began to attach my alternator to the bracket, I got sparks.   Somehow I had some wire in the wrong place.  YIKES!
Well a quick trip (with my pictures) back to the parts store soon had everything figured out and I even came away with a color coded diagram of all of the wiring harnesses that I had purchased.   FINALLY,  I can tell what all of those unknown, unmarked wires are flowing so effortlessly throughout my boat.  

Wiring the "Admiral's" panel

   The admiral's panel (their name not mine) was a lot easier to rewire due to my not having to stand on my head.   When I finished this, I plugged in all of the harnesses and decided to get the key and see if it would start.   Remember, it wouldn't start before I began re-wiring.   Well, I was so surprised when I turned on the key and the engine sprang to life and sat there running as happy as could be.   I was so happy, I called Fred (Lator Gator fame) and told him what I had just accomplished.  

Old exhaust injection elbow

New exhaust injection elbow

When I finished this, I (as an afterthought) I replaced my exhaust injection elbow.   This was a very simple job that I failed to make hard.   My one day diesel mechanic course has just paid for itself.  

Great Blue Herron watching us get our "polish" on.

                       



Last week Halee and I motored/sailed over to Los Alimitos fuel dock to get the fuel (in my tank) "polished" which means taking the water out of the fuel.   When the tank is empty, they spray diesel fuel back into the tank under high pressure and then suck out all of the "guck" that is in the bottom of the tank.   When they started sucking the first time, "Jose" alerted me to watch the clear plastic hose that was removing the "guck" from my tank.   It was pretty visible and I do believe it was the cause of some of my engine failures on our trip back from Cabo.   Well, the tank is now clean and the fuel polished so that is another job I will probably not have to do again.