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New mains'l is ready to install, I ordered the wrong slugs and had to replace all with the correct size. More work than I wanted but actually probably good for me, now I know how to attach the slugs. Took the old mains'l off but the weather is not cooperating and I have been unable to bend on the new sail. Its cold, alternating rain and snow and occasionally blustery. Not much sun for the past few days. Hopefully next week will be better.

Most of the removable wood trim is in the garage waiting to be sanded and varnished. As soon as it becomes warmer I plan to get it done and rebed it. I have the cockpit chart table almost finished and will put it together and install it. The fixed portlights in the saloon will be rebedded as soon as the weather warms enough to allow spreading 3M 4100 to seal the external frames and then the Plexiglas will also be rebedded. I hope that will take care of the annoying drips plaguing the starboard side. Other projects for this spring include remaking the cushions for the V-berth and starboard settee and new cushions for the dinette. I think I shall also look into making a new table top for the dinette and hopefully can make it to turn the dinette into a second double berth.

The long awaited West Marine store is getting set up and will be a welcome addition to the boat stores here in Sitka. There are a number of purchases I would like to make including a GPS, sailing instruments, and a speed log. The current log is the original that was installed with the boat in 1973 and has not worked since the second day we had the boat on the delivery trip. I don't think its absolutely required but I would really enjoy knowing how fast Polly can actually move. I am reticent to buy this type of equipment from the catalog, and the hurried trips to marine stores I have been able to make on our trips to the lower 48 don't lend themselves to getting the information I need to make major purchases.

Fortunately spring is coming soon, not soon enough for one as anxious as I to begin the sailing season. Its been a long dreary winter here, and so far March has been a gigantic weather bust. We have had almost 3 feet of snow since the beginning of the month. I think the weather gnomes owe us at least a few days of pleasant weather before the spring monsoon starts.

20061118

Polly Pureheart covered with snow. Its most unusual to have snow this early and in this volume. we've received almost 12 inches over the past 4 days. Its warmer today and we should be getting rain this evening. Hopefully it will melt most of the snow and we can go back to bare ground.

Haven't had much chance to get out sailing for the past few month. Lots of work days, and lots of bad weather. Kit and I met a couple, Great Lake sailors, who are here for the winter. We went out on a Saturday afternoon about 3 weeks ago, and had a pleasant sail with them. Then I got out last weekend for about 3 hours. I was just going to motor around as the wind was flukey and I was by myself. One of my dock neighbors was going out in their Columbia 35 (I think that's what it is) and issued kind of an unofficial challenge. I gladly bit the bullet, got the sails up and actually had a great time until I had to lower the main. I got it down finally, the #2 batten kept hanging up on the lazy jacks because I was having trouble keep Polly into the wind and getting up to the mast. She wants to fall off and run downwind. I think its time to update the flaking system.

I ordered new main and 125% jib from AirForce Sails. they should be here in January. I haven't ordered the Spin-Tec furler yet. Not really in a hurry since I'm not planning to install it before the weather gets better. the jib won't be usable, but I plan to get the main on right away. I'm very reticent to attempt sailing this winter with the current main. Its not in good shape and has a number of small holes and is really baggy.

Thank goodness, after almost 4 months I've found a method to post to my blog. I have not been able to connect to the editing/posting area of blogger since I changed my ISP in late April. I'm not sure why, but ACSonline will not allow me to load the editing page from blogger. I can access the published pages without a problem, but I am unable to edit for some reason. Blogger help has not been much assistance and neither has ACS. Fortunately I signed up for Google's Writely and can publish through this portal. Nice to be back in business, even if I haven't been able to do much sailing for the past couple of months.

The weather has been terrible for almost 6 weeks. Cold and rainy most of the time. Every day I have been off its been dreadful, cold, wet and either too windy or not any wind at all. But mostly just cold and wet. The temperatures have stalled in the low to mid 50s with the odd day getting up to 58 or 59.Likewise its been very grey with mostly only hints of sun late in the day or early in the morning. Today its partly cloudy with a cloud bank offshore to about 15 degrees off the horizon now at 7:30AM.

If the weather holds I plan to get the boat cleaned up and go out for a while late this morning. Its a mess, I've been puttering about working on the list of things to be accomplished. Most inside as the weather has not been conducive to exterior stuff. Will be nice to get out for awhile, even if I can't go anywhere.

I have found the way to reinstall the port lites in the main cabin. Thanks to the Bristol yahoo list and several suggestions. I had thought seriously about just glassing the openings over and putting smaller port lites in place of the large ones. I'll try replacing the current ones with 4200 and see what happens. The first one will be the hardest, then I will do the other 3. Its very difficult to clean the silicone off the aluminum frames and glass, but if I can stop the drip I will be very happy. If they are still plagued with leaks, I will close them off and put in opening ports. The other 2 projects in progress will wait til tomorrow. I've taken the wood trim out from the interior of the companionway and drilled out the stripped screw holes. Nest up is to fill the holes with thickened epoxy, redrill and reinstall with silicone-bronze screws. In the mean time I shall sand and add a couple of coats of Epifanes varnish to the wood. I also need to get the wiring damaged by the exhaust heat replaced. Access to the damaged wires is thru the portside cockpit locker so good weather is necessary to getting the work done. This winter I will work on a boom tent to protect the cockpit, but for now it will remain exposed.

I'm oncall Polly Pureheart is staying tied in Sealing Cove for another 15 days, then its off to Halibut Point for a 1 week yard period. Plan is to sand and bottom paint, and change the thruhulls and seacocks. The paint is at least 3 years old and the seacocks are Wilcox-Crittenden valves that probably date to the original construction. They will be changed to Marlon valves and tailpieces, with new hoses in the next few weeks.

Originally I'd planned to do them on the tidal grid, but thought better of it when I realized they had never been changed and might be a bit sticky. Just what I would need is an inch and a half hole in the bottom and nothing good to plug it with when the tide came in. Its a chilling thought to say the least. While she is out of the water I am going to explore the idea of repositioning the thruhulls to better locations. The intake and discharge from the head are in the middle of the v-berth locker on the starboard side, and the sink drain is in the center of the locker on the portside.

Bad planning on somebody's part. No possibility of using either locker for much of anything in terms of storage or tankage with the current arrangement. I would like to increase the holding tank from the current 6 gallons to 20 or larger, but because of the position of the seacocks that is not possible. If I can figure out a better arrangement I will get it planned for the next time she is out of the water. I also will look into routing the discharge from the currently nonfunctional shower sump to the sink discharge so that will cut down on the amount of hose connected to that system. Once that is done then I can restore the shower to usefulness.

Currently the compass is out for repair in Lake Stevens, WA. I knew the dome had some crazing, but the latest cold weather resulted in a fairly large bubble in the liquid. I sent it to Island Marine Instruments to be checked out and repaired. I just got the quote back from them. A very reasonable $236.00 to replace the dome, change the illumination to LEDs and alter the damping mechanism to current standards. I should have it back in about 3 weeks. In the mean time I have removed the brass mount and cover and started to polish them. Several years of neglect and California sun have taken their toll. What I thought would be a few hour job looks more like a big pain.

I'd planned to polish by hand but after about 3 hours of work and about 5% of the surface area I am resorting to my Dremel tool and hopefully a large polishing wheel. I have been unable to find any wheels here in Sitka so I'm checking out the internet. I don't mind polishing brass, its good therapy, but there are limits to my tolerance and needs. I figure it will all be together by the time we get out of the yard and back in the water.

Then it will be time to tackle the brightwork. Toerails, hatch boards and trim, along with the mahogany in the cockpit are on the schedule. I'll be dodging the rain to get it done or spending a lot of time under a traveling tarp. I plan to sand and get at least 10 coats of varnish in place. Hopefully, that and the low sun angle here at 57N will give me more than a couple of years before its time to do it again. Several of my slip neighbors, all with aluminum or FRP boats with no wood have commented on the amount of work I'm in for. My next slip neighbor is a former sailor and had a fair amount of brightwork on his circumnavigator. There is no wood on his current charter boat. He says he doesn't miss the brightwork part if sailing.

Whale picture is from last Sunday out on the Sound. We saw humpbacks feeding on a herring school about 1500 yards out. We sailed closer but by the time we got into good photo range the show was over. There is a whale just aft of the shroud, its obvious in the full sized print but not so much here. Oh well, I'll just have to keep trying. Maybe the OM1 with the big telephoto needs to come out with me instead of just taking the digital.

Its another dreary, dismal, stormy, weekend winter day in Sitka. No sailing today, and the same forcast for tomorrow. So it looks like i will have to be satisfied with with fantasy sailing instead. I found an interesting website thanks to the Bristol list on Sailnet: www.laurig.com Not what I would call a typical cruising website, but it contains a number of entertaining tales as well as some interesting philosphy. The site is worth more than a passing glance.

On another note, I have been looking at ways to improve Polly's functional spaces. I need some bookshelf space, and I would like to have an area in the cockpit to do chart work. I think that the port side under the sprayhood will work with a few modifications. It seems to stay fairly dry no matter what the weather, and is just wasted space now. I originally intended to mount line handling stuff there, but the more I sail the less I think its necessary or even better to bring lines back to the cockpit. Of course the cabintop is curved so fashioning a base for a chart table will require copying a curve. After a couple of false starts I think I finally have a close approximation and will try fitting a template before attempting to make the pieces out of expensive mahogany stock. The top should be relatively easy I will use Okume plywood and about 15 coats of varnish. This project will also invole moving the depth sounder readout and perhaps will also allow mounting the sailing instruments also.

I've finished the mockup for the helmseat/propane locker and will work on the finished product as weather an time allow. My workshop is neither insulated nor heated so working is a bit uncomfortable this time of year. Great for keeping beer cold, the temp stays right around 40f. Definitely not user friendly for getting woodworking projects done. One project for next summer will be to insulate and finish the space. My neighbor has done his and is able to carry on his custom fishing rod business year round. I have a number of fiberglass projects waiting for warmer weather also. I think getting the plastic to set in thteambient chill is more than a bit problematic.

Sitka has a real problem with mooring space. Although, we have 4 very large harbors and a small private marina there are at least 200 boats on the waiting list for slips. Unfortunately, we are on the longest list at positon 123 or some similar spot. We have a 30 foot slip for the winter but will have to move to transient moorage in April. there will aso be aobu t100 commercial boats here for the summer starting in late March so moorage is normally a big problem here. To compound the problem one of the harbors is being rebuilt this summer which will make the problem even more acute. I asked about anchoring in the moorage field across the channel for the summer, if that becomes necessary I will have to upgrade my ground tackle. I was not really surprised to find out that no provision to change the rules to allow longterm anchoring. I will talk with the Harbormaster next week, but I would be willing to bet that nothing has been done to alleviate the upcoming crunch. I guess thats part of the price we pay for our ridiculous low moorage rates here. I think I would rather pay more and have a bit better facility as well as foresight.

At the Helm 

January day in Sitka Sound

Got out yesterday on a photo expedition. We have seen lots of evidence of whales in the Sound recently, flukes appearing momentarily and the occassional spout far out on the horizon, and have heard many reports of sightings. Including one whale trailing entangled gear of some sort or another. Yesterday was cold (low 30s) and mostly sunny, with 10 to 15 knots of wind from the west which is not the norm this time of year. I had aske dsome friends to got out with me. Only 2 takers, winter is tough on all but the diehards I guess.

Boat was covered with hoar frost when I got to the harbor a bit late at 9:10. The sun had been up for about 40 minutes, but was just peaking over the eastern mountains at Sealing Cove. The boat is in disarray because I am slowly working through many winter projects as work and the weather allow. My guess is the temp is in the high 20s, so it was a bit of a crank to get the Perkins to light off. I used both starter batteries eventually and things finally lit off. While we let it warm up, we stowed miscellaneous gear and partially finished projects. The interior was chilly, but the ceramic heater keeps it from freezing inside, except deep in the lockers where the air doesn't circulate well.

Mooring lines were frozen in place as were the mainsheet and halyards. I showed the new passenger how to bend on the jibsail and I spent several minutes unwinding the main and jib halyards from their cleats and flexing them to break up the frozen solid feeling. Because we have so little sunlight during the winter things tend to stay damp. Low temps then make lines freeze in situ. Frozen Sta-Set X halyards are very hard to work. They don't wind around the winches well, and tend to slip as well as being hard to grip with gloves and very uncomfortable on bare hands. I had planned to replace the mainsheet with 1/2 inch Sta-Set X, but I think I will go with Sta-Set instead, its softer and I think will be easier to manage. Especially in very cold weather.

Used the new 7/16 jibsheets, which are doubled 100 feet of Sta-Set DB with a whipped loop in the center. The line tackle that was discussed on one of the bristol forums supposed to make a secure connection to the sail parted itself about 3 minutes after the jib went up, so I used the Tylaska Spool shackle with great results. I was hoping to avoid hardware for the jib to sheet connection but will have to try something new. I like having a single sheet with one connection. I'll watch it closely for wear and may change my mind if it doesn't wear well.

There were a fair number of floating ice chunks as we left the harbor, but no solid ice. I didn't see any solid ice in the harbor at all, but there had been a fair amount of traffic going in and out before I arrived so it may have been broken up. The air was absolutely still and the water glassy. As we motored out three boats passed us in the channel and we saw many out in the Sound. Winter King salmon are are very tasty so there is a lot of fishing even though the weather is quite cold. Started to feel a bit of a breeze about 1 mile out, put up the sails, and got rid of the noise. I really like the almost eerie calm when the motor noise and exhaust odor die away. Waves lapping at the bow and the slight gurgle coming from the stern are my favorite sounds. And the faint sounds of the sails as they settle into the groove along with the creaks of standing rigging as it takes up the strain...Music to every sailor.

I let my crew do most of the steering, since we weren't going anywhere in particular the course didn't count for much. We just sailed by the wind and tried out various points of sail. The wind was perfect, enough to make the boat move well without fighting. Although, the old, tired sails don't give a lot of power and are frequently difficult to trim adequately, we managed about 6 nautical miles in an hour and a half out toward Viskari rocks. Came about 1 mile before the rocks and sailed toward the Eastern Channel running on mainsail alone. Got back in just before the sun was going down.

The pictures above are Mt Edgecumbe with a lenticular cloud, and 2 views looking toward Sitka from the sound. The first is to the north of town, and the second is looking at the mountains behind Silver Bay to the south of town. Life is tough living in a postcard.