Saturday, Todd and I went out on CaB for a bit of spinnaker work. The winds were in the 10-20 kts range for the day and the swell stayed comfortable at 4-6 feet. As we made our way out of Pillar Point Harbor we hoisted the jib and sailed West for a bit. Then we pointed towards Santa Cruz and hoisted the A2. Everything went smoothly with the ATN sock. We traced our path back North so we could do another spinnaker run. This time we were going to hoist the A1.5 (a gift from California Condor). We set up for a hoist and then let the sock go up. But things got a little sideways. The sock dousing line bunched up inside the sock; then there was too much pressure with the A1.5 opening up and we lost the dousing line. It got stuck up the first spreader. Dang!
We could have considered a letterbox takedown but it looked like a great opportunity to go up the mast while underway. The sea was fairly tame and I didn’t have to go high. So, up I went. I don’t think I got bruised up much. But I did struggle holding on and avoiding being thrown on the shrouds. I retrieved the line and we were good to go! After that, we tried to see how much the A1.5 can reach: at 20 kts 90 AWA we broached, so now we know.
After that it took us a little while to return to the marina, put things in order and drive back home. I’m so grateful for Todd’s excellent sandwiches! On another note, I thought I had been successful fixing up the plumbing for the water ballast pump but it looks like more work is required. There’s a small o-ring that’s letting water through again. This repair needs us to get the boat out of the water. Too bad …
Some repair work
Sunday I got around opening up the oil pump for the failed L&S tiller drive. I had been told that there may have been broken springs, and indeed there were! There are 6 pistons and a total of 5 had their springs broken. I replaced them all with new ones, filled the oil reservoir, and gave it a run. The motor would run but the clutch would not engage. I removed the clutch to see if there was anything going on. My untrained eye could not see anything wrong but now the clutch did engage. I put it all back together again, tested with my car’s battery, and this time it worked. It may be time to swap that clutch and keep it as a spare.
I am getting a little more comfortable with these repairs, which is good for when I’ll have to do them at sea.
The end of something
On a separate topic, I reached out to rogue rigging last weekend to inquire about cost estimates for some rigging work. The answer was that Ryan declined to work with me “based on past interactions”. Since his shop is at BMC, I reached out to Cree to see what his position was. Same same. So that’s the end of that. Maybe that’s for the best for both of us. But as I tried to wrap my head about this, considering that the Bay Area is small, I realize that people talk and there was even a rumor that I hadn’t paid my bills. The truth is that I, on multiple occasions, had to inquire about getting an invoice, which I finally received while I was at sea, and my wife paid it in full a few days after reception.
Sometimes, everybody has the best of intentions and things still go sideways. But the thing that got me is that I think this was likely out of people talking, not the BMC team actually reading my blog. And hence I’ve disabled notifications going forward, this post included.
There are only two persons I’m putting the time in to write these blogs, which are almost 100% transparent: myself (to get my ideas in order) and the next Philippe (who wants to go on wild adventures but has little experience). I will say that I’m very thankful for everyone’s support and comments. I’ve enjoyed the ride and I hope you did too. I think this move is also part of my going under the radar now, trying to take it easy away from the public’s eye.
I’ll still be blogging so feel free to visit from time to time.
