Tracy's two cents:
When you get past 50 years old, you start forgetting things. This becomes quite an issue when you are in the islands, moored to a tire, behind a bitty island. There isn't a grocery store or for that matter a 7-11 on the nearest shore.
Lunchtime yesterday we attach to a buoy at Spencer Spit, a sand bar cutting through the water between Lopez Island and a small blob of an island. It was lunchtime, so I figure we'll stop and relax and have Grinders. These are sandwiches that Bill used to make at a small shop while in college. They consist of French rolls, thin sliced ham, provolone, sliced tomato, sprinkled with ground oregano, salt and pepper, then chopped lettuce with a mix of olive oil topped with the hollowed out top part of the roll. So far so good...I had provisioned the ham and tomato, but forgot the nice soft french rolls, the cheese and the iceburg lettuce. I did have one small baguette I purchased at Safeway and shredded Mexican cheese, so substitutions started into the mix.
I never thought that bread would EVER dry out in 80% humidity, but it does! It was like hard tack. I was hoping a little extra oil would make it somewhat softer...it really doesn't. So I served up these tiny bit of REALLY dry bread with the fixings and said, "Eat this at your own teeths risk." They tasted okay, but water helped them slide down. There was even one bite that cracked the bread and I wondered if it was the bread or a tooth. Thank Goodness it was the bread. I must admit, Bill ate and never once complained about it...I guess this passagemaking thing might actually work! I'm sure that in the middle of the ocean, some ingredient will have been forgotten and something else will have to be inserted. Life is good.
The transit went well, very flat water, lots of ferries going to distant cities. It reminds me of the bus system in Port Townsend.
I think today, which is cloudy and rainy, we might if the mood strikes us, put the dingy overboard and go onto land.
Now it's back to the important stuff(yeah right)--it's Bill turn to blog!
Yesterday was a lovely day. Tracy was at the helm as I checked and rechecked systems and installed more things on Zephyr. For those of you with Google Earth, we are at 48 35.168N 122 56.325 W. That's Blind Bay on the North side of Shaw Island.
As we motored, I kept checking the battery monitor as that is the life blood of keeping a boat like Zephyr running. Without them we are pretty much dead in the water especially if there is no wind. The monitor never got above 12.4 volts the entire time we were motoring. Now I'm not the smartest guy when it comes to electricity and batteries but I know that a 12 volt battery holds more than 12 volts--check your car battery some time. With the engine running, it should have read much closer to 13.5 volts as its alternators made power for the batteries and loaded the amps into the batteries. It just wasn't happening. Once we pulled into Blind Bay, I pulled a Captain Kirk calling Scottie--Jack the electrician at Sea Marine--to let him know the dilithium crystals weren't making energy. We still had engines(sorry no warp power) but our life support system was failing fast. So as not too get to technical, he had me check a few thing and add a few wires and it turns out that the alternator for the house batteries wasn't turning it self on. It was spinning just fine with the fan belt but there was no power coming from it. It turns out that the oil pressure switch had malfunctioned and since it wasn't working, it stopped the alternators from working. If anyone out there can explain what the oil pressure switch has to do with the alternators making power, I'd love to hear from you in the comments section.
With the wire jumping the switch, we started making power and life support was restored.
I'd never tied up to any buoys since we started boating. Even when we chartered in the British Virgin Islands several years ago, I was always at the wheel while Tracy and Matt hooked us up. As we approached my first buoy when we stopped for lunch, I wasn't sure how I was supposed to get attached to this big ring about 5 feet below our deck. I took one of our boat hooks and grabbed hold of it--making sure I didn't get pulled overboard. Low and behold, the ring is attached to a chain that pulls right up the center of the buoy--actually a tire. I tied it on and we were all set. For the buoy here in Blind Bay, I used a metal fastener run through an "eye" splice for the connection instead of a simple knot as I had earlier. We're not going anywhere.
We settled back and watched one of our first beautiful sunsets--at anchor--since we left Point Hudson.
Strangely, the internet/cell phone connection up here is better than what we can get at Hudson Point. We decided to download the "Amazing Race" since we had missed last Sundays show. It's was only 43 minutes long. We set up the connection and let her rip. While our connection was great, the download speed of this Verizon Wireless connector really SUCKS!!! We were still downloading the show 5 hours later. We'd have to wait five minutes to get 30 seconds of show--if that. It was one of the most painful experiences of watching a show we could ever remember. We finally set back and read books for a few minutes and then watched. Washed the dishes and then watched. It went on like this for hours. While it was great to see the show, we won't be doing that again. I sent a post to Verizon to ask if there was any way to get a speedier connection. Perhaps this is the boating Gods way of telling us to sit back and relax and stop watching the boob tube.
More to come.
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