Day 423 Part two

I'm sure you read the first part of today, now here is what happened later.

We finished installing the alternator with no problems. As it came out, so it went in. It doesn't perfectly align with the main wheel that comes off the engine which could explain the black dust on it. If the belt is not perfectly aligned between the alternator and the drive wheel that is on the engine, the belt rubs and small bits of the rubber on the belt flake off and make black dust on anything in in the general area. We had some, but not much of that dust on the alternator when I took it off. The alternator on the port side has more showing that it is also not aligned perfectly. Something that will need to be fixed later when the proper washers to fix the alignment are available.

Once it was in, we untied and headed out into the Tongas Narrows that lead past Ketchikan. We took off South only to be greeted by the announcement that the Golden Princess cruise ship was about to leave and also head South followed by the Amsterdam of the Holland America line. Everyone wanted to follow us.

We figured we had at least 20 minutes so we pushed the engine to 1800rpms and took off. We finally heard their announcement that they were leaving. About 30 minutes later, they called us on the VHF radio asking for the sailboat on a broad reach(sailing downwind) heading South in the channel. They asked us to head towards the Twin Rocks and let them pass. We checked our charts and found no listing for the Twin Rocks so we headed to starboard as far as we could get yet still maintain a course in a general direction of where we needed to go. Fifteen minutes later they called us again telling us we were going in the wrong direction and that they wanted us to head to port. We acknowledged their request and headed to port. Once they passed, we check our charts and found we would have been much farther away from them if we had stayed on the earlier course. We radioed the Amsterdam to make sure we were out of their way. I think it surprised them we called. We were fine as long as we maintained our heading, which we did till they were past.

Once past us, we changed course to a more favorable heading and took off with the engine going and the big genoa sail out in front of us. We were in the mid 7 knot range in 12 to 15 knots of wind. Since we left so late, we had a lot of ground to make up if we expected to make it to Foggy Bay by any reasonable time.

We watched our AIS receiver screen and avoided the other ships(mostly fishing boats) as they headed our way. Once clear of the Tongass Narrows, we finally shut down the engine and with only the genoa sail up started hitting 8 to 9 knots of speed. We topped out at 9.3 knots. For only having one sail up, we were flying. Tracy sat out on the port side(down wind) tending the sail while I sat at the wheel keeping us on as straight a course to where we wanted to go as I could. Tracy decided to come inside the cockpit and sit beside me on one of our folding cushions we have. Blue had been sitting on the starboard side just watching the water pass by until she saw Tracy get up. She immediately got up and walked(in a bit of a hurry) over to the folding chair and plunked her self onto it just to spite Tracy. So Tracy just stayed where she was and kept tending the sail.

The farther out we got, the more the winds blew until they were in the mid 20 knot range. We had water coming over the front decks. We started seeing deadheads(floating logs) in the water so I went forward to the bow to watch out for them. We would plunge into the waves and just spring back out of them flying in the air. What a feeling!!! We came close to some deadheads but missed them all. Eventually, we decided to reduce the amount of sail we had out so we could sail a bit flatter in the water. We rolled in some of the genoa(it rolls up at the bow around a roller furling system) until we had reduced it by about 30 percent. We continued to fly, maintaining speeds in the high 7 knot range with only one sail out. The winds let up, so we pulled out the entire sail again and off we went again. We were in 25+ knot winds and the seas had built to 4 to 6 feet. Waves were breaking over Zephyr and hitting the sail on the far side!! It's the most fun sailing we have had in months!!!

Once we got down off Foggy Bay, we pulled up into the wind and rolled up the sail and turned around to head into the bay. We started surfing the waves. We go from 4.8 knots to 8+ knots of speed going up and down the waves as they passed. We ride up the face of one wave and shoot down the far side as it passed us. Over and over until we were around the corner of the island protecting Foggy Bay. The picture on the front of the blog was taken in Foggy Bay by her previous owners. We pulled in at almost exactly 1800 hours, six hours and 38.4 miles later. Down went the anchor(54 57.066 N 130 56.375W) and we were all set. There is another sail boat in the bay with us. About a 26 footer with a small outboard on the stern. There were clothes strewn all over the boom and the lifelines drying out. They must have gotten drenched in the seas we were in. With waves up to 6 feet, it had to be covering their small boat. They have more guts than we do to come out in stuff like that in such a small boat.

The weather for the next three days is for gusts up to 50 knots and huge seas so we expect to be here for a while. Probably Monday before we can get out of here. We checked everything on deck to make sure it was tied down and put the cover back on the mainsail. We have kept it off while out on the water incase something should happen to the engine and we need to raise the sail to give us some power to move. WIth the winds and rain that are forecast, we felt it better to have it covered for a while.

Tracy was out at the bow and looked down at the fitting that holds the forestay(wire at the bow that holds the genoa sail and roller furling)to the deck in the same fitting that holds the anchor. The stainless steel pin(as big around as your little finger)that goes through the fitting is held in that fitting by a bronze cotter pin that goes through a hole drilled through it. The stainless steel pin had moved to one side and had just about sheared the cotter pin off as it tried to back its way out of the fitting. If it had not been caught, there was the possibility that if it had popped out, it could have brought down the entire rigging especially with what we had faced today. I grabbed a hammer, two sets of needle nose pliers and more cotter pins and headed out for a quick repair. It took some work, but I got the big stainless steel pin to shift so I could remove the bronze cotter pin and install a stainless steel one. It should hold better being made of a stronger material. This is one of the reasons I check all the fitting and deck equipment on a weekly basis.

Well, that is about all for today. Broken equipment has been fixed(with no swearing or blood letting) and we had a great afternoon of sailing. It was a great day today.