'Big Mitch' ferried me out to "Nereida", at anchor in Hanalei Bay on Kauai, before sailing around to Nawiliwili.
Hanalei Bay, home of Puff, the Magic Dragon....
The Hokule'a was visiting Nawiliwili the day I left to sail north. A traditional Polynesian craft, keeping alive the art of navigation by waves and stars alone...!
Grand daughter was visiting the skipper.....
Red-footed booby comes to roost on pulpit of "Nereida" overnight - no mean balancing act, considering the seas at the time!
Cormorants on a floating tree trunk in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.....
Among many other jobs, thorough winch servicing was needed on arrival from Hawaii, after a total of well over 20,000 miles from England - nice to have clear blue skies and warm sun!
Low-water at the nearby haul-out in Pt Townsend
Typical Victorian house in Port Ttownsend
Port Townsend is a 'wooden boat town' : the lovely 'Martha'.
Lots of work still to be done...
The week has been a busy one, with a fair amount achieved. The rig has been checked thoroughly and re-tensioned, with various other improvements also made or in the pipeline after lengthy discussions, in the light of my recent experiences, with Dan of Port Townsend Rigging. It looks as though the last of my chafe problems might have finally been resolved after the 2nd reef line was discovered to be wrongly lead inside the forward end of the boom - I do hope that'is the end of those long-running problems....
It also looks as though the secondary alternator re-alignment might have an easy 'fix' since the primary engine alternator drive pulley can be slightly adjusted in position - enough to align the two, hopefully - we'll find out if that works on Monday. The diesel heaters have also been dealt with - disturbingly, the small diesel tank in the forepeak was found to have a lot of seawater in it - presumably having got in via the air vent which must now be looked at to see if something can be done to avoid that... maybe the pipework can be routed differently or a stop-valve added.... but in the meantime, the burner had corroded - so no wonder it didn't want to light, especially if it was now being fed with water...!
I've been giving a lot of thought to electrical and radio problems - with help today from Aaron and Owen, two local 'hams' from the Port Ludlow A.R.S.,, who kindly volunteered to help me & spent quite a time trying to work out how to get rid of RF interference. I'm feeling quite optimistic on that front now - but need to test it out when a few more 'chokes' have been put in place on some data cables and power leads, to add in to the suppressors which are being placed in the autopilot hydraulic pump power leads. Re-routeing the coax between tuner and radio also had a definite and positive effect.
Sailmaker Carol Hasse came out for a test sail yesterday to look at the sails and systems on board - the sails are now in her loft, ready for repair and adjustments and the outing, as I expected, proved very useful - she has such a lot of good ideas and a wealth of experience....
I'll be servicing the winches on and off over the weekend and for several days (there are eight in all!) - doing the job thoroughly takes time, but I quite enjoy doing it - and it's lovely to hear them purring in action after a good cleaning and greasing!!
But tonight I took time off to enjoy an hour or so of Pt Townsend's regular Friday night entertainment - live music at the Pt Townsend Brewery's little garden, close by the Boat Haven.