Cruising San Juans, Gulf Islands, & Desolation Sound

[WillieC]

Found this pic of Smuggler's Cove. Hope your first attempt at stern anchoring turned out better.

Smuggler's Cove.jpg

[sail149]

Loving your trip , what sort of weather are you having? Can only guess from photos!
Re photos , on my iPhone 'smart phone' if I select photos from the 'photo stream' rather than the 'camera roll' they upload ok, somehow the system thinks they are smaller, ( the grain on this photo is from the low light not resizing).
Cheers

[WillieC]

To everyone following DesertAlbin736's current adventure:

This is an excerpt from an email I got from Steve on the 12th. He wants to post his own narrative so here is a teaser of a great A25 story.


"....yesterday was a real near-disaster. Long story, but we lost our beloved Boatex dinghy in rough seas in Malaspina Strait off Nelson Island while heading North from Pender Harbour towards Lund.

Took a heavy stern wave in 3 ft seas that tore away the aft stbd gunn'l & davit latch on the dinghy. Things really went to s... from there. While still attached to the boat the stern of the dinghy dropped down & scooped water. No choice but to release the dinghy which promptly swamped but stayed awash. The damage to the dinghy was beyond repair. Water was very rough, & the dinghy then capsized & slid under the stern & jammed up against the rudder & the painter seemed to be caught in the prop and/or rudder.

So now we were adrift on a lee shore a couple hundred yards away from a big rock & drifting towards it at about a knot and a half."


(from Rick) Stand by for updates!

[DesertAlbin736]

Yes we had a rough time last week when we lost our dinghy off Nelson Island on BC Canada's Sunshine Coast. It got a little hairy when it capsized and jammed under our stern and (we're pretty sure) got the painter wrapped in the prop and left us dead in the water drifting toward rocks. A wave had caught the dinghy and ripped out the gunn'l where the rear snap davit attached. It left no choice but to release the dinghy, which promptly swamped but stayed awash then capsized in the rough seas.

We declared PAN-PAN on the VHF and luckily a large sailboat was nearby and towed us 6 miles back to Pender Harbour.

But all's well that ends well. No damage to the boat except scuffed bottom paint. Somewhere along the way while we were being towed the dinghy broke loose, cleared the prop and was gone, sunk or washed up on rocks somewhere. A total wreck in any case.

So we ended up spending.the rest of the week going up Jervis Inlet to Princess Louisa Inlet and Chatterbox Falls, aka the "Holy Grail of cruising". 105 NM round trip from Pender Harbour and back on 8.2 gallons of fuel.

We are now in Pender Harbour again, waiting for a weather window to head South down Malaspina Strait to Secret Cove or Halfmoon Bay before crossing Georgia Strait back to Nanaimo.

[DesertAlbin736]

Lessons learned from the dinghy incident:

Weather in Georgia Strait can change without notice. What started out with winds SE at less than 10 knots soon built to 3 ft plus steep chop and white caps. We were just a few miles short of safe anchorage on the North shores of Nelson Island when things went to hell in a handbasket.

We see lots of boats with dinghies on snap davits like we had. But with the A25 the stern tapers in so that the ends of the dinghy stick out a foot or so on each side, which makes it vulnerable to large waves. Would have been better if we had towed the dinghy on a long painter of floating poly line.

So I need to re-think the whole dinghy issue. Do we get another hard shell dinghy or switch to an inflatable? Do we go with one less than 8 ft? Do we use snap davits again and tow when in rough seas, or get lifting davits? Roof stowage is out of the question unless I were to extend the hard top all the way aft.

We also have to think about how much weight gets added to the stern.

The other thing is that the VHF radio that came with the boat is an ancient piece of crap. No DSC, no weather channels, poor transmit quality. So that's the next item on the upgrade list.

[DesertAlbin736]

Good weather in Georgia Strait after all. Under way off Thornmanby Island, bound for Nanaimo. Making 6 knots, heading 150 True. ETA 1540 hours.

[Beta Don]

I agree that no dinghy hard or soft should be any wider than the transom of the boat - 6 inches shorter on both sides would be the max for me. If a breaking wave doesn't get it, banging it on a pier or piling while docking will . . . . eventually. Our friends clipped a dock with their 11 foot Boston Whaler, breaking a mounting and it was actually narrower than the transom of their boat

While we did tow our dinghy over 1500 miles and in some pretty rough seas, I wouldn't recommend that as the best way to go when things get rough - You're pretty certain to lose another one if that is your 'back-up plan' way to go in big seas

We towed ours with a 40' length of 5/16ths double braid doubled with one end cleated off to each side of the swim platform - Not a floating line and I worried about it a good bit, but I was always very careful to keep it away from the prop. In Marathon, we bought a length of floating poly rope and the first time we used it (leaving the Dry Tortugas) Carolyn selected reverse after I had pulled the anchor and the dinghy came alongside and the swim platform bracket parted the line slick as a whistle! Luckily, there were several other boats in the anchorage and the dink was quickly returned to us. For the remainder of the trip, we went back to our non-floating, but very strong line

Towing a dink can be interesting at times and will hasten your hair turning gray!

Don

[sail149]

I only ever towed a dinghy with a sailboat but we would keep it 2 or 3 so dinghy lengths from the stern ( and then shorten to very tight while manovering). We could then position it on the best place on the stern wave so that the load on the tow line was light. I don't understand the long tow lines I see people using. It means you cannot see if it's getting swamped, or tell what sort of wave it is in. It's also so far back it gets no protection from the tow boat .
Am I missing something?
I wouldn't have a problem pulling the dinghy tight against the transom with a few good fenders for protection.
Warren

[DesertAlbin736]

Hasten turning grey? Too late for that! I went all white at 50. We'll have to figure something when we get back. Lifting davits?

Well anyway we made it back into Nanaimo, docked at Newcastle Island provincial park. BBQ'd salmon just in time to beat a thunderstorm. Pouring rain outside now, but we're snug in the cabin with all hatches battened down and canvas flaps zippered and snapped closed. Unusually wet summer by local standards.

[DesertAlbin736]

Getting ready to head over across the channel this morning from Newcastle Island Park to the goverment dock in downtown Nanaimo to catch up on laundry & buy some ice. Then we may spend tonight in Silva Bay on Galiano Island before continuing further South into the Gulf Islands. We'll have to go out into the Strait and go around Galiano Island unless we wait until the afternoon slack at Dodd Narrows which is not until 5:20. These 8 knot tide currents in the narrow passes and 15 foot tide range take some getting used to. Wallace Island is an option for tomorrow night, or perhaps Ladysmith or Telegraph Harbour or Clam Bay on Thetis Island.

We had our nocturnal raccoon visitors again last night. As we lay in our vee berth I actually saw the shadow of a raccoon go by our forward cabin side wind as it was walking on our side deck. But this time we knew to lock up our snacks in the aft cabin. Raccoons are smart, but they haven't figured out how to open a cabin door yet.

We sighted our first Albin 25 in BC yesterday, "Honor" from Victoria on a mooring ball in Mark Bay next to Newcastle Island. But since we don't have a dinghy anymore was not able to visit & they have not come in the dock. May do a drive by on our way over to downtown.

[DesertAlbin736]

Cruising notes, Wedneday July 20, 2016:

In port, Silva Bay, Gabriola Island BC. We are rafted at anchor with our cruise mates on their O'Day 25 "Panacea". Day 34 of the cruise since launching at Squalicum Harbor in Bellingham on June 16th. Sunny weather at last! Left our boat at anchor today while we all piled on to Panacea and motorerd over to and parked at the marina dock for the day ( both boats have been hanging on our anchor in 16 to 26 ft of water, mud bottom, 60 ft of rode out. It's a tight anchorage, lots of boats on private moorings and at anchor, so not much room to swing on a 5:1 scope). It's Forrest Gump weather up here, like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get.

We're down to a 2 person 7' 6" Achilles inflatable dingy, a single seat West Marine inflatable kayak, and one 1.2 HP Gamefisher (Tanaka) outboard for 4 people. Turns out the kill switch button on our 2.5 HP Tohatsu outboard was damaged during the dinghy incident, so it's now out of commission too.

So thinking about replacement dinghies, on the way home we'll be passing through the Seattle area, so maybe we'll drop in at Gig Harbor Boatworks and check out the Gig Harbor 8 ft Nisqually dinghies. Other candidates include the Walker Bay 8 with RID collar.

Joint decision to hang out here today & take the "Gertie" jitney shuttle bus around the island to what passes for a "village" & have lunch. $2.50 CND each bus fare each way. Back to the boat by 5:30 PM, brats & sauerkraut on board for supper. Tomorrow we'll have to "hang loose" until 11 to catch Gabriola passage at slack tide to get back into the interior channels & make tomorrow's destination at Ladysmith on Vancouver Island. Gabriola Pass is narrow and can have tide currents up to 8 knots at max flood or ebb tide, so transiting at slack is a must. Up here you live & die by the tide & current tables in the "Ports & Passes" book and the Waggoner's guide for tips on approaches and anchoring.

La Dolce Vita out.

[kerrye]

We've been using a tandem sit on top kayak as a dinghy for a few years. It has some disadvantages but it's two main advantages are that it is unsinkable and immune to puncture.

[WillieC]

And if the yak breaks away after ripping the transom off the boat it will likely still be usable, if not for the owner.

[DesertAlbin736]

Staying a 2nd night in Ladysmith. Head for Telegraph Harbour tomorrow. Found a used Trinka 8 dinghy listed in SeaTac Craigslist, a 1991 rowing version with several options including teak floorboards, but doesn't include a pair of oars. If it hasn't sold before we get back to Bellingham will swing by and have a look. It came with a boat the owner bought, but he wants to get an inflatable instead. Asking price $1,700, which if it's in good condition is a decent place to start negotiations. A new one is double that.

The Admiral is balking at spending that much on a used dinghy, "but Honey, it's a Bruce Bingham designed Trinka!"

[DesertAlbin736]

Whatever dink we get, lessons learned will be applied. Don't want to go less than 8 ft long, especially if we got an inflatable. So we still have the issue of overhang. Leaning toward lifting davits, but if I continue with snap davits would either avoid rough water, or tow the dinghy with floating line when things get rough.