rough around the edges Albin 25

[DesertAlbin736]

Nice fridge!

That Georgia Strait is all "Forest Gump", like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get, weather wise. Have a safe passage, don't end up like this:

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Hopefully you'll wake up to morning scenes like this in Desolation Sound...

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Such fun meeting & talking at the Ladysmith BC Rendezvous! We're back in Arizona HEAT, just arrived home early this (Wednesday) morning & put the boat up "in ordinary" until weather cools off in the fall. Fall in these parts being like after Halloween. Today's high here was 41 deg C, low was 29 C. This year's cruise was a little more laid back. Ladysmith was our farthest point north this time & spent the whole cruise in San Juans & southern Gulf Islands. The Admiral wanted more time in port & didn't want a lot of long runs like last year. Final day in BC was in Winter Cove on Saturna on the 27th, then through Georgeson Passage between Samuel & Curlew Islands & passed to the southeast of Georgeson Island & on across the Strait over to US Customs at Point Roberts & on to Blaine, WA. Also anchored off Sidney Spit, stayed a couple nights in Port Sidney Marina, took the city bus for a day trip down to Victoria.

[ssrig]

Well we made it back!
We arrived on back to Salt Spring on Wednesday afternoon and the boat is now sitting on its trailer in its parking spot. It ran great!
It went into the water June 28 and I stayed and slept onboard until September 10, my wife was with me from August 2 until September 10, so five weeks for the two of us and 75 days for me and a 103 hours extra on the hobbs meter.
Our northern route took us from Ladysmith at the rendezvous across the Georgia Straight to Smugglers Cove then Powell River and Desolation sound where we stayed mostly around the Redonda West Island, we did a lap of Cortez Island and forays to other locals but usually went back to Roscoe. After about a month fishing, prawning etc we started on our way home via Princess Louisa Inlet for two days. We had to hole up in Smugglers cove for two nights waiting for our weather window to open up to cross the straight again.

We saw maybe 10 Albin 25's on this trip excluding the Ladysmith rendezvous which included seeing Selkie up there. Also while transiting north through Dodd Narrows we passed an Albin 25 heading south in Dodd narrows, we met smack dab in the middle most narrowest part and we were a little early going through and were battling a current and didn't catch the name on the boat but we waved.

All my hard work in June to get the modifications completed paid off in spades! Everything worked very well!

I'll start with the anchor, thanks for Don and Kerry for recommending the Manson, it is one of the most notable improvements in boating and made our trip so much easier. It sets so well and holds great I never had one issue dragging or not setting and that was with another boat rafted up to us for two weeks in many different types of ground. I cant say enough about it and I recommend it to everyone. Our best set was in Smugglers cove after crossing the Straight, we were tired and took one of the last stern tie spots available. We set our anchor while going forward due to the poor directional control in reverse, so we set the anchor and were steering towards the rock wall towards the stern tie chain in a high tide and it just worked out that I let rode out slowly until the bow nudged up to the chain where we threaded our stern tie line through the chain and pulling back on the anchor rode snugging everything up..... took us minutes to set and didn't need to get into the dingy at all! Awesome!

The other most impressive piece of kit is the Dometic fridge/freezer, that thing is wonderful! I dont have an ammeter on the boat so I cant say for sure but the specs on the fridge draw are something like 1.3 amps when running, this seemed impossible to me but I have to say that it must be very close to that! My 12 volt compressor fridge in my truck sucks back over 5 amps when running although it is much bigger and this one is miserly! We made 4 trays of ice each day and never bought any, love it and highly recommend it!

The battery/solar/ACR set up handled everything easily, in retrospect one 100watt panel would have been enough but with two the batteries were full up before noon everyday including cloudy days.
With the arch and solar panels on the back on top of the aft cabin created a great spot underneath to put a butane cooker so we didnt need to smell up the cabin, it was protected from rain and wind and also made for a great place to tie up stuff like our BBQ and roll of stern tie line, cloths line etc, with the pulpit on the aft end it made for a real safe area to walk around on.

Swim grid and steps were used constantly and I cant imagine not having them. Thanks to Pat for giving it to me, we love it!

The big bed mattress I squeezed into the cabin made our sleeps very comfortable and would not have enjoyed ourselves as much without the comfort it provided.

I think that was it, I will post a few pics during the next few days.

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Leaving Salt Spring northbound with the new BC Ferry pulling out from Long Harbour.

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Crossing Georgia Straight with Texada and Lasquiti Islands in the distance.

[WillieC]

That sounds amazing! So glad it was so successful. Nice work.
Did you make it to Genoa Bay for the rendezvous? We were there a couple weeks ago, big boat rendezvous of another yacht club, so we left. We like Cow Bay, a great little town.
We saw three A25s there and met the owner of Alice. He has added a complete stand-alone aux 30 horsepower outboard unit to his well beefed swim platform. In addition to the fully functioning Volvo Penta.

Welcome home and now on to winter improvements!

[ssrig]

No, never made Genoa but wanted to, we were ready to get home.

Owner of Alice was at the Ladysmith rendezvous and is the donor of my swim grid and his grid is a new aluminum one made for the motor.

Just power washing the bottom, seems like the weeds like my antifouling paint! We had fair sized barnacles growing on the dinghy that needed scraping off!

[DesertAlbin736]

Awesome! So great meeting at the Ladysmith rendezvous. May have to give some thought to a fridge like yours....

Just power washing the bottom, seems like the weeds like my antifouling paint! We had fair sized barnacles growing on the dinghy that needed scraping

I put on a fresh coat of non-copper Pettit Hydrocoat ECO this year. The coats I put on in 2016 picked up a lot of green slime last year, but with new paint this year`no problem. But Washington State is getting stricter about cleaning ablatives. Also why I hang my dinghy on davits & don't just tow behind or leave in the water more than a night or two at a time. As it was I spent 2 hours hauling out including thorough wash down of bottom, trailer, and truck.

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Smuggler Cove is a neat spot to anchor. Our other Arizona sailing friends that were up there this summer went there while we were at the rendezvous after we met up with them in Montague Harbour & did the Hummingbird Inn Pub. We could have gone with them back to Chatterbox, but we'd been there before & the Admiral didn't want to do a lot of long runs this time like we did in 2016 & last year's run to Desolation Sound but instead making it a more relaxed cruise with more days spent at anchor & less underway.

Smuggler Cove, 2016

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Our Arizona gang at the Hummingbird Inn Pub

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I wonder, did you happen to cross paths with either of these A25s while up in Desolation? Brittany Dawn was at Lund, but we didn't see the owner.

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Giving serious thought to Ontario Province next year, including Rideau Canal & Ottowa River. This couple are my new heroes. If they can to this in their 80s, why not us?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipvtOo6DNJ4&t=66s

[ssrig]

We ran into Mairi often, he spent a few weeks in Roscoe where we also saw Selkie, he may be selling that boat.

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Rafted up in Roscoe, stern tied here.

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Anchored here for a bit to check out all the oysters, yes we are close to shore, yes those are all oysters!

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Mairi rafted up to a friend, we are on our way out to check the prawn trap.

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While fishing near shore a pod of orcas cruised through!

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Pendrell Sound anchorage.

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Morning prawn haul.

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Teakerne Arm. Beautiful area but crappy anchorage for small boats, a constant swell entered the Arm and we couldn't get away from it so we left, not to mention all the big power boats that have to go 20 knots everywhere particularly in anchorage areas??

[DesertAlbin736]

Teakerne Arm. Beautiful area but crappy anchorage for small boats

WillieC & I did not consider Teakerne suitable for overnight anchorage last year. Here is my cruising log entry dated July 3, 2018 (note: we had our sail rig installed on that trip):

"Cruise from Refuge Cove to Squirrel Cove.
Late start, motored north from Refuge Cove up Lewis Channel west of West Redonda Island to Teakerne Arm. Raised sail in Teakerne Arm, [motorsailed] beam to broad reach, 6.2 knots @ 2,000 RPM. Teakerne Arm is about 3.5 miles long by 1 mile wide, Stern tie anchored temporarily near a rocky lee shore next to a dinghy dock at Teakerne Arm Marine Park along with Rick & Heidi [aka WillieC]. Tricky job anchoring, as the shore was all granite rocks & water choppy with breeze blowing toward shore. Once anchored & stern ties set the four of us hiked up steep rugged trail to nearby Cassel Lake. Lake water was warm by Canadian standards, 60 to 65 deg F, too cold [for our thin Arizona blood] to swim in, but Rick took the plunge & swam some. From there motored to Squirrel Cove & anchored for the night in the inner bay."

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We took note of all the oysters, but did not want to take the risk eating them & getting paralytic shellfish poisoning, aka "Red Tide", as that could be fatal that far from medical help. Such a memorable trip, & we had a great time cruising with Rick & Heidi.

[DesertAlbin736]

While fishing near shore a pod of orcas cruised through!

I wonder if it was the same pod we saw from a distance traveling northbound up the channel past Wallas Island while we were sitting at the Conover Cove dock with Eileen/Selkie the day before the Albineer rendezvous?

[WillieC]

We have the same picture of La Dolce Vita and the WillieC at Teakerne Arm.

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Oops, wrong pic. Just a reminder. February is coming, hopefully not like last year.

I hope I haven’t lost all those pics. I’ll fix it later.

[DesertAlbin736]

I hope I haven’t lost all those pics. I’ll fix it later.

Rick, if you have lost them, I have copies of all your pictures you gave me last year. I think this one was dinner at the Blackfin Pub, Comox, 6/29/18. No, we weren't "wife swapping"

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[ssrig]

We stayed overnight in the same spot as your temporary spot, I usually try to get the bow directly into the wavelets but it bounced around in there and also in another spot we moved to that looked like it would be tucked in but that was bad too. If the winds are from the north west a little swell develops and travels along to the very head of the bay, nice lake though!

[WillieC]

Here are the pics I was looking for, if I can download them...

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As usual, click on the pics if you need to right them.

(Thanks, Steve. I need you to do all my IT work. New (to me) phone, new(er) computer, OpenCPN...kill me now!)

[ssrig]

yup, same spot, same angle for picture too!

We saw some of the funniest stuff watching people anchor and stern tie, sometimes it goes on for an hour or more! Its like watching TV except no commercials!