Sailing Systems Check: Coal Harbour to Bowen Island Overnight.

I've had a lot of work done on SV GIRI this spring.  The autopilot hasn't worked well for a couple of years so I had Eric bring in a Raymarine that Jim in stalled.  The autopilot worked keeping the ship on track on the way over to Bowen Island but the speed hasn't function suggesting some hardwire malfunction between the sensor and the autopilot. The autopilot needs a sea run to set the compass which we have to do yet as the compass and autopilot are off many degrees. The propeller and rudder which Tom fixed are functioning very well and with the clean fresh painted bottom the boat made great time.  With the next anchor mount all went well with anchoring in Snug Cove though it was hard to get hooked in limited place with all the personal buoys, scows and crab traps.  We had a great boat dinner of sausage, onions and garlic, with boiled potatoes in butter and sour cream and one of those Caesar Salad kits.  Gilbert loved all the sausage bits and liked the plates for the butter and sour cream left over. Then we watch the movie by Tarantino, Django.  Interesting that the violence got a lot of play but I was struck by the theme of the Black Germanic alliance and the black man blowing up the white house for her abused lover.  All round a great cowboy movie with Christian anti slaver theme and Muslim Jewish revenge motifs wrapped in erotic love and saved genitals.  Decaprio was magnificent with his pseudoscience instruction while all the acting was great and personally I thought Tarantino outdid himself.  It could only be better if Arnold had said at the end, "I'll be back".  

Great sleeping at anchor and waking to sunshine through the hatch.  I made coffee then together Tom and I got the dinghy and motor together in the water beside the big boat. I couldn't get the motor started but Tom with engineering grace did two pulls and the engine purred. I insisted all my huffing and cursing and yanking had prepared it for his finesse.   We had breakfast on Bowen Island and walked Gilbert along some of the paths before heading back.  Tom's trying to solve the speedometer problem after I pulled the sensor  and we yanked on various wires together before he got fixated on the new tridata.  It had worked before. My job now is to turn the autopilot switch on and off and also be prepared to swing the sensor wheel. 

"I wonder if calibrating he autopilot has an effect on the speed read out.?"

 

The salon with the tv showing the view from the above deck spy cam.

 

Lion's Gate Bridge: SV GIRI departing Coal Harbour, evening June 1, 2013.

It's a lovely day today, June 2,  and while we didn't catch fish last night on the way over, I had the down rigger out and running so hopefully tonight on the return I'll catch a salmon.  Pt Atkinson Howe Sound Gilbert in his yellow lifejacket in the Achiles dinghy.

 

Union Steamship store Bowen Island.

I had eggs benny. Tom had the cheddar omelette. Great Brekkie!  Gilbert enjoyed walking on the trail beside the fish ladder.

Tom and I talked about Christianity but we didn't get to church. I did wear my Church Shirt though!

In the end we got the Autopilot calibrated but the compass seemed off 180 degrees and the speed sensor never registered.  Raymarine and Jim's Marine will need a call.  Maybe talk to Eric at Pocomarine about a new speed sensor. The depth sounder was fine but when I pulled out he speed sensor and flicked the turn wheel nothing happened at the tridata. I hope Jim tested this himself.  I know it's bother to pull out the sensor and have water spout into the boat before putting in another temporary plug.  I've done that so many times under the most harrowing conditions because the turn wheel has become fowled. Me and that sensor go  back a couple of decades along with the original Tridata recorder.  The display on the new Raymarine products is ideal.  The GPS and wind data aren't interfaced and that's when I feel self pity.  Tens of thousands of dollars spent on boat maintenance and at the end of the day I'm glad I know how to do all these things without modern electronics.  But I really do wish I'd have someone care for me so that life would be gentler.  Which then takes me back to missing my parents and appreciating how much love and care they gave us kids.  Home was a Garden of Eden and ever since I left I've been out in the real world and it's tough in comparison to childhood and the womb.  I can only hope for a good nursing home and appreciate Douglas Adams of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fame writing the Dirk Gently's Holistic  Detective series belief that the norse gods had holed up in well cared for nursing homes for comfort.  

It's always good to land the boat at dock and realize that one has lived again.  These are all birthings and passages and like plane take offs and landings while done lightly they have a great potential for heaviness so must be appreciated for the rites of passage they are. I'm back on the boat and the boat is functional after a year of being relatively dead in the water with mangled prop. Much more works on it and clearly it's ready for offshore duty at a moment's notice.  All that needs to work for ocean passage is working. Quite the feat of engineering by Tom and Jim and my hard work provided the funds to achieve this.  Not a small proposition taking a coastal boat dead at dock back to an ocean going creation. I even appreciate Mita's cleaning of the boat and sorting the affairs. The winds and waves and lack of stowage consideration caused a fair amount of flying objects down below that was a terrible consternation to Gilbert, little dog that he is but no damage done.  Gilbert ran to the front berth or stayed in the cockpit with us but was clearly disturbed by flying plates and doors slamming and all manner of chaos before when the ferry passage had the boat corkscrewing in the wake.  

God is good. God is great.  One must come up with an alternative to champagne to break across the bow of this boat each time it's resurrected.  I don't think vegetable juice cuts its. Perhaps a bottle of sparkling water would be the thing.  It's a good ship and deserved at least that so I'm remiss in giving her the royal treatment she deserves but she's had bottom and top paint to deck her out fine.  The good ship GIRI rides again!