Neah Bay Day 5

Yesterday we went for a walk in the light drizzle and a car stopped to offer us a ride. We explained that we were walking for exercise and the lady introduced herself as Noreen and suggested that we drop by at the marina where here sister Harriette was presenting food to all comers in celebration of her birthday. We went to the marina and enjoyed the hospitality in the finest Makah tradition. We had a long chat with Harriet and friend Vicky and another who had driven up from Port Townsend. It was great to interact with these generous local people whom we liked very much.

This morning we on a knife edge on whether or not to depart for California tomorrow. The winds in the next few days did not seem very strong or favorable but on the other hand there were not too many strong winds predicted in the following days. We figured that we would have to do a lot of motoring and possibly heave to when we encountered strong southerly winds. However the afternoon 96-hour weather fax indicated that the deep low approaching from the west would get a lot closer to the coast than we had expected, so we decided to sit tight until at least the following Thursday, when the deep low has moved on.

The prospect of sailing tomorrow spurred me on to do some preparatory work. I replenished the main diesel tanks from the two 10 liter containers and found that the 12 hours of motoring over the 50 nm from Port Angeles consumed exactly 20 liters of fuel, which meant that the engine was averaging 1.7 liters an hour, compared to well over 2 liters before the recent repairs to the engine.

I also put up the storm trysail to ensure that I know what to do when the time comes. Until I have had more practice I'll plan on putting up the trysail well before the arrival of the gale winds because I'll have to drop the mainsail, zip it up in the sail cover, transfer the halyard to the storm trysail, tie off the boom, then get the trysail slides up the curved track which is not so easy.

The top photo show the trysail in place. It is higher up the mast than I would like but it cannot be helped because of the height of the mainsail stack. The trysail track is to the left of the main track so I will try to be sailing or hove to on starboard tack. Besides, I must be hove to with the wind from the starboard in order to deploy the para anchor. I cut two sheets of proper length for the trysail, which are now stowed in the bag with the sail. The sheets pass through the spinnaker blocks at the stern corners of the boat then on to the cockpit winches.

I have never used the storm trysail but there are times when I should have. The mainsail has only two reefing points which leaves too much sail area for heaving to. During two strong gales in the Tasman Sea we were forced to heave to with mainsail zipped up and a tiny amount of headsail at the headstay. The result was that we rode side on to the waves. I am hoping that the storm trysail with staysail combination will give better results, with the boat facing the waves at a better angle.

The photo also shows the staysail hanked on the inner forestay ready for hoisting.

The lower photo is of a holly bush all ready for Christmas, even though it is only October.