Jak Back to Port Townsend

Jak returned to Port Townsend today about 1.5 weeks earlier than planned. 

The purpose of Jak's visit was to help me  do some important work on the boat, become familiar with it, and suggest improvements to better prepare her for the Horn.  The plan worked very well and thanks to Jak's visit Pachuca will be a much better prepared boat.  The blog entries during the last 2 weeks describes the enormous amount of work that we completed.  The re mounting of the cockpit instruments yesterday morning represented the end of the tasks requiring Jak's assistance.  I've still got plenty to do, but some of these tasks depend await procurement of parts and all of them are jobs that I can do alone.  Our most important achievements my perspective were the repair and trimming down of the electrical system, the installation of the engine exhaust valve, and investigation of the leaks and strategies to stop (or minimize) them. 

Somewhere along the way Jak decided that rounding the Horn on Pachuca was not for him and I certainly respect and support his decision.  Nobody has to explain why they don't want to go on a 3-month voyage in a small boat that includes the Horn and Drake passage, some of the most difficult waters in the planet.  His being positioned to make a well informed decision on this important matter represents, I think, another success of the visit.

My outlook for the voyage is still OK.  It's all about tradeoffs.  Sure, I'll miss out on the companionship, enhanced safety, and practical help of somebody else on board.  On the other hand I'll be sailing out of La Paz with a full 3-month water supply in the tanks and a lighter boat due to fewer provisions.  Fortunately I like my own company and fare well out there on my own - if you can call almost daily messages to key friends and relatives being on your own.  And let's not forget that it was my original intention make the rounding on my own.

Jak will still be helping me from Port Townsend, with the fabrication of some custom-made improvements to the boat and procurement of special equipment that I may require.  For this I am grateful to both him and his wife Corine who will probably wind up doing a lot of sewing.

I am planning to visit Kingston and Port Townsend for 3 or 4 weeks between mid-August and mid-September.  It will be good to see family and friends before my big departure, bring back a lot of boat parts, and of course attend the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival just one more time. 

I've already taken the first step of this plan.  Jak found what appears to be a great storm jib for sale on the internet.  It is described as of heavy Dacron with hanks and a wire luff and dimensions of: luff 18' 3", leach 15', foot 9' 7".  That places it between Chiquita's 60 sq ft storm jib and Pachuca's staysail in size.  The condition is rated as "like new /10" (i.e. 10 out of 10).  At $300 plus $25 delivery I purchased it and am having it sent to Arnold's home.