Pachuca Moved to 15 Meter Pen

In my last blog I described the problem associated having Pachuca in a 10m pen masquerading in a 12m pen.  

 On Tuesday morning I spoke with Karen, the manager of PGM, by telephone and obtained her confirmation that pen F130 had been vacated and was ready for my boat.  On Wednesday I drove to Busselton and settled into the boat for the night under the plan that Peter would arrive at noon the next day when we would have lunch then move the boat in the afternoon. Before dark I visited pen F130 an found a large cabin cruiser occupying the pen.

 The next morning I visited the PGM office and was told that there had been a last minute decision to move another boat into pen F130 and Pachuca would occupy the adjacent pen F129.  I asked why I had not been informed of the change and Karen replied that they had phoned me several times the previous day with no response.  This did not make sense to me so I asked her to read out the telephone number that she had used.  She then read out the number and the last digit was incorrect.  That explained the miscommunication and she corrected her record.  Karen's explanation for the last minute change was that Kerry had forgotten that pen F130 had been promised to somebody else.

 The change of pen was not a big practical issue: Pachuca is now in pen F129 and instead of having the side jetty on my starboard side I will now have it on my port side.  

At about 10am I was preparing for Peter's arrival when I received a telephone call from Nigel, who had the pen next to Pachuca.  He asked if he could help me move my boat out immediately because he needed to move his boat to my vacant pen for a few days in order to do some work on the starboard side of his cabin cruiser.  I agreed to make the move with the suggestion that we get Rick who is on the PGM staff to help us.  In fact Rick was already on his way to my boat.  It was just as well that I had checked out the engine and made other preparations for the move first thing in the morning because I now was working with only a few minutes of notice. Nigel accompanied me aboard Pachuca while Nigel waited at pen F129 to take our lines, and we completed the move without much trouble.

Peter arrived just before noon, and by then he knew that the boat would be in her new pen by the time he arrived.  After a chat on Pachuca he drove us to Busselton where we had lunch at the Dome cafe.  After lunch we put in several hours of work, mainly tying the lines to our satisfaction.  At 4PM the boat was safely in her new home and Peter went on to visit his mother in Busselton and headed for home in Darlington.

 Pachuca is now in a much better position, with her bow facing the SW and directly into the strongest winds from stormy weather and the side jetty long enough to provide a better angle for the stern mooring line.

 I will coordinate my next visit with Bruce, who has offered to apply his rope splicing skills to fitting the pen with proper white polypropylene dock lines.

 

Facing the SW with two mooring lines at the bow

 

 Zoom the photo to see the stern line and a springer from the outermost cleat

 

 Port Geographe Marina pen F129

Visit to Pachuca

 

Yesterday was my first full day on Pachuca in her pen here D59 at Port Geographe Marina, Busselton.  Other than checking out the boat I had two primary goals:

(1) Use an overhaul kit that I had purchased at Yacht Grot to get the manual marine head working again,

(2) Replace the manual salt water galley pump which was probably more than 10 years old and had stopped working.

 

I arrived at the boat during strong southerly winds that had followed a spell of rainy weather and noticed almost immediately that the mooring line setup of the boat was totally inadequate.

The problem is because the side jetty is by design 10m long, just inside of the maximum allowed 20% shorter than the published pen length of 12m.  The result is that about 2 meters of the stern of the boat juts out beyond the end of the side jetty, with the consequence that both stern mooring cleats are too far aft to be of use.  Thus I was now looking at my boat whose only measure to prevent it from ploughing into the main jetty at the bow during a strong wind from the stern was one jib sheet running  from a cleat at the end of the side jetty to a cleat amidships.  The jib sheet could be replaced with a stronger line but the real problem was that the amidship cleat was designed for light duty such as tying up a visiting dinghy, and definitely not to hold the boat back in gale force winds.

After discussions with Kerry and Rick at the PGM office that were too extensive to cover here, I consulted with Bruce Diggins, the friend who had refitted the boat a about 10 years ago, and he agreed with me that upgrading to a 15 m was the best option.

I have secured pen F130, the only available 15m pen in the marina.  I had a look at it after our meeting and confirmed that Pachuca will fit comfortably in the pen. Tomorrow I will do some measurements to assure myself that the stern mooring cleat can be used to take the wind load from the stern.  Better yet, the boat will be tied up 180 degrees from the direction she is pointing to now, so instead of the bow facing NE she will face SW, which Bruce states is a better orientation for dealing with the strong winds that clock around NW to W to SW the S. Apparently it is the southerly winds that present the biggest problem.  Another benefit is that reaching the pen will be much easier, with is wider fairway and and more direct route than D59.

 

Here is  layout of the marina, with top facing roughly W/SW:

 

Moving from D59  to F130, almost directly across from D jetty.

 

On the money side, I will pay another $1700 for finishing the rest of my prepaid 12-month lease in a larger 15m pen, but that doesn't matter because the safety of the  boat is paramount.

 

Pen F130 will be available this coming Friday, but Kerry told me that bad weather is expected that day, and she does not seem concerned about how long I take to move the boat

On my first night I took advantage of the calm wind and darkness to check out my mast lights, following a report that the red light on my masthead tricolour was failing.   Back in my pen at FSC I could only look up at the mast from the jetty just in front of the bow, much too close to see the masthead tricolour, but here at PGM all I had to do was to walk over to C jetty and look at Pachuca directly from the front at an angle where I could see the entire masthead light..  All lights were working: red and green and anchor lights at the masthead, the steaming light and the deck light.  

 

 I spent yesterday afternoon refurbishing the manual marine toilet but was not able to remove the  pump handle which meant that I was not able to replace several "O" rings.  The toilet worked fine but sure enough there is a small leak of salt water from the pumping action.  The schematic indicates that the handle should screw off but I decided to consult with Yacht Grot before clamping the pump shaft to a vice and putting serious force on the handle.

 

Today, my second and last full day on the boat I scoped out the task of replacing the salt water pump and I saw that the best path is to remove the sink, which means first disconnecting its drain hose, then lift the near edge of the sink and slide it out enough to clear the overhanging fresh water pump.   Once the sink is out replacing the salt water pump should be straightforward and relatively fast.  

But after scoping out the task I decided that now is not the time to swap the pump because I don't want to risk leaving a half-finished job for my next visit when I'll be moving the boat to her new pen.  And let's face it, I have no need for a salt water galley pump with the coastal sailing that I'll be doing in this phase of my life.  I installed the salt water pump so that I could wash dishes using sea water when I was far out to sea and fresh water was too precious for washing dishes.  Having said that, the salt water pump is part of this boat and I like to see everything on the  boat working well.

 

Bruce made an unexpected visit to me and the boat, I as glad to see him because it had been a while.  I met him at the gate and almost immediately someone hailed Bruce and they started talking with him.  Bruce then introduced me to Paul, the man who will clean the hulls of our boats, this Saturday.  It is a relief because it has been over two years since the boat was out of the water for anti-fouling and I need to keep the grown under control until the boat is hauled out on either late August or early September. 

 

After a long lunch at The Deck restaurant we visited pen F130 then proceeded to Pachuca where Bruce helped me secure Pachuca with a very long, thick, and never used rope that I think I had purchased years ago to replace my main halyard.

 

Bruce fixed the line to the cleat on the side jetty with a double pass bowline knot, then we passed it forward where I cleated it off to the rear of two heavy duty  anchor/mooring cleats.  Then Bruce the fastened with a bowline the bitter end of the line to a cleat on the main jetty on the port side of the bow and I pulled the line tight, moving the bow from the side jetty, and cleated it to the front mooring cleat.  The result was splendid: the boat was now secure with the bow well off the side jetty.

 

 

  Line from side jetty cleat to forward mooring cleat

 

 

Line to forward mooring cleat

For good measure we removed the spray dodger, leaving only the folded down frame.  This was to reduce the windage from a strong southerly wind.  The removal revealed a torn zipper on the starboard side of the canvas and a crack in the plastic trap that holds the bolt rope along the forward side of the spray dodger.  I brought the canvas home and will take it to Fremantle for repair and a new bolt rope track.

 

 

Spray dodger frame down and bolt rope track to be replaced

 

The following (4th) day I drove back to Darlington, satisfied with the results and thinking about the return trip to move Pachuca to her new pen.

 

Pachuca Moved to Busslton

 About six months ago my friend Bruce Diggins, who had about two years previously had moved his boat to Port Geogrape Marina near the town of Busselton about 100 nautical miles south of Fremantle, suggested that I also consider moving my boat from her pen in the Fremantle Sailing Club to Port Geographe Marina. 

 My first reaction was to politely laugh off the idea, but the more I thought about it the more attractive the idea became.  Moving the boat to PGM would allow me the experience of life on a floating pen and put me on the edge of the wonderful cruising ground that is Geographe Bay, and a change of scene would do me good.

 It did not take me long to formulate then execute a plan, which is a one-year experiment during which I will retain my membership of FSC as well as ownership of pen D81.  

 I started off by making contact with Karen, the manager of PGM, and her assistant Kerry who after a process of  examination of my documentation on Pachuca's LOA (length), beam and draft, the state of her gas and electrical systems, insurance cover, registration, etc offered me a choice of three 12-meter pens on their D jetty.

 In parallel with this I made contact with Nicole at the FSC Harbour Office who was enormously helpful  in bringing me up to speed in all aspects of how to go about leasing my pen.  One useful item was  the price that the club charges for the leasing of club-owned pens, which provided me with a basis of formulating my asking price.  Another item was the fact that there were no 12-meter pens available for leasing.

 On 7 March I prepaid the full amount for a one-year lease of pen D59 at PGM, and a few days late I authorised the advertisement of my at the FSC website.

 Working with old friends and fellow sailors Peter Austin and Stuart Southern we agreed on the plan to make the passage from FSC to PGM over a three-day period as follows:

Sun 23 Mar: 25 nautical mile leg from FSC to an overnight stay stay on a mooring off             Doddie's beach at Madurah,

Mon 24 Mar: 50 nm passage from Mandurah to an overnight stay on anchor at Bunbury Harbour,

Tue 25 Mar:  25 nm passage from Bunbury to PGM

 We knew when we started that we would be facing three days of southerly winds but we were ready and willing to do a lot of motoring.

 The first day was the worst, with us having to motor from the shipping channel to Mandurah directly into a stiff southerly wind that at one point reached an apparent speed of 22 kts.

The second day was better, where we motored the entire day against a gentle southerly and in the calm waters, particularly during our passage inside of the reef.

The final day was the best day where we were able to sail most of the day against a moderate SE wind and were forced to run the engine for the last two hours due to a failing breeze.

 We had to discuss with the marina the fact that our 12 meter pen was actually only 10 meters long.  After being informed that having a 12 meter boat alongside a 10 meter side jetty conformed to an Australian standard and another issue that was left unresolved, Brenda my partner and her son Stephen took us back to Perth.

 By the time of my meeting with the prospective lessee of my pen at FSC at 10am yesterday (the 21st) the issue with the PGM pen had had been resolved and soon the contract was signed for the lease of my pen with my guarantee that the lessee could have the pen available for at least one calendar year.

According to Google, the road distance from suburb  Darlington to Busselton is 240 km representing a 2.7 hour drive.  This is in contrast to the 47 km, 47 minute drive to Fremantle, so I envision visits to the boat spanning at least 3 days, be it for work/maintenance or sailing.  This will mean getting back to spending more nights on the boat, something that I have done less and less over the last few years.

Here are photos of Pachuca in her new home, courtesy of Peter Austin.

 

Pachuca in pen D59 at Port Geographe Marina