Quick look of the area.
Sound for a three day weekend. Leaving late Friday afternoon Adesso got to stretch her wings across the Salish Sea (Strait of Georga) with 15 to 20 knots blowing from the south east! This put us almost hard on the wind for most of the 20 mile crossing and with full sail she was clocking 9 kt SOG. The plan was to spend a night in the Copeland Islands and then on to Unwin Lake area for a day relaxing! Being a long weekend there were a few boats around the Copeland’s but our favorite anchorage at Unwin was to ourselves. The anchorage we call Buddha Bay is named because a boater has concreted a “Laughing Buddha” statue in the granite wall above. It is in the picture below, see if you can find it! We had a sunny warm day to enjoy this beautiful spot and had our first lake swim of the year to top it off!. The return on Sunday was windless so the engine did all the work. A little excitement was caused by our engine overheating which turned out to be a faulty thermostat. Another part of the steep learning curve of owning a new boat. I”m now learning all about the Yanmar 4JH2-HTE!
This entry was posted in Adventures on May 30, 2013 by tbannister.
The original portlights on the Passport 47 and 40 were cast in Asia and I’m sure if they were well maintained would still be serviceable today. Ours were leaking, especially the fixed lights and the others needed seals, new glass and dogs for them to function properly.
To add to the problem one was warped which would take heat to fix. I decided to just bite the bullet and purchase a new set of stainless portlights from New Found Metals in Port Townsend ,WA. The install required cutting out the old ports, resizing the cutout then installing the new one. I must say with the advent of the Fein tool this job was to too difficult. New Found Metals had excellent videos on the install so with in a couple of days all the lights were replaced. The fixed lights were a different matter, a new stales ring had to be custom manufactured, and I must say Nuno at Ocean Metals in Courtenay did a beautiful job. I chose Makralon for the light material which could be cut by a band saw .
What a difference this has made to the boat. The looks inside and out not only improved but the amount of light that the ports allowed in was many times greater! The stainless reflects light so much more than the old bronze ports.
New Found Metals portlight installed.
This entry was posted in Refiting on May 15, 2013 by tbannister.
Back in Comox our first task is to get to know our new boat and decide what projects are a priority. From the survey we knew we had leaks around the port lights so that was at the top of a list that we were sure was going to grow somewhat. Most of the systems would have to be gone through!. These first few posts are after the fact but I will endeavour to recap all the things we have done to Adesso! While all this is going on our focus is to prepare for a year offshore with Josh, work to save money for that trip, and enjoy cruising here in the Pacific North West. Life will be full! While I was busy putting Adesso together in Anacortes, Sue and Josh finished moving out of our sold house , partially into a rental suite which was our transition land base and the storage unit. Downsizing sounds easy but I can attest to its challenges! Lots of what do we have that for??
So the first job at hand was to take a deep breath and spend a day or two in Henry Bay, an hour sail away to relax after a month of chaos. While we were walking beaches, the list started.
replace port-lights, repair hatches, new dodger (fully enclosed), fix and paint shower, clean everywhere, remove air conditioner, clean up wiring, add solar panel, decide about the teak decks, and ….
So in the end we sailed too our berth in Comox to begin our adventure!
This entry was posted in Refiting on May 14, 2013 by tbannister.
Jean Guy was hoping for a sail back to Canada but alas it was the motor most of the way! After clearing customs and making to trip to the Victoria Airport to pay our tax (ouch), Jean Guy had to return to is wife before she started looking for a new husband!! Rom at Custom Yacht Sales arranged a berth for a couple of days so we could off-load all the spares etc that came with the Passport and load in some of our personal effects so we could cruise!
Whew – a trip to Comox with the van later, we traveled the short trip to Mill Bay from Sidney where we were to spend a couple of days with family and settle in to our new home. We knew Adesso came with a few projects but these first week would be going through the boat to find out “really” what we bought! Our hope was of course that we will not find too many surprises. In the mean time Sues sister Dawn and family are going join us on a day trip to a small beach a couple of hours away, the sails are up!! Yes this boat loves to sail and I can’t wait for more.
Sues response to having the sails up was – fantastic! After a great hike and a couple of hours on the beach it was back to Mill Bay . We have summer sailing plans but needed to be back in Comox to move into our rental house.
This entry was posted in Adventures on May 11, 2013 by tbannister.