When we last left Mahalo's kayaks, I wasn't really happy with version one of my new hoists. Luckily we were near Gange's and the wonderful Mouat's hardware/marine/etc store there. I picked up some new bits! For starters I picked up this braided nylon. It's stronger, and matches the kayak colors to some degree. I attached the caribbeaners to the attachment points instead of looping the lines through them. Got a new hook deal instead of the rings. I put some friction tape at the bottom of the snap hook so the line doesn't really shift. Hoists attaching to the seat attachment points. Very clean and can be removed in a flash. Now we can easily stash the hoist under the seat while we are out enjoying the kayaks. But wait, there is more! Now that I have really simplified the hoisting operation, if possible I wanted these same bits to attach the kayak to Mahalo. You see, the most difficult part of the entire process is moving our bodies from Mahalo to the kayak. Mahalo is super steady, and the kayak is like a greased puck on ice! We have found that lashing the kayak to the staple on the swim step as tightly as possible is what makes the process easier. As you see here, I'm able to loop the hoisting line around the staple and simply use the snap hook to secure. Get that butt down in the seat and deploy yourself off for some kayaking fun! The kayaks really add to our boating experience and are great exercise. The novelty of being able to pedal them always delights our visitors.
With the new deployment/retrieval it will be even more fun to use them.
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Last year I didn't have time to put much thought into a nice way to deploy and retrieve our Hobie kayaks. Here's the blog post I did when I first brought them aboard. I have been using the crane, and some nylon straps I had from tying down my previous kayaks to a trailer or car top. The boats are often hoisted at crazy angles, not that it really hurts them, but it looks kinda sloppy. Above is where they live on the deck when not in use and covered up. When we go to use the kayaks, the seat and the pedals/flippers have to be installed. Last year I generally did this on the swim step, with the kayak still attached to the crane. I had the seat/pedals in a closet in the lazarette. The whole process was sort of a pain. Here they are on the table on the flybridge deck. I realized I have a big storage locker under table's seating area that would fit all four pieces nicely. I bought some anti microbial bath mats to keep them from sliding around. And I decided I could do the pedal/seat installed with the kayaks placed like this, now I have lots of working room and a nice surface. Inspired by the three point hoist that came with our tender, I bought some various bits to fashion a hoist for each kayak. First I had to figure out the center of gravity. I measured and tied the lines to the caribbeaners. I had threaded the lines through the same mounting points for the seats, thinking these are very strongly reinforced in the hull. But the caribbeaners are just a little too small for the steel lifting rings I bought, that are large enough for the big hook on the crane.
I put the boats in the water with them, we went paddling/pedaling. I also realized those white lines would get grungy in a hurry. So as I often do, I'll think about this for a few days and come up with a much better version in round two. This has to be one of the prettiest ferries in the world? This summer's cruise is supposed to take us to Desolation Sound and the Broughton's. We are getting kind of a slow start. We began at Roche, then went to Madrona Bay, next to Ganges, on Salt Spring Island. We had some really strong winds there, gusting to 23 knots. When we anchor, we try to be 300-400 feet from the surrounding boats. This of course means the boats that arrive late have room to squeeze in between our boat and the original neighbors. This is the radar overlaid on the chart. Those blobs are boats, and we spent the entire night with them around 175-200 feet away from us, all boats careening around their anchors. Originally the wind was from the South. About dinner time some guy tried to drop his hook literally 50 feet from our swim step. I advised him that the wind was supposed to clock around to the North and that wasn't a good idea. Although we had set our anchor with both engines in reverse, having the wind shift 180 caused some dragging. By morning we were only 30 feet from that shoal behind our boat (the light blue). I had put the fenders out, and was up and down all night watching these other boats. I don't know if I'll get used to having boats so close in stormy conditions. I wanted out of there in the morning. Ideally we would have headed across the Strait of Georgia to begin our Northward trek. But there were high winds/small craft warnings for days to come. The WX reports were for both North and South winds on 12 hour shifts. Most of the harbors provide shelter from one but not the other. We decided on Long Harbor, which meant we could still tender over to Ganges for re-supply etc. Above photo is one of our mornings. If you go to Long Harbor, anchor on the west side. The east side is rocky and we couldn't get the anchor to set. With a lot of time on our hands, we did various boat projects and some other fun ways to pass the time. One of my projects this summer is artisan sourdough breadmaking. Here is my first attempt. Looks great, tasted wonderful, didn't quite get enough rise. Some friends said it was probably the humidity, I needed to let it rise more. Another gorgeous sunset in Long Harbor. One of my projects is a new hoisting method for launching and retrieving our kayaks. Still a work in progress, subject of a later blog post I'm sure. It was GREAT to be out pedaling again. Never tire of floatplanes/seaplanes going by the boat. Well except in Montague where it is non-stop. Roasted veggies, chicken/chorizo dinner. Yesterday we were going to cross the Strait of Georgia but ran into a glitch. As we were contemplating going through Gabriola Pass we had nice company in the form of this Nordlund. I like the lines on this boat! We decided to overnight at North Cove on Thetis Island, which is beautiful. Had time to do a bbq rib dinner. Five spice dry rub, and an Asian sauce, one of my specialties. A stunning sunset for hopefully our last night in the Gulf Islands for a while. Yesterday afternoon this pretty Nordhavn arrived and dropped hook in the middle of the bay. I was up at first light and captured her in fairly stunning light.
All right, it's off to the Sunshine Coast right now! This is a time lapse from this morning, swinging on the anchor. The other boats look much further away than they are - only 200' away. I'm new to the whole 360 thing. Although technically this is a video file, it's more like a still that you can move in any direction. Shot this yesterday afternoon.
[The blog host can't deal with the 360 file, so I uploaded to Youtube, which seems to also have issues after the first time it plays. Try clicking the replay button (circle with arrow) and then hit pause. Now you can click and use the mouse to drag around your view.] These were done with the Garmin VIRB 360 camera. Besides all the fun, I wanted to have a camera I could quickly mount on the bow rail, looking down, and see on my phone while in the cockpit driving station. For docking in close quarters. Always great to be back in B.C., land of beautiful scenery and friendly people. Here's a view of Mt. Baker you don't really get in the US, at least on land anyway. We cleared off the charming little village of Bedwell Harbour. When you are all set like we are, with a federally registered boat and Nexus cards for the captain and passenger(s), it is such a simple process. (Say "process" with a long "o" with me now.) The friendly officer answers the line, asks me for my boat documentation number, which I provide. She says "Is this Robert?" "Yes." "Is Debra aboard?" "Yes." Then asks me if we have any of the banned items to which we reply that we just have a small amount of alcohol on board. "Welcome to Canada, here is your clearance number." I fly the Canadian flag on our burgee strut and we are good to go, eh? Okay, not asking any questions here. Arriving in one of our favorite Gulf Island anchorages, Madrona Bay (which is aside the very busy town/marina of Ganges), we select a spot and anchor perfectly. It's great to be feeling more and more confident about placing the boat exactly where we want to end up. Then there is this scene. It has officially been "weird water week" with numerous boats near us running aground or sinking. When we were about 5-6 miles north of the Hood Canal entrance we heard the CG discussing a sinking 65 foot vessel in the Hood Canal. Evidently this boat is also moored in Bainbridge's Eagle Harbor. Everyone got off okay. About the time we were having dinner they were finally able to tow this one away. Before dinner I was very energized and washed all the salt from the hull, railings, windows, etc. Feels great to be so active again. Just gonna watch those pounds melt off, right? Even Deb got into the act and scrubbed the teak cockpit. We had our cocktails and dinner surrounded by the kind of scenery you can only enjoy as a boater. Tomorrow we will take it a bit easier and do some Sunshine Coast/Desolation planning.
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