New Boat 4 Sled

[Intermission]

Can't help but wondering if the carburetor replacement is partially due to an overindulgence in Monterey Bay seawater earlier this year...?

Sounds like a cool place to be "stuck" in though.

"Proceed as the Way Opens" sounds pretty good too.

 

[H Spruit]

Agreed!
"Proceed as the Way Opens"
This base philosophy has always worked best for me!
A more aggressive approach has, at times, brought me a margin of success, but the fruits of that success has often been tainted.
I must look at the dunking of the carburetor in Monterey Bay as a result of not properly applying that philosophy.

And when I looked at the picture of the swimming hole, you posted, my first thought was; Why are you in a hurry to leave this place?
<H>

 

[sleddog]

Today was the Texada Island Fly-In and Airshow. "Biggest little airshow in BC." Featured were the Fraser Blues, a team of WW II vintage L-17 Navions flying formations and crossings with smoke trails. On their initial pass, about 100' overhead, colors were presented and the crowd sang Oh, Canada.

It was fun sitting at the same picnic table, eating burgers with the Fraser Blue pilots. And listening to their stories. One of their compatriots, in a P-51 Hawker Sea Fury, had been the only one ever to shoot down a jet with a prop plane (Korean War.)

There were about 60 single engine planes at the Fly-In, many restored or home built. Pilots and families were camped in tents under the wings. Everyone was having a good time. Down the parking lot were antique cars, including a Buick with wood spoke wheels.

Two WW II vets, a Super Stearman bi-plane and a T-28 Trojan, capable of 37,000' and 340 knots, entertained the local crowd with flybys and a hammerhead.

The T-28 had quite a history. After Korea, being sold from the US Military to the French in 1959 where it was used in Algeria and Suez. Then the French sold it to the Moroccans who had it until 1976, when it was sold to the Honduran military.

Dominating the field was the yellow, two engined, De Haviland “Buffalo,” flown by the Royal Canadian Air Force Search and Rescue Team. The Buffalo, built in 1960, is the backbone of Canadian SAR. 50 were built, about 10 still exist, and the Canadian RCAF SAR own six, of which three are flying missions. The 50 year old Buffalo is unpressurized. The crew use oxygen when they go high. They do not use night vision goggles, trusting instead to their eyes adapting to the darkness. The cockpit instruments are mostly analog.

The Buffalo was fully equipped for mountain and offshore search and rescue. They could drop flares, pumps, liferafts, even parachute medic first respnders. I talked with the Buffalo's navigator, a young woman, and came away impressed. It was her job in mountainous terrain to make sure the plane maintained a 1.5 mile turning radius between mountain peaks, even in cloudy conditions. Until recently, there was no GPS chart plotter onboard the Buffalo.

In the Yukon, in Northern Canada, on missions where GPS failure could mean loss of the plane, the navigator explained she takes backup three star celestial fixes with the bubble sextant fixed into the airplane roof.

The afternoon concluded at the Texada Air Show when the Buffalo went to 13,000' and dropped the two SAR Techs. They free fell for about 8,000' before pulling their pink chutes and landed on the grass in front of the appreciative crowd. They wrapped up their chutes. The Buffalo landed to pick up them up. And they were off on their next mission.

Congrats to DORADE, just winning overall the Transpac Race (Los Angeles to Honolulu) 77 years after she won it the first time, in 1936. Quite a wonderful feat for an old woodie. DORADE just nudged her rival, the Lapworth 50 WESTWARD, with three generations of the Bell family aboard that 1962 classic.

 

[Santana20Vixen]

Oh my here is some flash back memories - I got into trouble making the same tool box as a little girl. My Grandpa was proud. My mother, not so much, with the quote "what is wrong with you? - girls don't make tool boxes!" And so has gone my life... but I had fun and loved my Grandpa's for giving me those skills and memories. I'm glad small communities are still doing such great things for kids.

 

[Santana20Vixen]

I concur with Howard! "Proceed as the Way Opens" - I have been humbled many times and have gone back to my version of "In the right way, order, and time - for me and other's".... However, "Proceed as the Way Opens"... seems to resonate with brevity. I can just settle with that for awhile.

And I also concur - Great place to explore the depth and breadth of a place.

~R

 

[BobJ]

Merging the girls-with-toolboxes and air show comments . . .

As the "lights" slowly dim for my Mom (with dementia), one of the things she tells the other residents at Merrill Gardens (over and over) is how her father made sure she had her own tool box by the time she was five. This set the tone for her adult life - as posted earlier in this thread, Mom not only sailed but had her pilot's license and was certified to do aerobatics. As a child, and at her mother's (and grandmother's) insistence, she was also a very accomplished concert pianist and could sew and crochet with precision. Skip's description of the airshow brought back a memory related to all that.

I posted way back in this thread about Ernie Barter and the submarine he gave me. Ernie was a United Airlines pilot and owned a Stinson Reliant, a large, gull-winged tail-dragger with rotary engine. We had our Piper Super Cruiser. So one of things we did when I was a kid was go to the local air shows.

With the big Modesto fly-in coming up, Mom got the grand idea that we should all arrive in matching Hawaiian style shirts, in her favorite color (red) and with airplanes all over them. A trip to several local fabric stores finally yielded the desired material and the project was underway. Ernie and his wife were chums about the whole thing - me and my sisters less so - but arrive we did in our red shirts. There used to be pictures but something happened to them.

 

[BobJ]

Okay, that brought another one to mind (sorry Skip).

When I was in Jr. High they still had shop classes. One year the wood shop teacher built an El Toro but didn't know how to sail, so I helped with the maiden voyage. When the mainsheet came untied we ended up plastered up against one of the CG cutters at Government Island. If you did that today you'd probably get shot, but I digress - the story I wanted to tell was about when my Mom took up knitting.

When Mom started something new she went all-out, and this time it was my Dad who had to be the chum. She knitted him a matching sweater, gloves, and even a beanie hat with a pom-pom - I kid you not - in kind of a light brownish, tannish color. One day around that time I forgot my lunch and Dad brought it to me during shop class. With all of us arranged around our work benches, my Dad walked in wearing the full garb. Remember, these were Jr. High kids - it was mass hysteria.

 

[sleddog]

Thank you all for posting. I love stories and have been collecting them for years. These go into my logbook, which now number 22, 300 pages each. Do not be bashful about writing and posting here. Thank you, Bob, Renee, Capt. Bob, SK, Howard, SleddogSis and everyone!

Congrats to Renee on winning her first ever race on Lake Tahoe on Sunday with the restored Express 27 PHOENIX. Her finishes were 2-1-2. As some of you may know, under a previous owner, PHOENIX dropped from the Brickyard Cove hoist, "totaling" the boat. Renee has been instrumental in her resurrection. Go Girl!

The water under WILDFLOWER at the Texada Boat Club dock is 60 feet deep. Yesterday was a big tide, with over 14' between high and low. Very clear waters with about 20 feet viz and 73 degree temp at 3' depth. I've been sounding the Bay with lead line. Found an apparent abandoned boat near my position. Noted on chart not to anchor in that vicinity.

On a technical note, best guess is the outboard's dunking did not do the carburetor any favors. After $500, the engine shop swore it was good to go last April. The OB did run for a month, 50 hours, and 200 miles before failing. Bad fuel, whether Ethanol or the Nanaimo Fuel dock, are also possible culprits. Fuel in Pacific NW islands is delivered by truck and barge over bumpy roads and seas, and fuel hoses often go underwater..... I'll never know. But carrying a spare “get me home” outboard is now under consideration. It did make me feel better when one of the Fraser Blues couldn't get his airplane engine started yesterday at the Airshow.

Rowing and hiking have been my exercises of choice. Each evening at sunset I row a mile loop in WILDFLOWER's Avon Redcrest inflatable. With the one piece, 6' oars, stout oar locks, and a simple athwartships rope foot brace, I can average 2.9 knots for 20 minutes in the Redcrest inflatable.

It's too bad rowing is in the minority. The boat dinghies built these days are mostly designed for outboard motors. Rowing is an afterthought, and the cheesy aluminum oars and the cheapo oar attachments are a disgrace on dinghies that cost several thousand dollars, or more. I think kids should be taught to row, and the value of a quiet anchorage, as opposed to speeding around in a whining outboard at a high rate of speed, disrupting wildlife. My 2 cents.

 

[Harrier]

Hey Bob. Stinson Reliant (the first plane I ever flew in) has a "radial engine", Not "rotary engine". There's a big difference. Some WWI fighters (esp French) had rotary engines. Prop was fixed to the engine and the whole shebang rotated...plenty of torque for turns in the right direction, that's for sure!

 

[BobJ]

Hi Ken - yep, it's been enough years ago to flub that detail. Here's that radial engine:

 

[Libations Too]

Skip, your commentary on using the Redcrest rekindled some memories. A few years back when in the Channel Islands I used my Redcrest as a tool for anchoring and exploring. I can report that on this same cruise I had the misfortune of meeting the nautical equivalent of the Lone Outdoorsman. (For those who do not remember the Whole Earth Catalog, the Lone Outdoorsman was introduced to the world in a little novella that was printed in the bottom corner of each page of the Catalog. He was a guy who carried a small cannon as a side arm and had a strong dislike for Hippies; he “camped” with an RV fully equipped with generator, TV, dirt bike, etc.)

I met the nautical version of the Lone Outdoorsman one evening while at anchor in Pelican Bay at Santa Cruz Island. He arrived in a power boat with outriggers for stabilizers, diving gear strewn about the deck, and had a dinghy racing around the anchorage even before his anchor had touched bottom. He anchored tight against the cliff wall and about 10 minutes after he had dumped anchor and chain into a pile on the bay floor the breeze shifted and the skipper and crew were scrambling to keep the boat off the cliff face. After buoying their anchor, retreating to open water, sending the dinghy in to fetch the deserted anchor, and regrouping they proceeded to anchor directly upwind from Libations and over my anchors. Dodging the outriggers that gave his boat an effective 50-foot beam, I rowed my little Redcrest over to note my intent to leave about mid morning and advised that I may need to ask that the boat be moved if I couldn't get to my anchors...the response was one of scathing incredulity.

Next morning when I was ready to leave, the Lone Outdoorsman was still on top of my anchors. My solution was to retrieve one of my two bow anchors with my Redcrest and row it to windward to serve as a kedge. When I was in the process of retrieving my second bow anchor the powerboat came to life, raised anchor, and motored away.

 

[sleddog]

WILDFLOWER's position at Sturt Bay, Texada Island, is 49-45.601 N x 124-33.861 W. I doubt this will show up on any Google Earth, as it appears time stands still here, and I've sailed into Middle Earth, a time warp, a black hole, or Alice's Wonderland. Take your pick.

Mostly it is all quite wonderful. The harbor master has a 17 year old pot belly pig, “Binky.” I regularly see more deer on Main St. than cars. As a going away present, the kids on LOUTINA brought me a fossil moon snail found on the local beach. Sydney and Hudson have been the highlight of my stay here. They left this morning to return to their home in Alberta.

Occasionally a splash of reality reminds me where I am. This afternoon it was a 46' Bayliner attempting to tie up. The driver apparently mixed up his twin engine shift and throttle, and nearly pulled his wife off the dock before she let go. I lept onto the Cheoy Lee 32 CATS PAW to defend his bowsprit before quickly deciding discretion was the better part of valor. Somehow, contact was avoided, which was not the case when another out of control boat rammed HERSELF, splintering the freshly varnished mahogany cap rail.

Keith, my mechanic, showed up this morning to fix BLUE NOTE's Yanmar 3GM oil leak. Reminder to traveling Yanmar owners: carry a spare gasket for your fuel/primer pump, as well as gasket material. Yanmar parts can only be bought from a Yanmar dealer. The closest one to Sturt Bay is somewhere south of here. Vancouver, Canada, is eight hours by car, including three ferry rides.

Keith had news for me which I am not sure is good or bad. The good news is the carburetor for my 6 hp, hand start, Tohatsu (Nissan) outboard has been shipped from the Texas parts warehouse. The bad news is, after being ordered 8 days ago, it wasn't shipped until today The good news is it may arrive, possibly Friday.

In a Wonderland moment that left me scratching my head, I asked Keith if my engine part would be subjected to customs clearance. He said “Toshiba parts don't have customs clearance.” It will be interesting to see if I receive a carburetor or hard drive.

At sunset I rowed out through the anchored fleet of a dozen boats. ZULU, an ancient gaffer, was there. Steve and Janet on the Dragonfly 1000 trimaran FLEXIBLE FLYER invited me aboard. I met their crew of two cats, “Thomas,” and the Showshoe “Frankie.” Apparently Frankie gets seasick, and FLYER was running out of kitty litter.

 

[Santana20Vixen]

WOW- What gifts does the universe hold for you? "Proceed as the way opens"
That can be hard when you plan to be elsewhere. So what are you to see that you possibly might not?
Naw - that's all fishy wonky stuff - you are caught in boat part neverland. Sorry Skip. However, just in case it might help, I'll sacrifice a chicken on your behalf to clear the bad boat part distribution spirits.

Be well, keep looking with wonder and "Proceed as the way opens"

Renee

 

[H Spruit]

I must paraphrase Joshua Slokum where he points out that a successful navigator does not go to a planed destination but can only go TOWARD it.
That is how, proceeding as the path opens, worked for him.
I remember that Coach Walsh, and Joe Montana made big success by taking what the competition gave them.
It seems to me that to have success at this philosophy one must be able to identify what is being given!
<H>

 

[sleddog]

An advantage of being holed in a pretty place like Sturt Bay is the fleet comes to you. In yesterday's roll call, a humpback whale was sighted breaching outside the cove, and apparently has been hanging around.

I caught a ride with my mechanic to the other side of Texada (West side), a place I had wanted to see. Shelter Point park is about 8 miles, past the little village of Gillies Bay. Shelter Point is a pretty place with old growth cedar, two white sand beaches, camping sites, and archeology history dating back 7,000 years. My mechanic's step daughter is doing the archeological digging and mapping. She has apparently found significant middens, bones, and evidence of a village on Shelter Point. Not surprising, given its location, and view west onto the Straits of Georgia and Vancouver Island.

I bought Keith lunch at the little burger stand, and enjoyed hearing about his life on Texada. After lunch we visited their modest home in Gillies Bay, and sat on the porch watching hummers. The cat from next door came by and lay at our feet while Keith cut out water pump gaskets for a disabled powerboat.

We drove back to Van Anda and I got dropped off at the credit union to get some cash. The three bank ladies wanted to hear about sailing to New Zealand. When doing business at the credit union, you sit in a comfortable chair. Outside, I was offered a ride back down to the Harbor. The gentleman had a small bird cage with bird seed on the front seat. I asked him about it and he said his friend had spotted an escapee budgee. They had hung the bird cage in the nearby tree and were able to catch the bird when it came in to eat. The parakeet was then taken to Miss Frieda, 95, who takes in rescue birds.

After a shower and dinner of red beans and rice with yoghurt and slices of orange pepper, I rowed up the lagoon. It was a 15.6' high tide and the maze of channels led way back, maybe half a mile, out of sight of any boats. Like rowing through the forest, the high tide lapping the bottom boughs of the cedars and the setting sun highliting their tops. I stopped to listen, and could hear only an invisible stream.

Back outside the lagoon a flying bridge powerboat was anchored. He was all buttoned up, generator echoing off the cliffs, with the crew below watching their big screen TV.

My view across the Malaspina Straits takes in the seven peaks of Marlborough Heights guarding Jervis Inlet and Princess Louisa. Quite spectacular and pointy, with snow capped tops, Marlborough Heights reaches to nearly 6,000'. They are so steep that when you approach their vertical rock walls at one boat length, there is no bottom to be found on the depth sounder.

Howard is correct. When you voyage on a small boat, you voyage "toward," not "to." My friends, Rob and Laurie, at Surge Narrows, 40 miles north, are building a 20 foot catamaran. Their neighbor, Josh and Johanna, are building a 44 foot catamaran. All off the grid of course. See page 13 of my previous post.

I had hoped to see them again this summer. Except at slack water, the currents at narrow Beazley Pass at Surge Narrows run fast with rapids. I won't be approaching without a working motor. Maybe tomorrow the carburetor arrives. And maybe not.

 

[Harrier]

Bob: Of course it is. I'm just a picky aviation historian. The owner of that Stinson sure has a clean engine! The one I flew in (age 6 0r 7) was red. I guess this one is red and white. Considered a "classic", along with a number of neat airplanes from the 30's....so called "sport plane era" to some. Several of such, eg Ryan ST and Stearman bi plane, went on to become trainers in the war. Another classic of the era was the DC-3, in another category, of course...and still flying commercially hither and thither.

As for the "rotary" engine (not the Wankel Mazda car engine),, I have never quite figured out how it came to be. Seems as if it popped up out of no where. Most planes before WWI seem to have had fixed engines driving props either directly or via chains (ala Wright Flyer). Any ideas? I imagine Google would know.....

 

[BobJ]

Yep, Google knew: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_engine They even explain why flying airplanes with rotary engines gave pilots the runs!


Ernie's Stinson Reliant was dark red, which seemed to be a popular color for them - like mustard yellow for Santa Cruz 27's I guess.

Before he met my Mom (in the early 50's) my Dad had a Great Lakes. I thought I'd Google those and low and behold, they just came out with a new model:

http://www.wacoaircraft.com/great-lakes

Only $245,000 before options!

.

 

[Sleddog_sis]

Stopping to see and enjoy

. . . The cat from next door came by and lay at our feet while Keith cut out water pump gaskets . . .

It was a 15.6' high tide and the maze of channels led way back, maybe half a mile, out of sight of any boats. Like rowing through the forest, the high tide lapping the bottom boughs of the cedars and the setting sun highliting their tops. I stopped to listen, and could hear only an invisible stream. . .

Howard is correct. When you voyage on a small boat, you voyage "toward," not "to." My friends, Rob and Laurie, at Surge Narrows, 40 miles north, are building a 20 foot catamaran. Their neighbor, Josh and Johanna, are building a 44 foot catamaran. All off the grid of course. See page 13 of my previous post.

How beautiful Skip!! I'm glad you are really enjoying the people, the rows, the cats and birds. I'm rowing right with ya.
We are home from the mountain lakes and peaks (and cuzzins). Kitties are great, kids are happy on their travels. You take care and keep doing exactly what you are doing. Fingers crossed for engine part arrival and functioning.
L'il Sis

 

[knotbum]

Beautiful planes but an awfully small rudder that was ineffective as the tail settled down on landing (tail dragger). Had a bad habit of rounding up on ya.

mark

 

[sleddog]

7/27/13

With a substantial library aboard, I have yet to complete a book. Too much action, even tied to a dock Yesterday I was diving under the wharfinger's Rawson 30, cleaning the barnacles off his prop and securing a loose collar zinc.

I surfaced to hear a crash and a cry. Pulling myself up on the dock, I doffed my fins, and raced to the adjacent dock. A double-handed Hunter 42, with considerable free board, had come in for a landing and the wife had fallen off the boat, landing on her ribs on the dock railing. She was in considerable pain and shock. After a while she rallied and was able to get below.

The nearest medical facilities are considerable distance, a ferry ride to Powell River.
Rib injuries can be excruciatingly painful. A reminder that docking a boat is often the most dangerous part of sailing.

Today I rose early to hitch to the Texada to Powell River ferry. It's six miles by road to the Blubber Bay landing. Blubber Bay. once a whale flensing site, was apparently where Capt. Cook made first contact with the local Tla' Amin people.

The Texada ferry is a medium sized, car carrying, catamaran. In Malaspina Straits it was blowing 25 and the ferry was rolling. At Powell River we had to heave to, and wait for the Comox ferry to depart.

Once ashore in Powell River, about the size of Sausalito, I hoofed a mile up the hill to the “mall” supermarket for provisions.

Then I set off in search for word of my new carburetor. After some false starts I located Guy's Cycle Works, the local Tohatsu/Suzuki dealer. Catherine at the front desk was most helpful, and confirmed the part had been shipped Tuesday from Texas, Hopefully it will be here early next week. I now have her phone number, and will be able to check status daily.

The ferry ride from Powell River back to Texada is about the same distance as from Sausalito to San Francisco. With unlimited visibility I could see 40 miles, up into my destination, the waters of Desolation Sound. It looked like a fire burning above Lund, at road's (Highway 1) end.

Back at WILDFLOWER the strong NW winds continue and Sturt Bay anchorage has filled with boats seeking shelter. The Coast Guard is broadcasting a Securite' that a log boom under tow has come apart in the vicinty. Apparently many dozen large logs are on the loose. http://texada.org/texada-boat-club/