Peterson Cup Cruising Rally

On July 24th we were off again, this time heading to Nanaimo for the start of the Bluewater Cruising Association's Peterson Cup. It's a week of cruising with occasional races, unbothered by rules. Again our Friday start was delayed, but this time we were away at 1300. With wind and current on the nose we decided to stop at Sidney North Saanich Yacht Club around 1800, for a feed of their excellent prime rib.

The tide tables forced an early departure on Saturday, and a run through Active Pass about an hour before slack. We were about a mile from the Straits when a large BC ferry came through following us at twenty knots. The ferries usually pass each other in the middle of the Pass, so I was happy to have gotten through ahead of them.

The first night in Nanaimo was fun, with a tremendous thunder and Lightening storm passing through just before sunset. The winds roared through the anchorage and a Beneteau 265 dragged past us.

They stopped for a while after riding beam-on up another boat's anchor chain. As the winds died a full double rainbow framed the anchorage and after dark they had the fireworks for the bathtub race festival.

We were underway at 0900 for our first crossing of the Strait of Georgia. Windy at first, we all ended up motoring the last hour. At Smugglers Cove we did our first stern-tie. The water was 74F and Dee couldn't wait to hop in.

It's amazing how many boats you can fit into a small cove with stern-ties. We had a pot luck on the beach and slept well after a long day crossing to the mainland.

The rally was a cannibal theme and we had a big cannibal pot luck in Bargain Bay, just south of Pender Harbour.

We crossed over to an anchorage in Little Bull Passage, between Lasqueti and Jededaih Islands. The water was like glass when we woke up the next morning.
After another wind on/wind off race back across the Strait we anchored in Tribune Bay on Hornby Island. I met a couple on Verdia, another Hughes 38, who were departing for Mexico the following day.

With a gale from the SE forecast for the following day we chose to depart early for Nanaimo. At 0510 we motored out of the anchorage. The winds slowly built but started to roar just as we neared Departure Bay. Since showers and laundry were needed we spent the night at Nanaimo Yacht Club.

It's a bit unnerving to have seaplanes land in the narrow channel beside you.

We had relatives due in on Friday night so we motored at 6.5 knots all day Friday, arriving back at SNSYC around 7:30 pm. Kiskadee returned to CFSA on Saturday afternoon with family getting a five-hour cruise down the coast.

Albert Head

On July 4th we sailed across Royal Roads to Albert Head. We'd been there a couple weeks earlier for CFSA's big Summer Sailstice Party, but this time wanted to spend the night. Being a DND facility CFSA members can use the small dock, but we wanted the peace and quiet of anchoring.

It was warm, sunny and quiet, except for the odd salmon breaking surface while chasing a meal. Dee had a nap on the foredeck and I snoozed in the cockpit.

The next morning, with very light winds, Dee motored us back towards Esquimalt. She had to work on Sunday afternoon so this was a mini-cruise.

Weekend at Portland Island

Less than two weeks after Poet's Cove we were off again, this time to Portland Island. Dee was stuck at work so our 0900 departure was pushed to 1500. By this time the wind was up to +20 knots and the current had turned against us... And against the wind. Damn we got hammered. At one point, while Dee was sitting in the cockpit and I was on the helm, she looked above my shoulder and saw our dinghy 40' back and surfing down a wave. She just closed her eyes and hung on. With wind vs current the waves get steep and close together. Kiskadee was hobby-horsing for about three hours until we'd turned the corner and started north towards Sidney Channel. With a salt encrusted boat, we called it quits about an hour before dark and grabbed a mooring ball at the Sidney Spit Marine Park.
We motored north and arrived at Royal Cove about 0900 on Saturday morning and rafted up with Dick and Francine's Bayliner 32.
The entire Portland Island is the Princess Margaret Marine Park. We hiked across the island and back, then went exploring in the dinghy.

May Cruising

Less than a week after launching we were off to Poet's Cove, on South Pender Island, for a weekend rendezvous with the Bluewater Cruising Association. This was a pirate theme weekend and eye patches were everywhere.

Here's Kiskadee at anchor off of Poet's Cove. At $50 per night we decided to anchor, along with about 40 other boats.



Dee and I went for a hike ashore and found a trail that led out around the point. It gave us a nice view across Boundary Pass to the American side.

Haul out in April 09

I'm still tardy with my posts, but this one takes us through spring. We hauled Kiskadee on April 28th for a bottom job and new engine cooling intake. While out I decided to repaint her boot stripes. I'd liked to have painted her topsides, but I still don't have the guts nor experience.














Here she is on May 7th, all shiney and ready for launch on the 12th. That blue paint spill under her bow is about $30 worth of Micron CSC.

The engine cooling intake has been upgraded from 1/2" to 7/8", with a scoop strainer aimed forward to catch more water. Yes, it can aim aft on a sailboat but I wanted to ease the load on the Atomic 4's water pump. (Note:) After four months and over 400 miles it's cooling better than ever and hasn't sucked in any crap.)

Winter sailing

November and December were good sailing months, until a week or so before Christmas when the weather changed. Kiskadee enjoyed some winter club racing, even pulling of one win in our Division. Here we're alongside Kiskadee's sister Hughes 38, Canada Goose with a reef in her main. It's great fun to race side by side against the same hull.














Our last sail of the year was as Race Committee with Paul Ulibarri aboard to run the race. We learned a lot from one of the world's best.

By Christmas we were well blanketed with snow and I'd had to shovel Kiskadee off a couple times. These pictures were taken after each of the first two small snow storms.

Two days after taking the last pic it dumped almost another foot of snow onto Kiskadee. WIth rain in the forecast I quickly shoveled it all off, hauled the dinghy aboard and stowed it upside down on the foredeck. It was full of melted snow water, but did not freeze due to the +9C harbour temperature.














We still haven't had our New Years sail, but soon I hope...

Running like new... Finally!

More then a year after Nova Automotive completed rebuilding Kiskadee's Atomic 4 she is running like a new engine. (I'm still kicking myself in the ass for destroying my Robert Hess rebuilt engine after only 50 hours. An intake full of eal grass and no engine alarms was a bad thing.) Nova Automotive is an excellent machine shop, but they farmed my Atomic 4 out to another shop for assembly. Apparently a rookie Apprentice was having a bad week.

< This photo shows the Hess Marine short-block, when I opened the crate in Spring 2006. The subesquent rebuild by Nova Automotive wasn't even close to this quality.

When hot the engine would leak coolant from around the head bolts. I didn't know if this was a lack of sealant on the stud threads or a split/cracked head gasket. I hauled off the head and again was surprised that the head and block were coated in RTV on assembly. The piston tops, valves and combustion chamber were thick with carbon. True, she had run for many hours with the idle screw tightened fully in (thank you Nova Automotive) but this was thick for 100 hours of operation.

A quick check revealed that the valves had not bee set when assembled. They were supposed to be 0.010" intake and 0.012" exhaust. All were set from 0.030 to 0.042"... Duh. No wonder the engine was running so poorly. Well at least the Apprentice had not set them too tight or the seats would have been burnt. I cleaned away all of the carbon then middled the pistons and poured in a 1/2" of diesel fuel to soak in overnight. In the morning most of it has soaked past the rings, to loosen up any carbon that may have been starting to gum them up. I set the valves and reinstalled the head with the studs properly sealed.

After installing the clean carb she started right up. After warmup I put her in gear at half throttle and tweaked the timing. Then at idle I tweaked the carb until she was ticking over at a slow and smooth idle. After idling for 20 minutes it was time for a beer.

She has since been working like new for a couple weeks. After about 18 months I think I have finally solved most of what Nova did wrong. I finally have confidence in my Atomic 4 and again believe that it is the best little engine around.

Now she's all ready for winter racing and cruising. In fact last Sunday she raced for the first time since moving west. Kiskadee won Div 3 by 5 seconds. Yahoo!