Bottom Scrubbing

Vancouver Excursion

Mon Jul 25th

Gambier Island from the ferry

This last week has flown by with an afternoon excursion to Vancouver, an early evening cleaning of Mandala for the Gibsons Regatta at the weekend and two days of exhausting but exhilarating racing.

That look of concentration
Tuesday I popped over to Vancouver on the lunchtime ferry to pick up a canoe.  It's been on the list for awhile and suddenly a good deal arose, too good to miss.  

I stopped off in Kitsilano to drop something off for Nick and Lizzie and had two lovely hours with young Seb who was on great form and even decided to read me a bedtime story! Holding the book on his own and happily chortling away in between the cutest of smiles!

He is a delight and at the weekend completed his first BCMC hill climb (strapped to Lizzie) in a pretty commendable 40 mins (3.46km and 800m elevation). The boy did good.  His mum is pretty awesome too!  I'm not sure I'd complete it in the estimated 1.5hrs let alone with  a baby 'backpack'.... or better described by Lizzie as her "13lb toaster oven" strapped to her front!

The ferries back were packed due to only having one boat on the route on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  I arrived in time for the 19.05 (which sailed half an hour late without me) and managed to get on the 21.25 at 22.00.  My usual solution with a long ferry wait, is to head to the pub on the waterfront at Horseshoe Bay and get something to eat and drink.  After ordering a pint they advised that the kitchen had closed.  Hey ho!   A long day.

The BC Ferries board announced the departure of their CEO this week and the search is on for somebody to sort out the challenges they face.

A sparkling Mandala - well cleaner at least
Thursday evening we gave Mandala, a 38' Catalina, a thorough clean ahead of the Gibsons Regatta.  After a
topside wash and scrub in the marina, we took her out in to West Howe Sound and anchored her off-shore so that Mike, the owner, attired in wet-suit and snorkelling gear, could clean the underside of the hull with a stiff broom, while I finished scrubbing the decks. 

Having removed a few hundred pounds of spare anchor chain the boat rose about 2" in the water in the bow and clear of the algae growth that covered the bottom, we were race-fit for the weekend.

Every boat needs at least 30m of chain to hold the anchor on the bottom plus an anchor rope between 3 - 7 times the depth of water you want to anchor in.  West Howe Sound is deep and though only 100m off the shore we were in between 30-50m of water.  Even with an extension to the anchor line the anchor pulled and we ended up several hundred metres away from where we dropped it by the time the bottom scrubbing was complete.

The regatta was three races over two days.  Saturday was a long race out into the Salish Sea, around Keats.

Saturday Race Course

Island running along the Bowen Island coastline and back to Gibsons. We actually sailed about nearly 14NM.  Sunday was back to back races within West Howe Sound, each of about 6NM.

Sunday Course

Both days were blue skies with decent wind in the most beautiful of surroundings.  I felt extremely privileged to have the opportunity to take part.  After two days of racing we came a pretty creditable 5th overall in a fleet of 21 boats and 4th in our class.  We were over the moon, having been placed between middle and last (on one occasion) in the Sunday club races.  

It was hard work and by the end of the weekend we were all pretty weary, but exhilarated with the two
Spinnaker 

days and results.  In all three races, I was working the spinnaker with the owner Mike, which can be a handful.  By the end we had become pretty adept at getting it up and down and gybing when course changes or wind shifts dictated it.  

They are nicknamed 'kites' as they as they are flown rather than set, like a foresail or mainsail.  In a gybe, when you remove the spinnaker pole to get the sail to the other side of the boat, the spinnaker has to be flown freely like a kite using the sheets (ropes) attached to the bottom two corners of the sail.

Some of us had spent the last week watching YouTube videos of what can go wrong.  Not happy viewing!  We managed to avoid any disasters!

A reception for the crews at the end of the long race on Saturday gave us a chance to rehydrate in the bar and we managed a few beers ahead of the presentations at the end of racing on Sunday.  

Some action from the regatta below.  Monday will be a day of R&R!


Out in the main channel heading for Bowen Island


Mandala crossing the finish line on Saturday captured by Fred who was on Armours
Beach in Gibsons to see us over.


Mandala taken from another racing boat, Coho

Running down to the final mark before turning for the finish

Heading down abeam Bowen Island




While I was out on the water, Jack spent much of the weekend in it, happily just swimming around.  Or out for coffee with Fred!

Jack does Beachcombers - much admired by staff and customers





 


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