From Seattle to San Diego by Sea

I flew from Victoria to SeaTac on Saturday, Sept 19th and boarded Furthur on Lake Union. Furthur is a Selene 48 Ocean Trawler, powered by a 330hp Cummins diesel. Skipper Brian Calvert, a fellow skipper in the Seattle Singles Yacht Club, plans to circumnavigate the Pacific Ocean. The first step is to move Furthur to San Diego & so I signed on. We slipped our lines at 1945 & made for the locks in Ballard.

The 10 knot westerlies in the Strait of Juan de Fuca had built to 25 knots out of the NW, so we ducked into Port Hudson for the night. Leaving the next morning at 0530
we enjoyed this view of the spires of Cape Flattery at 1700.

We ran nonstop to Bodega Bay, north of San Francisco.

We are traveling in tandem with Big Chill, a Selene 43, that will end up in Alabama.

Derek gets ready to photograph a pod of feeding California blue whales.

Here you see these baleen whales feeding on krill.

As I key this in, we are in Santa Cruz, California, having arrived here at 2100 last night. We are docked at the Santa Cruz Yacht Club. We are currently 310 nm from San Diego & will likely stop in Santa Barbara along the way.

After two days of coastal fog, the day is clear. A good day to be on the water!

Repairs Continue...

On Friday, Sept 4th, I returned to Seattle for the week after Labor Day. Back in Nanaimo on the 15th, the work had progressed.

The hull exterior & keel trunk were being ground down to the new layups on the inside.

This is the "T" beam rewelded in place after gyping in the front portion of timber.

The keel bolt holes have been redrilled through the multiple layers of new glass, amounting to 7/8".

I left Nanaimo on Friday, Sept 19th, to travel from Seattle to San Diego on an ocean trawler, but that is another blog.

In my absence Extreme Fiberglass Solutions will gype & glass in the new bulkhead/stringers, smooth out & gelcoat the interior. When I return to Nanaimo on Oct 1st, we should be close to returning to the marina to reintroduce Whisper to her keel.

YAHOO! The Layups Begin

After extensive grinding on previous days, today the laying up of layers of various kinds of fiberglass began.
This image shows the first build up of many layers. Initially, several layers were laminated to fill the hole in the forward port side of the keel trunk followed by 5 more layers.

This will be faired out & followed with more and wider layers. The outside of the hull will then be ground down to this new construction to remove all of the damaged layers from the outside.

Stay tuned after the holiday weekend for the ongoing saga...

A Busy Day--A Lot Got Done

As you can see, a lot of grinding happened today including the removal of two more bulkheads.

This image was taken from the back of the cabin looking forward.

This view is actually from the bow looking back and is two images stitched together.

Tomorrow grinding will begin on the starboard outside of the keel trunk.