Back in Campbell River

We arrived last night in Campbell River again, some place we had not expected to be again on this trip. We've been moving pretty fast, so not much chance to write or give updates, so I thought I would try to get something out this morning to bring you up to speed.

As Mandy mentioned, we elected to continue down the Inside Passage rather than trying the West Coast as we had previously been inclined. This is partly a function of the limited amount of time we have remaining (it's more necessary to wait for weather windows coming down the exposed West Coast) and partly a distrust of the boat and its systems. We find something new every day it seems that is failing or broken or otherwise compromised. All things considered, until we have everything back in shape, it's best not to be out on the open ocean, and better to stick closer to civilization on the Inside route.

The items of greatest concern are leaks. We are taking on between one and one and a half gallons an hour of saltwater, and we can't figure out why, or from where. As Mandy mentioned, the fiberglass repairs that Shearwater did looked very good, and I talked with the glass guy at length about his process (which he illustrated with pictures at every step) and don't have any qualms about the quality of the work (which I damn well shouldn't, at that cost!) The bottom showed no cracks or compromises at all before we went back in the water.

They also, however, did some work on the hull/keel join, replacing a couple of keel bolt nuts and epoxying the join. You may recall I had slapped a patch into a crack we had found at the leading edge of the join during haul-out this spring--Shearwater ground that all out and fixed it up right, now it's smooth and seamless as if it came out of the factory. However... my shoddy patch job didn't leak. :/

Actually, though, I can't say for sure that theirs does either. We are taking on water from forward and aft of the keel, and from at least one of the keel bolts. It's one that they messed with; but I can't figure out how, if the hull is visibly intact with no cracks, water could be getting in even if they botched the nut job somehow. And even if it were, the forward leak is coming from somewhere above that join (the actual source is hidden beneath the interior liner somewhere; we can't find it and it is very slow at any rate).

The stern leak appears to be the worst but again, there are no hull compromises, and to cursory inspection the rudder and shaft seals appear intact. We have a dripless shaft seal, and no damage was incurred to our knowledge aft of the keel.

I'm nearly at a loss for isolating the source of these things; as long as I can't, I don't feel I can trust the integrity of the boat too much.

I also don't know whether to attribute it to the collision, or to Shearwater. We had no leaks before we went aground, to be sure; afterward, the one big one would have hid everything else. The yard isn't very familiar with sailing vessels, and I am not sure how confident to be of their diagnosis and repair of the keel. I increasingly see the wisdom of the local who said to get a patch job and head to a yard further south. The purely fiberglass work is pristine, but the other stuff has me wondering.

Other minor issues we have come across are: the autopilot clutch tends to pop out of gear now; it seems like we open a compartment or box every day that we discover is still damp; one of our AC electrical circuits is compromised, either with corroded wiring or receptacle; one of our settee cushions absolutely will not dry out; doors and drawers have warped and no long fit properly; the floor veneer is about twenty years older than when we started; and all sorts of miscellaneous ills, mostly to do with personal equipment or clothing.

On the whole, things could be much worse. Our expensive electronic gear is all working flawlessly (aside from the autopilot), the boat is as fast under power and sail as ever and still handles well, and much of the hard-to-access systems such as plumbing and electrical were spared or seem to be fine.

Now we're just hoping this storm system sitting on top of us will blow out so we can keep moving south. I am not sure if I have given up yet or not on treating this as a separate vacation; it seems like it is still too constrained by the implosion of the last segment to really be something new. It seems as if every time we turn a corner where we could do something new or fun, we find something else broken or breaking that keeps us from doing it, or the weather pinning us down as now. The weather is part and parcel of sailing and I could be okay with that. But everything else seems like a guillotine hanging over our heads with an unknown drop date (the transmission lever, the thing that started this whole mess, freshly thru-bolted together with brand new hardware, snapped off in my hand again the instant we pulled out of Shearwater--the bolt sheared through. How is that for an omen?), and our time and resources are limited for dealing with any more failures.

We're hoping for a return to sun and northwest winds by Monday, and that will leave us a week and a half or so to try to enjoy the Gulf Islands and get home.