Haulout in Nanaimo 2022 -- bookended by great sailing

Nearing completion...

 

We booked a haulout at Stone's Boatyard in Nanaimo for 8am on April 5th. (Why Nanaimo? Well, we had an excellent experience at Stone's in 2013, so we thought we'd give it a try. Booking and getting marine work done in Vancouver has its issues.... As it turned out, so does Nanaimo.)

Big winds were forecast for Georgia Strait for April 3rd and 4th, so we headed across on April 2nd. We had a wonderful sail over to Silva Bay on Gabriola Island. A beam reach with mostly 10-15 kn winds, comfortable sailing with both mainsail and genoa. No distress; all fun.

The next day, April 3rd, winds were pinning us against the dock at Silva, and we wondered if we could get off the dock; but slack times for the passes were awkward if we didn't leave early. Seas were up on the outside (north side of Gabriola) as were winds. So we were not sure whether the outside might be a little to unpleasant. As luck would have it, a sailboat we knew left in the morning; we called SV Hannibal on the VHF, and Oliver indicated it wasn't so bad on the outside. So we decided to give it a try... if we could get off the dock, which we managed successfully (on our second try...). Out in the straits, we found rolly seas but 15-20 kn SE winds. A reasonably comfortable downwind sail under genoa to Entrance Island, where the wind and seas decreased, and we motored in to Nanaimo and caught a mooring buoy at Newcastle Island (which was nearly empty).

Two nights at Newcastle Island, we had little chance (or wish) to go ashore due to a constant sequence of gusty cold winds, sun, heavy rain, seeming to repeat every 30-60 minutes. And it was cold: fresh snow was low on the hills around Nanaimo. Our Espar hydronic heater was much used!

Tuesday April 5th, we arrived at 7:55am at Stone's, and they were ready and waiting to haul us out. Haulout went smoothly, and Pelagia was pressure washed before being put in the stands by about 930am. We then waited for work to begin (we had decided to hire Stone's for painting, wash & polishing, and some minor mechanical).  By 3pm, nothing significant had begun. So, we went off and checked in to our motel room at the Buccaneer Inn (highly recommended), just down the road. 

We were happy with the 2018 application of Micron CSC bottom pain. After 4 years, the bottom primarily had only a thin algae coating, and the bottom paint still looked pretty good after pressure washing (except for mussels under the keel, and worn pain at the bow, along the waterline, and the trailing edge of the rudder).

 

Lifting out of the water at Stone's

 

Pressure washing Pelagia: the 4-yr-old bottom paint was in pretty good shape!

Work finally began in earnest on Wednesday 6th -- better late than never: Two coats of Micron CSC anti-fouling (we were surprised by it being black --we never asked for this colour change -- but decided we liked it), stuffing box repacking, a new throttle cable, and another try at the small leak in the hydraulic steering.

We were pleasantly surprised by friends Gillian and David from SV Carousel, who offered to drive up to Nanaimo for us to get together. We had an nice dinner together at a nearby Greek restaurant. Thanks G & D for entertaining us!

We had hoped to "splash" back in to the water on Thursday 7th. But this was not to be. The second coat of antifouling, which we expected to be applied on Wednesday, was done Thursday. The stands were moved and a 1st coat on the new bare spots were finally applied late Thursday.  Waxing and polishing didn't start until late Thursday (4 pm'ish). It was not finished that night. 

We also did some work ourselves: the topsides were waxed/polished; the pilot house non-glass windows polished to remove yellowing and some scratches (Novus7100 Plastic Polish Kit); windshield wiper motor connections repaired; several new zincs added.

Friday April 8th: We were worried we would not make the ~12-1 pm tide window (it is very shallow at the haulout): waxing/polishing still had to be finished, plus the 2nd coat on the stand patches needed to be done. Management further encouraged the waxer/polisher to rush the job (which he did, with some patches missed and lots of splatter).  By noon'ish, we were essentially ready to splash. Once in the water, the mechanic came to adjust the stuffing box after some "burn in" time.* We got away with only about 0.5 metre extra depth to spare, and headed back to Newcastle Island to the same buoy to decompress -- a day longer on the hard than should have been needed. But we celebrated it being finished.

Heading back in to the water... better late than never

 

Saturday April 9th: The forecast for the Strait of Georgia was suggesting 15-25 kn NW winds. We decided to give it a try. Just before Entrance Island, we found winds of 10-15 kn, so we rolled out the genoa. We ended up have an excellent fast downwind sail (genoa only) all the way to Stanley Park, at times a little rambunctious with winds 20-25 kn (gusting to 30 closer to Vancouver). But again, no distress and mostly fun (except for trying to get into our berth at VRC with a 15-kn crosswind).

Downwind sailing to Vancouver (visible in the distance)

Our new position tracker at: https://followingsea.net/track/PELAGIA (only the endpoints with dates are accurate!)

Conclusions: it was a long way to/from Nanaimo, to find boatyards there now have some of the staffing/timing issues found in Vancouver. BUT: the work got done. And the sailing was excellent. Not so sure about the next haulout location... we'll see. [Update: NO, we will not return!]

 

Update: One week since splashing and sailing back, the hydraulic leak is almost stopped... perhaps only 1-2 drops since splashing.

* It turned out that the Nanaimo mechanic put in packing that was too large: 1/4" instead of the required 3/16". This caused much problem, stuffing box over heating, constant adjusting, until we had it re-packed while in Sointula.  Later, in September, Nanaimo boatyard (Stones) apologized and refunded 2 hours of labour.