Finally, a trip-end update!

Hi all. Cynthia and I have been digging out from under the aftermath of the last 500 nm of our return trip. Columbine is safely tucked away in the marina at the Port of Friday Harbor. It is still pretty weird being able to just step off and have a dock right there - but it is really convenient! We now have a decent internet connection onboard as well.

Here is a brief update on the last part of our trip. As Cynthia's mom posted, we were hit by something pretty big, probably a wave coming in a crosswise direction to the prevailing seas. The seas were generally 20-25 feet, and the wind was about 45 knots. We were both below getting our foul weather gear on in preparation for going forward to douse the one remaining sail, the stays'l, when it hit. Columbine felt as if she were picked up and slammed down onto her port side. She righted almost immediately (she is a very seaworthy vessel) but not before 30-40 gallons of seawater was forced through the closed companionway hatch and directly onto the navigation table. Another deluge came in through the skylights.

Cynthia immediately dashed outside to make sure that the steering was being attended to by the Monitor windvane and to check for damage, while I started pulling our electronics out of the nav table and pumping out all the water that was below.

The end result of the knockdown was probably about $3000 of lost or damaged equipment and a lot of general repair work to be done. Both laptop computers were lost, and some other personal electronics such as my Kindle. Our large solar panel, which had been securely mounted to the backstay, was entirely swept away after its aluminum frame broke. The rear part and the mounts are still up, though. Also almost all of our protective canvas was shredded, such as the weathercloths around the cockpit and the cockpit cover, and everything that had been in the cockpit was washed overboard.

Even weeks later we have been finding water or water damage in places we wouldn't expect, such as behind drawers and in usually hidden spaces. We are also experiencing additional random failures that might be attributable to water damage, such as our built-in DVD player and stereo.

On the plus side, all of our marine electronics survived intact. So we still have VHF and SSB radios, chart plotter, radar, AIS, and GPS. And neither of us suffered even a scratch. So the remaining part of the trip was safe and uneventful, we just couldn't tell anyone!

After reaching Friday Harbor I went back to my previous employer, and they happened to have another engineer leaving that next week. So I was hired back into the position I had left eight years ago when we left for San Diego.

Coming Soon...Near You

From Cynthia's Mom

Cynthia and Glenn opted to stay in Port Angeles a few days to restock and refresh.    Besides looking like castaways...and very skinny...(I've seen them!)  they are doing fine.    I would say that the simple secret to losing weight must be manning a sail boat in stormy weather.  (Hmm.  Can I advertise that on the web and make tons  of money?   oooh maybe not the best choice of words ).   They plan to head to Friday Harbor tomorrow (Tuesday) and assess their access to computers there.    They will restart their blogs as soon as they can get to a computer.  Stay tuned.......