The continuing adventures of Karina C

Winter Cruise 2009
Feb.24/09 2100
We left home at 1700 with the truck loaded so heavy, it looked like we were going away for 10 years. We arrived at the marina and proceeded to return Karina to fighting form. We took off some of the maintenance tools and left them in the truck.

Supper was basa with salad. Anita makes salads delicious! After supper we checked into the emergency net at 1900. After that Anita ( in the spirit of anti-bullying day tomorrow) let me win at crib. To bed at 2130. Tomorrow is forecast for SE winds so we may stay put and just get Karina ready for sea. There are the omnipresent repairs to be made, so we can spend a productive day at dock.
Feb.25/09
Disaster struck this evening as the snow started to fly on the docks. We immediately fled the boat for the hot tub at home. There we stayed until....
Feb.28/09
I managed to pry Anita’s fingers from her easy chair by the fire. We left home at 0900 after checking in on the CVARS net. We had the boat loaded and ready for sea at 1030 when we left. We had little to no wind all the way to Maple Bay. I looked in on Roselle A while Anita whipped up supper. Roselle would be glad to host us for supper tomorrow night and we accepted. After a delicious supper and 2 games of crib where Anita was left in the stinkhole - twice, we got ready for bed. I crawled into my bunk and turned on the bunk light which looked a little weak. So I asked Anita to check the voltage. Bank 1 (house) was deader than a doornail! I worried about it and fretted (as I often do) and decided to fire up the motor on bank 2, charge the house system for a half an hour and then take both of them off-line for the evening and see who had the least voltage in the morning. If it is just one battery that is the offender, we can limp into Victoria with just the one house battery. We will then replace both in that bank as they are probably both on their way out. I’ll leave the bank 2 as is as it doesn’t seem to be acting up right now.
Mar.1/09
This morning both batteries were pretty bad. Just connecting the best of the house system brought the voltage to 9 volts. So both batteries are pretty well toast. We started on bank 2 and motored over to the dock. I figured at least I could pink them up for a while. After considerable humming and hawing, we decided we will make a fast trip back to Nanaimo in Roselle’s car tomorrow morning, have a shower at home, buy 2 new batteries and be back at the boat before lunch.
We rode off to Genoa Bay and back this afternoon. We had cloudy skies, but the weather was 10C so it wasn’t too bad out there. We got back around 1400 and had a late lunch and then Anita is going to make some supper for a potluck at Roselle’s. This afternoon I will wrestle the batteries out of Bank 1 and get them to the cockpit ready for transport to Nanaimo and their well earned rest. I will carefully measure the battery compartment and see if we can’t fit a couple of 6 volt batteries in there.
In the afternoon, Anita chopped veggies for the salad while I slept up in the v berth. Eventually I was forced out to finish the last of the vegetable chopping while Anita was off at the bathroom. At 1630 we presented ourselves over at Roselle’s for a delightful supper. After supper I played a few tunes on the guitar until my finger (middle) that I injured on the steering lock of the truck was giving me a bit of trouble.
We came back to Karina at 2115 and I am typing up the log while Anita has a bedtime snack of cheese and cracker. A wonderful day.
Mar.7/09
The next day we powered up and left Maple Bay around 1200. We motored through Samsun Narrows and, as we got out into the mouth of Cowichan Bay we made sail and had a nice sail in E winds down Saanich Inlet. Eventually we lost our wind about an hour outside of Brentwood Bay, so we motored the rest of the way into Tod Inlet. We stayed in Tod Inlet for a few days while we visited friends in Victoria, toured Beacon Hill park. We saw the first daffodils of the season. Also we saw some of the cherry blossoms, the usual flowers of the season including a early flowering Rhododendron.
We stayed at Tod Inlet for another night. It froze the next night, and we had to wait until 1100 to get out of the inlet. We decided to take a holiday from the holiday as the forecast was for cold weather. We tied up to Brentwood Bay Lodge/Marina with power, wifi, hot tub and pool. A good way to enjoy the cold weather. We spent a pleasant night at the moorage and we are staying warm with the electric heater.
Mar.9/09
We have had a pleasant couple of days here at the Brentwood Bay Marina. This morning we woke to snow on the docks. We sped up to the hot tub after checking into all the HAM nets we could. We tried the Great Northern, but Pat was just a little too hard to reach this morning. We were successful with the CVARS net at 0815 and we heard from the Entrance Island lightkeeper Richard Mann VA7 MJR. It was his first time on the net. We hope he will connect with the Great Northern soon. Maybe we will help in this regard. We then hooked up with Gerry Pement on his wrong button club. That was fun to pick up on the news from Nanaimo.
After the hot tub and lunch we walked into town and bought tomorrow and the next day’s supper of chicken burgers. Yum... I thought I’d never say this .... a break from beef.
This afternoon it is just above 0˚C and I think we will take another night here at the Brentwood Bay Lodge. That will mean we leave on Wednesday morning.
Anita is expanding last night’s beef and broccoli with added vegetables to make a second night. We are looking forward to checking into the NARA net tonight from the hot tub. We will then return to Karina where I will attempt to avenge my skunking at crib this afternoon.
We enjoyed an nice visit from from Gerry (VE7 PGT) and Barbara (VE7 KLU) of the Great Northern Boater’s Net at 3.870 at 0800 PST daily. It is a fun net and Barbara and Pat do a great job of it.
Mar.14/09
We are home now. Tuesday we motored to Maple Bay and had a nice spaghetti supper with Roselle. We hummed and hawed about stopping in Pirate’s Cove, but the ETA for Dodd Narrows was right on the turn of the tide, so we continued on into Nanaimo under sunny skies. It was a wonderful cruise.