Sailing again on a Catalina 30

With the CarolMaire in harbor for refitting a new toilet, I went over to meet Ray for the day and plan on Barkley Sound trip.  Last weekend was also the opening of the Island Cafe, so we had lunch there and picked up a couple of their famous drinks called the "island vice."

After lunch at the cafe we walked the docks along McCuddy's Marina.  We saw a Union 36, and a few Tayana's.   We hooped back into Ray's dinghy and went over to Salpare Bay by way of Tomahawk Bay.  As we came into Tomahawk, I saw our Vice Commodore on his Catalina 30 called Baltic Wanderer.  We stopped and asked Mark what a was going on.

Mark said he'd lost his crew due to an accident on I5.  Of course Ray and I volunteered as crew and we had a great day out on the water.

Me as crew

Mark at the helm of his Catalina 30.

Hans Christian 38 MKII Plans

Not too long ago I was reading about all the designers of yachts from the 1970's and early 1980's.  Naval architects like Ted Brewster, Harwood Ives, Carl Alberg, Lyle Hess, William Gardener, the list goes on.  I thought, wouldn't it be nice to have the original set of plans for the CarolMarie?

At first I e-mailed theManaging Director at  Pantawee Marine Co, Jack Hall who now are the owners of the Hans Christian brand.  I asked if he would be willing to sell a copy of the MKII design to me.  He said, "most of our old HC drawings and files into storage in my home already but I will look tomorrow (Sunday) and see what we might have been able to salvage from years ago and will get back to you."

Unfortunately, he must have never found anything as I never heard from him afterward.

I then did some digging on the old internet and found an email address to the design Harwood Ives.  On a whim I tried it, and yes he was still around and was happy to sell me a set of drawings.  With a simple pay-pal transfer who'd have thought that four days later I had a set of the drawings in my hands.

Original Drawings from Harwood Ives

My additions to the set

From there I went down to the local copy store and purchase some of the same paper.   From there I added sheets into the set which include details of modifications that the previous owners had made, as well as my own.   I took the cover sheet and added our boat's name to it.

Title Page for the set

When a shipwright stopped by to consult on some work he was doing he noticed the drawings and was very impressed that we'd still have a set of the 30 yr old drawings with details on all the modifications.  He said it certain made his job much easier.

Little Boat Projects

Recently I have been spending my evenings doing little boat projects as we wait for the next cruise.

The first project came to me from Mike on S/V Faith Rider, in our marina.  It was such a great idea I had to make one myself.   Basically, there are a few dinghy boxes around and they all act as seats, for the back of the dinghy.  Mike told me about one for sale over at Sexton's which I snatched up for a cool $60.  I bought a couple of screws and a stainless steel hinge too for $12.00.  Then I picked up a $29.99 cooler seat in the clearance bin.

The dinghy box had it's lid replaced by the previous owner with an old cutting board.  We bought a new one and cut it to size.  Then mounted the hinge and the new lid to the box.  Then velcro'ed the seat on top.   The result is seen in the photo's below.

Dinghy box opened up

Dinghy box closed.

So for $102 I got a perfect box to fit my needs.  When I last looked WM was charging over 200 for just the box.

The next project was adding gimbaled cup holders for the crew, under the dodger.  easy enough and they will be fun to use later in the year.

The final one was test fitting our toilet into the V area on the boat.

Room behind the Toilet where the old seat was.

Toilet near position, needs to be back a little further.

So the toilet is ready to be installed.  We will meet with Garry soon to do the installation.  It's going to be looking good for the next cruise later in the month of April.

Cruising to Government Island East Dock

On Friday night Charing got a call from Alicia and Ray from S/V Rowena.  They asked did we want to join them on an overnight cruise to the island.  "What island?" I asked. "Government Island, they said, and Charing said yes let's go do it.  Well that was Friday night at 8:00am, and by 10:00am Saturday we had the bags packed and we were out the door.

We stopped by Columbia Marine Exchange to find charts for Barkley Sound.  Kim commented that Alicia had just been in and picked up the only charts she had in the area.  We got to the boat and loaded her with ice, and dropped off the bags on the boat.

We left the docks about 1:45pm and started moving up river to Government Island.  We motored up toward the 205 bridge.  Charing went up to the foredeck and snapped a few photos of the boats sailing back and forth across the river.

Charing on the foredeck 

From the deck of the CarolMarie looking toward Mt Hood.

As we neared the 205 bridge Charing took the wheel and piloted us through the passage.  S/V Rowena called and they were behind us.  As we passed the West Dock on Government Island we saw it crowded, and full of boats.  Looking towards the East Dock there was only two boats at the dock.

We radioed back to Rowena to tell them to meet us at the east dock.  They were happy to have less people there.  As we approached the dock, I let Charing off on the outside dock.  She ran over to recruit help from fellow boaters who were there already.  I motored the boat through a circle to come into the inside and we tied up.  Charing and I got the dinner ready.  Charing had prepared carne asada, with all the fixings for the grill.

About an hour later Rowena pulled in, and we helped them dock.  We helped them tie off.  In return Ray and Alicia broke out the cocktails.  We moved the table down toward their boat mounting the stern rail grill on the leg of the table.  Both boats' had a great dinner watching the sunset.

As the chill of the night moved in, we moved aboard Rowena to keep warm.  Charing and Alicia began planning a trip to Barkley Sound while Ray and I shared stories over a couple of glasses of Conomara.  For desert I found a Whiskey and Chocolate Pairing plater at Bale's Thrift-way.  The platter was excellent in the pairing with the single malt Irish Whiskey.  As it turned out Ray and I both were guitar players; Ray even broke out his axe to play around with.

We turned in about 10:00pm, and I slept well through the night.  We woke up to a chilly Sunday morning not getting out of bed until 8:45am to meet on Rowena for breakfast. By the time Charing and I got there Alicia had laid out eggs, sausage and hash browns, and pancakes when we went through the door to her galley.  Rowena was warm and cozy in comparison to the CarolMarie.  After breakfast both boats left to return to our respective home ports.  

Terry at the helm on the return to Salpare Bay.

We returned to the docks at Salpare Bay in no time.  The current was fast moving, which totally helped push us home. It was a great weekend, we were off the boat before 2:00pm.