Back to P.A.

Growing up in Shellbrook the nearest city was Prince Albert or as everyone called it “P.A.”  As it turned out P.A. was also Marilyn’s hometown.  So it’s more than a little weird for both of us to find ourselves once again in P.A.  Only this time P.A. is Port Angeles on the northern tip of the Olympic Peninsula.

Nothing much happened yesterday.  The storm that beat us up as we crossed from Victoria intensified as it passed over Vancouver Island and caused a lot of damage on the island.  We were still getting the backside of the winds yesterday and it simply wouldn’t have been safe to haul the boat.  We did get moved deeper into the harbour to where we were much more comfortable.  And we got a phone call from our marina to say that our car was about to drop into a sinkhole.  Evidently the storm surge combined with the high tide to undermine the parking lot and four vehicles fell into the resulting hole.  It doesn’t sound like any damage was done, other than to the parking lot.

We were having a leisurely morning because Charlie had told me yesterday that there was no way the haulout would happen before 10:00 boat time.  At about 8:45 Charlie appeared on the dock and I stuck my head out to visit.  “They’ll be ready for you at 8:00” which of course is 9:00 boat time.  So we shifted into high gear and only kept them waiting about 8 minutes.  We’d likely have been there in time but I made a slight navigatory error.   In my defense their breakwater and the location of the basin is pretty confusing.

 

 

 

At one point in the day it looked like we would be blocked indoors.  That would have been a big advantage for the painting that we need done but it would have meant that we could not stay onboard.  With that in mind we got ourselves a hotel room only to soon after discover that we were too long to fit in the space they had planned for us.  So tonight we are in a hotel but tomorrow we will be back onboard. 

We really are too small for this yard.  That’s part of the learning process for us.  I think we’re in a really good yard but a smaller yard would likely cost us less and the result wouldn’t be noticeably different.  They had difficulty this morning getting the slings positioned because our boat is just too small for their lift.  Their slings are so wide that they almost wouldn’t fit between the stabilizers and where the shafts emerge from the hull.  Fortunately we have a really deep keel and that protected the shafts from the sling that otherwise would have pressed against both shafts.  The next time round I think we’ll find a yard where they can pull and block us and then we can put the bottom paint on ourselves.  Its just paint after all.  The Naiad service was a big deal for me – I thought we needed a yard to be able to get that done but it turns out that the guys at Platypus aren’t doing it anyway.  There is a Naiad technician coming tomorrow to do that work and I’m sure he’d be equally happy to work directly for us.