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Michael steering Pelican |
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Michael steering Pelican |
Port Townsend is always an interesting place. So we weren't surprised at all to find that the Saturday we had scheduled our survey of Pelican for was also the Kinetic Skulpture Race trials. People dressed in interesting costumes were running all over town, pedaling human-powered vehicles on land and sea. So we were a bit surprised when they gathered around Pelican at the travel lift to watch her haul out. But, it turns out that was where they were holding their sea trials and they weren't really there to watch us. [More survey photos are here.]
Our surveyor, Lynne Reister was unable to find any major problems with Pelican and was quite impressed with how well her hull was holding up after 35 years afloat. We followed the survey with a brisk sea trial in Port Townsend bay. In 20 knots of wind, with her main and jib up, we flew around the bay at 7 knots in the October sunshine. Needless to say, we had a blast.
Later, we handed the owners our cash, signed the bill of sale and Pelican was ours. After having lived in an apartment for the past several months, it was wonderful to sleep on board again that night.
We decided to haul Pelican in the Everett boatyard first thing, since she really needed more bottom paint as soon as possible. We would also be able to dry her out a bit, repair the few blisters she had, and check over all the other areas more convenient to see in the boatyard than in the water.
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Sara on the bow, setting the genoa |
Several weeks after the survey, we had some friends drop us off in Port Townsend on a Friday night. Saturday we would sail her down and across Puget Sound to Everett. All during the night we heard rain pouring on Pelican's decks and were not exactly looking forward to a long, cold, rainy sail. Living in the Northwest though, we were kind of used to it.
The next morning, we were pleased to find only a light mist outside. So, we bundled up, started Pelican's old Volvo diesel, and puttered away from Port Townsend. We raised her main and genoa in the light morning wind, and found we could turn off her engine right away as we glided away from town.
For the next six hours, we sailed peacefully under a steely sky, with a gentle breeze of 5-10 knots pulling us along past Whidbey Island at 5-6 knots. We barely had to grip the wheel, as Pelican kept herself right on track. Almost November, we had little company on the sound other than many birds and a few porpoises, and that was just fine with us. Despite the cold, we had huge grins on our faces as our old boat joyfully showed us that she still loved to sail. We were amazed with how well she moved through the water in the light air, noting that we would surely have motored the entire distance had we been on our heavy Hans Christian, Jenny P. On Pelican, we spent the entire day under sail, starboard tack, breathing in the crisp clean fall air.
The wind died completely just as we entered Port Gardner near Everett. With her trusty rusty Volvo rumbling, we motored past Everett's ominous Navy ships, watched closely by a small security boat, and tied up at the guest dock.
Monday morning, Pelican was resting on her boat stands at the Port of Everett yard, ready for her Autumn facelift.