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Construction work is proceeding nearly fast enough to get south before the weather at sea turns bad. You can see Heuristcat's sail pack just behind Kiki's new one. We got the major halyards led aft to new clutches in the cockpit (shortly after this picture) Another lovely sunset complements the sound of geese. After our snow disaster cleared the skyline, a view of the Sellwood Bridge is now a feature of our slips.
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When summer's beginning to give up her fight, Kiki glows in the sunset while speedboats race by. We race to get Kiki seaworthy again before the storms of autumn roll over the Pacific coast.
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Our new life raft FINALLY arrived. Here we are checking out the old raft, which inflated just fine. Then we started breaking it down for disposal, on the river bank.
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| Preparations for going back to sea continue. Jerry watches as I practice eye splices on the new lazy jacks. This single-braid dyneema is MUCH easier to splice than our new double-braid halyards. Our kanban board has a remote annex on the land fridge.
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Together, these MPPT DC-DC converters can handle all four solar panels, plus two more when we get around to it. They are LiFePO4 compatible, and can pull power out of even the Portland sky ;-) Smoke is a constant haze these days, but so far - much better than last year, knock on wood.
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Under ideal conditions, these panels claim to produce 700 Watts. In Portland, the most we've seen so far is just over 200 Watts. With carbon fibre framing, the four of them weigh under 20 kg altogether. Electrical upgrades are proceeding day by day, as we try out various AC-DC, DC-AC, and DC-DC converters. Not everything has been a success; one inverter-charger turned on its fans for five minute out of every 20 minutes - whether it needed to or not. User interfaces appear to be frozen sometime in the mid-to-late twentieth century. One of our LiFePO4 batteries is on the way back to the factory; it would hold a charge but not push its fair share of current.
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Repairs and upgrades are in full swing on Kiki. Here's a shot of 6 kiloWatt-hours of batteries, that weigh less than 70 kilos altogether. Getting the old 75 kg AGM out was a full day adventure in ropes, pulleys, winches, and inclined planes.
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With a fully-vaccinated band, we are delighted to get out and perform. This is our most dangerous manoeuver, when the trombones are unleashed within striking range of the audience, with only the French Horns to ameliorate the effect.
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CBS news called this the worst heatwave on record. It interrupted our boatwork as we resorted to cooler locations.
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We got some stitch-repair finished on the Genoa, hoisted and furled. Kiki and Heuristicat rest side by side, enjoying a delightful sunset in a largely-vaccinated Portland.
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Settled in at Waverly, we are starting repairs for our next adventure. Kiki's main is up for inspection, behind Heuristicat's maroon stack-pack and our new neighbour Equanimity. Of all the sails, only the genoa needs much repair - the UV protection's stitching has gotten some wear and tear. (You can see we have un-rigged it from the forestay) Three blocks need replacement, and we're plotting to lead most of the lines at the mast => aft to the dodger.
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Another stressful day in high traffic, and our first ever three bridge lifts. We kept plugging away, and made it safely to our slip in Portland :-) Some days we had too much wind coming up the Columbia, today the wind gentled out as we turned up the Willamette towards rest.
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We motor-sailed up the Columbia river, dodging traffic of widely varying sizes. By the time we got to Kelso/Longview/Rainier, we needed a solid night's sleep and a day's rest.
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