With Lisa being able to snag a weeks' vacation time that aligned with mine, I really wanted to get this done before hand so, weather permitting, we could spend some early season boat time. Unfortunately, the only window of time that allowed for re-positioning time, co-ordinated car-shuffle, and PYS service, was in the middle of some very busy time at my work...
Getting the boat the boat up to Steveston was straight forward enough, but I hadn't done the river before, so with the help of trawler friends that moor their boats further up river, I planned on making Sand Heads 2 hours prior to flood for optimal transit up-river. That was one SLOW trip! I honestly don't think I could do that as a regular part of my boating. I had been sailing, but having not gone up the channel before, opted to drop sail and motor only. I thought I was making okay time until I looked at my GPS's SOG; given the channel was straight forward and that I had about a 30 degree wind angle, I unfurled my headsail to help the boat speed a little. Once in to Steveston I found (what I thought was) the Customs dock (pre-cleared via NEXUS and spot on for arrival time, I could see no officers on the actually NEXUS dock, so knew things were okay). Lisa and Elsa were waiting to grab lines and help with retrieving the truck down at Point Roberts.
Jeff & crew would be arriving first thing Monday morning, so I planned to stay aboard to meet them. After getting the truck, the girls headed home & I up to Steveston for the night.
Jeff arrived in the morning and we talked through the current state of our boats' electrical systems. I had already given him a priority list as I saw it and after he went over things, we discussed what the course of action would be. In addition to replacing our 2 batteries, there was some basic wiring cleanup to do and a battery (State of Charge) monitor that I wanted installed. I had classes to teach, so left them to do there work; they had another boat moored directly behind me also getting (much more) work done by them so if they didn't complete my work in the one day, they'd complete it the next before moving on to the next boat. Long story short, I'm very happy with what was done, and the way things look.
I had allowed for 2 days back when we scheduled the work, but at that time, forgot about a couple extra commitments I had scheduled. With the boat being at a public dock while getting this work done,I decided I'd be more comfortable being aboard each night, so that meant some late drives out, and early morning drives back, for work. It also meant I wouldn't be able to re-position back to Point Roberts until Thursday at the earliest.
Wednesday night, gale force winds came in as predicted, but there was still a window Thurs. afternoon that showed a dip in the system. After doubling up dock lines Thurs. morning (at 4:30am before heading to work because at 30 kt, the wind still hadn't peaked), I was starting to think I may be postponing the trip back south.
The winds ended up easing as predicted so I set off, still expecting a lumpy trip out Sand Heads and heading south. The long and the short of it was that, besides the occasional current eddy going out the channel where boat speed bogged down, Sand Heads wasn't bad at all. Once I made it to the outside maker and turned south, I added some headsail to help out the iron lung. There were still some big gusts predicted, so I figured it would be prudent to not go full sails as I was single handing it. We still made some really good speed and I got to play around with sheeting angles, car/block placements, etc. for the new 120% we recently added (we'll see how they differ once the main gets added to the airflow).
I actually made better time than anticipated; the biggest problem was that Lisa didn't see me clear past the Customs dock and proceed straight to our slip, and I didn't notice that the text I 'thought' I had sent that told her I'd be doing so, didn't go through. That led her to be sitting over by Customs wondering where I was, and me -over at our slip- wondering where she was. :^)
So it was a bit of a scramble, but with all said and done, I feel better knowing it has all been taken care of and that we're good to go for the season.