It’s all coming back to me

September 6, 2020 by 4 Comments
Glenn on West Wind II at the start of his
third attempt at completing a solo westabout circumnavigation

Sunday, September 6, 2020 15:30

I’m now five miles off East Sooke park heading back from the American side. The wind is 10-12 knots from the west coming right down the Straits. We have 15 degrees of heel and making 5.5 knots. It’s sunny, cold and very bright. There’s fog against the US shore and I hope it stays over there.
It’s all coming back to me. The vane is steering, I’ve made tea and have been pecking away at my roasted chicken and eating Trevor Hayward’s fabulous rock cakes. I changed into warm clothes for the night.
We got headed and are now heading directly for East Sooke. No panic I’ll tack in a bit. The tide will be changing to an ebb in an hour or so, so that will help us on our way.

Friends gather on the wharf at Royal Victoria Yacht Club to say goodbye

I’ve been fortunate to have such amazing friends who would show up in the middle of a pandemic to say good bye. Thank you, it was greatly appreciated, more than you know.

West Wind II is escorted out of Cadboro Bay by our 26′ Haida Shadow with MaryLou, Claire and Nicola aboard

I’m tired now and tonight will take some doing but the wind looks promising. It’s supposed to lighten up during the night then fill in from behind early Monday morning with 15 + knots.
With lots of tea and warm clothes, I should have no problem. I hope the fog stays in the American side!

There will be a moon around 22:00 hrs which if clear will brighten my spirits. Thanks again to everyone for coming to the dock and sending messages from near and far.

Here’s a link to the story in today’s Times Colonist by Jeff Bell.

NOTE: To see Glenn’s latest position on a map, click on Where is Glenn Now? on the home page.

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Thanks to the many people supporting me

August 30, 2020 by 1 Comment

Sunday, August 30, 2020

It’s a beautiful Sunday morning. A wee bit chilly as fall taps us on the shoulder. I’m back down to Westy this morning to work on a couple of problems that are keeping me from leaving. One is the leaks in the water tanks. Yesterday I managed to take the cabinetry out of the starboard settee to expose the 35 gallon stainless steel tank inside. I had been able to isolate this tank with a valve located in the bilge downstream from the tank and after measuring it for a few days (after topping it up), realized there was not much water leaving the tank and that it stopped altogether with the water level barely down an inch. I interpreted this to mean the water loss was probably at the inspection hatches on the top of the tank. These inspection hatches have rubber “O” rings to help seal them off. Two of the O rings had failed. Although the water loss was not substantial sitting at the dock in calm water,  at sea on a port tack over several days this would have reduced my meagre supply for the next six or eight months enough to become a big problem. Especially considering I rely only on rain water collected from the deck to refill the tanks. The solution was to silicone these lids in place. I will fill the tank up again this morning giving the silicone time to set over night, and see how things go. The port side tank which is also 35 gallons is under the settee and the cabinetry that it resides in will also have to be removed. This is the second thing on the list to do this morning.

with Ron Kolody, my right hand man for all things Ham radio, circa 2013

The first is to test my backup Panasonic Toughbook computer. Yesterday after five nonstop hours of remote diagnostic work, my friend Ron Kolody managed to get the Winlink messaging program to talk to my 802 ICOM ham radio through the Pactor 3 Modem and successfully send a test message. He has been working remotely through the Teamviewer program from his home in Vancouver over the past two weeks to help me with this most important job. All that’s left is to work out the bugs in the back up computer and “technically” I can leave. Ron has been with me in a very significant supportive role, voluntarily,  through all my voyages over the past 12 years. He is responsible for, among many other things, setting up a network of primary and secondary Ham operators around the world who spoke to me every day and relayed messages back to MaryLou. This group played a key role in my rescue in 2008 in the south Atlantic by the Argentinians.  I could never thank Ron enough for all his help over the years. He is a very good example of an amazing group of people from around the world who have, and continue to support me and MaryLou through these voyages. There are literally a small army of people without whose skills and generosity, I would never leave the dock! I am always grateful for their support and can never thank them enough. 

Thank you all.
Glenn and MaryLou            

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On-board communications

August 27, 2020 by 2 Comments

Communication is a very important element of all my voyages. The first voyage in 1997 in our 26 foot Haida Sannu II started with a single-handed leg of 4500 nautical miles to the Marquesas. My only form of communication was a VHF radio with visual range of about 20 nautical miles. I spoke with one ship – the USS Force 6. After several attempts to connect and being buzzed by a helicopter from the Force 6, which I could only just see on the distant horizon, the captain came on the air and kindly relayed a phone message to MaryLou back in Victoria. She was at work and through a land line at her desk she received this surprise message from the captain who reported my position and that all was well. She didn’t hear from me again for four weeks when I arrived in Nuku Hiva when I rowed ashore and used a landline. That experience set the scene for future voyages. I definitely needed a better way to communicate with home if I was going to be away for long periods of time. Ham radio was my choice.

The initial outlay for the radio and installation communication was inexpensive and I could send and receive email through a program known as Winlink to anyone in the world. For my upcoming voyage I am still using ham radio with an upgraded Winlink connection. The upgrade required a password and online reregistration. Although this should have been very simple, it has proved to be beyond my technical skills. My daughter Claire kindly volunteered to come to my rescue. We spent several hours changing passwords and trying to go from one screen to the next and used several “help” options. In the end I called my ham instructor Ron for help. He is one of those people you have on speed dial. He waded in with that keen analytical mind and after many sessions on the phone and me going back and forth to the boat we called upon Loring Kutchins, a fellow ham operator and with his experience the problem is very close to being solved. This small glitch has caused a delay in my planned departure. It’s important for me to feel confident my radio works before I leave.

I motored around to the Oak Bay marina and topped up my fuel tanks yesterday. I will have 45 gallons of diesel on board, 35 in my main tank and two five gallon jerry cans. I also filled up my water tanks the other day and after I noticed my bilge pump coming on every half hour or so and realized I had a leak. This will require me to open up the two settees on either of the main saloon and see what I can find. All this takes time and makes it a little difficult to answer that so often asked question on the wharf “When is departure day Glenn?” My usual reply is, “When I’m ready”. Tomorrow is our 38th wedding anniversary so I won’t be leaving tomorrow!

My 12 dozen eggs arrive Friday, so not till I get those either.  But probably early next week provided there are no more surprises. Stay tuned.

Cheers, Glenn     

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