11 weeks of boat works done in Ladysmith Marina, Vancouver Island
January – March 2017

Week 1 2 – 8 January 2017 Helsingborg – Ladysmith Marina

2-6 January Helsingborg
Last week in Sweden gave us our first cold weather. Even got some snow with the usual difficulties in traffic. The weather during this mild winter has been windy and lots of rain. But we have also had some very nice sunny days in between. One storm giving Helsingborg heavy waves and high water, creating flooding in lower parts on town.

7 January Saturday
Leaving Björns mother at 07.30 by taxi and two hours later by train across the Öresund bridge. We were checked in by British Airways at Copenhagen Airport.18 hours after leaving Helsingborg we were on the ground in Vancouver. Being Saturday there were no late evening ferries to Vancouver Island and because of that we had booked a Hotel.
That turned out to be very lucky, because we became quite delayed on the airport as one of our luggage didn’t arrive! It had not even reached London where we entered the Vancouver flight. Very inconvenient and time consuming. OK we have been lucky so far on our trips to the boat over the years compared to the stories we hear from other frequent flyers. Luckily the hotel shuttle waited outside, although we were late. Less than an hour later we were in bed sleeping after being awake for 24 hours.

8 January Sunday
Due to jet lag we woke up early and had to wait for the hotel breakfast at 06.30 and then a shower. Took a taxi to the morning ferry where we later had lunch. Temperature just at freezing point and some wet snow started as we left the ferry by taxi. Moon welcomed us with new olive-green upholsteries, put in place last week. Looked as nice as we had hoped when ordering the job before leaving for Sweden.
But Moon was very cold inside. Only six degrees C. We realized that we were lucky having spent one night in a hotel, arriving to Moon at lunchtime instead of in a very late evening. A cold boat takes quite some time to get comfortable warm. It’s not only the air, but the furniture and walls that’s going to be warmed up. When it was time for bed around nine, yes again the jet lag, we had sixteen degrees C and turned down the Refleks furnace to a more normal flame. In the morning we had normal temperature and slowly everything gets more like a home. Hope now the new mattresses will give us a good night’s sleep

Week 2 9 – 15 January 2017 Ladysmith Marina

9 January Monday
The new mattresses were really great. The old one was hard and we felt the “gap” between the two halves most of the time. The new ones are divided into three and a 50 mm latex on top. Perfect! Sometimes things come out as good as you have planned! It is still cold, down to minus 10 C at night, and because of that we would like to have our Whisper Gen working as soon as possible. But we still have the problem to rinse the burner. Hopefully we find a propane burner that can do the job… But we are fine with the Refleks furnace together with an electric fan, keeping the boat warm. Our lost luggage is still not found.
Most of the day was spent trying to organize everything in the boat. But we managed to have time for a long walk in the sunny but cold weather. Our Jet-lag is very hard. Difficult to stay awake in the evening and we can’t sleep after 2 in the morning…

10 January Tuesday
Marina office had a sewage break down last week. Frost combined with the altitude the sewage is pumped uphill made a disaster in the office, rest rooms, showers and laundry, the repair is expected to take some time.. Office is now upstairs and the facilities are uphill in the old shower/toilet building. Still cold but after lunch it was possible to work on deck in the sunshine. Mounted the new furler drum to the Harken furler on the Cutter that we brought from Sweden. UV- has probably made the plastic brittle and it broke some months ago.
The aluminum frames around the windows gets quite cold when it is below freezing point. Condensation is of course the result to that… Before leaving Japan we glued clear plastic to the frames on the inside to have “double glazing”. That helped quite a lot, but that doesn’t make the frames any warmer. Annika now put clear on the outside on five windows as a test and it worked very well. Moon has a ”protruding roof” which means that water doesn’t come behind the outside clear and the window, meaning the air behind the clear insulate quite good even in cold rain. A good long walk to buy food.
No news about the missing bag that went missing in London. Still very difficult to sleep in the morning.

11 January Wednesday
Hopeless not to be able to sleep after three in the morning! But hopefully after a few more days…
Sunny and – 9 C. Very nice to only have four window frames to clean from condensation.
The missing bag is finally found in London! It will arrive at Vancouver tomorrow evening. After customs clearance the bag will fly to Victoria and then a taxi transport 80 km to Ladysmith. This can’t be cheap. Not sure if British Airways or the company who made the mishandling are paying. Took down the winter cover over the cockpit and replaced it with our normal bimini as rain cover.
The big event for today was a shower up in the old service building. Quite a different compared only have to walk a few steps from Moon into the new building. In the evening we joined the group of boaters that went for the chicken wing evening at the pub. The evening was fun and the beer was nice, but the chicken wings are much over advertised… But on the other hand we don’t enjoy hamburgers either. It’s probably a culture thing. The next get together evening we will try some of the Greek dishes. The owner is originally from Greece, and that must have some impact on the result.

12 January Thursday
Still cold nights down to -9 C, but daytime around zero. The frost in the shade doesn’t melt in spite of clear sky and intense sunshine. The remaining four windows got their clear on the outside. The nice weather was fine for a long walk, but we have to keep to the roads. The forest trails are icy and dangerous. The missing bag arrived at Victoria airport eleven o’clock at night.

13 January Friday.
The cold and clear weather is gone. Only a few minus this morning and a bit above during the day. But still mostly sunny and no rain.
The bag came from Victoria at noon. Nothing missing and nothing damaged in spite it showed signs from tough handling. Foamguy, our upholstery guy, came with the not already delivered material and of course to get paid. He brought two cushions with “Moon” stitched on as a present. Quite a nice gesture. He also brought the insulation foam we had ordered for the hull side in the aft cabin and the bow cabin. In spite of the 40 mm hull thickness the inside gets cold when it’s down to minus degrees and especially where the mattresses have contact to the hull it gets wet.

14 January Saturday
Still just below freezing during the night and still no rain. The whole day we spent insulating the port side in the bow cabin. The teak garnish has a 12 mm gap to the hull and that is now filled with 12 mm encapsulated foam. Took all day and late we moved our mattresses from the aft to the bow cabin. This is to be able to start insulating the aft cabin.
In the dark we walked uphill to have a well deserved shower before we got a late dinner. Lamb was on the menu!

15 January Sunday
Now we can sleep until five! Overcast and around zero and later above zero and mainly sunshine. We have decided to order new mattresses for the bow cabin too. The aft one was so nice and we do use both cabins, one at anchor and one on passages. Continuing insulating. But first – the plywood under the mattress in the aft cabin had to have some epoxy along the hull side to get water proofed.
The hydraulic backstay tensioner put in place and both halyards for the headsails came down when Annika was up in the mast to reinstall the wind transducer. Even the Yankee furler got its new drum. Now it’s almost only the rig tuning that remains to get Moon ready.
Our dried Japanese yoghurt came to live, so now after a week with bought yoghurt we have our own production to the morning porridge.

Week 3 16 – 22 January 2017 Ladysmith Marina

16 January Monday
The really cold weather is gone. Grey skies but no rain. Got a ride to the next town, Chemainus, to do laundry. A nice excursion together with a neighbour crew. While the washing machine did its job we investigated how to get fuel to the boat. There is no fuel in Ladysmith, but here was a fuel pontoon so no problem. They were supplying tug boats and fishing boats throughout the year making the diesel quite fresh even in wintertime, not always the case in dedicated pleasure boat pumps. We haven’t fuelled up since Ketchikan and after all motoring down south in BC and heater on all the time we soon need diesel.
When the dryer were filled we went for one of the coffee shops before it was time to drive back to Ladysmith with our bags full of clean laundry. Nice but time consuming compared to use the machines in the now temporary closed Marina Office across the pontoon!

17 January Tuesday
Several degrees above cero already in the morning, but now the rain has started. Björn used hours in the work shed trying to burn carbon of the evaporator in the burner to the Whisper Gen. This is obviously something that has to be done more or less regularly to keep the flame burning. During the final month of our trip south we couldn’t use the Whisper due to “flame failure”. There were two spare ones in the boat, but they turned out to have been used and completely full of carbon.
With the evaporator in a vice we used a propane torch to heat the mesh, inside the evaporator, clean from carbon, a very time consuming work when it’s done much too late and completely blocked. Only to get it apart and to be able to get to the mesh took quite some time. The mesh was finely not possible to save and had to be replaced with a new one. Luckily we had bought spare ones three years ago when we were rebuilding the Whisper and bought a lot of items from the manufactures in Christchurch NZ. Too late for a test run today because we thought that even with a clean burner it would not only be a “push the button” test. Instead we had some hours of rest before making dinner.
Rain all day and after noon the wind picked up from east, across Moon keeping her off the pontoon. Very nice that our “patent” with clear plastic outside our windows works well even in rain thanks to our protruding roof. We can even use the curtains on the inside without having condensation behind, something that was not possible before the extra clear even in light rain.

18 January Wednesday
Rain and fresh wind all night. The wind eased after noon and then the rain become only showers… This is normal winter in BC, so nothing to be upset about! Lazy morning in the rain. Coffee and a film! We got new energy after lunch and put the cleaned burner in place to test the Whisper. As we expected it didn’t work perfectly. After reaching the working temperature the motor and generator started to work, but the microprocessor shut down the Whisper, announcing something wrong with the power from the sterling engine. OK – after cooling down dismantling again, this time to check the nitrogen pressure which was very low after the cold winter. We got new nitrogen in Dutch Harbour from a welder and could now easily fill up to the required pressure. New test run – Now the Whisper continued producing hot water and 24 volt electricity until we manually shut it down. Very nice to have a working heater/genset again.
All our eight radiators got hot water and soon the boat was evenly warm. Luckily we have thermostats on all radiators, otherwise the boat soon would get over heated… 5,5 kW heater has quite a capacity! When we don’t need the charging because of shore power it’s more economic to heat the boat using the Refleks furnace.
But when it’s getting seriously cold the Refleks use almost as much as the Whisper without getting the boat as comfortable as with the Whisper, and on top of that we get 24v “for free”.
We hope we by now have gone through all possible difficulties running the Whisper, but you have probably heard that one before… When it’s working it’s a perfect heater/genset for colder climate, and we actually don’t have room for two “machines” doing the same job. That’s the reason why we keep struggling trying to make it run reliable.
Because it was Wednesday we spent dinner time at the pub with friends from the marina.

19 January Thursday
This was the day when we were supposed to sail to Vancouver to visit the boat show and use the predicted south west wind. The south west didn’t appear, our friends that we had planned to meet had got other obligations and on top of that we have started too many projects in Moon to be able to leave the pontoon. The wind isn’t according the early forecast and nor is the clear sky! It’s RAINING.
After breakfast, some e-mails and other computer work, we took a walk as soon as the rain stopped. After two days of rain we really needed a walk. It’s warm – we even met a man dressed in shorts! On our way through town to the grocery shop we stopped by our neighbor in her office to help her get the new headset up and running. There was some problem with the wireless… and Annika being a computer wizard had yesterday promised to give it a try. Sure enough, half an hour later everything was working fine and everybody was happy. Then some shopping and home to Moon for lunch.
When that was done, Annika continued with our insulation project. Port side in the salon got its foam behind the teak and Björn took the remaining two Whisper Gen evaporators to cleaning. After a few hours we now have two clean ones as backup for the one that works fine in the Whisper. We will try to keep a close look at the progress of carbon to be able to clean the evaporator/burner, not to have to destroy the mesh when taking it apart, leaving the two in the box as spare.
For dinner; Rockfish, egg butter sauce with mashed potatoes, yummy…

20 January Friday
Clear sky, no wind and temperature well above zero, before noon almost ten degrees. After breakfast some “office work”. Annika continued her updating of our e-mail system and Björn updated our weekly blog. Then we had to prepare for making templates for the new mattresses in the bow cabin. The man from the foam company was supposed to come after lunch time to do the measurements.
With the mattresses gone we could get to the stuff under the bunk and some epoxy came to use gluing the first part of the insulation in the aft cabin. Difficult with epoxy and insulation when it is cold outside the hull. Even if we had the hull heated up before gluing, the insulation will “insulate” the epoxy glue when curing. Hopefully enough heat comes through from the fan…
Brian, our canvas neighbour came and adjusted one of the zippers on the new clear door he made to our clear back wall in the cockpit. The old door made in Malaysia became too tensioned in the cold and ripped along one zipper. Not a cheap door, but it’s nice to have complete rain protection again. Gord, the foam guy, came after noon and made the templates for the mattresses in the bow cabin. He got lots of good word for his work with our upholsteries. His skills with fabrics and sawing machine and that he had understood that we appreciate good quality in the finishing work. He replied that it’s so much more fun to work for somebody that really understand and can judge a good work. It’s so much easier to get it right when the producer and the client have the same idea about quality and how it should be done. Because the mattresses in the aft cabin fitted reasonable good in the bow cabin, we can use the new aft mattresses temporary in the bow cabin, waiting for the new ones and the insulation work in the aft cabin. Very nice to be able to get rid of the old ones, saving a lot of space while working in the aft cabin. When Gord was done and gone, we took the old mattresses to the garbage bin and then continued for a walk in the very nice weather. Back in Moon it was time for our “three day shower” and some relaxing time before dinner.

21 January Saturday
Quiet night and the rain started after midnight and continued until nine when the sun came up showing a strip of clear sky to the east. We have often very nice sunrises, yesterday with some picturesque mist in front of the sun. Annika started with insulation work after breakfast, mainly because computer work was not possible due to the slow Wifi. “Everybody” is on the net Saturday morning! Probably reading about the latest embarrassment in the ongoing fars in the US…
Our doubts about the epoxy not curing between insulation and the water chilled hull came unfortunately true. After having spray glued the remaining part of the wall, we could relatively easy tear off the first half a square meter. Later when the epoxy has cured completely we will sand the surfaces and then use the contact adhesive that worked well on the major part of the wall. After a long walk in acceptable weather and later some bits and pieces in Moon it was time to join the neighbours for a nice get together with lots of appetisers, beer, wine and lots of boat talk among the six of us. Late evening but no wind or rain made our sleep deep and undisturbed.

22 January Sunday
This morning the sun didn’t succeed to get through the thin clouds and around ten it started to rain. Annika used the sawing machine and produced pillows for our sofa and chairs. Björn continued the job we started in November in the forward head. Now it was time to sand the pre glued cork sheet that later is to be glued to the hull behind the head instead of a wet/damaged plywood. It was freezing cold to sit outside and with the orbital sander try to get the caulking off the cork, leaving nice black caulking lines. Although it was under cover from the rain it was bitterly cold and after more than an hour we had to postpone the rest to a warmer day.
Around two, Jim, one neighbour boater, came and asked us to join them on a trip to an old railway bridge called Kinsol Trestle. The rain had just stopped so we thought that was a great idea. 44 m high and 187 m long trestle bridge, now restored as a walking bridge and the old railway is now a nice hiking trail. On our way back home we stopped at “The Black Swan” and had a beer and some appetisers. Back home in the dark it was time to prepare dinner. Lamb casserole

Week 4 23 – 29 January 2017 Ladysmith Marina

23 January Monday
Daybreak came with some frost on the pontoon and a clear sky. After breakfast we borrowed Deb and Jims truck and drove to Nanaimo for some shopping and sightseeing in the perfect weather. We didn’t find everything on the list, mainly because there are different traditions. We where locking for sheets to our bed, but here they had only a flannel type, probably cold in their houses? But we found cushions for our salon. At the chandler we found some “must have” items. Among others a special thimble for our drough. Ever since we heard the story from a couple that lost their drough because the thimble cut through the rope under sever load. “Normal” thimbles are open in the narrow end and can under load deform and cut the rope it’s supposed to protect.
We have welded our big thimbles for the bridel, but welding the little one to the Dyneema series drough we didn’t think was a good idea. Now we found the perfect one, forged in one whole piece, exactly what we have been looking for and right size, 2mm larger than the big shackle it’s going to be fitted to. Not very cheap, but 16 Canadian dollars is still good value if the alternative is a lost drough in a storm!
Even if we only found half of what we were looking for the day was a nice break in our routine, working in the boat. We had a nice lunch with a view over Nanaimo roadstead. Back in Ladysmith we just put our bags in Moon and could head out the pontoon to help Deb and Jim to moor. They had used the fine weather to fuel up in Chemainus. Deb was manoeuvring for the first time, we wonder if that was a spin of from our talks during Saturday evening about men doing the lazy work at the helm when anchoring…
Back in Moon we became a bit restless not having done anything productive in the boat when “everything” is up side down, waiting for things to be done. But after a shower and some cheese and wine everything felt good again.

24 January Tuesday
Very cold morning. The clear day yesterday had continued throughout the night and now there was a thick frost layer on the pontoon and on the deck. Inside we had only 16 C due to our normal night setting of the Refleks. Took only until breakfast to get our normal 20+ C. But the frost on the pontoon lasted until noon. Interesting to be able to confirm the reinforcement in Moon’s deck. The section between the chain plates, top shrouds and aft lowers, is solid plywood as a part of the frame to take care of the forces from the shrouds, clearly shown in the missing frost on deck above these parts. When the sun had made the temperature acceptable even outdoors we could start working.
Annika was already working with the sawing machine, ripping off the cloth on the new bought cushions and using our own fabric to fit them into our colour scheme. Light beige/chocolate brown in the same type of fabric as in the olive green fabric on the sofas. Björn continued his sanding of the little cork sheet for the forward head. Quite time consuming to sand the caulking without damage the softer cork in between. The caulking is very “rubbery” and difficult to sand off, whereas the cork is very easy to sand. The trick is to have a lot of patience and no pressure, let the sander do its job and concentrate on keeping it parallel to the surface.
Unfortunately our 220Volt cable from Moon did not reach the sun, making the job very cold. On top of that, when the sanding was done Björn had to fill our water tank. Still no water on the pontoon. Two long hoses from the building and slow flow. Takes really long time to fill 700 litres under these cold conditions! When it’s done the hoses are to be taken care of.
But down in Moon it was nice and warm, and after a whisky the normal body temperature was soon recovered. Diner was leftovers from the lamb casserole and during the evening movie Annika finished the eight cushions she had made during the day.

25 January Wednesday
Late yesterday evening it became overcasted and because of that the temperature stayed around 0 C the whole night. After breakfast we turned on the plotter, AIS and VHF to be able to see and hear our NZ friends coming by boat from their winter anchorage south west of Salt Spring Island.
We first met them in Malaysia 2012 in Langkawi Yacht Club when we arrived in our just bought Moon. They left Malaysia 2014 and sailed Sumatra, Brunei, Philippines, Taiwan, Japan and Alaska to BC, where they by now spent three years. We have had e-mail contact all this time and today we will finally meet again. It will by fun and also interesting to learn how they have dealt with visa and similar issues, staying that long time hopping between US and Canada. They anchored after noon just beside the marina and an hour later they came in their dinghy to Moon. After a brief chat we walked them through the town to get their bearings for different shops and so on. When we passed the butcher there was an add for Haggis, the famous Scottish dish. We know Haggis since a trip to Scotland some odd thirty years ago, but why here in Canada. Heather, being from Scotland, knew of course and asked if we were prepared to have dinner in Larissa and celebrate Robert Burns by eating Haggis.
So this was the story about Haggis in Canada. All over the world people are celebrating the famous Scottish poet, born 25 January 1759. There are more statues of him spread over the world compared to the ones of William Shakespeare. He has written a lot, among others 368 songs, the most well known is probably “Auld Lang Syne”. There is always something new to learn!
Mark came and transported us from Moon out to Larissa on anchor. Very pleasant evening, even if Haggis isn’t on top among our favourite dishes. Almost as Corned Beef, but that was what they eat when there was something to celebrate in Scotland. After dinner and more talk, Mark brought us back to Moon.

26 January Thursday
Even if we have no rain, the sky is overcasted giving us reasonable temperatures at night. In spite we have the smallest Refleks furnace and run it on minimum setting, we still have 20 C indoors in the morning. Lots of people have asked us what size they should bye, and we always tell them to by the smallest, remember that there is no thermostat shutting it off and on, it has to be running all night. The Refleks wants to run all the time. It burns cleaner compare with shutting it down now and then. Larissa has the same size Refleks and it keeps their 44 foot steel boat warm the whole winter.
Having had breakfast we continued our insulation job. We had to re glue the aft cabin. The insulation was to stiff for the contact adhesive. We will use epoxy with thickener and glass bubbles. Our four spring cleats have 16 mm bolts through deck into cupboards in the salon. When below -5 C we have condensation on the bolts. 12mm foam with two 53 mm holes have got a 6 mm foam “roof” which then is glued onto the deck/roof over the two bolts. Works very well as we have no extra plywood under deck. The plywood we see is the bottom one of the two, glued on each side of 30 mm hard foam. When we insulated our previous boat with a sealing under the deck, we chased condensation in spite the deck had balsa core.
We had started many jobs and it became quite stressed to be ready for a walk and a shower before we could start preparing dinner for our guests. But we managed and were ready when they moored their dinghy in front of Moon.

27 January Friday
Still no rain but also no sun. Insulation is still on the agenda. The thickened epoxy seems to work much better. Now we can’t see or feel any air behind the hard foam. After breakfast Annika continued with the remaining foam parts in the aft cabin. Two of the lockers at the dining table got insulation to the hull. The glossy epoxy paint on the hull gets condensation much easier than on foam surface, and this not only because of better insulation.
To be able to get to the hull, lots of dismantling and some cutting are involved in the process. Surfaces that have been cut have to be soaked with epoxy to prevent water to soak into the wood. There will still be condensation under extremely cold and windy conditions. The forth spring cleat got its insulation. The other three cleats had their bolts easy on a flat sealing, but for this one we had cut a hole in a longitudinal bulkhead, making it very tricky to insulate. First we had to enlarge the hole to get room for insulation and then epoxy soak all treated surfaces before gluing the foam around the bolts to the roof. Then the bulkhead got a thin insulation sheet glued to the bolt insulation and covering the hole in the bulkhead. Looks much better than having that ugly hole!
The locker above the stove, where the chimney from the previous Wallas stove still hasn’t been dismantled, got some attention. Some cutting to make room for insulation and the plywood hiding the exhaust pipe was taken away, giving us more room. 80×200 mm maybe doesn’t sound much, but when space is limited every enlargement is positive.
The chimney through the deck was not possible to remove in this climate and because of that it had to be insulated. The hole for the exhaust pipe in the bottom of the locker got a nice teak plug glued in place.
We have also designed two new tables and sent drawings to a carpenter in the neighbourhood. Our tables are probably nice looking, but small and very inefficient. Around the tables is a wooden frame, 80 mm wide and 12 mm high. Meaning you can’t use that space for your plate! With new tables, without that frame, our tables can gain 160 mm, not using any more space in the boat.
Late walk that ended at the Greek pub having Musaka, very good.

28 January Saturday
Still no rain and temperature just above 0 C and with a pale sun. Annika kept on insulating lockers and Björn cleaned the deck after having removed the dinghy. The cork becomes a little greenish in places where the sun doesn’t get to, but it’s easy to clean. The reason for this sudden impulse to clean was the cutter. We wanted to hoist and furl that one to get rid of the sail downstairs. Felt quite ok to get one step closer to sailing…
Having finalised the insulation of the hull in the aft cabin, we now moved the mattresses from the bow cabin where we have been sleeping for more than a week using the aft mattresses “upside down”. The bow cabin almost mirrors the aft one! Will be nice to sleep on the mattresses in their right position.
The locker in the aft cabin and two others got its insulation glued shortly before we went across the pontoon to a neighbour for a get together ordering Pizza from the local bakery to be delivered to the dock. We have heard about the good Pizzas but never tried. Yes they were very good and rich. We still have leftovers for Sunday lunch!

29 January Sunday
Wok up in the aft cabin after silent night. The fan for the Refleks chimney is much closer to the bow cabin and we hardly hear it in the aft cabin. But if there is use of tap water and the pump comes on you don’t sleep anymore in the aft! The pump sits behind the aft bulkhead in the cabin and when that is running you almost think you are getting foot massage. No chance to stay asleep in that noise. Luckily we have a big pressure tank so the pump doesn’t come on very often.
Cloudy and windy from south east. Almost gale out in Strait of Georgia, but in Ladysmith it’s only 10-20 knots in spite south east to east is our “worst” wind direction. The glue from yesterday seems to cure as planned in spite we only had 18 C when we woke up. The wind has some cooling effect on the hull. The rain started during breakfast and the wind increased. Indoors work until eleven when the rain eased and it was possible to do some work outside. Some woodwork had to be done outside because of our insulation jobs. Late afternoon we epoxy laminated a new shelf to our stove locker and three drawers that had got treatment against getting stuck because of high humidity were soaked with epoxy.
No insulation was glued due to a forecasted cold night. Better glue in the morning on a warm hull and cure during daytime. After that it was high time for a shower and then dinner. After dinner we had to write and read the blog to be able to keep up with Monday publishing and this in a boat that is more than normal upside down because of all lockers emptied, waiting for the insulation tomorrow.

Week 5 30 January – 6 February 2017 Ladysmith Marina

30 January Monday
Almost overcasted but no rain and temperature around 0 C in the morning. Annika continued with insulating the hull in lockers and behind teak garnish. Due to the cold nights we postponed epoxy on the hull to next morning to get longer time for curing before the cold night. In the afternoon we took a long walk into the forest for the first time this year. The trails were now free from slippery ice and due to the dry weather the last weeks relatively dry and safe to walk along.
We planed to use our dinghy to get to our friends in Larissa to have dinner together, but in the totally up and down inside of Moon we could not find the pump for the dinghy! And of course in this cold weather we could not use the dinghy without more air. Mark solved the problem and came to get us. Nice evening and good food.

31 January Tuesday
Sunshine with no clouds and just above 0 C. After breakfast all our insulated lockers got a 10 cm strip of airing foam to prevent the content in the locker to stopping the air circulation from reaching the hull. The other prepared lockers got epoxy and insulation well before noon.
Björn started to dismantle the windlass when the sun had made the foredeck comfortable warm. The gearbox between the motor and the shaft have obviously an AL alloy not meant for boating! Absolutely full of white oxide and of course all paint gone. The windlass had to come off to be inspected thoroughly and either exchanged or treated accordingly. Without a reliable windlass we are in danger!
With four nuts taken off it should have been easy to slide the gearbox and the motor off the shaft. But it was stuck as a rock! Tried to unwind the four bolts, which worked fine with one. The other three, only the Allen key locking nuts came off. OK wait a day until a drop of Loctite on each have cured and then give it another try. To get to the windlass the outboard had to come out of the chain locker and was temporary put on the pontoon. We had now found the pump for the dinghy and with more pressure in the tubes Annika could test the outboard. After filling the carburetor with gasoline, the outboard started willingly on the third pull. After letting the outboard warm up, she drove a fast tour out to Larissa at anchor in the bay.
After lunch we went for a shopping walk, our birthday dinner tomorrow together with Mark and Heather needed some more ingredients. Later on we enjoyed a quite dinner on our own and around eight as we were watching a film we got a SMS telling us about a fire at the Dog Patch. From whom and where was Dog Patch?? After some minutes of thinking, we at least went up to the cockpit and saw a huge fire, just about 100 metres to leeward among the boats on moorings! Many boats and house boats in its imminent closeness, but luckily to windward.
Our friends at anchor had called for the fire brigade, being some fifty metres from the fire, luckily having the fire to leeward. They used their foghorn to alert eventually people on board the boathouse and nearby boats but without seeing anybody. Later we found out that the woman that lived in the boat house was found up in town.
Lots of damage but no persons was hurt. Later we finalised the film, but fiction has difficulties to live up to reality a night like this!

1 February Wednesday
Sunny morning and still a lot of smoke from the fire.
The weak wind is still westerly, very unusual, no smoke towards us. With the prevailing wind direction we had have all smoke in the marina and around Moon. Not healthy because wood impregnated with creosote is harmful! After breakfast we took a short walk along the shore to take some photos on the remains after the fire. A part of a pontoon, still burning, and an aluminium dinghy, partly melted had driven ashore. The smell from the smoke was horrible. Now we could see how close the nearby boats really were. Easily five boats had been involved if the normal wind direction had been on hand!
This was really an odd start of Björns birthday!
Back in Moon we started to tidy up the boat from all work we have been occupied with before the party tonight. After lunch we had to go shopping again. The reason for the extra shopping was that our Okanagan friends were coming too, not driving 400 km only for attending the birthday party, but to take care of their boat that’s going to be looked at by the first eventually buyer on Saturday.
On the way back from the supermarket we managed to have a shower. Then we had to start cooking. Fish casserole with three different fish and big prawns, saffron, basilica and lots of garlic and more, served with rice, baguette and two sorts of aioli. Later we had three different cheeses, more baguette and crackers.
Of course there were some white and reed wine to go with the food. A very pleasant evening with a lots of talking about boating and of course, as all are “democrats”, there were some talking about the new boss in the country across the boarder. Our NZ and Okanagan friends hadn’t met before, but that didn’t make the conversation less intensive…
We had great fun looking at a YouTube film from the Netherlands about Trump. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELD2AwFN9Nc
After our friends had left us we cleaned up, it’s really a blessing to have plenty of hot water when the dinner included several people and several dishes.

2 February Thursday
Sunny and bitterly cold in the wind. After breakfast we took a walk to our friends’ boat in the inner marina in Oyster Bay. They were occupied trying to tidy their boat for Saturday when the broker will show the boat. We invited them for another evening in Moon, but due to the weather forecast with snow in late evening they had to start driving back not having to climb the passes in snow. But we will be in BC for another couple of month and sure we will meet again. We told them “ Aufwiedersehen”, and we went back to Moon to do some outdoor work before a week of predicted snowy weather started.
The windlass came off and the wind vane was dismantled for service, both are meant to be dealt with in the marina shed during bad weather. Then we stored the outboard in the chain locker and lifted the dinghy and put it upside down above the bow cabin hatch. The latter means that the hatch doesn’t get condensation and the boat gets warmer in snowy and windy weather.
We did a six hour test run of the Whisper Gen. Some difficulties during the start but after adjustment of the start frequency of the diesel pump, the Whisper run for six hours until we manually shut it down. We took the opportunity to shut down the Refleks furnace to rinse it from soot and coke in the pot burner. Not much to take care of when using the furnace continuously compared with the result under intermittent use. This full scale test shows us that the Whisper really does the job. From now on during the time before we start sailing south in August/September we will use it more often, to either rely on the Whisper or finally decide that we don’t. In the latter case we have a plan to install a small Eberspächer/Webasto water heater and solve the charging of the batteries in another way. Under sail we can’t use the Refleks when heeling too much. Under engine we have full heat in our radiators.

3 February Friday
Temperature just below 0 C and 100 mm snow already in the morning. It’s partly dark inside Moon due to snow covered windows. Due to all snow, we where happy for our friends decision to drive home to Okanagan yesterday afternoon.
A lazy morning until after lunch when we went to the laundry and some more shopping in the falling snow. Before evening we had 200 mm snow.
Dinner – lamb and mashed potato with green beans. When were to sit down to see a film we got a SMS from our neighbours. They wanted us to come over and join their birthday party. Pam had her birthday and the quiet early night became fun and very late…

4 February Saturday
Very gentle snow falling, mixed with some rain. After breakfast we had to go to the supermarket again. Sounds like we are shopping every day but that’s really not normally the case. Yesterday evening we invited the whole party for dinner in Moon, and of course some shopping became urgent…
On Wednesday we had been six around our small table and tonight we will be eight. We are now for the first time really testing Moons capacity! To be able to host that many people around a small table we have to serve dishes that can be eaten with only a fork and use the table for only the wine glasses and spices.
On the way home from the supermarket we bought a small snow shovel, the one we had broke when we tried it in the heavy wet snow. It is important to get rid of all snow on deck before it freezes and before the evening guests arrive. Not very easy and soon it became obvious that not many designers take snow on deck in consideration when designing sailboats… During Björns struggle with the snow, Annika had finalised the remaining insulation behind the teak garnish.
Björn made our normal salad for lunch. After a long lunch brake we started tidy up and then beginning prepare for the evening dinner. Annikas Thai chicken was on the menu. One of our guests is a vegetarian and that was easy solved by leaving one big portion aside before the well cut chicken was put into the casserole. Around six our guests arrived and with two extra chairs we managed to have enough room even for some snacks on the table. We have for a long time postponed this party because of all work in Moon, making her a mess inside most of the time. But everybody was curious to see the inside of Moon and our new upholsteries. All of them expressed their liking of what we had done and the layout of Moon’s interior. If due to politeness you’ll never knew, but it felt like they really meant it.
Around ten we were alone and could start tidy up our home. Again it is a blessing with lots of hot water. Having eight people eating several dishes make a lot of washing up to take care of.

5 February Sunday
Snow and rain during early morning. Very nice to have a clean deck.
The pontoon have a metre wide free space in the snow along the length and a small snow free space in front of every boats’ gate, looks almost like a little village street! We had a slow day reading the news and writing our blog. Our friends said they will miss the news around the US election, but have now realized it is a never ending story filling all media with similar “news” every day. The forecast give us little hope of sun and higher temperature within a week…Luckily we have prepared some indoor work in Moon and in the work shed.

Week 6 6 – 12 February 2017 Ladysmith Marina

6 February Monday
Cold and a bit windy morning. Indoor work writing blog and some “office” items until ten, when we had gathered enough strength to take a walk. The sun tried to get through the clouds, but most of the time it was greyish. Cleaned the deck from two days of snow. Due to the shifting temperature the snow was wet close to the cork and heavy to shovel. After lunch we continued to work down below.

7 February Tuesday
Overcasted and a few degrees below 0 in the morning. Very good to have a clean deck when the temperature is well below frost. Until the temperature, thanks to the rising sun, came above zero C, we stayed indoors. Then we took a walk via the supermarket and back in the marina we rinsed the pontoon from snow in front of our Swedish friends boat Liv.
We were to start the heating fan in their HR39 and to do so we even had to clean the deck from the gate in the lifeline to the cockpit. Luckily they have a tarp above the boom and the angle is steep enough to let the snow off.
After lunch we brought the auxiliary rudder to the wind vane into the work shed where we could fix it in a vice. Having it fixed it was relatively easy to get it apart and clean the bearings. Of some reason there was grease on the water lubricated bearings, making them sticky. After cleaning and assembly the rudder moved smooth again. We think the grease was the whole story why it had become stiff and difficult to turn for the pendulum. Mounting it on the transom has to wait for better weather.
We became quite cold in the shed. It felt much cooler inside the shed compared with outside! Back in Moon it took only a short time in front of our furnace to get warm. A small whisky helped of course… After warming up we got new energy to have a shower up in the old service house. Late dinner, eating leftovers.

8 February Wednesday
Cloudy morning and some degrees below 0 C, but no snow. The forecast promise us snow for the next two days starting after noon today. And yes the snow started just before noon. We got a quote from the carpenter for our two new tables. Way too much we thought. Thanked them, but said no thank you. Now we have a “problem”. Having done the drawings for two new tables it’s even more difficult to live with the old ones… We have to figure out how to take care of this dilemma. One temporary solution, at least for the big table, is to sand off the surrounding frame, making the useful area at least 50 mm greater on both sides.
Working inside most of the day in the not so attractive weather. Annika at the sawing machine and Björn attending the computer before more technical work. We are installing two small fans under the aft bunk to ventilate the space between the mattresses and the plywood. The space is created by battens under the mattresses, resting on rubber bearings. Because we have vented material, 12 mm thick, between the hull and the mattresses, the forced air will hopefully even dry this area prone to condensation.
Before bed time the new sheet was done. Much easier to get a sheet made to measure stretched by the upper mattress without having to climb around on the bed.
A nice Rock Fish made a good casserole.
We had an early night, almost sailors midnight at nine, because we hadn’t slept that well the last two nights for some odd reason.

9 February Thursday
Woke up around six o’clock because heavy wet snow came falling down from the spreaders making a loud noise when it hit the deck. Until then we had a quiet nice night in a comfortable temperature. Rain all day onto the now shrinking 20 cm wet snow.
Annika was out in the cockpit and rinsed the bimini from heavy wet snow. No wonder that canvas breaks on boats that are not attended during heavy snow fall. After breakfast and the latest news on internet, Annika continued sawing and Björn took care of the small fans under the aft bunk. Yes – it is time consuming to install things like that in a boat. First it has to be designed and that’s not easy when there is little space between the radiator and the bed. Impossible to get to the fans without dismantling the radiator unless we find a way not including screws into the bunk. The solution was to mount the fans on a piece of teak with two holes for the fans, then insert it sideways above the radiator and fix it in place with a cable strap to the bunk. But first adjust the holes in the bunk to the teak holes. And don’t forget, the fans must have some 12 volt and those cables are to be thoroughly hidden and fixed. In the locker beside the bed we had 12 volt for the lamp above the bed. Cable down under the bed to a small fuse and a switch and then to the fans .
Annika is making new covers for the hatches in material that allow some light to get through. The covers include a thin insulation to avoid condensation. New cushions for the cockpit, a bag under the boom in front of the vang for hosting halyards and reefing lines.

10 February Friday
Rain and just above zero. Still a lot of very wet snow on the pontoon and on the road down to the marina. After breakfast we finalized the cabling to the two small fans that had been occupying us for part of the previous days. This turned out to be as fantastic as we hoped. Nice gentle stream of air venting up along the whole length of the mattress to the hull. This is hopefully the end of any condensation due to the extra humidity we create during the night. The fans are not meant to be running at night time, only daytime venting out any moisture. Annika continued making hatch covers.
We had a fantastic full moon when we went back to Moon after having had a shower up the hill.
Lamb and dessert cheese for dinner.

11 February Saturday
Frost on the pontoon when we woke up, but after breakfast in the rising sun it soon was melted away. Borrowed friends truck for a drive to Nanaimo to get our mattresses for the bow cabin. Of course we found some other needs too. We have been looking for whole milk powder in Canada and US, not to be found in the Supermarkets. Now we had got a hint about a “bulk store”, selling lots of stuff from bulk containers. Sorry to say most was candy and sweets, but we manage to find the “few” healthy things they had. Bought samples of their “butter milk powder”, Basmati rice and Coconut powder too decide if we are going to buy more for storage in Moon. The milk powder is necessary to be able to make yoghurt during passages and places where we can’t buy milk. Back in Ladysmith we bought a Calframo Echo Fan for the furnace. It’s a fan driven by the difference from hot and cold air from in our case the Refleks. Great! We have had a problems keeping the temperature even in the open space in Moon. If it’s comfortable up at the dining table, there is a ”cold stream” of air venting down the stairs to the saloon along the floor to the furnace. If we are using the saloon with comfortable heat, it’s way too hot upstairs. The new fan sitting on the top of the furnace blows warm air in the opposite direction, creating a much more evenly spread heat in the whole boat. Because the fan creates its own electricity, the heat from the Refleks is still not using any electrical power!
The new bow cabin mattresses fit perfect and are nice to rest on without our extra mattress we have in our aft cabin. When we, not having guests in the aft cabin, use the bow cabin for sleeping, we will use the extra Latex mattress from our aft cabin on top. It’s very convenient to have the two beds mirroring each other!
We also bought a sheet of plywood to make a temporary engine hatch. The original one has become curved of some reason. When the new plywood, after some shaping of course, had replaced the original one, we started sanding off the remains from the former glued insulation on the bottom side, hoping that the hatch will come back to its original shape when stored for some days in the boat allowing the “same” air get to both sides.
The detached windlass got some treatment. Most of the AL-oxide is cleaned, but the oil in the gear was more like grease. Still smelling like synthetic gearbox oil. Got most of it out and the rest will have to wait until we can use diesel or kerosene to clean it. On top of that it has to get warmer before we can paint the windlass. The good thing is that the windlass still seams to be able to do the work, but we will keep a closer look on its behaviour in the future.

12 February Sunday
Well above zero already in the morning. Clear sky and a beautiful day with no wind.
When the sun had made the air comfortable we started working on deck. Lifted the dinghy off the deck into the water to help us mount the auxiliary rudder for the wind vane.
After noon we took a walk and coming back we brought our bikes and kayak on deck from below the bow cabin bunk. Most because we needed to clean up the condensation. Half a litre was the result from three months, not a big problem if stored things can coop with water and moisture.
We mounted and inflated the kayak and stored it on deck. We want to be able to use it if we get warmer weather soon, and we will keep it inflated on deck over the summer. The bikes will not be used in Ladysmith due to the steep streets, almost everywhere we are going. Rock Fish, the newly bought rice, broccoli and mushrooms for dinner.

Week 7 13 – 19 February 2017 Ladysmith Marina

13 February Monday
Clear sky and a bit cold before sunrise. After breakfast some indoor work, mainly the English blog, while Annika continued using the sawing machine. The new insulated cover for the hatches, starting with the big one for the bow cabin. Looks much nicer compared to the old ones. Took a long walk in the bright sunshine.

Week 7 13 – 19 February 2017 Ladysmith Marina

13 February Monday
Clear sky and a bit cold before sunrise.
After breakfast some indoor work, mainly the English blog, while Annika continued using the sawing machine. The new insulated cover for the hatches, starting with the big one in the bow cabin. Looks much nicer compared to the old ones.
Took a long walk in the bright sunshine. Although Monday we met lots of people and had to ask if we had missed something. Canada has introduced a “Family holiday” and families were supposed to spend time together. Yes we saw more families united than usual on weekends so they obviously got the message. In Sweden we are more used to holidays disappearing!
No wind made the walk quite warm. T-shirt was ok if we didn’t walk too often in the shade. We even saw a Hummingbird!
Walking by the hardware store we bought some musts have for our boat works.
The bimini got two sides of clear, prepared zippers were already in place since several years… Quite a different climate in cockpit after that improvement, especially when rain is on hand.
Late afternoon we had a shower before making dinner.

14 February Tuesday
Overcasted but no rain and just above zero C.
After breakfast we dismantled the dining table and brought it on to the pontoon to sand/grind of the teak frame.
The expensive quote for the tables and our thoughts when making the drawings made the need for new tables imminent. We will now grind off the high teak frame and glue laminate on top. Will probably look very similar to our drawing, but by far much cheaper. Most of the quote was probably labour cost.
But the impact down in the boat looks more or less like some catastrophe.
When it was time for lunch we thought we had no table, but under the table there is a “smaller table” on which the normal one slides. Two long stainless profiles are screwed under the table, and that’s how it holds onto the smaller fixed table, allowing it to be adjusted 350 mm into the boat making the table much bigger.
Took a short walk after lunch before the rain started.

15 February Wednesday
Rain all night until eight when we got some blue sky among the clouds. New rain after ten o’clock.
Lazy morning doing some measurements for ordering more insulation and doing some PC work.
The rain increased and lasted all day. No problem finding job indoors! Annika did some “cleaning up” among the PC stuff, which has grown quite extensively over the years. Lots of cables, transformers, and other details must be sorted now and then…
A signal pistol emerged and a “bolt pistol”, made as a rig cutter that we had almost forgot all about. Those items came with the boat, and got stowed away before the repair started some years ago.
Lots of postponed items on our web got some attention in the rainy weather. It’s not at all wrong to have a lazy day with rain in between all our important priorities…
The absence from the sanded teak frame around the dining table made a huge different. Now the plates can came all the way to the edge of the table, meaning the table became wider and much more comfortable to eat at when the plates are in normal “eating position”.
The “new” table will have white hard laminate on the now horizontal sanded teak.
The lid for the engine have after sanding started to be more straight. Hopefully we can laminate next week.
We had dinner out with friends from the marina.

16 February Thursday
Windy night with lots of rain until midnight. Sunrise with a partly clouded sky, which cleared until noon.
Laundry, shopping and ordering a sheet of laminate to our tables before lunch.
After noon Annika did some sawing and Björn dismantled the windlass completely to get rid of old oil and to be able to clean all bearings and seals properly. There were some difficulties to get it assembled… Have to test it carefully when filled with new oil.
Sunshine and not much wind the whole day.

17 February Friday
Partly overcasted but no rain. Almost no wind and the temperature a few degrees above zero C. Took a long walk before noon and passed the hardware store where we cut a sheet of plywood for our tables, ready for tomorrow when we have the truck and can transport plywood and the laminate to the boat.
The table in the saloon has a steel structure onto the mast support, supporting the table. That structure has never been firm and easy to turn. Now we dismantled everything and exchanged the “bearing” to an epoxy casting to get a perfect match between the mast support pole and the tables steel structure.
Beef casserole made it a good final of the day.

18 February Saturday
Light rain in the morning but no wind and a few degrees above frost.
After breakfast we started dismantling the saloon table. Very tough to start cutting into the teak frame. Had to remind us that we had for years been irritated over the nice but very inefficient teak frame around the table, making it effectively much smaller. Succeeded to save the teak ring around the mast support for later use on the new table.
Borrowed the truck and drove to the hardware store for the plywood and sheet of laminate.
When everything is upside down in the boat due to several ongoing projects, dinner have to be easy, especially when tables are missing.

19 February Sunday
Rain all night until five o’clock. After breakfast it started rain again until eleven, when we took the opportunity to go shopping for groceries.
The rain made our table making a little difficult. Instead of focusing on the saloon table we had to shift to the dining table. The table had a ”name plate” inset showing the old boat name in the table. This was now chiselled out and the table was after that cleaned from glue and voids filled with epoxy filler.
Dinner was served on parts of the cut saloon table!

Week 8 20 – 26 February 2017 Ladysmith Marina

20 February Monday
The sun rose on a clear sky, but the temperature was not above frost.
We had full priority on the saloon table after breakfast. The epoxy filling on the dining table was not cured enough to sand, which made it easy to decide to start with the other table. Lot of measurements to be able to cut the plywood. The mast support going through the table makes it very tricky.
We cut the two plywood sheets on the pontoon as soon as the temperature in the sun had risen sufficiently for some serious out door carpeting. Many steps before we in late afternoon, now down in Moon, could glue the two sheets together, giving us a rough cut table.
Beef casserole for dinner after a shower up in the old service building.

21 February Tuesday
Yet another morning with clear sky, and frost everywhere.
After breakfast when the frost was gone, we brought the dining table to the pontoon to be able to sand all excessive epoxy filler and varnish and get it ready for the laminate.
We cut the big sheet of laminate in three pieces with a router/trimmer to shape them for the two tables. Later in the afternoon when the dining table was prepared we fine cut the laminate for the dinner table and epoxy glued it inside Moon.
The crew from Liv, Stina and Janne, arrived from Sweden after noon, but we were occupied with epoxy and stuff gluing the laminate onto the dining table until fiveish when we were invited to a welcome sundowner in Liv. Moon has only room for two because of all our work with the two tables.
Back in Moon we used the micro oven to warm up some leftovers for dinner.

22 February Wednesday
The whole morning we had sunshine and after breakfast we brought the saloon table out for cutting and sanding. Made some tests with the laminate to decide how to cut it around the mast support to get an “invisible” gap behind the mast support.
Before late afternoon the table and the cut laminate sheet was back in Moon, ready for the last preparation before epoxy sealing.
Dinner at the pub with several friends from the marina.

23 February Thursday
Sunshine but several degrees below zero C and thick frost on the pontoon. Had to wait until the frost was gone before we could bring the saloon table out for more work. Today it was time to shape the edges with a router. Jim had lent us his big router but as he is used to the router he also trimmed the edge of the table to a nice radial shape for us.
We sanded part of the laminate edge on the dining table and after that it was possible to push it into the “wall” to make it more of o breakfast table creating much more space in the gangway.
We had for long time wanted to cut our engine compartment lid into two pieces, to make it easier to access the engine. Today we cut it and later it will be laminated and reinforced it to prevent bending by load on the floor, or temperature in the engine compartment.
Before we ended this day of work, the saloon table got epoxy on the edges and bottom side, laying up side down on top of the dining table. The seven holes for screws got the same epoxy treatment we have used all over Moon with great success. To get a more even and thicker epoxy layer we used peel ply on top of the epoxy, which also take care of eventually amines and gives us a perfect surface for further varnish, glue or more epoxy when it is peeled off
After that we were a very tired couple who in the fading light went to the showers up the hill and later had leftover for dinner before crashing to bed at nine!

24 February Friday
Rain mixed with snow almost until noon. Very convenient for us as we really needed a day “off”. On top of that the saloon table needed some curing time as well before we can continue with preparing for the laminate.
We had a very quiet morning with some PC work and blog writing. Moon looks like a MESS inside due to all table works and the stuff we have to move and store on other places because of that, but we can still find places to eat, sit and sleep.
Before noon we moved the now cured saloon table from the dining table down to its own spot around the mast support and gained some space for lunch. The new saloon table is really much bigger and more useful than the previous little so called table.
After a quick walk to the supermarket when the snow fall had ended, we had our lunch salad on the new dining table, although the edges are not finished yet. The afternoon was spent in similar relaxing mood as before lunch.
Foam Guy – our upholstery maker came and delivered our extra ordered material for insulation and air gap to prevent condensation in lockers. Another project to finalise.
Already before dinner the snow wet pontoon became completely icy.
Rock fish and mashed potatoes for dinner.

25 February Saturday
Sunshine already from sunrise but several degrees under zero C.
After breakfast we borrowed Jim’s and Deb’s truck and drove to Nanaimo for some shopping. Stina and Janne from Liv joined us on the trip.
Back in Ladysmith in the afternoon the sky was no longer clear. We took the truck to the gas station and filled 120 l diesel in jerry cans, which we later siphoned into Moons main tank, Not a drop on deck or into the water. Hopefully this will last until we start sailing, unless the weather gets even chillier. We decided that it was silly to use the engine for some miles to the fuel dock, breaking the winterised cooling system in the engine and have saltwater in the engine for a month extra.
The rain started just after dark and is supposed to shift to snow during the night.
After having had a sturdy lunch in town we settled for a light salad dinner before a film and later bedtime.

26 February Sunday
Light rain all night but no snow. At breakfast the sky cleared and the sun appeared. Around ten we could bring the saloon table to the pontoon next to Moon to be able to sand the edges and surfaces that had epoxy on last Thursday.
Back in Moon with the table, now ready for final gluing. Annika used an hour to fine shape the laminate triangle that is going to “invisible” cover the inset behind the mast support. Our old Dremel tool came to use when we adjusted the hole in the laminate for the mast support.
Everything was prepared for epoxy gluing after lunch and in spite of the gorgeous weather we opted for epoxy instead of taking a walk. As always time flies and when all epoxy work was done we took our shower bag, but made a detour to get some exercise on route to the showers.
It’s still the old service building that is in service. The guys working with the repair of the new service building next to Moon isn’t very fast, to say the least. All what we have heard about insurance repairs in North America are obviously try (no fake news.)
Sunday dinner was not very inspired. Working, working and only working sometimes makes the inspiration for making good and healthy dishes disappear.

Week 9 27 February – 5 March 2017 Ladysmith Marina

27 February Monday
Cold morning and only 16 degrees in the boat before breakfast. At first we thought that there was something wrong with the diesel we bought yesterday, but it was the extra cold night and a lower than normal setting on the Refleks furnace.
Snowfall almost until lunch time and thanks to that we got a slow start. Indoor work with blog and other “office work”
We brought all pieces of wood that we used as load onto the laminate we had glued out of Moon. The laminate looks ok, so far we have succeed with our epoxy laminating and gluing.
After lunch, when the sky had cleared, we took a walk to the next village where we can find the coffee we use in Moon. Back to Ladysmith we followed the trail through the forest along the little stream, not so little anymore after all the rain and snow.
Annika sanded excess laminate on the short end of the dining table. Looks very much better than we had dared to hope for.
Lamb, rice and green beans boiled in garlic finalised a good start of the new week.

28 February Tuesday
Another cold morning. Even colder than yesterday inside Moon in spite we had adjusted the furnace. The explanation came when we checked the outdoor temperature, very cold and thick frost on everything. Crystal clear sky made the sun burn away all frost and we could work on the pontoon already after breakfast. We arrange a working table in the sun just beside Moon, and with a power cord from Moon we have 220 v for our sanding machine. We cut our engine compartment lid into two to make it easier to check oil level, the lid was then sanded and ready for epoxy laminated to prevent it from bending due to the heat from the engine.
Björn manage to fall onto the concrete over a pile of planks and hurt a shoulder and left hand. Hopefully nothing broken.
Took a short walk before noon before the rain started.
After lunch we epoxy soaked the engine lids and the extra part of the saloon table got epoxy on the edges.
Late dinner due to the time consuming epoxy work.

1 March Wednesday
Overcasted and a few degrees above zero.
Björns shoulder is ok but the hand hasn’t improved.
After breakfast we loosened the saloon table from its support and raised it along the mast support to rinse it from the preventing plastic we had used under the table while he epoxy cured when we finally glued it around the mast support. All peel ply came off, a not that easy job in the narrow gap around the mast support through the table. Back in place, the table became storage place for the engine lids while curing.
A short walk to the supermarket before noon. Afternoon was spent sanding the excess laminate on the two tables.
We had the “Liv’s” over for a “sundowner” as a first test of our new tables.
We had put everything into the bow cabin and Moon looked almost as a new boat. Our guests were very politely impressed!
We had traditional Wednesday dinner at the Pub.

2 March Thursday
Rain from around midnight and until noon.
After breakfast we organised the pile of epoxy work that had been resting over night on the dinner table for curing. Next step in the process have to wait for better weather. Annika used the sawing machine and produced a second bed sheet for our aft cabin.
Björn put the old saloon table on top of the new one to take some photos and to calculate the surface difference. The old table with its frame use half a square metre, but because of the frame the surface that could be used was only a quarter of a square metre! The new table is four inch wider to the sofa, but one inch shorter to the aisle, making a table of 0,7 square metre which is much more than double the usable surface of the old table. This without interfering with the sofa. The new adjusted support for the table makes it much more “turnable”, making it even easier to access the sofa behind the table.
Really an upgrade of Moon, especially the possibility to host more than two sitting guests around the table.
When the dining table was changed we thought that was a major improvement, but the effect of the new saloon table was if possible even greater.
Moon is really getting closer to be “our boat”.
After lunch, when the rain didn’t stop, we started to organise and look for stowed away items to be used instead of buying new ones in Nanaimo tomorrow.

3 March Friday
Overcasted and light rain in the morning.
We drove to Nanaimo after breakfast. The chandlery got a visit. We had ordered sound proofing for the engine compartment, some missing screws and more epoxy. We have almost used all our epoxy saved from our repair work on Moon in Malaysia.
At a sheet metal firm we had ordered four angled bars for the engine compartment lids to prevent them from bending. They were cut and drilled to measure at the store.
At the hard ware store we got sanding discs for the sander and cutting discs for the angle cutter.
We ended our trip by visiting a big supermarket for food. Similar price as Costco but we could buy everything in much smaller package compared with Costco. We were impressed by the diversity of the items they sold. We have been looking for Basmati rice without any great success. Here we found six different brands and qualities, impressing, especially as it is supposed to be a low cost food chain. We even found pickled herring.
Back in Moon late afternoon we used some time to find places for all newly bought items and then had a short rest before we joined the crew of Liv for a sundowner in Liv. Later we had dinner at the pub. They have “two for one” on Fridays, something not to be missed.

4 March Saturday
Sunshine and no wind. We brought the dining table to the pontoon after breakfast for a “last sanding”. Now it had come to the final adjustment. The varnish on the teak frame was sanded to bare teak even on the bottom side. We will keep the teak oiled instead of varnish. Much nicer and safer because there will be no joint between varnish and laminate that can cause problems in the future when cleaning the table.
The lids for the engine got some treatment as well. The four angle bars we got yesterday was cut 45 degrees in each end and grinded smooth to prevent getting cut when checking oil.
We were almost not done with our outdoor work when the wind increased and the temperature dropped, making it very uncomfortable to work on the pontoon. We continued indoors after lunch to prepare the lids for the angle bars and a leaf for the salons table.
We even managed to take a long walk, a walk that started with the wind from behind and sunglasses! But it was cold, we had to use a cap to keep warm.

5 March Sunday
There was a completely white landscape around Moon when we woke up. Several cm of snow covering everything. No wind and some bleu sky could be seen due east.
Annika used the little Dremel router after breakfast to prepare a piece of laminate to be glued on the bottom side of the leaf for the saloon table. On the bottom side to match the top layer and to prevent the plywood from bending.
The lids for the engine are treated with 24 holes for the screws for the angled bars.
We soaked the holes with epoxy to make the thread in the plywood stronger.
We discovered that the insulation to three of our spring cleats had came lose from the sealing. The contact glue had obviously not worked. (The fourth one was glued with epoxy) Now they rapidly came back in place using the epoxy glue we just had mixed for laminate and holes. Two lids under the bunk in the bow cabin got a new support glued to stiffen it up and to make the air leak through the bunk bottom to the cold hull less, minimising condensation when sailing in cold water.
After a late lunch we used the afternoon to do some laundry up in town. Yes the service building next to Moon in the marina is still not open after the repair, but it is getting closer for every week.

Week 10 6 – 12 March 2017 Ladysmith Marina

6 March Monday
Sunshine but very cold.
We cleared the table after breakfast, not from the breakfast, but from the load of epoxy work from yesterday that had been lying on the table while curing.
Annika continued to sand the teak frame around the laminate on the table. It’s difficult to judge when all varnish is gone, but it has to be taken away completely before putting oil on the teak. Varnish, even small remainings, becomes very visible together with the teak oil.
The English weekly blog was finalized and launched after a number of proof readings.
A lot of indirect LED was under production this week. Today the dining table got a long one under the deck above the dining table, but was not accepted in the evening. Too bright and too long! Another reason; it was visible when sitting down in the saloon.
Took a walk in the afternoon before a shower uphill, we are really looking forward to the finalizing of the service centre next to Moon.
Had a nice cod for dinner.

7 March Tuesday
Rain started at midnight and continued until noon. Strong wind the whole night and morning. After noon the sky cleared, but still windy and cold. Indoor work!
The indirect LED lights got some attention. First we changed the too bright one over the dining table to a shorter and smaller, not so bright.
Before lunch we had prepared 8 shorter LEDs ready for installation. Preparation is mainly about soldering tiny cables onto even tinier copper strip in the LED strips, a time consuming and difficult work. But we didn’t have to re solder more the two!
In the saloon we could only get to the starboard side because of “storage” on the port side.
The two chairs got their lights and it looked very good.
It was embarrassing to see the burnt teak above the old lamps! All these lamps were marked with 5 watt and had two bulbs. One was closer to the bottom plastic and had melted through. We discovered this when we inspected Moon before buying her and have of course we didn’t use the old bulbs. Some of the bulb holders are still in use (there were plenty of them in the boat), but now we use LED bulbs creating almost no heat.
After a simple dinner we could admire the effect of the new lights. Absolutely OK! Now we can have three different intensity of light in Moon. Indirect soft light, reading light or spotlights from the ceiling, making it almost as light as during day time. All lights are LED, making the amp consumption a fraction of the old halogen system!

8 March Wednesday
Sunshine but a cold morning. The forecast promised rain before noon and because of that we were on the pontoon immediately after breakfast. The lids to the engine compartment and the leaf to the saloon table got some treatment. The angled bars we bought last week got some touch up before we screwed them in place. Very good to reinforce the threads in the plywood with epoxy. No problem to use quite a force and be able to straighten the lids.
You will not believe this. The service facilities in the Welcome centre have opened today! We are happy not to have to walk uphill to have a shower and to walk to town for laundry. Not one day too early! The repair has been extremely time consuming. No wonder insurance are very expensive in North America.
After noon we took a long walk, the forecasted rain didn’t show and back in Moon there was absolutely no wind and we used that opportunity to raise the Yankee.
The remaining part of the afternoon we spent mounting the leaf onto the saloon table.
As usual on Wednesdays we joined the chicken wing pub dinner.

9 March Thursday
Almost sunshine in the morning and no wind. After breakfast we adjusted the halyard to the Yankee. The clutch didn’t cooperate yesterday, but not a problem today.
We replaced our chimney with a temporary one to be able to do some alterations and to get a H-top. Took a long walk before the rain. Got some snow before we where back in Moon, We managed to do some cutting of the chimney on the pontoon before the rain became too heavy. The rain later became heavy snow.
The rest of the day was spent indoors

10 March Friday
Snow everywhere. The forecast promised us sunshine and ten degrees C.
We borrowed the truck from Deb and Jim and drove to Victoria. Pleasure and “business” meaning sightseeing and visiting chandleries.
Lunch at one of the very English Pubs. Nice bright sunshine the whole day, but a bit chilly in the fresh breeze.
Back in Moon after five. After the big lunch in Victoria, we only had salad for dinner.

11 March Saturday
Again a rainy morning, that kept on the whole day.
Annika sanded the edges of the saloon table and put oil on the teak frame of the dining table after breakfast.
Björn cut the old saloon table to use as a back support at the dining table. Sounds weird? Well – we use the sofa at the dining table, sitting crosswise Moon, when on watch on passages. Then a back support towards the lockers comes handy. But there is quite a space below the locker and the cushion keeps creeping down there. The cut saloon table will make a good support for the cushion.
After having lunch we focused on the port side of the saloon for our indirect LED lights.
Until now that side of the saloon have been fully occupied with mattresses from the bow cabin and much more that we have been storing to get to other places in Moon. Having finalized most work in the bow cabin, the “storage” is now moved to the bow cabin, giving us full access to the saloon. What a big saloon we have!
After lots of fiddling with cables and breakers we now have three new LED’s under the port lockers. In the process we also moved a Bluetooth transducer under the media player, making it possible to use the player with the locker door in front of it closed. An hour later we had cleaned the working areas from all tools and debris and Moon was presentable at last. Not much later our guests arrived. One local couple we met the other week on the pub and our friends from Liv.
Our local guest brought home made Thai chicken green curry (she is originally from Thailand) and that was really nice and brought memories from our almost three years in Asia.

12 March Sunday
Overcasted but no rain. A bit warmer compared to rest of the week.
We started on our engine compartment lids after breakfast to finalize the work. First two wholes for the folding pads, a very nervous job. Must be a 100% fit, no room for errors with the router!
After lunch, when the brackets were in place, we glued the soundproofing in place with epoxy. We have grown tired of using contact glue after lots of unsuccessful tries.
After lunch we took a walk before we had a shower and since long needed haircut in the newly repaired service building.
Salmon soup/casserole for dinner.

Week 11 13 – 19 March 2017 Ladysmith Marina

13 March Monday
Rain until noon but no longer freezing cold.
Annika started assembling our “new” engine compartment lids after breakfast and Björn wrote the remaining parts of the English weekly blog.
As we didn’t want to put the newly epoxy glued lids above a cold engine, we thought it was the perfect time to run the engine as it was less than ten days until we were to leave the marina and of course we wanted to have some time if there was any doubt that the engine had managed the winter.
The engine started nicely after we had run the starter motor for some time with the stop solenoid engaged. We have learned from Nigel Calder that running the starter motor some time to build up oil pressure before the engine actually starts minimizes wear and tear. Now after nearly five month winterized this procedure seems to be more important than usual.
Ran the engine for half an hour at 1400 revs with the forward gear engaged. Everything seems to work fine. The new sound proofing helps quite a bit.
After lunch we emptied the forward head that up till now had been used as storage.
In November, before we left for Sweden, we laminated the hull behind the head. Now with everything moved and even the head taken out we noticed some dark teak plywood in a corner on the sink cupboard. Bad ventilation due to all storage had made conditions for condensation on the hull in the cupboard and that had soaked the plywood. We sanded part of the thickness away to let the remaining part to dry out.

14 March Tuesday
Rain in the morning but after breakfast the rain stopped and we could work outside on the pontoon. Before noon we had nice sunshine and warm weather.
Washed the cap rail and rub rail teak from all green algae. Even the bottom got some scrubbing. A special rub brush was pushed down to the keel, with the result that more than 90% of our slime on the bottom came off. Having done starboard side we turned Moon around and managed cleaning the port side too. We even had time to turn Moon back to her “facing north” position before any wind picked up.
Took a long walk and then Annika started with the forward head. We had already since long prepared a sheet of cork with caulking in place, and this was now cut to fit on the triangle of the hull behind the head.
The horizontal plywood where the head sits has a teak edge to the vertical plywood. The teak was now sanded down, not to trap water. Turned out to be complicated. A glue line came visible between the teak and the laminated plywood! The only good solution was to glue a new wider laminate on top of the old one. Luckily we had some left over from our table making.
Björn used the nice afternoon weather and the wind over the bow to cut six stainless brackets on the aft push pit. We had two “chairs” that we decided to remove, taking up to much space and made mooring difficult because they sat above the aft cleats. Took quite a lot of time to cut, mainly because it had to be done very carefully not touching the pipes with the cutting disc. Lots of grinding when the cut was done and it looks like they have never been there.

15 March Wednesday
No rain during the night and sunrise came with almost no clouds. Warm night! We had 22 C in the morning, in spite the Refleks furnace was set at minimum. Had to close the door to our aft cabin and open the hatch to get descent sleeping temp.
During breakfast and morning coffee we did a lot of internet and writing and then it was time for outdoor jobs.
We have tried to solve the problem with our drawers in the galley. The bottom one got stuck almost every time. Today we finally found the source – It was not as we had thought a to narrow play sideways, it was the two “ears” at the back of the drawer, sticking up to prevent the drawer to pivot when more than half way out. These were too high, and after some sanding the drawer worked just fine.
Annika continued to work at the bow head. A new laminate sheet was made to cover the gap between the teak edge and the old laminate we discovered yesterday when sanding the teak. Björn continued grinding the six brackets that was cut on the push pit. Very nice to have got a “clean” push pit without the two “chairs”.
We finalised the day with painting epoxy on the drawer, prepared surfaces at the bow head before we together with the crew of Liv went to “Wednesday Pub” for dinner and beer.

16 March Thursday
Rain and back to more cool weather.
The primed windlass got some topcoat after breakfast under the roof of the welcome building. Then rapidly in to the warm boat for drying. The windlass had more than ten degrees higher temp compared to the outdoor temp, meaning no risk for condensation when painting in spite of high humidity in the rainy weather.
We borrowed the truck and drove to Duncan to get our chimney that had been altered to coop with insulation and the “imperial” H-chimney we have bought. Not a cheap solution, but hopefully we can get rid of smoke inside Moon when it’s gusty. If so it’s a good investment.
On our way to Duncan Liv filled their propane bottle. They were surprised and disappointed when they discovered that their new bottle already was five years “old”. It’s not something that you think you have to check when you buy something new. But we have also had bad experiences using West Marine, so maybe it should not be a surprise.
After having had a late lunch we continued with our work, Annika preparing the cork in the bow head and Björn polishing the push pit.
Pickled herring and potatoes for dinner.

17 March Friday
Cloudy and quite chilly.
The new chimney has done its work, no smoke in the boat in spite a gusty night.
During breakfast we finally decided to buy the propeller we have been giving quotes for. Same brand as before – MaxProp, but this time with four blades. The English quote was US$1000 cheaper than the US ones, including shipping. This have happened many times since we started ordering from overseas when rebuilding Moon. The old prop is corroded and with increasing play.
We at last got our gas spring posted to the German producer for inspection. Hopefully they find out what have happened and that comes under warranty.
Annika sanded the laminate we glued in the bow toilet.
The cork we glued to the hull behind the head looks very good and because the caulking was already done outside, the area looks more or less ready. We only have to move the aft head and mount in place in the bow toilet.
When dismantling the head in the aft toilet, one of the four bolts didn’t come lose. Annika managed to reach the head of the bolt under the floor with a wrench and when the head came off we discovered locally rotten plywood around those four bolts.
As dinner we had a very good meat casserole ended with a piece of camembert.

18 March Saturday
Sunny but cold, and later some wind that picked up and turned to south, straight into our cockpit.
Annika pre glued one sheet of cork that will be on top of the exchanged wet plywood and one for the hull in the aft head. Both on a piece of plastic. Björn cut out the wet plywood under the head. We will have a new piece of plywood, resting on an epoxy fibre laminate bolted to the remaining plywood on both side of the head. We used the whole day to cut plywood and epoxy fibre filler on the hull, the later used to glue and partly fill the space behind the plywood to the hull behind the head.
Annika used the sawing machine and made covers for the blocks in the lazy jacks to protect the main sail. Put them in place from the bosom chair. We had lunch on deck just before the wind picked up and made us continue indoors.
Had a more than usual a necessary shower after all grinding and sanding fibre and epoxy, before our guests came over for dinner.

19 March Sunday
Sunny but frost on deck when we woke up. We did some writing after breakfast to let the temperature rise. The cork sheets that had been caulked yesterday were now moved into the sun. We had leftovers from yesterday’s pizza dinner as lunch.
Aft toilet; we premade the epoxy fibre laminate that is going to be the bottom layer of the composite structure under the head. The rest of the day we did work outdoors. The windlass got new oil and we put it back in place in the chain locker.
We raised the main to get all travellers on the track, simultaneously we tensioned the five battens. The main looks ok after having spent five months on the boom, covered with the sail pack and water protection. White and clean!
We are almost ready to go sailing! Both the windlass and all sails in place, not to mention the test of the engine this Monday.
Next week we will go sailing!

Week 12 20 – 26 March 2017 Ladysmith Marina – Salt Spring Island 22 nm

20 March Monday
Sunny but frost on deck when we woke up.
Today we will have full focus working in the aft toilet. Björn cut the new plywood that will be used in place of the damaged plywood under the head. The fibre laminate we produced yesterday was now cured and could be adjusted to fit as support under the new plywood. The remaining plywood on both sides of the off cut was sanded to match the thickness of the new and to make room for three layers of epoxy fibre on top. The structure will in fact be a composite with 5 mm epoxy fibre in the bottom and 2-3 mm on top of a 16 mm plywood. The bottom laminate is fixed to the remaining plywood with three 6 mm countersunk bolts on each side to fix it during curing and for extra strength
Onto the hull, behind the head, we glued a half inch thick hard insulation. The removed plywood was attached with thick spots of epoxy glue/filler, creating air gaps prone to condensation. Now the insulation and cork will have the same thickness as old plywood and air gaps behind. This work took major part of the day, mainly due to all grinding and sanding the hull behind the head. Major clean up after all sanding!
Rock Fish before a quiet evening after an intense day.

21 March Tuesday
Rain all night and until noon.
Continuing in the aft toilet after breakfast, we discovered that the pump had leaked some water onto the sanded plywood during the night. Clean water as we had pumped lots of freshwater through the head before dismantling it. But the surface wet plywood had to be dry before epoxy lamination. Heat fan and our humidity meter helped us to make sure to have a safe surface to work on after lunch.
For once we actually have a time restriction, having to leave the Marina this week, so of course this time delay was not good. But before the day was over we had in fact done the composite laminate, not losing a single day.
Laundry and shopping late afternoon. Before dinner we even had time for a shower.

22 March Wednesday
Rain all night and all morning until noon.
The epoxy work from yesterday got extra heat from the fan all night, making it possible for us to continue already after breakfast. The premade cork sheet had to be fine cut to size and the centre hole in the plywood under the head was rinsed making it possible to make a mark from underneath into the cork. When that had successfully been checked, we cut the big hole, 90 mm through the cork and the upper laminate into the pre-cut hole in the two underlying layers, standing on top of the cork keep it in place during drilling. The result looked almost professional! The 90 mm holes, actually made in three different steps, were almost exactly in line. But now we faced the real challenge. The four holes for the bolts to the foot of the head were to be placed exactly, matching the big hole. We used the damaged off cut plywood as a template, marking the holes onto the, still unglued, cork with a pen. With the head in place the markings was good enough. Again standing on the cork we drilled four 6,5 mm holes through the whole composite laminate. 6,5 to be able to make an 8 mm thread through the bottom epoxy fibre and as a centre hole for the 20 mm hole we drilled through the upper laminate and plywood down to the thread. The cork sheet holes were enlarged separately to 9 mm for the 8 mm bolts.
Now we had four 20 mm holes down to the lower fibre laminate and could use the big hole in the middle to thread four bolts from underneath into the laminate using that as a “nut” to keep the bolts in place. The cork sheet was now put in place over the four bolts and then “moment of truth”, should the head fit the bolts?
Yes it did, perfect mainly thanks to the play the 20 mm hole above the lower laminate created, making it possible for the bolt to adjust to some misalignments, giving no extra stress to the holes in the head. Then we removed the head and the cork sheet, tensioned the bolts in the lower laminate. Now it was time for epoxy. First step, epoxy with tough filler in the 20 mm holes around the bolts, then epoxy with thickener on the whole surface the cork was to be glued onto. Then, after the cork sheet was in place, we put the foot to the head in place. Now the bolts were kept in place by the head while the epoxy cured.
Lunch after this intense morning work.
Spent the afternoon cleaning up after two days of only work.
The working day was ended with a farewell drink in Liv. We are supposed to leave tomorrow, and the rest of the evening was spent with all our friends at the pub, most of them aware that we are going to leave after five months in Ladysmith.
Coming back to Moon we tried to loosen the nuts fixing the foot of the head, but that was too late. The epoxy had cured for too long and impossible to lose without damaging the foot or the cork. Of course we should have loosened them earlier, but we didn’t want to disturb the epoxy in those 20 mm holes around the bolts, essential for fixing the bolts and for waterproofing.

23 Mach Thursday
No rain during the night and the sun came with a partly clear sky!
Before breakfast Annika made some effort to free the foot to the head. But yesterday’s conclusion was right, it’s impossible and have to wait until we have a new foot.
The cork sheet behind the head to the hull was adjusted to exact shape after breakfast. More adjustments than normal because even the thickness had to be cut in angle to fit.
Then more epoxy. The cork sheet had to be glued to the hull and watertight to all other surfaces. We used white filler in the resin around the edges, except to the cork under the head where we later will use black caulking.
Even the head called for some epoxy. The biggest problem with the foot fixed to the floor was that we couldn’t get to the big 90 mm hole anymore, making it impossible to screw the head to the foot the normal way using bolts and nuts. First we thought of using a threaded rod, glued into the four holes in the foot, but then we thought; was it possible to get into the foot from under the floor using the sink locker? No, too far and too many angles, but maybe a thin steel thread through the hole under the floor where we could get to it and attach a bolt, and yes! that was the trick.
We were happy to find this solution because the four bolts were to keep pressure on the seal between the porcelain bowl and the foot with the sewage pipe! And of course keep the head from not falling apart while using it. Rough weather can introduce big forces in this joint when somebody is sitting on the head! So of course we were happy not having to rely on only glued threaded rods! Now the epoxy only prevented the bolt from turning when the nuts were tensioned from above.
During yesterdays farewell dinner we understood that the Marina manager had the opinion that our monthly payment was valid until Friday, something that came very handy fixing our extra work fastening the head.
This means another night in the marina and the remaining work in the toilet could be done with no rush and with our normal quality.
After having replaced all damaged plywood, improved the teak edge in front of the head, insulated the hull and made a completely waterproofed joint between the head and the floor, our head and shower is way much better than when it was originally built. Now it’s a very nice room for having a shower, previously it was only nice…
After noon we borrowed the truck and drove to Nanaimo together with the crew of Liv for a last shopping tour. Back in Moon we stored our findings and later got another farewell dram in Liv before dinner in Moon.
After dinner we visited Jim and Deb, thanking them for all support during our stay in Ladysmith. Jim was going to work outside the marina tomorrow when we were to leave, so we had to say Aufwiedersehen tonight.

24 March Friday Ladysmith Marina – Bute Island 1 nm
The rain all night was in the morning exchanged to partly clear sky and sunshine.
Before breakfast Annika caulked the gap between the two cork sheets in the head. Tape on both sides, and a fare amount of extra caulking in the gap and suddenly everything is done!
OK there is still some sanding on the 90 degree edge of the cork and of course we have to assemble the hoses to the head before we can call it completely done.
Breakfast and planning all items that has to be done before leaving around noon.
A short walk to the hardware store and back via the showers made it possible to leave already before lunch. The main reason for being able to leave so fast after five months at the dock was of course that we didn’t have to do any preparations for making Moon ready for the sea. We were only to motor a short trip in completely protected waters and could then without rush spend the afternoon and evening at anchor preparing the boat.
Finally time for leaving! The crew from Liv and the whole Marina staff was on the pontoon when Annika manoeuvred Moon out to freedom. It’s very remarkable that the same wonderful feeling still after all these years comes, only minutes after we have left our long time mooring.
All system works fine, even the log that Annika put in place this morning works and show us that we are doing our normal speed to the rpm. Obviously the propeller and the bottom got quite clean after our efforts last week.
Anchored after thirty minutes where we anchored five months ago before we arrived in the Marina. This meant we didn’t have to do our normal research of the bottom before letting out the hook, only go to the place our plotter showed us we had anchored in October.
Annika made lunch while Björn arranged for our normal deck securing of the chain to the aft cleat. We had only used the snubber to take off the load from the windlass when digging down the anchor in the bottom because we had used the deck securing line as a mooring line during our winter mooring.
Now Moon comes another bit closer to our normal cruising routines.
After a nice salad lunch, first Björn had a nap, and later Annika, something that “never” happens. Probably it was our long sea trip that took its toll. But more probably it was the last four days of more intense work than usual that was the cause for the naps!
In the afternoon we had rain and some wind. Moon “sailed” off and on, but without lifting the chain, small movements that was only nice to feel remembering us that we were on water again.
We had dinner with leftovers from our barbecued chicken bought in Nanaimo yesterday, now in a casserole with curry, coco milk, bananas and rice. Much better than yesterday!

25 March Saturday Bute Island – Salt Spring Island 22 nm
We got the predicted blow during the night from the direction we had digged down the anchor. Moon sailed more than during the afternoon yesterday and heeled a bit when “tacking”, but not as much as when moored to the pontoon with the wind across. At anchor Moon can adjust to the wind and “go to windward” when heeling. Felt nice and secure in spite we hadn’t been anchored for five months.
The new chimney worked fine; no back push of smoke into the boat in spite the gusts.
We slept very well, except for half an hour when we were up checking conditions when the wind started.
The rain from yesterday was gone in the morning and replaced with a great view. Snow over the high mountains behind Ladysmith reflecting the rising sun. Two eagles in a nearby tree, also lighted by the sun, contributed to the scenery.
Already on our way to Chemanius the wind changed back to south. But not strong and because we had to use the engine due to many reasons, we had no problem making good progress. Just before Chemanius we came second to a big powerboat, and of course he was heading for the fuel dock.
The fuel dock is in fact a service station for tug boats and they provide fuel at the small end of their pontoon, crowded with tugboats. Not an easy place to get access to, especially in prevailing wind. Luckily we had the wind off the pontoon today, but we had to wait out on water for the powerboat to fuel up. Twenty minutes later they were done and we could fill 640 litres.
Then motored further east around Salt Spring Island to Long Harbour where Allards live. We met them first time on Suwarrow 2008 and then in Tonga and NZ. We had our headsails stored in their house when Lindisfarne wintered in Ganges 2011 – 12.
We anchored just off their floating pontoon in Long Harbour around three o’clock after some 20 nm from Oyster Bay. A decent trip for us beginners in the cold but sunny weather.
We will meet our friends for brunch tomorrow when they arrive from Victoria by ferry.
We used the afternoon to tidy up the boat. All upholstery out and all surfaces inside cleaned from dust. The sanding in the aft toilet had, in spit of closed door, brought some dust to most places inside Moon. Even the superstructure got some treatment with cleaner. Winter sot makes the white surfaces grey striped!
Had a nice salad dinner, mainly because we didn’t have salad for lunch. Hot soup and sandwich is better under way in cold and windy conditions.

26 March Sunday Long Harbour, Salt Spring Island
Rain in the morning after a wind- and rain free night. Slept like a log! It’s obvious that we sleep better on anchor with no disturbing light from land and noise from nearby rigs in marinas.
Had a small breakfast before we launched the dinghy and took us to Allards pontoon.
Steep road, 100 meters horizontal and 100 meters vertical calls for some efforts. Of course the road “meanders” up the hill, but even so it’s challenging.
Came to the house shortly after Joan and Roger had arrived from Victoria. They still live in the “gate cottage” waiting for the house to get ready. There are many reasons why the house isn’t ready yet, but after our Malaysia time consuming project to repair Moon we know a lot about delays.
Had a nice brunch and get together before we did a tour in the big house. Yes it’s really big, one of the reasons for time consumed. Most solutions are special made and the quality is very high, another reason for the time consumed.
We will be back in August and hopefully look at a 98% finished house!
Back in Moon late afternoon we used the reaming part of the day indoors due to rain and cold wind.
Lamb for dinner.
We know we don’t have to remind you, but it’s nice to be on anchor!

Annika & Björn