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Bringing the Coronado Home


11/06/07 The day before we travel to Bellingham to bring our Coronado 25 home to Gig Harbor,WA (approx 133 miles), the weather is not looking real good. We have been checking the weather and tide and planning our trip. If we would have brought the boat home the previous weekend, we would have had a smooth sail, now we are looking at taking a four day sail during some 20 mph winds and seas of 2-4 feet and plenty of that special Washington rain.
Now that we are proparing for the trip, I wish I would have taken more time to inventory the boat and check out the equipment. The boat owner has been very helpful in helping prepare the boat for sailing. We will spend a day to do all these things and depart the following morning.

Sue and I are concerned about the trip but we are taking precautions to insure that we at least keep warm and dry. One concern is that we do not know if the mainsail has reefing points, we are going to need to reef the sail. Is the outboard going to fail? I was a marine mechanic for the army for years and I don't like fixing stuff underway. It always seems to be important to fix stuff right away.

I am feeling that the trip will be less stressful after passing the southern tip of Whidbey Island. Since the weather is going to be poor during our trip, I am looking for places to hide from the weather if needed. This of course will increase our voyage time but I intend on getting back safely so we can start fixing up our new boat. I will post any new info or the recap of our trip when we get back. Since we don't drink, christening the boat with a can of tuna fish will be in order. I gotta get started on my Tums and Dramamine so I can be at the top of my game.

Nov 6 2007 Tuesday, We departed to Bellingham to pick up our new baby. With no real idea of what was right and what was wrong with the boat, we were heading into an unknown course. We packed the van with everything we thought we would need to survive a four day journey in the winter.

We were told that the boat was ready to sail so we planned to get underway on Wednesday morning.

Sue took to cleaning the interior while I worked on the deck; standing rigging, running rigging and aux power. As Sue was cleaning the cabin, she noticed some problems;

  • Cabinet drawers sticking
  • Sink not working
  • Misfitted sette table mount so table fell off under pressure
  • Some cabin lights not working
  • Lotsa little leaks from above at the stantion mounts, chain stays, cleat mounts, forward hatch cover and windows.

    Here is what I found;

  • Outboard engine with no discharge
  • Broken stern stantion mount at deck fitting
  • 8" crack at the port side winch (through hull)
  • 3" crack post side just forward of winch
  • Stantion and lifelines missing screws (while pulling myself up to the deck, the starboard life line and stantion pulled out all the way up to the attachment at the bow pulpit)
  • Broken radio antenna at stern
  • Non-Functioning Depth Sounder
  • Mainsail stitching coming undone
  • Missing hank on mainsail
  • Running rigging mislabeled in cockpit
  • Bilge pump shorting out in bilge
  • No VHF only weather radio
  • Crack at hull to deck joint amidship
  • Loose shroud mounts at deck
  • Major separation at aft sole to cockpit

    Some items were insignificant for the cruise. The remainder of the items needed to be fixed before leaving in the morning. After our initial inspection, we took off for supplies and a "regroup" in our plan. We were overwhelmed with the amount of work needed to sail. We were nearly in tears at the thought of delaying our departure because of the needed repairs.

    After assuring ourselves that were could easily be a day late on our departure and the work was not beyond our means, we continued on. The previous owner was more than willing to tend to our request to have the sail sewn and the engine fixed or replaced. I can tell you one thing about a Coronado 25, a 15HP engine is just too big for the engine compartment. It doesn't go in easy and it doesn't come out easy and it blocks the removal of the fuel tank. We ended up trading it out for an 8HP Yamaha the night before departure. This was a little easier to install than the Honda 15 but still a two-person job. The outboard was working just fine, now on to the next task.

    The mainsail was removed and sent away for repair. There was no shortage of marine supply stores to get our hanks and misc stainless steel screws for the stantions. We did not complete all the tasks for day one of our journey.

    A new bilge pump was installed and wired to an on/off switch.

    Here we are at Thurday evening and we are confident that she is ready to sail the 120+ mile cruise. Tonight however, we experienced the force of a 50+ MPH storm. This is not a good experience other than to enlighten you to your insignificance. After taking an anti-anxiety pill, no worries. Sue produced an excellent meal and now we could concentrate on our departure.

    The following morning we got up later than expected and mssed our departure time. The weather was still questionable and fog didn't clear until afternoon. After checking the weather at the harbormaster, we realized that we could not make it to Anacortes before dark. We decided to at least sail the boat in Bellingham bay for a short shake down and familiarization. After tying up at the guest dock, the wind started to gust up to 17 MPH and within 20 minutes we were over 20MPH and getting stronger, so we decided to load the van and go home until another day.

    Feeling a little wounded about leaving the boat, the first order when arriving home was to check the weather. Wow, things happen for a reason, more gusts into the 50+ MPH range. We may have gotten to Anacortes today with white knuckles and ulcers but with our skill level, better safe than sorry.

    The guest moorage was paid until Wedesday the following week. Our plan was to arrive again in Bellingham and depart on Tuesday morning. All weather and tide conditions were favorable following the previous storm. Daily weather checks indicated that the original condition estimates were changing for the worse the closer we got to our departure date. Again, high winds and rain expected. After all our plans to prepare, we decided that the boat would be hauled on truck from Bellingham to Tacoma and dry docked. Now my angst level is becomming reduced and managable.