Mintaka Swims Again!

After sixteen months on the hard in Port Townsend, Washington, and after far too much driving, effort, hassles, and money, Mintaka finally splashed on Feb 8, and is now tied up in her slip in Brinnon, Washington, on the Hood Canal. She has two new masts, one wood and the other aluminum -- a long, sad tale, best told over beer -- as well as all new wooden booms and rigging.

There are yet more projects to complete this summer before we go offshore again. One of those is the fabrication of a hard top for the dodger. As I get older, I place more value on staying dry while on watch. I had to wait for the rigging to be up to make sure of no conflicts with the main backstays, so that’s the project I’m working on now. I’ll post a photo when I install it in April.

As the mainmast is now a bit taller, we no longer fit under the Hood Canal bridge, so we had to have them open it for us. Quite the feeling of power! This next bit, though, you just won’t believe. The slip we were heading to used to be occupied by cruising friends that we met in New Zealand, and who now live in Hood River, Oregon. Well, Steve was one of the drivers that was stopped by the bridge opening, and he recognized us. He hadn’t been in the area in several years, and had no idea that we had launched and were motoring down to their old slip, and we had no idea that he was in the area. So, as we were sliding into our berth in Home Port Marina, there he was, ready to catch our mooring lines. If he had gotten to the bridge only a minute or two earlier, he would not have been stopped. Robyn and I have had many small-world experiences over the years, some of them truly amazing, but this one ranks right up there.

We are hoping to sail down the coast to San Francisco in early September, staging her there over the next winter for a May 2013 departure back to New Zealand. We’ll be sailing around the Northwest as much as we can this season, working out any kinks in the new rig, deciding on any sail changes, and finishing up remaining projects. I’ll update the blog much more frequently now that we’re operational again, so check in from time to time.