Interesting weekend. I picked up a 1969 Mariner 31
ketch in
trade for some
work. We drove to Mount Vernon to fetch my Nav
gear and PFD's,
charts etc. from
storage, only to find I didn't have a key.
We got to Orcas via the
ferry at 4PM, hitched a ride with the former owner to the
boat, did paperwork and he left. On pre-trip
inspection, we found the Nav lights inop. I found some speaker wire and using an extra Nav light for a tester, traced and fixed the issue by splicing into the
cabin light circuit.
Three hours later, we fired the 100 hour
Perkins 4-108 up and stood out. Of course, the
wind was exactly from the wrong direction and we were short tacking to get open
water when a
jib block tore away. Back to the
engine we went. We had a fine
motor until we just exited the Resario Strait and the
engine died of
fuel starvation with 4 gallons left in the tank. Back to sailing we went.
Now ghosting along, trying to get by Sinclair Island in a 3
knot breeze and blown out
sails is not much fun, especially against the ebb. I sent the rest of the crew to
bed as it was freezing cold out and we all had light hoodies on.
(BFS needs to offer a heavier hoodie)
Along about midnight (me being awake since 4AM) it's starts closing in and raining. Now I'm peering at a moldy old chasrt left on the
boat, trying to determine what's a reef and what is a
mold spore (remember the locked
storage?) and getting hypothermic. Four hours later I was past Vendova and at the entrance to the Bellingham channel but could not pinpoint where exactly, I was because of 1/4 mile visibility so I backwinded the Genny, crossed up the
helm, kicked Chris outta the sack for a nap until sunrise.
At 6AM, Chris states that we're 150 yards from a tanker and drifting closer so I got up and got underway again. I ghosted along at a 1/2
knot for a while until we got some breeze, still freezing. About 30 minutes later the breeze stiffened up to about 20 knots. Now we're sailing! The bnoat is handling the quartering seas better than Oh Joy as we turn the corner into Bellingham Bay and I make for the yard
dock as the
wind falls off.
Two hundred yards short of the
dock and in the channel, the wind dies, except for little puffs from variable directions. We sail forward, backwards, spin around, drift around, holler at Sealions and
Seals for a tow for a freaking hour before we finally bump up againts the "Pelican", an
emergency spill response barge and use our boathooks to grab the tires and
work our way down her
hull towards the dock. At the last second, we get a little puff and sail to the dock, 19 hours after the trip started.
We are there and I am fried after getting an hour nap in the last 36 and being hypothermic for the last 8 hours. we tie off and go home.
About the Mariner 31. Built by Far East Yachts in 1969, she's a glass
hull and
wood everything else
ketch. she displaces 11,500 with 5,000 of that being ballast so she's very stable with that long
keel, if a bit slow, with good seagoing manners. The thing that impressed me most was the
cabin layout. Even though her beam is 9.9, it's a very spacious 9.9 and is much better than a lot of 35 footers I've seen or been aboard, including "Oh Joy".
She's a bit rough but nothing we can't handle. I plan to restore her and then enjoy her while "Oh Joy" is down. I may sell her later, I don't know. I know she'll make somebody a very fine, comfortable and dependable boat. One that they can take anywhere on the planet.