Sorry 😔   the spinnaker!

(April, responding to my text about the motor issues)

After going about 6 miles, as we entered the Puget Sound proper, the grinding noise came back. The wind was starting to pick up, so we shut off the motor and put up the sails. However, the tide was still on its way out and the current was slowly dragging us back north.

We hadn't made much use of the Spinnaker before. In the two years that I've owned the boat, I think we've pulled it out twice. It took a minute to remember how to trim it, but once we did we finally started to make forward progress.

We sailed one tack until a bit south of Pilot Point then gybed and continued to Edmonds. As the wind picked up and the tide turned, we started to pick up speed. I think we were averaging 5-6 kt, speed over ground.

The wind started to die down as we passed the Port of Edmonds. We might have made it back to Shilshole, but it seemed like tempting fate to just continue past the marina conveniently in front of us. We decided to take a closer look at the motor and then decide if we'll continue or stop in Edmonds.

The grinding noise was back immediately. I wanted try moving the gear linkage adjustment back, so we inflated the dingy and I jumped back and forth from the boat to the dingy, trying different adjustments, while Daniel tried to work us back upwind towards the marina entrance.

As we made our final tack to put us into the marina, the motor was once again going into forward gear, albeit with unpleasant noises. We were still 10 minutes out, so we shut the motor off until we reached the entrance.

As we approached the entrance, we doused the mainsail but kept the genoa. If we needed to sail into the marina, I felt more comfortable handling just the headsail. I started the engine and put it into gear... nothing.

We continued in under sail, searching out an empty spot in the guest moorage area. We found one spot left, but couldn't get the boat around and upwind (I think I should have doused the headsail sooner). We bailed and tied up to the haul-out dock instead (the first spot turned out to be the pump-out station, so we couldn't have stayed there anyway). A powerboat was leaving from the guest dock and offered to tow us over into their place (thanks Jesse!).

As we waited for April to come meet us, Daniel and I started going through our options. Staying in guest moorage at the Port of Edmonds was $40/night. Towing back to Fremont would be ~$1300 (at that point, I might as well just buy a new motor...). Eventually, Daniel discovered Aurora Rents apparently rents an 8 HP Honda Outboard for $80/day. Perfect! April arrived, we all got dinner, and I headed home with April so we could pickup a motor in the morning.