Skip to primary navigation Skip to content Skip to footer
Back to Blog & Articles

LOG: January/February 2016


boat being built

Dear Friends: Westward and Baja Status: June 24, 2015

I hauled Westward this morning in Port Townsend. She will be here on the hard getting a short list of projects taken care of while I go back to Catalyst in Alaska.

And then…… Five and a half months in the life of Westward.

December 20, 2015

We stepped Westward’s fore mast yesterday, thankfully before the wind reached gale force in the afternoon. We launch tomorrow (Monday) and then begin final preparation for our repositioning run from Port Townsend to La Paz, Baja Sur.

We have been longer than planned here in the boatyard, and spent more than budgeted, but things are coming together and Westward is in better shape than she has been in 75 years. Westward has a new keel timber, about 56 new planks, has been refastened, recorked and painted.

The new interior bulkheads will be done this week, and all of the new cherry and mahogany trim has been cut, shaped and bundled so we can take it with us and install it as we travel. The back deck is now fully enclosed and provides both wonderful views as well as protection from weather (it is being tested as I type).

The current plan is to grab the next weather window, which looks like Christmas day right now, and begin working our way south. With a bit of Holiday Blessing we should be in San Diego on about New Years day. I will take this opportunity to wish a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to those of you who follow this page, and to thank you for being part of the Pacific Catalyst community.

 

December 21, 2015

Another week of prep and provisioning and we’re off for Baja! December 29, 2015 · We are approaching Dungeness Spit on our way out to sea. Hoping to be in San Diego on about the 3rd, and then on to La Paz for our winter season in the Sea of Cortes. Onward to the Sea of Cortez!