Living on a Boat

With a not so sad farewell, we bid adieu to the boatyard life. We decided to leave at dawn to catch a good tide for the run down the Napa river. We seemed to be the only ones planning on our early departure. The fuel dock was closed for the holiday weekend, so we had to wait at the dock for them to open around 8 or so. Got fueled up, and a pretty heavy fog had rolled in.

We went slowly down the river with about 100 meter visibility. Came to a railroad bridge about 10 minutes down the river which was closed. No mention in the marina directions of this bridge, no sign on it with contact instructions, just lots of fog and a current pulling us toward the bridge. Went to the standby of just honking the air horn and waiting for a response. A guy cam wandering out and opened the bridge for us. When we got close it looked too close( it usually does) so I told him we needed 66' of clearance.He raised it another 10-12 feet and waived us in again. I asked how high, and he said 70'. It would have been very sad if we had taken his advice and tried to pass the lower height.
We meandered down the river without much else going on until we reached Carquinez Straight,
where the river meets San Pablo Bay. There was a nasty chop and about 25 knots of wind. Around an -hour or so later the tide changed to flood and the wind eased as we left the straight into the bay.

Put up the sails and sailed for the next 5 hours against the flooding tide and wind, but very smooth and easy to make 8-10 knots. With a 3 knot current setting us back, it took all afternoon to get to Richmond.

Had a hard time getting the main sail neatly folded on the mast as you need someone on the fore and aft end of the boom to flake the sail neatly on top of the boom, while the helmsman keeps the boat headed into the wind and releases the halyard at an appropriate rate. Instead it was Joan at the mast me trying to steer with my feet, releasing the halyard with one hand and trying to flake the sail with the other. The  auto pilot was missing a piece and not available for duty. It took 3 tries to get it under control. Sure glad to have an electric winch to haul it back up each failed try. We are anxiously awaiting our stacking mainsail cover which has lazy jacks to keep the sail atop the boom, and just a zipper down the top to cover or uncover  the sail. We arrived just in time to catch the harbor master and get a slip. We got an end tie which allows us to dock the boat facing into the wind, making entry and exit very easy.

We spent the rest of the week putting the rest of the boat back together and obtaining bits and pieces required to make sailing less of a trial. It is really nice to be on the boat in a convenient location without the boatyard mess or any of the other trying circumstances we have been enduring.

 

 

Locals checking us out.

 

 

Full main

 

 

Single reef in main

Got the autopilot piece and will be finishing the main sail reefing system and then sailing trials to sort it all out. We feel very positive at this point.

Splash Day

Well we finally got to that line in the sand and stepped boldly over it. The events leading up to the launch were about typical. We wanted to coordinate finishing the spots on the hull we couldn't paint while still  on the stands, the application of new graphics to the amas, the launch of the boat, and the sail maker coming up to install the sails.

 

Sent the graphics for the ama out for estimates, and amazingly enough the cost for a vinyl banner is about 1/5 the cost of a vinyl sign, probably because t shirt shops aren't as snotty as sign shops. Wednesday evening, we went to pick up the graphics, oops we ran out of ink, can you come back tomorrow?
Got back to find the boat up on the trailer, maybe they didn't need nervous mother hens supervising the loading.
We were still painting the sail drive and the bottom the next morning. Went to get the graphics, the guys hadn't put transfer paper on it yet. Forty minutes of fidgeting and toe tapping and we were out the door, except the part which the printer messed up at the end of the flames on one side. They cheerfully offered me half off and promised the last piece would be ready the next day. Back to the boat to try and get the graphics on before the launch at noon.

 

 

Leonard arrives to view the launch and help supervise the graphics work, and we get it done by noon.

The boat launchers are off having lunch and other stuff, so we wait a couple of hours.

Hope we get it launched and in the water before the sail maker arrives at 4 o'clock

 

 

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The time comes and off we go.

 

The hole where the boat used to live.

 

 

 

Through the gate with inches to spare.

 

 

 

Down the ramp.

 

 

At the dock ready to move to the visitors dock. Hope the engine feels like running after almost a year.

No worries, but there is not enough room to turn around  in here so we get to back out with a cross wind. A good initiation to big boat in tight spaces boat handling.

 

 

Made it to the other dock with no surprises, now we just need to wait an hour till the sail maker gets here.  As though in chorus with the rest of the day, he shows up almost two hours late. He left a little later than planned, and the rush hour traffic took care of the rest.

 

 

 

The jib goes on with some effort, we are badly organized, the boat is a junk pile, and we have trouble finding the parts to hook it up. We worked out the details and when we furled it, it didn't want to cooperate. A years worth of dirt and bug nests in the furler make it very difficult to roll the sail up, but we get it on. The main didn't go quite as well, the batten car sliders on the ends of the battens were about 1 mm. wider than the groove in the track. By this time we have been messing with the sails for an hour and a half and the sun is going down. The sail maker has missed his dinner reservation, and everyone is ready for a break.

 

 

 

Still need to glue down the chain guard on the deck, install the forward vent, caulk the hatch, maybe get the paper peeled off the top of the hatch, put the dagger board back in the case, and a few more little goodies. I need to change the oil in the engine and sail drive, top off the fuel, wire up the new instruments, and put the mainsail on. I took a file to the sliders for the mast track and trimmed just enough off to allow them to fit. It would be nice to have the bow rail installed, the forward tramps in place and the dodger canvas back on the frame. Should be a busy couple of days of leisure, must be why its the labor day week end, as we will toil through the holiday. Trouble with not having jobs is that you never get days off.

 

It is wonderful to be back on the boat in the water. Just the peaceful motion and quiet foggy nights are a world away from the spot in the yard, even it is only 100 m. geographically. We have a couple of days courtesy at the dock, so we will get enough done to move down to the bay, and continue at our leisure. The next little challenge will be getting dock space there. The end ties are generally used as guest docks and we have to find one that is unoccupied at the time of our arrival so that we can tie up there.