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.

 



Working in the Yard Still

Been working the list pretty hard and progress is being made.  Somehow, we manage to add as many items to the final list as we check off.  "This week for sure" is our mantra.

 

Joan has been painting madly at the decks and it is making a big difference.

 

 

 

I have been working on getting the hatch frame build and the hatch mounted.

 

 

Taped the new paint off, and painted the first coat of anti fouling on the bottom.

 

 

 

 

Hatch install meets paint project. The red thingy is just a bucket stuck in the hole where the solar vent goes while we are painting.

 

 

 

This little jewel is the crash block, which is just a block of high density foam used to absorb the shock if we hit something with the dagger board. The wooden and fiberglass bits are used to attach it to the inside of the dagger board case so that it will be at the exit point of the dagger board case.



Installed, it looks like this when looking down inside the dagger board case.

 

 

Took a day off to rest, recuperate, and check out the America's Cup scene. It was easy to get right up next to the action, but we went to Leonard's to watch it live on TV. It was cold and foggy(surprise!) at the city front.

 

 

 

New graphics on the aft edge of the akas to identify us as a USCG documented vessel.

 

 

Front deck is freshly painted, the hatch, solar vent and bow roller will be installed as soon as the paint sets up.

 

On the list for the next few days:

Prime and paint sail drive unit with anti fouling.

Install rubber seal  between hull and sail drive unit.

Another coat of anti fouling on the hulls and rudder.

A fresh coat of anti fouling for the dagger board.

Install new radio and instruments.

Pick up and install deck guard to keep anchor chain from destroying all that lovely paint. This piece will be a piece of pvc conveyor belt glued to the deck between the bow roller and the windlass.

A few more little odds and ends yet to be described.

 

 

Yardwork, details, details

Making progress, thinking about sailing.  If we get down to the bay by the 22 Aug., the Americas Cup Cats will be having trials for a few days. Would be something to see, but not likely a life changer, more like another line in the sand.

The defining project has been the forward hatch replacement. As is the usual case, it is more detailed than the plan would indicate. I built a framework inside the old hatch, and cut some plywood to fill in the gaps. Took a while to find the right plywood, but there was a yard in Berkeley that stocks 3/8 inch marine plywood of good quality. Good reminder of how important having a car at our disposal is. The old hatch is 31 inches square and the new one is 20.5 inches square. The reason for a large hatch is generally to pass sails on deck quickly and easily. We have roller furling so mostly will not change foresails and would much rather have the security of a smaller more secure hatch. The old one was heavy and rotten, so that would be a little more incentive. Of course the above picture is the project as planned.

As the above picture shows there is a large patch of new plywood in front of the hatch area and a large area where the deck skin or fiberglass was not attached  to the old plywood. It has all been fitted and filled and coated with epoxy in this pic and will then be glassed over, faired with a layer of epoxy slurry, sanded and primed for painting.  .

One more pass with a sander, maybe a little more fairing slurry, and prime it. It seems like a lot of work, but we are used to doing it and the main impact is the delay each time we mix epoxy wait for it to set up. It takes about 4-6 hours for the filler to be sandable, so that pretty much eats up the day as the clock goes.

Gives us time to enjoy to enjoy the deer at Paradise cove.  They like the fresh pear more than they fear me. When it gets too hot or we get too worn out we go down to paradise to cool off and rest. We share the place with four or five black tail deer.

We have also removed the tape from the waterline and re-taped on the new paint so that the bottom can be painted. We had the yard sand the bottom, because we just have better things to do than lay on the rocks grinding toxic bottom paint overhead. Still have a couple of more details to do before painting the bottom. One of them is what I cal a crash block which is a piece of high density foam which I am glassing over to insert behind the dagger board in the trunk to absorb the impact if we should strike some under water object like the bottom. This detail was missing before and only a piece of worm eaten 2x6 was there. The board edge suffered a little damage from rubbing on this, so it will get a little patch work before we launch. It is not a pre splash project, because the board can come out anytime, but it is nice and dry now.

We have also removed the head for cleaning, installed the seacocks on the through hulls, run the wires from the mast back to the control panel, painted some of the decks, and a few other select little distractions.

The deck painting is going well, but not without setbacks. The window each day is small as the decks are very wet early in the morning and the grey primer gets very hot after a few hours in the sun. We like to add to our suffering when possible, so I decided that the sand we use for non-skid felt too much like sand paper and bought some course sand to try on the back deck. It feels like walking on tiny spikes. We now have to scrape that off and go back to the fine sand we have on the ama. the process is several steps, apply the first coat of paint, sprinkle it with sand while still wet, let it dry, apply another coat of paint to lock the sand in and provide even coloring. 

Had to drive around for half a day visiting welding shops who said "Sure we can do that" on the phone, but then couldn't because the stainless we want to use it too thick to bend. Finally found an industrial shop and foundry in Petaluma to bend the piece. I should be ready today, so I can take it back to the welder to weld, then attach it to the freshly painted deck. and we will be ready. All of these delay projects just allow more time to do the other little details.

Final Orange at last

Spent the better part of the week getting the second and final coat of orange on the boat. Looks pretty good, not sure we will ever sign up for this job again.

Too bad we can't just sail away now, but there are a few more details to be handled first. We need to do some paintwork on the decks, which will seem minor after all this. Other issues include wiring up all the new electronics, installing the HAM radio, engine maintenance, installing the newly modified bow roller for the anchor, installing new sea cocks on the through-hulls, and painting the bottom. I think we may just pay the yard to sand the bottom, as I just don't feel like crawling around on the ground with a sander overhead. We will probably do the paintwork, as it is just a couple of hours with a roller per coat.

Sounds like a lot, but after the paint job it is all tinker toys. Should wrap it all up in a week or two. At least that is the plan for now...

Beginning to look like Hot Sauce

Had a furious long weekend and realized some tangible results.  Finished up the repair to the deck and applied primer to the remaining old paint surfaces. This lays the groundwork for the final paint job.

So a little sanding, scouring and wiping it down with solvent and we are ready for a little orange.on the main hull. The painting is such an amazing step forward after endless days of preparation.

We were so emboldened by the leaps and bounds that we decide on an all out push to get the first coat finished on the rest of the boat. Close, but no cigar, we have one more AKA or connecting beam to paint on the port aft side. We were just too beat to do any more, so soon come man.

Time for another slight break in the action. We are going to rest for a couple of days and go down to Marin to celebrate niece Olivia's birthday tomorrow and get the steel guy started fabricating the bow roller adaptation for the anchor.