Wednesday, January 20, 2010
As I typed out that date, I realized that this is the first post of the new decade. A monumental occasion for sure! I hope you guys all had a wonderful new years and holiday season.
For the record, we never sailed south after my last post, we made an attempt at Catalina during a high wind situation, but were heavily discouraged and eventually defeated by the elements of seasickness and equipment malfunction. From there we hung around still repairing the boat until a mix up caused us to wrongfully abandon ship. It's a long story with the conclusion being that we are back on the boat and still on for our Pacific voyage. This is the beginning our the six hour journey back to Los Angeles Harbor, taken on Standiford Road in my hometown of Modesto.
And here's another taken of my darling lady right before Dan and I, once again, went South:
Now back at the marina, my first task was to re-pack the boat. Something helpful did manage to come out of the whole legal mess: I had a fresh start. Before I had half-haphazardly put things in places, never able to fully grasp where everything was to go, this time I was able to comprehend the full scope of items I had to pack. This gifted me the wonderful ability to congruently and efficiently stow the vast array things we have.
As most people on the west coast have realized, there has been a series of storms bringing heavy winds and rain through the area. While being rather inconvenient to finishing our work, we haven't viewed it only as an inconvenience, but also a test. A test of our boat's waterproof integrity. After months of having an open boat, we've now installed windows and hatches which have never been put to the test of keeping out the elements (everybody knows it doesn't rain in Southern California). During these rains, we've both noticed an odd phenomenon within us. We have both found ourselves hallucinating drips of water seemingly coming from no where. After discussion, we've concluded that they're paranoia-driven hallucinations from having an open boat during the few, rare light rains that have hit the southern coast of California. So back to the test: we've passed with flying colors besides my berth, which leaks at two locations, fore and aft.
The forward leak was due to our badly-fitting companionway door and can be solved by simply draping a cloth over the opening in order to better route the water flow away from my sleeping forehead. The aft leak, however, was a bit more complicated. In order to analyze the problem, I had to crawl into an even smaller lazarette than before (the starboard one) and find where the leak originated. After much cramping, I figured out it was coming from the base of a stanchion reinforcement pillar, which had been bedded incorrectly. Since we didn't have much time to work between storms, I did the hasty repair of just sealing up the leaking areas with some 3M 4000, a marine-grade sealant/adhesive. Here's me in my incredibly comfortable lazarette:
And a shot of today's storm mere seconds before the downpour started (the flag is an indication of the present gale-force winds):
And I'll finish you guys off with a couple of pictures of us sailing along taken by the ever-lovely crew of the Serendipity. The first is of us luffing in the wind while I hoist our genoa up, and the second is of us sailing into Catalina's Two Harbors that very afternoon.
As I typed out that date, I realized that this is the first post of the new decade. A monumental occasion for sure! I hope you guys all had a wonderful new years and holiday season.
For the record, we never sailed south after my last post, we made an attempt at Catalina during a high wind situation, but were heavily discouraged and eventually defeated by the elements of seasickness and equipment malfunction. From there we hung around still repairing the boat until a mix up caused us to wrongfully abandon ship. It's a long story with the conclusion being that we are back on the boat and still on for our Pacific voyage. This is the beginning our the six hour journey back to Los Angeles Harbor, taken on Standiford Road in my hometown of Modesto.
And here's another taken of my darling lady right before Dan and I, once again, went South:
Now back at the marina, my first task was to re-pack the boat. Something helpful did manage to come out of the whole legal mess: I had a fresh start. Before I had half-haphazardly put things in places, never able to fully grasp where everything was to go, this time I was able to comprehend the full scope of items I had to pack. This gifted me the wonderful ability to congruently and efficiently stow the vast array things we have.
As most people on the west coast have realized, there has been a series of storms bringing heavy winds and rain through the area. While being rather inconvenient to finishing our work, we haven't viewed it only as an inconvenience, but also a test. A test of our boat's waterproof integrity. After months of having an open boat, we've now installed windows and hatches which have never been put to the test of keeping out the elements (everybody knows it doesn't rain in Southern California). During these rains, we've both noticed an odd phenomenon within us. We have both found ourselves hallucinating drips of water seemingly coming from no where. After discussion, we've concluded that they're paranoia-driven hallucinations from having an open boat during the few, rare light rains that have hit the southern coast of California. So back to the test: we've passed with flying colors besides my berth, which leaks at two locations, fore and aft.
The forward leak was due to our badly-fitting companionway door and can be solved by simply draping a cloth over the opening in order to better route the water flow away from my sleeping forehead. The aft leak, however, was a bit more complicated. In order to analyze the problem, I had to crawl into an even smaller lazarette than before (the starboard one) and find where the leak originated. After much cramping, I figured out it was coming from the base of a stanchion reinforcement pillar, which had been bedded incorrectly. Since we didn't have much time to work between storms, I did the hasty repair of just sealing up the leaking areas with some 3M 4000, a marine-grade sealant/adhesive. Here's me in my incredibly comfortable lazarette:
And a shot of today's storm mere seconds before the downpour started (the flag is an indication of the present gale-force winds):
And I'll finish you guys off with a couple of pictures of us sailing along taken by the ever-lovely crew of the Serendipity. The first is of us luffing in the wind while I hoist our genoa up, and the second is of us sailing into Catalina's Two Harbors that very afternoon.
I wish I could tell you the cross streets in that picture from Modesto.
ReplyDeleteAlso, is the lady friend I met last time I was in town?
Cross streets look to be about Sherwood and Standiford. I rule.
ReplyDeleteAnd it is! She looks a little different with scrunchyface.
Have you left yet? Me coming to meet you guys doesn't sound very likely anymore...I'm not too keen on the idea of getting home just by winging it.
ReplyDeleteThat's really a shame, you know, a Tahitian paradise isn't exactly the worst place to get stuck in for a couple of months. We really can't make plans that far ahead, but we'd be very willing to accommodate you if you showed up. Keep in touch, mang.
ReplyDelete