Lunch Trip

The other Saturday (11/12/11) we had a boat project day planned out.  It was such a nice day, though, we felt we had to take advantage of the good weather so we decided to take a little cruise instead.  We had to leave early on Sunday to go to the Forty-Niners v. Giants game (go niners!!) so an overnighter was out.  We decided since it was an especially high tide to head over to our favorite shallow destination, San Leandro Marina.  The channel has supposedly been dredged but it is not anywhere we care to go unless there is a LOT of water.  We headed over in late morning and where they are noon, shortly before high tide.  We were seeing 10-11 feet of depth on the way in.  We stopped by the harbormaster's office and were assigned a slip directly in front of Horatio's restaurant.  We had our choice of eating there or El Torito's and decided to go with Horatio's and the view of our boat.  We had a great lunch and were totally stuffed so we took a brief nap before leaving. 

at San Leandro

On the way out, we had to stop by the harbormaster's office to drop off the key and we decided to pump out while we were there, then we headed out.  It was about 2 hours after high tide but the tide was still up.  We saw depths as low as six on the way out, which is why we only transit that channel at high tide!

We had flat water and beautiful conditions coming and going so we are glad we took advantage of the great weather to take the boat out.  There will be plenty of yucky weather days this winter to get projects done!

Moving Up to the BIG TIME

I can't believe I forgot to post about this...  If you look back to one of the first posts about PG II, you will read of the horrible tragedy of the much anticipated ice maker croaking after making one batch of ice. 

the one and only batch of ice from the old machine

This was a sad, sad day for Matt as he had been Soooo looking forward to that badge of the true power boater, the ice maker.  Well, it took over a year but we finally have a new one!  It was an anniversary gift from me to Matt.  It took a few weeks to get it and Matt was going nuts waiting for it but I think it was worth the wait.  It fits perfectly into the cabinet, is very quiet and puts out a lot of ice.  I believe it makes 22 or 23 pounds a day, about twice as much as it actually holds.  Which is a good thing because now we are Joe's source for free ice. :)

perfect fit

after just a few hours...

Commodore's Cup 2011

We actually went sailing last Saturday.  And not only sailing but RACING.  I am pretty sure I have not sailed, and I have definitely not raced, since the Pac Cup last summer.  We joined Joe and Carrie on Ada Helen for the Commodore's Cup Regatta at our yacht club.  We had a total of six people on the crew and were racing in the spinnaker division.  Matt and I had not flown a spinnaker since July of last year and apparently nobody else on the boat had either.  There is nothing all that difficult about sailing but once you throw in the spinnaker it can get a little dicey.  There are a LOT of extra control lines and you have to really keep an eye on the spinnaker because if it gets overpowered by the wind it can start to take over control of the boat in sudden and unexpected ways. 

So since nobody had flown a spinnaker recently nobody was super excited about flying it, but since it wasn't super windy we decided to go for it.  The idea is as soon as you round the mark of the course that closest to the wind and round it to head back downwind, you should have the spinnaker up and flying.  To be able to do this, obviously you have to be ready to go before you get to the mark.  We had all the lines run but the actually spinnaker was down below as we noticed that the mark was only a few dozen yards away.  Oops.  So Joe and Matt dragged the spinnaker up and started attaching the lines as we rounded the windward mark. 

Eventually we got the sail up and flying, then we realized that some of the control lines had been led wrong so we were not able to get proper sail shape.  After much discussion of the best way to rectify this problem and finally set a plan in motion.  It didn't go too badly but Matt did up with a bad rope burn on one finger and we had a few moments of the spinnaker tossing the boat around a bit.  We should have been moving at a pretty good pace with the spinnaker up, yet we were passed near the next mark on the course by the same type of boat that was NOT flying a spinnaker and that was NOT a good moment.  Luckily for our pride we soon past them back on the next leg of the course.  Though they passed us again before it was over. 

So we were doing the same course twice around and once we were back on the windward leg we put the spinnaker away until we needed it again.  Once again we were a bit late getting it out but at least we had all the lines run right....  sorta.  This time around, we attached the bottom of the sail backwards, so the short edge was at the front.  The front edge of the sail ends up stretched between the halyard at the top (top of the mast) and the downhaul at the bottom, at the front of the boat.  So Joe was looking up and the top of the sail was feet from the top of the mast and we were trying to get it all the way to the top.  The person who was trying to raise the sail was telling Joe that it would not go up any farther.  We could not figure out what was wrong until Joe started checking things over and realized that the downhaul was tight as a drum.  That is when he noticed the word CLEW written on the spinnaker above where the outhaul was attached. That was where the TACK was supposed to be attached, on the longer edge of the sail.  Luckily we noticed this before the sail ripped!

So we got it flipped around properly and set about trying to catch up with the rest of the fleet.  It was pretty much a lost cause at that point, though we did have a good time and the rain held off until after the race ended and never got above spitting out a few drops at a time. 

So we were last in our division but it was a good time!

Angel Island October 2011

We spent a fabulous three day weekend at Angel Island October 21-23rd.  We actually got up there late on Thursday the 20th, though it was not a midnight run like our trip to the Wheelchair Regatta.  We headed up there after work Thursday and arrived about an hour after sunset.  It was slack tide and we were easily able to pick up the bow mooring by coming up alongside it and grabbing it from the gate amidships.  We then let the boat drift backwards to what would be the stern mooring and Matt jumped in the dinghy to hook us up to that one.  It all went fairly smoothly and we were soon tied up and ready to help Joe and Carrie get tied up as well. 

Ada Helen

 

Sparkler 3



Pineapple Girl

A few more boats from our yacht club showed up early Friday and once we had everyone tied up, several of us headed to shore to explore.  We quickly divided into the hardcore exercisers who set up on a hard core speed walk all the way around the island and the sightseers who went on a casual stroll to the Garrison on the East end of the island.  We all got back to Ayala Cove about the same time and made plans to meet up on Pineapple Girl for dinner.  Carrie made a fabulous pork tenderloin with Molasses and Coffee barbecue sauce.  We also had all sorts of other fabulous food provided by our guests.  Including us, we had a thirteen for dinner.  It did not prove an unlucky number and everything went great.

We weren't alone on the Island Saturday Night

Saturday the exercising crew once again went on a trip around the island while some others went to the cafe on the island for lunch and to listen to live music.  The live music turned out to be banjo music so we didn't stay too long and were soon back on our boats and playing around in the cove in the fabulous warm weather.  Saturday evening we had appetizers and pot luck dinner on shore and then retired back to the boats fairly early. 

the Brunch Bunch

Sunday morning we met up at the park docks and loaded everyone up on Pineapple Girl to head over to Tiburon for brunch at Sam's Anchor Cafe.  It can be a little difficult to get space on the Sam's docks so we were a little concerned about getting space.  There was room for us when we got there but we could not access the space due to the position another boat was in.  We were ready to give up when the owners of the boat came down and agreed to move it for us so we could get in.  Turned out they recognized our boat as they had also been at Angel Island the night before.  One of them actually recognized the make and model of our boat, which has never happened to us before as there were not a lot of them made.

the boat at Sam's dock

We had a terrific brunch then spent some time shopping in downtown Tiburon before heading back to Angel Island.  We were almost back to the cove when someone suggested we go around the island first.  Since nobody really wanted to go back yet, we all quickly agreed to that suggestion and had a great circumnavigation.  Then we reluctantly headed back in and dropped everyone at the dock then headed back to Coyote Point.

It was one of the best weekends we've ever had at Ayala Cove.  We have led the Coyote Point Cruise there each October for the past several years and this year we had the fewest boats and the best weather we have ever had.  It was really nice to have a small number of boats as that way we were able to have everyone on our boat Friday night and we were able to take everyone to Sam's for brunch.  The weather felt like summer and several people actually went swimming.  It was a great way to end the official cruising season.