Two Coats

Done? Maybe. Maybe one more once we're back in our regular (covered) slip.

So Worth It!

So here we are Christmas morning, putting a second coat of floor finish down. The first coat looked fantastic and we are thrilled that all the prep is paying off. I didn't take a photo until after we'd scuffed it in preparation for the second coat. So one picture is scuffed first coat and the other is freshly applied second coat. The satin finish is really nice and looks great with the walls. Happy day for sure!!!

Can it be?

Yesterday we applied an oil "sealer" that really brought out the color of the wood. Today we are applying the first coat of finish!!!

Sanding

Guess what I'm doing? No, BESIDES blogging... YES, sanding. Still working on the edges with 80 grit. Will we ever be done prepping? At this point, I think the answer is "no". Sigh.

Project Overload-Christmas is Coming!

Well we were disappointed to not make as much progress as we'd planned to last weekend. We had a kind of a big deal Christmas present to purchase, something we'd spent weeks searching for, and we had a line on "the very thing." Acquiring it and showing it to others involved ended up taking the whole morning and most of the afternoon... By the time we were done, all motivation to sand was gone. We went home and watched the Niners beat the Patriots instead.

Which leaves us with a LOT of sanding yet to do before we can apply the finish. We have events Saturday, Monday and Tuesday, which will make it challenging to find time to get this done. I hope to get a lot of sanding done Friday (taking a vacation day) so we can get this thing wrapped up over the weekend and get ready for the NEXT project, which will be unveiled after Matt opens his Christmas gifts.

We'll also soon have a project provided by my parents, which I believe I may have mentioned previously--some new pieces and parts for our windlass. Namely a new wildcat, a reversing kit (for letting the chain out with the motor) and a wireless remote. I'm not sure when those items will arrive as I haven't heard from the windlass company since they received my chain sample a week ago. I think I'll wait at least a week before I follow up, though, as we have enough else to work on for now!!

Ten Days 'til Christmas

So here we are, ten days before Christmas. Are we at the mall finishing our Christmas shopping? Of course not. We are on the boat finishing our floors. Ok, not (re) finishing yet. Still preping. Matt is optimistic we will finish this weekend. I'm less optimistic. We shall see.

Stripping!

So after a pretty full day yesterday of sanding the sole in the saloon, we had removed the finish from about two thirds of the floor and we were both exhausted. I only sanded for about an hour while Matt sanded for several hours but even just that hour left my arms feeling like spaghetti. I bought some "environmentally friendly" stripper and we tried it in a small corner. It didn't get all the finish up but today Matt was able to easily sand the remaining finish off. So we decided that I'd apply the stripper in the vee berth and galley while Matt continued sanding in the saloon.

It's been about 45 minutes since I finished applying the product. All Matt has left to sand in the saloon is the edges. I'll start scraping the forward area in a few minutes and we plan to sand it next weekend when it is totally dry. We plan to leave in about an hour so we can be home for the Forty Niners game.

Hopefully we will be able to apply the first coats of finish next weekend.

Oops we just discovered we don't have the proper grit sandpaper for the edging attachment on the Festool so we will have to finish up the saloon next weekend as well. Just the edges shouldn't take TOO long. Famous last words, right?

Projects!

We currently have the boat at our old marina, all the better to knock out a couple of projects. We're having a little canvas work done by Keith McElroy, refinishing the sole (aka floor) and doing some work on the shower floor where water was seeping into places it shouldn't be seeping.

So far in the shower, I have pulled out all the teak from around the base of the shower walls and found a few soft spits. We are still debating next steps but it needs to dry out anyway.

Meanwhile Matt has been sanding off the old finish of the cabin sole in the saloon. I did some when he went to get us lunch. It is kind of a workout and the vibration is a bit tiring. I just went to OSH and purchased some "environmentally friendly" wood stripper to try out as well. One nice thing with the sander is it is almost dust free. Pretty amazing-German engineering at its finest. It is called a Festool and Matt borrowed it from work.

Keith measured for our projects earlier this week and will have everything done before we head back to the delta in early January.

Black Friday

Did you get any great bargains today? We had great weather and a great brunch with the ten relatives who joined us this morning. Matt made an egg bake with Ortega chiles. We also had lots of bacon plus scrambled eggs and waffles for the kids. We also had fruit, shrimp, Danish, bagels and of course mimosas. Everyone had lots to eat and at least pretended to have a good time. :)

It's about five pm now and we have a turkey breast in the oven. Everyone has gone home except us and Mark and his wife on their boat (her parents took their kids home). So they are coming over later to join us for turkey and fixins. Gotta love this yachting stuff.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

We are underway from Willow Berm to Marin Yacht Club in San Rafael. Matt's brother is also bringing his boat there today (from Coyote Point) and other relatives are coming by car and staying at a nearby hotel. We are going to enjoy a fine Thanksgiving feast of Basque food at a nearby restaurant that is a favorite of Matt's brother's in laws.

So far we are having a beautiful journey. The sun is shining and the water is smooth. Lots of water hyacinth in the water though. Hopefully that will die off as the weather gets colder over the winter.

I hope you have a wonderful holiday!

Lubin' up the Girls

Oil change day. Got the boat back last Saturday with her new port cutlass bearing and recommendation for a new port shaft in 12-18 months. Today we're changing the oil. We're a little late on the year / 100 hour interval but taking her to the mechanic and boat yard took precedence.

What's Next?

I wish I was referring to what's our next cruising destination. But no, "what's next" to be repaired!! Sigh.
So when we picked the boat up from the mechanic the other day, the person who'd done the work wasn't there (it WAS a Saturday so no complaints) so his son went over the invoice and notes with us. At the bottom of the notes was a paragraph that started with "very important" and seemed to suggest that the port prop shaft could come out of the boat (this would be very, very bad) while the boat is in reverse. The son was not very clear what the note meant so we decided Matt would call his dad on a weekday to find out.
Matt called earlier this week and found out... That the coupling that holds the shaft to the transmission was worn and not holding well. The mechanic kind of rigged it up for now but we need to get it properly fixed before it breaks, the shaft pulls out and our boat sinks. Ok that's a LITTLE dramatic but not very. It's more likely to happen in reverse as the prop is pulling the shaft away from the boat in reverse.
And how does one fix such a thing, you ask? Well wouldn't you know it, the boat has to be hauled out as the whole shaft has to be pulled out of the boat. Conveniently, we also need a new cutlass bearing (under water thing the shaft goes through as it exits the boat) which also requires removing the shaft so, oh joy, we can get both done at one time.
So guess what we're doing tomorrow? Why taking the boat to the yard to be hauled out, of course!! When you start talking boats sinking, procrastinating seems a poor option.
So how do we get our boat out of the slip without putting the port motor in reverse? (Rather not risk it coming apart!!!) Should be entertaining. At least the current will be in our favor when we leave the slip tomorrow morning.
Gotta love this yachting stuff.

What a Difference Some Wax Makes

We took a quick overnight trip up to the boat last night to check out the wax that was done this week. It was dark when we arrived so it was hard to tell how it turned out but it seemed good. We'd also brought new trim plates for the trim tab controls so we installed those last night. Huge improvement.

This morning we just had time to check out the wax in the light of day. It does look good. What a difference! And the price to wax the whole boat was less than we've paid for just a hull wax in the Bay Area. Love those delta prices.

Now we are on our way to Gilroy for a family event! Glad we got to see the boat before the spiders took back over.

The Boat is Back

We had a horrible drive to Antioch last night with just horrendous traffic. We finally arrived as it was getting dark and gave the mechanics a call. David from GYST met us at the boat and went over what they'd done and their recommendations for further service. We plan to bring the boat back in the next few months to have a few more things done.

The boat was docked right by Driftwood Yacht Club so we went up to say hello. They had a great band and we had a good time taking to the Commodore / bartender, Michael, as well as several other nice folks. We really enjoyed ourselves and hope to visit there again.

We left this morning at 10:30 (30 mins ago) for the trip back to Willow Berm. The motors seem really happy. Our strange squealing from the port shaft is gone, though the mechanics weren't able to figure out what was causing it so didn't claim to have "fixed" it. They replaced the impeller on the port motor and said it was an awful job and took them two hours. We'd replaced the starboard one and were ready to strangle each other before we were done. We don't even know how they accessed the port one but better them than us!! The impeller was showing some signs of wear so we are glad we had it replaced before it failed and sent pieces of rubber into our cooling system!!

It is another nice fall day. A bit of a breeze but sunny. There are a fair number of fishing boats out and we've crossed paths with a few cruisers who look like they're headed "somewhere". We are about to pass a barge heading downriver (we're headed up) at close to the spot where we passed a freighter on the way to Antioch.

Willow Berm is having their fall tenants party this afternoon so we're looking forward to getting back in time for some yummy food. There's an Oxnowberfest party at our new yacht club, Ox Bow, but we decided that between being the boat back and the harbor party that it would be too much to try and go to that as well. Next time!

We are really excited that Extreme Detailing will be waxing our boat next week. He promises it will shine up great. Fingers are crossed for a great result!!

Autumn in the Delta

We had a lovely weekend last weekend at the secret cove. Some other boats were there briefly throughout the day; a couple fishing boats that passed through and one ski boat and one Tollycraft that stopped and anchored for a bit a different times. But as the afternoon wore on we were alone with the dozens of egrets coming in to roost in the trees for the night.

Unfortunately we had to make a fairly early start back to the marina Sunday morning as we needed to get back home in the early afternoon. We had a lovely trip. We didn't see all the wooden runabouts as we had on Saturday. Apparently they were having a rally at B & W with dozens of these beautifully built and maintained classics.

Today we are taking the boat over to Antioch to leave it for the week for a mechanic to give the twin Perkins a once over and take care of some maintenance items for us. Hopefully there won't be any surprises! It looks to be another beautiful day up here.

Tower park

We're at Tower Park on the boat with Matt's coworkers in their RVs. Having fun! Got here Friday afternoon and hung out for awhile, then rode from the RV check in (right by the guest dock) down to the campsites in Matt's friend Dave's RV. It is quite a large park and we passed many camp sites, some rental airstreams and prefab cabins, two pools and a kids playground before we got to the area Matt's coworkers were in. I walked back up to our boat for plates and stuff before dinner and was surprised it only took ten minutes. We had a great dinner with the group and walked back to the boat around ten.
Saturday we were walking over for breakfast when we saw one of the guys on his scooter. He offered for both of us to hop on but I don't think the scooter was designed for that much weight! He gave us each separate ride. :). Sounded like he and Matt were a challenge to the scooter but it wasn't too long a ride.
Once we got there, Matt helped scramble the 15 dozen eggs for breakfast then we dug in to a big feast that included I believe 22 pounds of bacon that they smoked on traegger grills the day before. after breakfast we cleaned up the egg pans using a big bucket and hot water from a spigot on the side of one of the RVs. Then we headed back to the boat to set up the dinghy.
Several of Matt's coworkers launched their boats as we were getting the fight ready. We had a nice little motor up the river and we saw the guys tubing and knee boarding. Looked fun. Ish.
Back at the boat we had a few guests from the group and got a ride back down for dinner. They didn't need any help cooking so we just socialized before enjoying prime rib (smoked on the traegger of course). I found out Matt had given the last Dos Equis that we had in the boat to a coworker who thought the Lions will beat the Niners today. Really?!? I want my beer back!!
We need to head over now for breakfast, then get back to Willow Berm so we can hit the road and be back in the bay area in good time to get to the game tonight. What a great weekend!

Lunch in Old Town

We didn't end up taking the boat anywhere this weekend as we needed to be back in the Bay Area early Sunday. However we got side tracked Sunday morning and ended up driving to Old Town Sacramento for lunch and to find a place to dock the boat for Labor Day weekend. I don't believe I'd ever been to Old Town before. It's quite the faux wild west tourist trap but it was fun and there will be lots to see when we are back in two weeks. We had lunch at Rio City Cafe (www.riocitycafe.com) which is right on the river with good food and service. It is right above the Old Town docks, where we were able to secure a spot for our visit. Looking forward to our long weekend cruise!

Esh

I think it 99 is as high as it goes! We're out at Commodore Island with Ox Bow Yacht Club and it's a bit warmish.

Fourth of July Photos

I finally downloaded the photos from the camera...  This is just a small sampling!

Coasties.  Obviously.

I'm not sure what kind of propulsion this beast has.  Amazing.

We had to get a photo of the pineapple flag.

There were several fly bys, but I only got a picture of this plane.

We were surprised that people would beach their boats.  This wasn't even taken at low tide.

The house boat is beached as well; this is just down from the photo above. 
These are the folks that had the full on party, complete with DJ and live band.  Dude.  :)

New Shelf!

We finished installing the shelf in one of our under counter storage areas in the galley. This was done with material we had on hand and gives us more convenient storage in what seemed like a bottomless pit before.

A Poem for Friday

I saw this on Trawler Forum (thanks Steve W) and had to share.

From the Swedish Ocean Racing Club - Sailing Poem - Poet Unknown


A small boy heard the ocean roar,
There are secrets on my distant shore,
But beware my child, the ships bell’s wail,
Wait not too long to start to sail.

So quickly come and go the years,
And a young adult stands abeach with fears,
Come on, Come on the ocean cussed,
Time passes on. Oh sail you must.

Now its business in mid-aged prime,
And maybe tomorrow there will be time,
Now is too soon, it’s raining today,
Gone all gone - years are eaten away.

An old man looks, still feeling the lure,
Yet he’ll suffer the pain, than go for the cure,
The hair is white, the steps with care,
The tide has turned, he is aware.

So all too soon the secrets are buried,
Along with him and all regrets he carried,
And it’s not for the loss of secrets, he cried,
But rather because he’d never tried.

Back to the Boat!

Matt and I are so ready to go to the boat tomorrow after work! We didn't go last weekend as I was in Hong Kong for work. Matt's brother Mark stayed on our boat with his family and they had such a good time they are going to take their boat up next summer for a cruise.

Last time we were up there was July 21st and 22nd for a work weekend.

I don't think I blogged that Friday the 13th we were at Coyote Point for a Bon Voyage party for Tiki J, the boat we sailed to Hawaii in 2010. Our former boat partners kept the boat and they went this year with a bunch of top notch sailors, namely our former partner Kim and her two brothers. They also let Kim's husband come along. :) just joking Scott. Plus two other crew. They were fourth in their division, as we were in 10. I figured they'd win with the hot crew they had aboard but i think conditions out there were tough this year with an abnormal wind pattern. Once was enough for me doing that trip; I'd rather take my vacation anchored out in the Delta! But to each his own... lots of people do the Pac Cup every time (every two years).

So back to our project weekend last trip to the boat. Two (of four) of our engine room lights had stopped working. We'd tried new bulbs with no success so we bought two new lights. Luckily one light just needed the wires tightened but we did have to replace the other one. It is MUCH more pleasant down there with light!

We also replaced the shaft packing on the port shaft. That is one of those frustrating projects that causes crankiness on my part so Matt mostly worked on it by himself. Luckily we started off with the correct size shaft packing this time, thanks to the helpful young man at West Marine. The size I'd written in our log (see photo) did NOT look right once we picked up the package so the clerk looked up our previous purchases and helped us get the correct size, smaller than what I'd written down! I ran to the grocery store while Matt started on the project and he found we were missing a necessary wrench. Luckily I was right by the Ace Hardware in Rio Vista so I popped in to get one. I was measuring how far it opened by using my iPhone screen to gauge it, then texted Matt to ask how big it had to open. He gave me a measurement in inches so I asked the clerk for a tape measure and measured my phone, then told the clerk that the wrench would work. He looked at me like I had three heads and asked what I planned to do to my iPhone with a wrench. LOL.

So once I got back with the wrench Matt was able to get the gland apart and get the old packing out. There are normally three rings of packing and one ring was pretty much loose and was exposed as soon as he loosened the gland. He then started digging around with whatever sharp pointy things we could find to try to get the next ring out. At first he didn't think there was one and he asked me to try. I agreed it didn't FEEL like there was one, but logic dictated that there was and Matt finally got it out. Obviously this is not something one can see into. At all. Even with trying to take photos of it. This is where my crankiness starts to rev up. We gave up on trying to dig out a third ring and figured replacing two was good enough. Matt then cut the two new rings, stuffed them in there and retightened the gland.

In case you are wondering what this thing is and why we had to replace the packing, aka stuffing... So in layman's terms I shall attempt to explain. As I have only a layman's understanding, hopefully this isn't too far off. So the transmission drives a shaft that spins the propellor. There is a "gland" along this apparatus where I think the two are joined and there is friction there between the spinning shaft and the not spinning pieces from the transmission. Or something. That's not spinning. But anyway, friction causes wear and heat. So the shaft packing is this greasy material stuff that is kind of squared off and is 1/4" (in our case) on each side. It helps with the friction and the whole thing is cooled by water that comes in through the hull where the shaft goes out from the engine room to the propellor. The nuts of the packing gland have to be adjusted such that a little but of water gets in to keep things cool but not so much that the boat is in danger of sinking. When you get to the point you can no longer adjust the gland properly or you start hearing funny noises, it's time for new packing. We got to the funny noises part... We'll find out Saturday if the new packing took care of the issue!
What happened was we were leaving the marina to get fuel at Village West on July 7th. We were passing a boat on the guest dock and we wondered what kind of power tool they were using that was making the high whining noise we were hearing. Except we kept hearing the noise just as loud after we passed the boat. We finally realized that OUR boat was making the noise and we tracked it down to the port shaft when we put the motor in neutral and the prop stopped spinning. We idled in the Mokelumne for awhile as we assesses whether to continue or turn back. We'd already previously realized we needed to change the packing as it was dripping too much. After a quick call to a very knowledgable friend we decided to continue. The noise was gone by the time we got to Village West, before we even changed the packing but we still needed to do the project. Hopefully the noise won't be back on Saturday!
After that project we started in on setting up a shelf in the storage area in the galley to the port side of the sink. There is a very large space under the counter but it is too deep to get much practical use out of. We put shelf supports fore and aft and plan to use some wire closet shelving material to span the space and provide more practical storage. I'll post a photo when we have it done.
After that it was all about cleaning and organizing so our guests would have room when they came up. We use our vee berth for storage so we had to clean it all out for Mark's girls. It was amazing what all we had in there and we were exhausted (not to mention hot and sweaty) by the time we were done.
This weekend we hope to be at a Willow Berm in time to see Vicky's son's concert. Vicky is the harbor master and her son is a guitarist/ singer who has been making his way in Hollywood and is visiting home for awhile. Then Saturday we are taking the boat to Ox Bow marina to go to a luau at the Yacht Club. We are thinking of joining so we can go cruising with them. They have a lot of members from Willow Berm, many of whom are on our dock! Should be a fun time Saturday night.

Village West Marina

We got to Willow Berm just before 11 and quickly prepared for departure and got underway. We arrived at the fuel dock at Village West around 2 and took on 110 gallons of diesel, then pulled around to the guest dock. We are now on the patio at Bob's, waiting for our lunch. It is pleasantly warm, bordering on hot. But after the cold day we had yesterday we'll take it.

SUP'n

We rented a stand up paddle board and did some paddling around the secret cove. Very fun. Only saw one turtle and a couple fish though.

Shh... it's a Secret

We're at our friend Al's secret spot. We got here yesterday around mid day and were expecting him around five. Around 4:30 the boat to the right in the picture came in and anchored next to us. They'd heard about this place from someone at their marina. :( dang it. Well at least they are quiet, though they said their kids are coming tomorrow.

We are really enjoying the lack of bugs here. I couldn't believe all the bugs at Three River Reach.

Fourth of July 2012

I can't remember if I already posted the below photo. This group of boats had the fire hose and luckily decided not to spray us.

The fireworks last night were excellent. Thank you Baron Hilton for providing fireworks in the delta every year! The fireworks were set to music, broadcast on 95.5. We just happened to hear this in the VHF shortly before the show so we were tuned in and ready to go. Unfortunately, the big party we were near did not stop their DJ (yes DJ) until partway through so it was hard to hear the radio at first. At some point they clued in and quieted down. As soon as the show was over they cranked the tunes back up and set off their own fireworks. Much later, they had a luce band going. We finally fell into exhausted sleep around two, with the band still going. We talked to some other folks today who were there as well and they said they woke up at 2:30 and the band was still going, and sounded horrible. LOL. C'MON PEOPLE give up and go to sleep already!!!

We came in to Willow Berm this morning for a lay day. The current was running pretty strong and luckily a nice fellow in the neighbors' boat gave us a hand or we would have given up. Matt could not get the bow around to come into the slip so decided to back in. Which is great except the dinghy was getting swept to the side and ended up wedged between the boat and the dock. Again, thanks to the neighbor for all his help in fending off UTTER disaster.

We've got the batteries charged up, water tank full, boat clean, grocery list made and we're ready for tomorrow. Plan is to hit Lira's grocery store in Rio Vista (EXCELLENT grocery store) bright and early, pump out then head out for the last few days of the week! I think we've ALMOST recovered enough from the lack of sleep for the past few days to have the energy to start again! Hopefully the next few days will be much quieter than the previous few!

We have several pictures to post once I'm on a computer. The iPhone only lets me do one at a time. So more photos in a few days.

Mandeville Madness

We cruised through the crowds at Mandeville after taking the dinghy to
Herman and Helen's for breakfast and gas. This houseboat looks to be larger than the home I lived in in San Jose when I was a kid! There are dozens of boats anchored out and many many more to come! One boat had a fire hose set up with a huge pump in the water and we heard them discussing whether or not to spray us! Luckily they decided NOT. Some kids on a huge two story houseboat (one more boat and less house looking than the one pictured) did lob a few water balloons at us but we were out of their range! Things are definitely much quieter on Three River Reach. We found out one group of boats near us is a bunch of retired executives from Standard Oil. So far they seem sedate. We are currently sitting on our sun deck, enjoying the beautiful sunny day

Three River Reach

We found a decent spot on Three River Reach that looks to have a good view of the fireworks area. This photo is looking towards the San Joaquin River from our boat. Not too crowded. The boat in the foreground is expecting three more boats to join him in the next 24 hours or so.

Crossing Over

We are on the Antioch Bridge, entering the Delta. No cows on the bridge today! There are a couple of boats headed up the river; probably more competition for fireworks viewing spots so we need to get out there and get the anchor out.

Patriots Jet Team

One of the people we are with identified the team that gave us our free aerobatic show yesterday:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriots_Jet_Team

Mildred

So we're anchored out near Gene and Al. Earlier we were buzzed by an air show, then a kite surfer and now a wind surfer. Quite the happening place.

Free Show

We came out to Mildred Island with Al and Gene and we're getting a free air show! It sure looks like the blue angels!

Last weekend we saw four cows crossing the Antioch bridge. Ya never know what you're going to get when you come to the Delta!

Work day

It is snotty windy. Luckily we weren't planning on going anywhere. Just doing a little maintenance.

Stockton Ports v San Jose Giants

So far the Giants are up. 3 to 2 in the 4th. Our boat is just over the right field fence. Five minute walk. Beautiful evening!

Casino Royale

Perhaps I should mention we are docked directly opposite Casino Royale.

The other side

Matt insisted we had to take a photo of the rowdy bunch.

Stockton

White Slough II

Quite a lovely little spot. Joe and Carrie came by last night for a short visit. They had been out and about on their ski boat.

White Slough

Looks like it's gonna be a bright sunshiny day.

Dinner on the Deck at Moore's Riverboat

This Ranger Tug just pulled in. Beautiful evening.

Korth's

Joe is filling up Taylor Girl while the rest of us relax on the expansive lawn.

South Mokelumne

Cruising along in Joe and Carrie's ski boat, Taylor Girl.

Hmm... Explained

We saw the barge of rocks (from friday night) again. Shoring up a berm.