Pipeline Goes Nuclear
1 day ago
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Saturday, April 21, 2012
The Secret Lagoon
Friday, April 20, 2012
Almost to the boat
87 degrees out. Wonder what the water temperature is?
Monday, April 16, 2012
Tragic News
Saturday, April 14, 2012 was a tragic day for bay area sailors. This was a very familiar boat from my many seasons of OYRA racing, though we rarely saw them on the course as Low Speed Chace was much faster than whatever boat I was on (Stray Cat Blues, Pizote, Tiki J). Sad, sad news indeed. I can't seem to think of much else today. I ordered Matt a personal locator beacon earlier today as he will be doing a couple of ocean races this year. I hope he never has to set it off.
I'm so sad for the lost souls and their families and friends and all the people at San Francisco Yacht Club who lost part of their family.
Low Speed Chase Latitude38 story from 2012-04-16
Some of the response to the stories about this event have expressed that this was not a tragedy as these were "rich people" who died in a "useless, worthless activity." I am shocked and saddened by such judgemental comments. I know people from all walks of life and socio-economic classes who choose to spend their free time and disposable income boating. To write off boaters as the rich and question why money should be spent trying to save them after an accident such as this is an affront to what America stands for.
I'm so sad for the lost souls and their families and friends and all the people at San Francisco Yacht Club who lost part of their family.
Low Speed Chase Latitude38 story from 2012-04-16
Some of the response to the stories about this event have expressed that this was not a tragedy as these were "rich people" who died in a "useless, worthless activity." I am shocked and saddened by such judgemental comments. I know people from all walks of life and socio-economic classes who choose to spend their free time and disposable income boating. To write off boaters as the rich and question why money should be spent trying to save them after an accident such as this is an affront to what America stands for.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Friday, April 13, 2012
Delta Time
We blew off our plans in the Bay Area for tonight and tomorrow and drove up to the boat. Traffic was super light (maybe due to spring break?). There was a bit of a squall as we approached and crossed the three mile slough bridge and it was sprinkling a bit as we unloaded the car. It seems very quiet and peaceful here and we are hearing lots of birds. I already feel relaxed. We are glad we came up.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Easter in the Delta
We had planned to get up around 8 on Sunday / Easter and leave at 9 to motor over to the Point Waterfront restaurant for our 11 am brunch reservation. Everyone was dragging around Sunday and we briefly discussed taking the car instead but everyone rallied and we got underway around 9:30. It was a nice ride over and we were surprised we saw so few other boats out. We went through three mile slough and under the three mile slough bridge, which was a first for us. We weren't sure what to expect with requesting the bridge opening. Matt hailed the bridge tender and asked for an opening. None of really understood the garbled reply but we soon heard the warning bells ringing for the cars and saw the gates come down and the cars stop, then the bridge started going up. We only needed a few more feet from closed clearance so we started moving towards the bridge as it went up. The bridge tender stopped raising it as we went under, it was maybe 10 or 15 feet up. The tender came out and we all waved and yelled "thank you". Seems like it would be a pretty boring job.
Once we were under the bridge, we weren't really sure which way to go to get to the channel in the Sacramento River, which was on the opposite side of the river. We decided with an abundance of caution to go straight across and make a 90 degree turn into the channel. We got to the Rio Vista Marina at about 10:50 and were quickly tied up (Matt did a great job docking despite a farily strong current) and on our way into the restaurant after a quick stop to report in at the marina office.
The restaurant seemed fairly empty when we walked in but quickly filled up as the after church family groups came in. As we went to the buffet the staff were refilling all the items. Nice timing! All the food was great and the staff was super nice. We found out later that our server was the owners' son. He was a super friendly and cheerful young man. The food was nothing fancy by bay area standards but it was good food at a good price and I would definitely go back.
On the way out we stopped at the marina office again, which is also a chandlery so we browsed around and were very impressed by the selection, both of boat necessities and silly stuff. I also asked some local looking folks about the best way to get from the channel to the bridge on the way back and they pretty much said to go with the right angle turn as we had done. I will definitely ask some of our friends though to see if there is a safe shortcut.
Once we were underway we realized the fog horn sound we kept hearing was the bartender at the restaurant honking at the boats going in and out (the bar had a great view of the river, by the way). We took a quick look at the houses right on the water, north of the marina, then headed back to the slough. We had an uneventful trip back and a slightly hair raising return to the slip. It is so hard to judge the current and if you are going too slow you get swept into the roof supports. We were a little too far upstream as we turned in and were getting pushed by the current into the supports. Joe and I raced over to fend off and one of the fenders got caught in between the hull and the support. It kept the boat safe and pretty much popped the fender. LOL. Good thing we have two spares in the garage, thanks to a friend who gave us his fenders after he sold his boat.
We slowly and reluctantly packed up and finally got in the car around 4. We stopped by Willow Berm around 4 and found out that they have a spot for us. Yea. Matt is so excited. I feel bad about leaving Delta Bay after Judy was so accommodating but Matt loves Willow Berm. It is REALLY nice. So we hope to move in a few weeks. Joe and Carrie will have their boat there in August.
Once we were under the bridge, we weren't really sure which way to go to get to the channel in the Sacramento River, which was on the opposite side of the river. We decided with an abundance of caution to go straight across and make a 90 degree turn into the channel. We got to the Rio Vista Marina at about 10:50 and were quickly tied up (Matt did a great job docking despite a farily strong current) and on our way into the restaurant after a quick stop to report in at the marina office.
The restaurant seemed fairly empty when we walked in but quickly filled up as the after church family groups came in. As we went to the buffet the staff were refilling all the items. Nice timing! All the food was great and the staff was super nice. We found out later that our server was the owners' son. He was a super friendly and cheerful young man. The food was nothing fancy by bay area standards but it was good food at a good price and I would definitely go back.
On the way out we stopped at the marina office again, which is also a chandlery so we browsed around and were very impressed by the selection, both of boat necessities and silly stuff. I also asked some local looking folks about the best way to get from the channel to the bridge on the way back and they pretty much said to go with the right angle turn as we had done. I will definitely ask some of our friends though to see if there is a safe shortcut.
Once we were underway we realized the fog horn sound we kept hearing was the bartender at the restaurant honking at the boats going in and out (the bar had a great view of the river, by the way). We took a quick look at the houses right on the water, north of the marina, then headed back to the slough. We had an uneventful trip back and a slightly hair raising return to the slip. It is so hard to judge the current and if you are going too slow you get swept into the roof supports. We were a little too far upstream as we turned in and were getting pushed by the current into the supports. Joe and I raced over to fend off and one of the fenders got caught in between the hull and the support. It kept the boat safe and pretty much popped the fender. LOL. Good thing we have two spares in the garage, thanks to a friend who gave us his fenders after he sold his boat.
We slowly and reluctantly packed up and finally got in the car around 4. We stopped by Willow Berm around 4 and found out that they have a spot for us. Yea. Matt is so excited. I feel bad about leaving Delta Bay after Judy was so accommodating but Matt loves Willow Berm. It is REALLY nice. So we hope to move in a few weeks. Joe and Carrie will have their boat there in August.
Delta Trip Photos
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| Ready to go... |
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| Leaving Coyote Point |
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| Coyote Point in the background |
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| Both Tachs working! Whoo hoo! |
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| From Left to Right-Treasure Island, the Bay Bridge and downtown San Francisco |
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| The North Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge as seen through Racoon Straights (Angel Island on the left) |
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| Approaching Pittsburg / New York Slough |
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| Up Close and Personal with Falcon Trader in New York Slough |
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| Starting to see some interesting Delta Habitats. This place looked really nice. |
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| Sunset the first night |
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| Sunset the second night |
Friday, April 6, 2012
We're Here!
We made it here just a few minutes after four. We stopped at Antioch for about 45 minutes to fuel up so the trip took about eight hours. It was a beautiful smooth ride and it is very sunny and pleasant here. Yea!
Underway
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Eleventh Hour
Getting close! Eleven hours. All the provisions are stowed. Dinghy is washed and launched and new tow bridle attached. Water filled. Cooler loaded. Hope the wind dies down.
Photos
Sorry I am too lazy to insert them in the relevant post. I'll put them in some semblance of order:
Angel Island October 2011 (Did I really never post these?? Maybe I just didn't erase them off the camera?)
Our inverter and batteries:
And lastly, here is the boat at Marina Village in Alameda. We spent a weekend here after we picked the boat up from Star Marine.
Angel Island October 2011 (Did I really never post these?? Maybe I just didn't erase them off the camera?)
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| Sparkler III (L) and Windmill |
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| Ada Helen |
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| Pineapple Girl |
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| Party Central on the Black Pearl |
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| Breakfast at Sam's Here's the swim platform repair in progress:  |
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| This was "done" and Matt said no way. I don't have a photo of what they ended up doing. They ground off all the diamond non-skid and started over with more of a sand or sandpaper textured non-skid. It is all white with a smooth cream border around most of it, except where they did repairs and made the border white. I don't know why these repair people cannot recognize that our boat is cream and not white! There are several large white areas on it where prior work has been done. |
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| The inverter at home under the settee |
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| The selector switch for the house banks and the slow fuse for the inverter (these are also under the settee, at the front) |
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| The inverter's control and status panel |
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| Our two battery banks of four 6 volt golf cart batteries per bank. They also made a nice lid for this new battery box. |
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| The new charging relay and bus bar. It seems a little messy in this photo but everything is much neater than it was before. |
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Outlets Outlets Everywhere
We spent last night on the boat as we are going to the Delta in less than two days (YEA!) so thought we'd get a couple of things done. One thing we really NEEDED to do was launch the dinghy, but the car was in the shop so we had no tow hitch so THAT project was out. We did an inventory and made a grocery shopping list, emptied the dock box and took the loaner steps back over to Joe. Then cast around for something else to do.
Ah, the OUTLETS! When we first tried the inventor, two of the three GFCI outlets emitted a buzzing sound. After some research (thank you Google) we found a) it is harmless b) if we use Xantrex approved GFCI outlets the noise should go away. Finding the Xantrex approved outlets proved more challenging--the model they specified is no longer in production. I decided to try a newer model from the same company. I got one installed, turned on the inverter, and .... buuuuuuuzzzzzzzzzz... Yeah, NO improvement. Ok those are going back and we will just live with the noise.
Now what? AH, I had bought one of THESE awhile back and hadn't installed it yet:
It is an outlet with two built in USB outlets, to conveniently charge gizmos like the iPhone without needing the "wall wart" charger. The outlet requires an oversize junction box so we chose and outlet in the base of the settee in the saloon as the easiest place to both access the junction box and charge the phones. Like all simple projects, it proved more complicated than anticipated but at least did not require any trips to the store!
To start with, the outlets and junction boxes on the boat are not installed like in a home. The cut out in the wood is not as large as the junction box, so the box has to be attached from the back side. In the course of removing the old outlet I somehow caused a ground fault and tripped the shore power. Kind of scary considering the power was off to the outlets.
Once the old outlet and junction box were out, it was time to start installing the new. The existing power wire was BARELY long enough to come in from the back of the new junction box and reach out the front. The old junciton box was VERY small, half the depth of a standard home box, and the new one was MUCH deeper. In order to get enough play in the wires to attach them to the new outlet, we had to loosen the wire back about six feet where it went around some corners inside the settee base to then get us a few more inches of play.
Ok, have enough wire, hook it on, and... the new outlet is so much larger than the old that it will not go into the hole in the wood to be pushed back into the junction box. Great, ok what tools do we have? A putty knife, a large screw driver and a dull utility knife? CHECK. Every wood workers dream. We disconnected the outlet and Matt set about hacking the opening larger. He said some woodworker in Taiwan was probably cringing. He managed to hack it enough to get the outlet in place, then we rewired, secured the junction box from the back and refastened the wire inside the settee. The outlet cover does not sit flush on the settee base but it is at shin level and probably nobody will ever notice. It works great and will give us a very convenient place for charging our phones! So one thing accomplished! Now we just have a few 12 volt "cigarette lighter" style outlets to install around the boat. Yeah we'll get to that... eventually!
Ah, the OUTLETS! When we first tried the inventor, two of the three GFCI outlets emitted a buzzing sound. After some research (thank you Google) we found a) it is harmless b) if we use Xantrex approved GFCI outlets the noise should go away. Finding the Xantrex approved outlets proved more challenging--the model they specified is no longer in production. I decided to try a newer model from the same company. I got one installed, turned on the inverter, and .... buuuuuuuzzzzzzzzzz... Yeah, NO improvement. Ok those are going back and we will just live with the noise.
Now what? AH, I had bought one of THESE awhile back and hadn't installed it yet:
To start with, the outlets and junction boxes on the boat are not installed like in a home. The cut out in the wood is not as large as the junction box, so the box has to be attached from the back side. In the course of removing the old outlet I somehow caused a ground fault and tripped the shore power. Kind of scary considering the power was off to the outlets.
Once the old outlet and junction box were out, it was time to start installing the new. The existing power wire was BARELY long enough to come in from the back of the new junction box and reach out the front. The old junciton box was VERY small, half the depth of a standard home box, and the new one was MUCH deeper. In order to get enough play in the wires to attach them to the new outlet, we had to loosen the wire back about six feet where it went around some corners inside the settee base to then get us a few more inches of play.
Ok, have enough wire, hook it on, and... the new outlet is so much larger than the old that it will not go into the hole in the wood to be pushed back into the junction box. Great, ok what tools do we have? A putty knife, a large screw driver and a dull utility knife? CHECK. Every wood workers dream. We disconnected the outlet and Matt set about hacking the opening larger. He said some woodworker in Taiwan was probably cringing. He managed to hack it enough to get the outlet in place, then we rewired, secured the junction box from the back and refastened the wire inside the settee. The outlet cover does not sit flush on the settee base but it is at shin level and probably nobody will ever notice. It works great and will give us a very convenient place for charging our phones! So one thing accomplished! Now we just have a few 12 volt "cigarette lighter" style outlets to install around the boat. Yeah we'll get to that... eventually!
Monday, April 2, 2012
The Slip is Waiting!
Saturday we had a few tasks to do on the boat. Matt fixed the depth and the speedo (loose wires), ran the wire to hook the auto pilot to the GPS (though we still need to connect it), futzed with the starboard alternator wiring (trying to figure out why the tach usually doesn't register) and installed the fins on the dinghy motor. Together we swapped out the 300' chain anchor rode for 100' of chain plus ~200' of rope (after whipping our splice) swapping out our "permanent" dock lines for our travelling set.
Sunday we intended to fill up with diesel but it was very windy so we decided to head on up to the Delta to get our slip ready. We wanted to take a lock for the dock box and the only one we have was locking the dinghy motor to the transom of PG. I tried to get it off but I needed to get under it to dial in the combo. I put my purse down on the sundeck and laid down on the swim platform. As I was getting into position I heard a loud "plop" as something slid out of the pocket on my sweatshirt. I did a quick mental inventory of what was in there--car key fob? no that was in my purse. iPhone? CRAP. Yes, and in its nifty new Lilly Pulitzer case with room for two cards--my driver license and ATM card. Sigh. Matt got the lock off while I berated myself and the inventor of hoody sweatshirts with hand warmer pockets.
Then we set off for Delta Bay Marina. We stopped for a quick breakfast then hit the highway. Traffic wasn't bad and we only missed a few minor turns on the way. Nothing that wasn't quickly remedied. We got there a little after noon and first went in to settle the paperwork and pay our slip fee with Judy before loading up a dock cart with all the stuff out of the trunk and back seat. We met a couple of our new dock neighbors and were informed that all the "big party people" had moved their boats out of the marina. Hopefully there are still some small and medium party people left. The folks we met were very helpful and friendly, as was everyone we met last year.
We started setting up the lines and the big round fenders we had bought. Matt was happy that he was able to attach the lines right to the cleats without needing to wrap chain around the cleat like at Coyote Point (I'll have to take a photo of that so you see what I mean). I didn't come up with a really good way to tie the fenders to the roof supports so each one is done a little differently. Hopefully they will all still be tied on when we get there Friday. We'll be able to spot our slip for sure with two orange fenders on one side and three white ones on the other. It looks like we have absolutely no idea what we are doing so we lined the slip with fenders. Which is about right. Coming in with the current running and the wind blowing is fairly petrifying. Very high pucker factor. At least we'll have the dock lines there so we can get one fastened on quickly. Figuring out which one is the best one is the challenge! It always seems to work out that I think I have picked the correct side of the boat to be on to be able to get on the dock and the boat ends up on the other side of the slip and I have to madly run around the whole boat to try and get on the dock before the hand rail makes contact with the roof supports. Definitely agree with the docking rule to not be going any faster than you want to hit the dock. Everybody knows somebody who has come in too fast and ended up with the bow of the boat riding up ON the dock. As in, parts of the boat that should always be underwater are not. Doesn't really do your gel coat, fiberglass, dock box, etc any favors to do that.
So after we got everything set up we didn't even bother with the lock on the dock box since all that we left in there is a bucket and some Clorox... But hey I got a new phone out of it. Whoop dee do.
We left the marina and headed over to Rio Vista for lunch. We wanted to try out the famous Foster's Restaurant. We'd heard that it was full of trophy heads from the founders hunting expeditions back in the 30s and 40s. Yep, sure is. It is really quite an incredible collection of trophies, including several of many of the animals. For instance there seemed to be an entire pride of lions and quite a few water buffalo. There was a huge elephant head and a giraffe. I was amazed at how clean they all seemed to be. To us, it wasn't really the most conducive atmosphere for eating, more of a kitschy touristy place. By delta standards it was on the pricey side, but not compared to Bay Area prices. Not someplace I'd be inclined to go again, especially with all the great and inexpensive food much closer to the marina.
CP. we have to calculate if we can get up there without fueling first. We are going to the boat tomorrow to check and to see if there is anything else we missed doing in preparation. We still have to figure out launching the dinghy, since the motor is on the big boat and one of the oar locks is broken. Makes getting the dinghy from the launch ramp to the boat MUCH more interesting...
Sunday we intended to fill up with diesel but it was very windy so we decided to head on up to the Delta to get our slip ready. We wanted to take a lock for the dock box and the only one we have was locking the dinghy motor to the transom of PG. I tried to get it off but I needed to get under it to dial in the combo. I put my purse down on the sundeck and laid down on the swim platform. As I was getting into position I heard a loud "plop" as something slid out of the pocket on my sweatshirt. I did a quick mental inventory of what was in there--car key fob? no that was in my purse. iPhone? CRAP. Yes, and in its nifty new Lilly Pulitzer case with room for two cards--my driver license and ATM card. Sigh. Matt got the lock off while I berated myself and the inventor of hoody sweatshirts with hand warmer pockets.
Then we set off for Delta Bay Marina. We stopped for a quick breakfast then hit the highway. Traffic wasn't bad and we only missed a few minor turns on the way. Nothing that wasn't quickly remedied. We got there a little after noon and first went in to settle the paperwork and pay our slip fee with Judy before loading up a dock cart with all the stuff out of the trunk and back seat. We met a couple of our new dock neighbors and were informed that all the "big party people" had moved their boats out of the marina. Hopefully there are still some small and medium party people left. The folks we met were very helpful and friendly, as was everyone we met last year.
We started setting up the lines and the big round fenders we had bought. Matt was happy that he was able to attach the lines right to the cleats without needing to wrap chain around the cleat like at Coyote Point (I'll have to take a photo of that so you see what I mean). I didn't come up with a really good way to tie the fenders to the roof supports so each one is done a little differently. Hopefully they will all still be tied on when we get there Friday. We'll be able to spot our slip for sure with two orange fenders on one side and three white ones on the other. It looks like we have absolutely no idea what we are doing so we lined the slip with fenders. Which is about right. Coming in with the current running and the wind blowing is fairly petrifying. Very high pucker factor. At least we'll have the dock lines there so we can get one fastened on quickly. Figuring out which one is the best one is the challenge! It always seems to work out that I think I have picked the correct side of the boat to be on to be able to get on the dock and the boat ends up on the other side of the slip and I have to madly run around the whole boat to try and get on the dock before the hand rail makes contact with the roof supports. Definitely agree with the docking rule to not be going any faster than you want to hit the dock. Everybody knows somebody who has come in too fast and ended up with the bow of the boat riding up ON the dock. As in, parts of the boat that should always be underwater are not. Doesn't really do your gel coat, fiberglass, dock box, etc any favors to do that.
So after we got everything set up we didn't even bother with the lock on the dock box since all that we left in there is a bucket and some Clorox... But hey I got a new phone out of it. Whoop dee do.
We left the marina and headed over to Rio Vista for lunch. We wanted to try out the famous Foster's Restaurant. We'd heard that it was full of trophy heads from the founders hunting expeditions back in the 30s and 40s. Yep, sure is. It is really quite an incredible collection of trophies, including several of many of the animals. For instance there seemed to be an entire pride of lions and quite a few water buffalo. There was a huge elephant head and a giraffe. I was amazed at how clean they all seemed to be. To us, it wasn't really the most conducive atmosphere for eating, more of a kitschy touristy place. By delta standards it was on the pricey side, but not compared to Bay Area prices. Not someplace I'd be inclined to go again, especially with all the great and inexpensive food much closer to the marina.
CP. we have to calculate if we can get up there without fueling first. We are going to the boat tomorrow to check and to see if there is anything else we missed doing in preparation. We still have to figure out launching the dinghy, since the motor is on the big boat and one of the oar locks is broken. Makes getting the dinghy from the launch ramp to the boat MUCH more interesting...
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