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!