Ready, Set to Go?

Posted on by Brenda under interior, living aboard, photos, Projects

A big cyclonic wind system in the NE Pacific is making for a tiny period of S or SW winds before they turn to westerlies. We may have a few good travel days next week for the beginning of our trip to the North.

So, we’re checking things off the list and making ready to leave. Just in case. Sunday. What does that entail?

Friday, Beryl gets her shots and her health certificate. We dig out her harness and lifevest so she can practice wearing them again.

Brenda goes over the sails and rigging to make sure everything is in good order. Sewing, OK, one of the HiMod fittings has unexpected corrosion pitting upon inspection–not OK.

David installs new equipment–in this case, it’s a new radar mount and a B&G 4G radar on the mainmast.

We also get to install all the stuff that we’ve been procrastinating or that is is just finally showing up here–two custom Garhauer blocks for the running backstays; the amsteel lifelines that I’ve been avoiding the final install of; several misc. electrical bits and pieces–for example we’ll have a 12V light in the stateroom for the first time. Up until now it’s been flashlights, hocky-puck battery lights, or a 120VAC shorepower light.

We buy dozens of things we don’t need but “just in case” we can’t get them. The list? Well, we hit Trader Joe’s today and it was: dark chocolate; granola bars; Basmati rice; curry; goat cheeses (cheddar, brie, Gouda); wine; our favorite coffee; three dozen eggs; blondie mix; our favorite pasta; two six packs of Hansen’s sodas; and a dry salami. The trip to Costco happened last week and the “fresh veggie” trip will happen late the day before we go.

We finish up a variety of projects that really need to be put away before sailing. Today that means putting all the parts back onto the main saloon table that David made and I’ve been varnishing; it also means that FINALLY David will be forced to put away all of his ~~toys~~ ahem, tools that have been covering every horizontal surface of the boat (inside and out) for the last two weeks.

Beryl is helping me layout corbels to support the drop leaf main saloon table

How big of a board is too big?

This place is truly a mess when David is in the middle of a project like the saloon table.

Tomorrow, the highlight of the day will be to cut the latex foam (in half) on two queen size mattress toppers and make them into mattresses for the twin-size pilot berths that sit outboard and above the main saloon seats. Once David’s tools are out of the way, I will be able to get out my sewing machine, put it on that new main saloon table and make a lee cloth for the starboard pilot berth. That’s needed since it looks like we will have a guest aboard for the first portion of our northward trip. It would be bad if she fell out of the berth and sustained an injury due to the lack of a lee cloth.

After the ~~toys~~ tools are stashed away by David, I can begin the “stash and lash” process in earnest.

Other last minute stuff? Find a local gas station of the “Rotten Robbies” chain to buy kerosene for the stove and gasoline for the Honda EU2000; determine if we’re going to jerry-jug another 80 or so gallons of diesel onto the boat from a gas station (usually cheaper than fuel dock prices) or if we can easily and inexpensively fill up at a local fuel dock near here. Let’s see, what else? Empty the compost from the composting head, clean under the engine and replace the diesel “diaper” in the engine tray (so we can see if there are any leaks or spills); check all the navigation lights and engine fluids. Oh, and keep our fingers crossed that the new C-Map chart chips we ordered show up before we leave.

Sewing Projects

Posted on by Brenda under interior, living aboard, misc, photos, Projects

Yesterday, I finally sat down and did a couple sewing projects. The first, I made two bolster pillows to match the curtains I made last year. The fabric is great–a black and white toile designed by artist Sue Coccia in her totem-style Animal Spirits line of cotton prints. This fabric has all sorts of sea creatures – crabs, sea otters, seals, stingrays, turtles, octopi, dolphins, sharks. Fun! I used a bright indigo blue fabric for the ends to tie into the pretty blue afghan our talented friend Monica made for us this summer. Have I mentioned I love deep blues? The Coccia fabric also comes in a lovely colorful version, but I like black-and-white or blue-and-white prints.

Once into the spirit of sewing, I moved on to another project. Our boat’s fender covers were looking pretty ragged–and the fenders themselves are no spring chickens–so I picked up a king size knitted blanket at Target and made nine fender covers ranging from huge down to itty bitty. I still have four more to cover so I may be going back to Target for a matching twin size blanket. These new covers are replacing ones I made in 2009 from fleece blankets but this time I decided the knit blanket pattern was soft enough to use as a cover and its style matched the boat. In Hervey Garrett Smith’s book The Marlinspike Sailor there is even something called a “fender hitch” for covering round things. That pattern of hitch looks a lot like this knit pattern.

The blanket and marlin started out as a pile on the seat next to me. Soon I was sewing and at the rate of one fender every half hour, my blanket was quickly consumed.

The largest extra-huge fenders seem to often find themselves as guard duty to keep the inflatable Tinker Traveler suspended above the galley butteryfly hatch.

We have small fenders that aren’t used for the hull so much as for everything else on deck that we’re trying to protect, it seems. For example…the canoe vs the deck works out best with a fender between the two of them. If we ever were willing to install chocks for dinghy and canoe, the fenders would be “off duty.”

Other fenders await their duties:

Normal guard duty for the large fenders in a slip

Next sewing projects? More fender covers and the biggie–making royal blue cushions for our charthouse seats. David really doesn’t like sitting on the wood bench seats without a cushion. I’ve had the fabric for several months…OK, about a year! and I now just need to take the time to make the cushions.

Hello Autumn Days

Posted on by Brenda under anchoring, living aboard, Musings, photos

“The days pass happily with me wherever my ship sails.” – Joshua Slocum.

For these past several weeks, our ship sails the waters of the California Delta. Fed from the Sacramento River, the Georgiana Slough is our anchorage for now. The rich agricultural history of the Delta is still here: Pear farms, grapes, fields of ripe tomatoes, corn ready for harvest stands dry and golden in the fields. New Delta friends tell us that in the days gone by there were packing sheds alongside the sloughs and docks everywhere because the fruits were taken to market on the rivers and sloughs–not by truck. Today, we see the farm trucks going by with their loads of hay, grapes, tomatoes, and other good fare. Heavy equipment on the levy road; it makes me smile and remember growing up in a farming community in Indiana. River otter, mink, muskrat, woodchuck, familiar furry neighbors. The birds overhead include eagle, falcon, swallows, phoebe, egrets, heron, and the usual assortment of songbirds and unidentified little brown birds. Fish jumping, big and small, but no anglers are successful in luring them to hook. I call out to the passing fishermen “did you catch anything?” and I hear “no, not today” even as I see a big fish jump near Mahdee.