There is NO room for two ships on this river. A ship and a schooner, yes. Two big ships–no way. We sort of parked and waited for this one to pass us.
Category Archives: misc
The Busy Person’s Photo-Essay
I’ve been too busy to write about a variety of events, adventures, and the ordinary daily-grind activities aboard Mahdee. So, here are some photos taken in the last 2 weeks. More to come.
Beryl played the role of the bored kitty while we were busy with all our activities.
While we were in the Georgiana Slough, I continued onward with the varnishing. This time, I did the three 24″x24″ butterfly hatches and and associated hatch openings on the deck midships. David was threatening me with more sanding dust (see sander in hand?) and enjoying the chaotic deck with wet varnish everywhere in this pic:
Every night we’ve had lovely sunsets and moon risings to enjoy.
My favorite case of the Raspberry Pi, the Pibow, finally came out in wood! So, I ordered one and assembled it around our Pi. I really like it, and so does David. It matches the wood interior and I got a nifty VESA mounting back so it can be mounted to a monitor back or it can be screwed onto a wall, bulkhead, or somewhere “discreet” …
Among all the her days of boredom and lazing about while we’re busy, Beryl has also become very good at stealing my favorite afghan for her own lounging pleasure.
The entire time we were anchored in Georgiana Slough we knew we’d caught a snag with the main anchor. Since we were tied off to so many trees ashore and had the stern anchor out, we weren’t worried about going anywhere by accident, though. What we didn’t know is that we actually caught a tree. When the fateful morning came to raise anchor(s) and leave, we were attached to something heavy that was raising bubbles 50 ft in front of the bow as we pulled at the chain entering the water directly below us. A few running starts (in reverse) and we would find Mahdee’s bow dipping low in the water and then would hear/feel the breaking of a big branch while bubbles would rise up far in front of the boat. This happened three times and finally we were free of all except a lone branch (admittedly 6″ to 8″ diameter across at its widest point and maybe 20 ft long…) that David had to untangle from the chain before we could move on.
After spending a day in Walnut Grove, we headed down the Steamboat Slough and were thankful for the Interphase FLS. With the system set up to look ahead 50 ft we could avoid sandbars and underwater obstructions — although at times like this, it seemed that the entire slough was too shallow for us to travel. Where there is a will, there is a way, and we always made it through.
For those of you who know about my love of blue and white china and in particular my Spode collection, you can understand why I was thrilled to recently see a melamine tray with a Spode Blue Room pattern on it! I tracked down the product and ordered it. With no more elegant food aboard, we enjoyed eating junk food (Hansen’s Raspberry Soda and Oreos) served on my new tray.
We’ve seen a lot of birds in the last few weeks–and sometimes we startle them from their comfy perches.
We did enjoy two nights in Horseshoe Bend behind Decker Island. We took Beryl for a dingy ride and met some nice folks aboard a CT anchored there. That’s a story for another day.
I’m out of time and pics are now uploaded. More later.
The Lilliputian Marina
I’m still behind on pics and stories for the blog. We left Antioch Marina on Tuesday September 3rd after spending the holiday weekend in the marina. During our stay there, we were able to drive down to Mountain View (San Jose area) and visit David’s elderly auntie. Her birthday was Monday, so we were able to take her out for a celebration meal at The Outback. Can you believe–she’s 91 and never had a blooming onion before? The weather was quite dramatic with thunderstorms passing through on Sunday and Monday. Nothing like having the tallest masts in the marina during thunderstorms. Luckily no lightening.
When we arranged to visit the Antioch marina, we thought it was a great location for staging our car and getting to-and-from the Bay area. The Amtrak station is a short walk from the marina and though there is only limited shopping within walking distance of the marina, our plans for our extended stay in the Delta are to visit Antioch every two or three weeks (ok, maybe only once a month) and use the car to visit all the usual shopping spots. We already knew from our visit to the Delta in 2010 that we can buy groceries within walking distance of a dock or anchorage in a couple of different locations throughout the Delta.
I scoped out the Antioch Marina on the charts and Google Earth. The dockmaster told me which slip we’d be in as visitors and where it was. I saw the slip—an end tie just beyond the fuel dock with a row of normal slips between. Looking at the size of everything, I though “oh, those are 30 ft slips between the visitors dock and the fuel dock. On the other side they’re a little bigger, must be 40 ft slips. That makes sense, a 75 ft visitors dock.
Upon arrival at the narrow marina entrance, all I could think was “this is a marina for munchkins” because it was tiny! Those 30 ft slips? They’re 20 ft slips. Who ever heard of 20 ft slips??? Seriously. The end tie is shorter than Mahdee. I had a few heart-beat patter-patter moments getting Mahdee turned into the teeny, tiny little fairway and tied up to the slip. Thank goodness it was a turn to port and port side tie up because Mahdee and I do very well with those. Not so great on starboard tie up due to prop walk issues.
After we were tied in, I wondered if the marina would kick us out—after all, we were taking up a lot of the width of a 35-40 ft fairway with our 15 ft beam and boats needed to come and go by us. Later, the marina manager said “no problem” so we just went with it. Everyone was friendly and we enjoyed Antioch a lot.
The final word on Antioch marina? Lilliputian.
