Anniversary Weekend

 We planned a four-day weekend to celebrate our anniversary and headed to Twin Harbors on Santa Catalina Island.  It was a great sail over in 12-15 knot winds; pinching the whole way we made it one tack…a pretty nice ride.  

We had just dropped the sails and were motoring towards the harbor when a group of dolphins broke from the pack and came back to play with us.  Even though we see this on a pretty regular basis, it's still exciting and amazing to me.

 

We settled into a mooring in 4^th of July harbor and went ashore for a cocktail – a tradition.  It was a bit windy and cool when we returned to the boat, but we decided to sit in the cockpit and enjoy the night.

I started hearing a lot of life activity in the water and it took a few minutes for Jason to declare we were surrounded by flying fish.  To verify this, we found one in the cockpit and one in the dinghy the next morning.  We passed, but Maya got her first taste of fresh fish…she wanted to eat the whole thing but I didn't think that was a good idea so Jason filleted it for her.

Saturday night we were treated to phosphorescent's.  Truly magical…our friend Captain Hank in Roatan says if you dive in and look up it’s like seeing the universe all around you. The water was too cold for that, so we just enjoyed the view from above.

Sunday we celebrated our first anniversary. The wind gusted to 25 knots throughout the day, but when it laid down it was sunny and hot…although not warm enough for me to get in the water – even with a wet suit.

Not much for big meals, we opted for tapas throughout the day – including the wonderful beer battered fish Jason caught. That evening we continued the celebration with a bottle of 2008 Turley Uberoff...yummm!

Monday it was time to head for home.

Life is like a coin.  You can spend it any way you wish, but you only spend it once. Lillian Dickson

First Wedding Anniversary

One year ago today we were married in Tortola, BVI.  At times I can’t believe it’s already been a year, and other times it seems so long ago.  We’ve had so many experiences in the past year and as each day passes we come closer to realizing our dreams.

It was important to both of us that our first anniversary be special.  When we got married we talked about going to Italy and Spain for this anniversary.  But with the purchase of Volaré earlier this year, that was no longer a practical option.  As it got closer we tossed around other ideas – a weekend in San Diego, a weekend at the local Ritz Carlton, taking the boat to Catalina or staying on the boat at the dock and continuing to work on the list.  Working at the dock and heading to Catalina made the final cut.  In the end, we decided that even though there are months of work to do, since we celebrated our honeymoon at sea, we should celebrate our first anniversary at sea.

Jason went out fishing first thing in the morning to add to our celebratory feast.  He came back with a 14" Calico Bass, enough for a great afternoon snack.  Being a bit squeamish about the hunting/fishing thing, I couldn't bring myself to take a picture of it so you'll just have to use your imagination. I"m sure I'll get over it eventually, as we're figuring fresh fish will be a great free staple.

It was the perfect first anniversary and we're looking forward to many more on the boat.

A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person. Mignon McLaughlin

Memorial Day Weekend 2013

It was a 4-day weekend for us and we had decided to make it a full on work weekend.  But, by the time we got everything packed up, to the boat, unloaded and put away it was already mid-afternoon.  With Jason’s birthday being later this week, we decided to start the celebration early and headed to happy hour.  Needless to say, there was no work done this day.

We got up early on Saturday and Jason headed over to his Dad’s boat to help install stereo speakers before starting on our own projects.  I set out for a walk with Maya and when I returned, resumed my teak scraping project from several weeks ago. 
Five hours of scraping and all I managed to get done was the top of the toe rail.  Jason seemed to think I was working harder than I needed to and decided to show me how it was done.  After about 10 minutes he stated that maybe this was a project we were better off hiring out so our time could be spent more effectively.  I will get bids and then we’ll see.


While I was outside scraping Jason finished wiring the new chart plotter, mounted the new autopilot display, removed the defunct rudder sensor, ran some tests to identify our electrical leak, rewired the inside front stereo speakers, fixed the regulator on the barbecue  and rigged the hammock. Obviously his time was better spent.

Sunday we slept in.  No work this morning as we prepped for company.  We had friends to the boat for sailing and barbecuing.  It was another beautiful day on the water with 12-15 knot winds.  And with a crew of our most experienced cruising/racing friends, we decided it was the perfect opportunity to try out our cruising chute. We need to fine tune the rigging, but she flies beautifully.

We returned to the dock and barbecued  on our very recently repaired grill, and enjoyed the evening with good food, good friends and dark and stormy’s.

The last day of our long weekend brought a little work and a little rest.  Jason got the cleaning bug and decided to remove and reorganize everything in the forward cabin.  Being the organized clean freak that I am this made me very happy to see piles of stuff that was designated to the remove from boat pile.  This project turned out to be more beneficial than either of us realized it would be when Jason discovered salty water in the forward bilge.  Now we have a new project on the list – find source of water, fix wood rot and epoxy bilge. And after all that digging around, we were ready for a cold beer and a dinghy float.

We never made it to our big project for the weekend – rewiring the battery switch panel.  But, there’s always next weekend….

A good holiday is one spent among people whose notions of time are vaguer than yours. John B. Priestly

San Diego Land Cruise

We took a break from our boat this weekend and headed to San Diego to stay with our friends on their Amel 53’ Super Maramu.  They had gone down a few weekends before and were surprised to find a hummingbird nest with two babies in their mizzen traveler line.  Research revealed that hummingbirds leave the next after 21 days, but when we arrived they were still there.  There seemed to be a female and a male; with the female being bigger and stronger and leaving the next for several hours at a time. The male could only fly a couple of feet and mama would come every 20 minutes to feed him.  They were close enough to touch and so sweet to watch.

 We were all looking forward to getting their boat out of the slip for a day sail, but knew we couldn’t take the chance of disrupting nature.  Instead, we took in some local sites and had our first real downtime in several months.  After all, there is plenty of time for sailing.

Cruisers toast:
Endless summer. Forever young.  Only the strong survive.

Mother's Day 2013

Since we spend every weekend on the boat, we figured that was the perfect place to celebrate Mother’s Day with our mom’s.  We served brunch – baked sausage, cheese and mushroom pan omelet, fried potatoes, assorted muffins and breads, strawberries and mimosas.  It was quite the feast and very impressive for our first formal boat meal.

After brunch we headed out for a sail.  It was a beautiful day on the water with 12-15 knot winds.  Everyone had a great time and we have some special memories.

A man's work is from sun to sun, but a mother's work is never done. Author Unknown

Impromptu Cocktail Party

It all started innocently enough with a few dinghy’s rafted up enjoying an afternoon cocktail.  Eventually we had to split up to return to our respective boats to replenish cocktails.  Being at the upwind end of the channel everyone naturally came our way to regroup.  A few people came aboard to wait for others to return to the raft up, and then a few more, and a few more…well you know how that goes.  Pretty soon we were overflowing the boat onto the dock. 

Sometimes the impromptu party is more fun than those you plan. Carpe diem!










Spend the afternoon. You can't take it with you.  Anne Dillard

Racing Instead of Cruising

Last weekend we took a break from Volaré to crew on our friend Bruce’s Catalina 34 in the Newport to Ensenada race.  We left the dock in Long Beach at 7:15 Friday morning and motored to the start line off Newport Beach.  We arrived a little after 10:00, which gave us time for a snack and some crew practice before our 11:00 start time. We all identified our positions, took our places and watched the clock. 

 If you've never participated in a race of this magnitude, it’s hard to describe the frenzy of 200 boats motoring and/or sailing up and down the start line, depending on their start time. With multiple classes starting at any given time, the line can get a bit crowded.  But, it is a beautiful sight to see and definitely the most exciting part of the race. After all, once you’re about 10 miles into a 125 mile race, the pack starts to spread out, often times with no other boats in sight.  At that point, the race is all in your head.

This particular race is known for being one with little to no wind.  So, we opted for the outside course hoping to get more wind then those that were following the rhumb line.  This year the winds were in our favor and we had a steady 10-15 knots the entire trip.  We arrived at 12:45, with an elapsed time of 25:47, placing us 7 out of 15.  Although I prefer to be first, as long as we’re not last I’m happy.

Eloté - corn smeared with mayo, cheese,
 hot sauce and a little lime juice. Yummy!

We enjoyed the weekend in Ensenada; eating eloté, visiting the fish market for fresh fish tacos, and a bit of bar hopping.  Town was clean, people were friendly and we felt very safe and welcome.









"My goal in sailing isn't to be brilliant or flashy in individual races, 
just to be consistent over the long run."  Dennis Connor

Our Maiden Voyage

We had our maiden voyage this past weekend.  We awoke to Santa Ana winds, which we knew would be great to blow us off the dock and toward Santa Catalina Island.  We had a scheduled departure time of 9:30; unfortunately, by that time the winds had dropped from approximately 15 knots to 6 knots – not nearly enough for us to get any momentum sailing.

 Not only was this our maiden voyage, it was our first time sailing the boat without additional crew.  You know the saying, whatever can go wrong will go wrong…  We had three minor technical difficulties before we cleared the breakwater for open water.  The main halyard got fouled with a reefing line when we were trying to bring the main up; the block jumped off the track and was flailing along the side of the boat when we put the jib up and the jib sheets got fouled when we tried to roll it up to fix the block.  We figured with three learning opportunities under our belt the rest of the trip should be good.  And it was. 

 As we were motor sailing to our destination the wind picked up and we began to sail.  There’s nothing like the feel of turning off the engines and feeling your boat grab the wind and run.  It was a prefect beam reach sail right into our port of call.

 Once we reached our destination we attempted another first – anchoring.  We circled and circled looking for just the right spot because the one we had plotted on the chart was taken by the only other boat anchored in the area.  We finally dropped the hook only to soon realize we were dragging.  We pulled it up along with about 20 pounds of stinky eel grass and reset…one more try and we were good to go.  Much to my dismay the bow of the boat and the inside of the anchor locker was covered with the stinky eel grass.  On the project list is the installation of a salt water wash down on the bow…this is far down on the list.  So, I grabbed a 5 gallon bucket from the engine room, tied a line to it and tied that to the boat and proceeded to pull up buckets of water to wash off the bow.  I’m not sure how the anchor locker will get cleaned since it opens up to the f’ocsile, and it’s covered with eel grass, but I’ve been advised by the Captain that this falls into the category of unskilled labor tasks. 

Once we were settled we had to figure out how we were going to get Maya to and from the boat to the dingy.  We lifted her in and out by her life jacket one time and that was all it took for her to realize she would rather jump.  Now she looks like she was born on a boat.

Saturday I went kayaking then took Maya on a two hour hike while Jason fished and worked on installing the new autopilot. We found it necessary to again reset the anchor, which meant many more 5-gallon buckets of water to wash the bow.   Hot and sweaty we figured a swim with the sea lions was the perfect idea, but once in we knew it was just too darn cold without wetsuits.  But it gave me the opportunity for two more firsts – washing my hair with biodegradable saltwater soap and the solar shower – both worked great.

We spent a few nights trying to figure out the creaking, squeaking and banging that seemed to only happen once we went to bed.  And although we have identified them, we have yet to remedy them…more items for the to-do list.

We picked up hitchhikers for the trip home…a nice young couple that work as kid’s camp instructors for kayaking, snorkeling, etc.  They were great helpers and we made sure to get their contact information in the event we are looking for crew on longer journeys.

Although it blew all weekend long at anchor, once we set sail, it decided to rest.  We had to motor most of the way.  We were able to sail at about 2 knots for a short while – just long enough for a huge pod of dolphins to find us and swim along with us.  It was an amazing sight – all of these beautiful creatures zigzagging back and forth and jumping in front of the bow. 

All in all, it was a good maiden voyage. Lots of good food, good times with friends and the opportunity to get to know our boat better.

It is not the going out of port, but the coming in, that determines the success of a voyage.
Henry Ward Beecher

Our Official Renaming Ceremony

For weeks we have known that the name of our new boat would be Volaré. And today was the official day.  I picked up the vinyl name from the graphic company a couple of days ago and my girlfriend, who is an expert in applying boat graphics, helped me put it on before the ceremony.  What I thought would take 30 minutes took almost 2 hours due to the intricacy of the design.  Jason and I spent many days finding the perfect compass rose and font to get a style we felt matched the boat.  Once installed, we covered it for an official unveiling.

We invited closed to 70 people to share this special day with us.  When it turned out to be cold and overcast, we were afraid our party would shrink significantly.  That wasn’t the case. 

Rear Commodore Bruce Davis from our club, Shoreline Yacht Club, came in dress whites fully prepared for the ceremony.  He thoroughly researched protocol and advised that champagne, lots of it, was needed to appease the gods.  So, we had lots of Champagne and being sailors, lots of rum.

Bruce performed the official ceremony, during which I poured the requisite amount of champagne into the sea. We unveiled the name.  And the party rolled on.











My name may have buoyancy enough to float upon the sea of time.
Richard Watson Gilder

Inspecting the ground tackle

Today we had the fun experience of learning to deal with our heavy ground tackle.  After dropping anchor in the slip, we figured out we better get the anchor free to drop BEFORE final approach.  We stretched the chain across the dock and it looks like we have 400' of 3/8" chain, marked at approx 50' intervals.  Vicki volunteered to help wrestle the chain back aboard, so as I stood on the windlass switch I took some shots of her working it!

Let the good times roll!

We’ve had the boat two months now, during which time we’ve spent almost every weekend working on her.  But last weekend we finally took the time to just enjoy being on her.  With a long weekend for the Easter holiday, we took the opportunity to have friends and family over.

Our friends Dawn and Dave graciously offered to cook dinner for 8 and bring it to our boat.  Friends Brian and Sue brought an appetizer, and Virginia and Dave brought dessert. We provided wine – lots of wine – and the space.  

The cockpit on Volaré is huge!  It comfortably seats 10 people, leaving enough room for Maya to maneuver around and wait for food to drop.

Maya patiently waiting in the cockpit...

After sleeping in, we cleaned up and Jason prepared Easter brunch for family!

Jason's mom still makes him an Easter basket...
but now, it's a joint basket with goodies for both of us.

Volaré has now made her debut on the social circuit, althouh her true coming out party will happen later this month when she is officially renamed.

It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.

Charles Spurgeon

The season has officially started

Every year yacht clubs around the world have an Opening Day. Our club, Shoreline Yacht Club, in Long Beach CA, is no different. The doors are opened to surrounding yacht club members and guests.  The day unfolds with a lot of pomp and circumstance, followed by some serious all-day partying. To celebrate the festivities, we dressed Volaré out. We even went so far as to remove all of her canvas.  She sure was beautiful, although it's quite the chore to get her all covered back up. 

Our final task of the day was to remove the flags and get them stowed.  To say we were frustrated when we realized they had gotten caught on the mizzen mast antenna is an understatement.  We pulled and prodded to no avail. So, up the mast I (Vicki) went to cut them free. And the moral of this story...when you run you're flags up make sure they are pulled tight.  

                                 

Learn all you can from the mistakes of others. You won't have time to make them all yourself.  

Alfred Sheinwold

Can we sail this BAB?

I mentioned earlier that our previous boat was a Catalina 34, which we sailed and raced extensively.  However, sailing our 50’ full-keel ketch is significantly different, and made me wonder if just the two of us would be able to handle her.

We hesitantly pulled away from the dock with friend and Shoreline Yacht Club Rear Commodore Bruce Davis.  Having waxed the zipper on the stack pack and adjusted the reefing lines the day before, the bag opened up and the main raised easier than the previous time, when it took four of us to get it up.  We were off to a good start.  We let the jib out and off we went. 

It was a beautiful day with light winds of 6-12 knots.  As heavy as our boat is, I think she would much prefer 15 knots and higher, but she handled well, and sailed relatively quickly.  We handled her with ease and when Jason easily brought her back to the dock after our 3-hour cruise, I again knew that we had made the right decision. 

Anytime you have something new, it should be expected there will be a learning curve.  We had one when we upgraded from Jason’s Catalina 27 to our Catalina 34, and we’re having one again.  Next time we move up…no, this is as big as it gets for us.

I have learned, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
Henry David Thoreau

OpenCPN finally dialed in

I got OpenCPN dialed in.

Our Furuno GPS 30 is connected via NMEA to our VHF to give the VHF position data. We've got a serial connection to the high speed AIS feed on the VHF to get AIS data on the notebook.

We get position from a USB GPS hockey puck.

Fixing the vacuflush

So when we got the boat, the vacuum pump would not shut off.  So I researched the problem, and then  bought 4 duckbill valves to see if that was the problem.  Nope!

So then it was possibly:
1) Leaking at the pump/bellows
2) Leaking at the toilet bowl
3) Faulty vacuum sensor
4) Vacuum leak

I'm told you'd much rather replace an expensive sensor or pump then try and track down a vacuum leak. It didn't seem to be leaking at the bowl, so I figured I'd upgrade the vacuum pump, since the new version is quieter and the conversion includes the bellows.  Rebuilt the pump with the new motor and bellows and fired it up... and it ran... and ran... and ran...

So my buddy Steve attacked the vacuum tank and the next thing we know we've got it apart and found the problem... the gasket in the sensor was pinched and leaking.  Steve says "Do you want to fix it like a cruiser? or go spend $200 on the part?"  So we fixed it like cruisers and I'm thinking to myself, "Man, I really don't want to tear this thing apart again if that didn't work." But sure enough it worked.

So yay, we got a head that works.  Except I left the pump hanging by the hoses.  So time to go button it up, and wouldn't you know it, I guess there's 2 ways to mount the motor, and I mounted it the wrong way.  So take it all back apart again (much faster this time, with the right tools I think I can rebuild one of these in under 2 minutes now) and finally, she's back together.

Cosmetics Before Surgery

Although I may be unskilled in the maintenance department, I excel in making things look good.  And in order to feel  comfortable and at home on the new boat, I felt it necessary to take care of the really important things first, like throw pillows to match the pastel turquoise cushions in the salon,  matching towels for the galley and head, and new cushions and bedding in the aft cabin.

I searched high and low for the perfect items, keeping in mind that we’re on a budget, most of which is earmarked for more relevant repairs.  There are some great items and deals to be found on Amazon, Ebay and Overstock, but a lot of times I prefer to see things before I buy them so I can be assured of the color and texture.  Having redecorated and furnished several homes over the years, I have found the big box discount stores, like Marshall’s and TJ Maxx offer the best selection and price.  Although you may have to go to several stores within a chain to find the right item or quantify of items, what you save in the long run will be worth your time.

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson