Shawn's birthday week

Hata and Maggie came by right after we got the boat back in the water. I'm so glad we got to take you both out for a sail and have dinner. I love you guys!!!

Happy Birthday to me!

Birthday flowers

Grizzly being adorable on deck

March 2008- Our first anchorage!

Our last sail before hauling out. We anchored at Quarry Beach and the southeastern end of Angel Island, right in the middle of this picture with the Golden Gate in the background.

This was an attempt to capture the amazing city-scape of San Francisco lights coming out that we were able to see from our anchorage. Well, at least it captured our excitement about our first anchor.

Still excited the next morning, even though I was awakened several times hearing cargo ships passing the anchorage in the middle of the night...

After a lazy morning enjoying the anchorage and painting, we were off for some more sailing.

We headed around Angel Island and back toward Berkeley. Here you can see the fog coming into the Golden Gate.

March 2008- on the hard (aka haul out)

Chris cleaning the bottom of the boat before the haul out.

On the way to the haul out facility. Don't forget to attach the tiller!

Home on the hard for 3-weeks. Note the sanding machine in the foreground that I got very familiar with as I sanded the bottom to prep for new paint.

Under the galley sink, the old seacocks. In cleaning them, we found some pit corrosion and decided to replace all of them along with their connecting through hulls.

Chris grinding down the through hulls for removal.

Grizzly in our very full cockpit. The boat got VERY dirty being on land for 3-weeks.

After hauling out, we noticed that the rudder was weeping. The foam inside had disintegrated and filled with water (a common problem). We drilled holes in it and added acetone to drain it, and then filled the holes with epoxy. You've got to love those unforseen projects... Our rudder is super bomber now!

Chris managed to fit into our lazarette to work on the cockpit floor drains as well as the stuffing box for the rudder and propeller shaft.

Our neighbor Frank lent us his laser level. We used it to reset our boot stripe. I learned how subjective "level" really is. Thanks Frank!!

After grinding down the old bottom paint, I feathered out and epoxyed over any chips. We set the bottom of the boot stripe, and I went to town painting 3 coats of antifouling (aka toxic with copper) bottom paint.

Pulling the tape felt so good! Look at that straight line. While I was working on the bottom, Chris and his dad Dave were installing the Ham radio- you'll have to get details from them. Thanks for your help Dave!

Of course Grizzly helped with all of the work too...

Chris with the new cockpit floor drain through hulls.

Chris' mom, Jane, also came to visit while we were hauled out. We met Abe (Chris' step father), Abe's sister and her daughter (who happens to live in SF) at the Double Tree Hotel. It was fun to meet/catch up with you all! And dinner at Skates afterword was a treat!

Check out the shiny new boot stripe!

We installed "clam shells" over the cockpit floor drains to hopefully improve drainage out of the cockpit.

Just in case you wanted to see it... this is below the cockpit floor where Chris packed the rudder and propeller shaft stuffing boxes.

After 3-weeks of solid work, it was finally moving day again.

Check out the beautifully buffed and shiny girl! Tao's keel touches the water with Cree (owner of BMC) looking on. The Berkeley Marine Center was amazingly helpful, letting us do our own work but providing an amazing knowledge base. Thanks so much for your patience with all of our questions!

She still floats- all of our new through hulls hold tight. And the boot stripe even follows the water line!! Phew!

Griz is happy to be back on the water without projects cluttering her space for a while.

February 2008 Sailing cont...

SF sunset

Ballena Bay, here we come!

So excited to be on the water again!

Brigadoon, our amazing neighbor during the pirate party.

Post party sail back to Berkeley

February 2008 Sailing

Wing-on-wing, finally sailing again.

The new Bay Bridge and the old (still in use obviously) Bay Bridge (I took this picture for you Chuck). Imagine the BART running under the Bay right here too! Technology is amazing!

Does this remind anyone of Star Wars?

Looking back toward the Bay Bridge at Yerba Buena Island as we sail south toward Ballena Bay for a pirate party.

San Francisco from a different angle (from south of Berkeley) with the Bay Bridge and Marin in the background.

February 2008 Projects

Our homemade prayer flags viewed from down below up through the new hole in our deck.

On deck, we're almost ready to mount the Dorad boxes. These are used to separate water and air. This allows us to get ventilation while underway without worrying too much that a huge wave will end up down below.

We worked late to mount the boxes and guard rails so we could go sailing the next day. Aren't they beautiful?! (just say yes)

Our "pillow". Chris created this for the bow of our boat so when we lower anchor it doesn't take a chunk out of the boat. He used a piece of the hugest truck tire I've ever seen (many tools were broken while making it the right size) and then covered it with a water proof padding material to keep the tire from marking the boat. It looks a little funny, but it'll work for now and was less of a project than adding a bow sprit. However, new improved ideas for this are already on the way.

The Nor'West was designed in a way that water pools up in the forward part of the cockpit seats. We've dealt with this by adding cockpit seat drains.

January 2008

Our first kedging lesson- of course it was on purpose. OK, maybe the tide was a little bit too low. In an attempt to give way to another boat we sailed ourselves into some lovely SF Bay mud... The kedging didn't work, but luckily, the tide always comes up. As we waited, we had great seats to watch others nearly join us as they traveled in and out of the marina.

OK, is it me, or is that a big hole in the deck?!

Middle of the soon-to-be dorad box project to increase ventilation.

Another round of varnishwork (notice the "work" portion of that word). Luckily our neighbor doesn't visit his boat too often in the winter.

Griz likes the sunrise.