Monday, September 30, 2013

Marina Del Rey

We are at Del Rey YC.  They have a nice pool and we have yet to step off the boat and not be asked if we need something or if they can help in some way.  Extremely friendly.  We got here at 1800 or so and then had a burger then went for a swim.  Felt great.  
Here are some photos.


Heading up the trail.  Really hot.

Samey and Jenny.  Samey is sporting the latest in hiking attire.  

Appa with Sunshine.  They are from Victoria.


Yellowbank beach area.

Some kid that wandered in my surf shot!

Olive grove that was part of the farm that use to be on the island.  That is the beach we are anchored off





Discovery from C dock in Seattle.  They sailed to SF and just as they were going under the bridge, some woman jumped off the Golden Gate and landed right in front of their boat.  No she was not alright.  They had to wait couple hours while the cops got their crap together.

About ready to scrub the waterline and check the prop.
So our plan is to stay at the Del Rey YC till they throw us out.  Jen flies out with Max on Thursday and they come back on Monday.  Tuesday we leave for.....hell if I know.

California Dreamin'

Since posting that last blog,we have not had any cell coverage at all.  Zip. Nada.  
Sunday we woke up and made eggs with bacon and got into the school work.  Max zipped through his and Ben is finally starting to better at paying attention.  He's trying hard but there are a lot of distractions and it is difficult for him. Samey and I played for a bit and then she played downstairs by herself as the boys and Jen continued to wade through their work.  
So I rebuilt the macerator prior to leaving Ventura.  We tested it on the dock and it didn't work.  I took it apart again and cleaned the brushes and checked the motor out and everything appeared fine.  Put it in the tank and nothing. So I walked down to Beacon Marine and dropped $200 on a new one.  Plugged it into the holding tank and since it was new and we were leaving in 15 minutes, left it and went about casting off. We got well away from shore and tested the macerator out and nothing. She no work. Grrrrr. Ok so I am getting 13 volts at the pump with the wires disconnected, once I connect wires, nothing.  Breaker. Another damn breaker gone bad.  Water pump first and now this.  I feel so dumb.  Used another breaker and the pump works like a champ.  I am always going to start at the breaker first from now on when having electrical problems.  That seems like a no brainer actually but I just assume that the beaker is ok. Dumb. But problem solved.  Now I have 2 pumps. Both new.  
The battery charger for shore power is failing but I already wrote about that.  It will invert so we watched movies once or twice while at anchor.  The engine charges the batteries fine but we really need to figure this out and get a new one.  
Other than that, Appa has been great.  Touch wood.  
So we spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Smugglers Cove.  We thought about leaving and finding another anchorage but really, the island looks the same from all areas and we had a nice beach.  
Saturday we hiked up to Yellowbanks Beach.  About 3.4 mile round trip hike.  Hot and dusty but beautiful. 
This is at the start of our hike.  Jen and Samey made it 1/4 of the way but it was too much for the 3 year old.  Jen took the camel pak and I took the bag with the diapers when we split. Not a good thing.
Max, Ben and I made the trek and when back to the beach, the water never felt nicer. Big rollers coming in made for fun surfing and since the diapers were now back, Samey could go "number 2". Good times, eh?
Here is Samey waiting for the diaper which I was carrying on our hike. Made friends with this tree Jen tells me.
We played in the surf for couple hours and then loaded up the dinghy and actually made it off the beach with only a couple drops getting in the dinghy.  On our way back to Appa, we saw Discovery anchored next to us. They are our dock mates from Seattle. We never really knew them all that well but Andy putted over in his dink and we now have more friends. They are sailing their Passport 42 to mexico also but not doing the haha. Nice people. 
Max and I cleaned the waterline of the boat and then we had dinner and watched Tales of Earthsea. Weird flick. Animated. Good but weird. 
No wind, light swell.  We slept good. 
Sunday was almost repeat of Saturday. School then we got into the dink and explored a bit. Went over the Yellowbanks and the water was this Caribbean blue. Beautiful. The beach looked treacherous but beautiful and as we were discussing about landing the dink on it, Samey says "Let's try it!"  So cute that we had to.  Never ever take direction from a three year old.  Ever. 
We caught a great wave in but the outgoing current slowed us enough that the next wave caught us.  The beach gets deep quick so the waves break close in. The wave picked up the boat and slammed us onto the beach.  We didn't tip or roll but the impact was harsh. No injuries and the dink was ok.  Just a rough landing. The trouble would be getting off this beach. 
We played for a bit then decided to get out of there and back to "our" beach. Pretty big surf so I got the two kids in the dink and launched with Max and Jen swimming out through the breakers to the dinghy. I love my wife.  She just swam nice as you please out to us and up into the dinghy and we were off.  We picked a good time as I think we all could have gotten in the dink and been alright but it was kinda crazy conditions so we played it safe.  So to speak. 
We decided that we had enough beach landings for the day so we swam off the boat.  Dinner then we all read books then off to bed.  I finished Passage to Juneau and started a John Sanford novel. Killed that last night and am reading Down River by John Hart. 
Running low on food so we decided to hoist anchor and head for Marina Del Rey. We actually have enough food but we are out of veggies, milk is low, eggs gone, all meat gone, plenty of ramen however. 
Woke up at 7 this morning and pulled the Rocna out of it's home for the past three days and headed due east. No wind but as soon as we were past Anacapa island.....dolphins. Maybe two hundred of them. Swarmed the boat like bees to a flower. A baby was learning among them and got real close to us. Ben and Jen iPhone videoed some of it.  I called down to Samey who was drawing at the table that dolphins were near us. She looked at me with a moment of uncertainty, then flung her pencils down and ran up to me. We walked to the bow and she just stared.  Mesmerized. Ben was shaking he was so excited. Max also. Five of us at the bow, rolling along watching the dolphins for about 20 minutes.  Loved it. No one missing.  Didn't have to say "Mom, you missed it...." or "Max, you should have seen...."  Hard to explain. So glad that we were all there. All the toil and frustration that comes with planning a trip like this felt worth it. 
Jen and Ben will post pictures and such of the dolphins on their blogs. 
What I think they are doing.
What they are doing. 
Getting ready to fish. 





Saturday, September 28, 2013

Ventura highway

Smuggler's cove, Santa Cruz, the Channel Islands. Finally at anchor!
Yesterday we left the Ventura Yacht Club.  During our 3 day stay we (I) raced on a J 24, swam in the ocean, body surfed (gotta get boogie boards or maybe a real, honest to God, surfboard), rebuilt a macerator pump, spliced some lines (Max), and waited out a gusty, big wave day.  
I flashed up Appa's diesel at 11am and we slipped the lines soon after.  Max and I decided that we would use the relative safety of the harbor to put in 2 reefs in the mainsail rather than getting beat up in the waves trying to do it.  Good call.
The wind was blowing 18 knots with gusts in the mid twenties.  Sea state was choppy with about 3-5 foot waves along with a big rolling swell but nothing we couldn't handle. We finally had to work to weather to get to Santa Cruz as all of our sailing thus far has been with the wind. Two reefs and partially rolled genoa got us rolling along at 6 knots or so.  As we got out there, an oil rig was in our way and it would save time to go over the top, meaning heading more into the wind, so we cranked everything in and really tried to get Appa to point as far into the wind as possible.  Historically, this has always been my favorite point of sail.  Boat heeled over, pushing through and over the waves like a bully in a crowded school hallway.  As it is true in school and the sea, there is always someone bigger than you but for a couple of waves splashing us in the cockpit, it was a dry fast ride.  
About half way through the wind started to die down, leaving the main reefed, we unfurled the genoa fully and maintained our 6 knots. About 30 minutes later the wind picked up again but for a bit more heel, Appa was happily doing 7-8 knots. 
Once we got into the lee of the island the wind shut off and we had to motor the final 2 miles. 
I will eventually figure out how to do the map thing that you click on and will show you our position but for now we are in smuggler's cove and you can google that. We dropped the hook about 300 feet from shore in an open anchorage so there is a bit of swell.  Nothing bad and although Ben claims some seasickness but he was happily eating taco pizza last night while we watched the Halloween Simpson's special that Chris Carden downloaded prior to him and I going to Argentina for the j24 world championship. 
Anchored in about 30 foot of water we have 170 feet of chain out with no wind.  Once the anchor was set the wind started to blow out of the NW in the 20 knot range. Per the forecast this was to continue till around 2200.  We launched Momo (our dinghy) and clambered aboard to attempt our first surf landing.  We stopped by Sunshine to see what their plan was and got some advice from Bob about landing on a beach with the surf running.  First watch the waves, look for a hole and then try to stay on the back of a big wave and ride it in.  Never get sideways. Never, ever.  Once the wave on whose back you are ride has crashed into the swallow water, shut off motor, tilt motor out of water and while this is happening, everyone else is jumping out into the water, grabbing the dinghy and running like hell for the beach.  Timing is, as they say, everything.  I would hate to flip the dinghy and get bonked by the motor or even chopped by the spinning blade. Google dinghy surf landing and click on images. Ugh.  
So armed with this knowledge, we headed off to the beach.  I put these wheels on Momo prior to us leaving Seattle that allow, once extended into the water, for the motor to not touch the bottom and you can leave it down.  You can even run it with the wheels touching bottom but there is a chance of sucking rocks, sand, etc. into the impeller (cooling) or nicking the prop.  With Max looking aft calling the waves, he says punch it.  I love Max however I need to trust him more. I look back and hesitate. That hesitation almost rolled us. I turned the dinghy to get away from the beach and this wave got mean fast.  It was almost breaking as we turned. Ever see the Posiedon adventure?  The big boat tries to turn into the huge wave and can't quite make it and rolls over. That was almost us.  Scary but funny. 
We tried again and with hearts in mouth we lowered the wheels and the yahama screaming toward shore with 5 people aboard, we timed the landing right.  Once on shore, we explored a bit and then Max, Ben and I decided to practice getting off the beach.  It is not unheard for people to launch the dink and then the rest of the crew has to swim out to meet the dink past the surf line.  I can't see Samey doing that. We started to time the waves and got it down pretty well.  
After a couple hours on shore, we were ready to do the launch. With the wheels still down, we rolled into the surf and waited. After a couple big swells, we were ready....wait not yet....oh crap.  Big wave reared up and almost swamped us. 5 people is a lot to getting moving fast and we left the beach a little to late.  Got about 6 inches of water in the dinghy.  Samey was laughing her head off.  Amazing.  Here a thought she was going to be scared.  It looked clear so with water sloshing around and Max bailing frantically, we got past the breakers and made it back to Appa.  It was a First world version of cheating death.  We get to repeat this today as we want to climb this summit and take a look around.
Here it is morning and the wind is light and the swells are as well. Very pleasant and warm. Still in pjs enjoying the morning light and the sound of dinghy eating surf crashing on the beach.  

Pancakes for breakfast!
Waiting on said pancakes. 
Solar panels are starting to kick now that the sun is higher. Boat rolls around so it is hard to say what they are putting into the battery bank but if I had to guess, I'd say about 10 amps an hour or so.  Maybe higher. When they get a shadow on them, they lose a lot of power. I cleaned them this morning and that helped a ton. 
Smugglers cove getting crowded this morning also.  
Here for tonight and then maybe another anchorage along the island or stay here and then on Tuesday or Wednesday we head to LA for Jen to fly out on Thursday. 
Making our reservations for Paradise Village 

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Rambling man

 

This morning I decided that we will cast off the lines and head for the Channel Islands and spend a week there gunk holing around.  Jen headed off to the store for groceries, Max went to the fuel dock for gas for the dinghy and generator, I got the dinghy on the foredeck, strapped it in and checked oil on the Perkins. 
I have been looking at the weather files and today it is suppose to be mild. 10 knots of wind out of the south and warm. Talking 80s or so.  Wednesday through Friday the wind is suppose to blow out of the west to northwest about 20-25 knots with gusts into the 30s.  Sunny though. Waves never seem sullen or dangerous when the sun is out. 
Appa was ready to go at 1000 and I started up the electronics and prepared to flash up the diesel.  I kept having this nagging feeling that it wasn't a good idea to do the Islands when the wind is forecasted to pick up.  I have never been there before and the blogs just comment on how nice it was and how they had perfect weather, blah blah. Given how the islands are situated and how the coast of California angles, I figured that we could do Ventura today and then wait a couple days and see how the weather pans out and then we could go to the islands. Ventura Yacht Club will host us for 2 days for free and that sounds pretty good.

  Oil rigs off the coast. 
Opa Z's famous tuna salad spread that has become a staple on Appa. 
Well, it is 1237 and the wind is on the nose at 3 knots. Sunny as hell out and we are being pushed toward Ventura by the diesel doing 6 knDOLPHINS!!  Right now!
Ok.  That was cool. They never played around the boat but got close and launched themselves out of the water again and again. No pictures as they never turn out right for me and I want to see them with my eyes not through a viewfinder. 
We stopped about 3 miles out from Ventura and swam off the boat. Water is about 65 or so. Pretty chilly but beautiful. 
That's me trying to catch the boat. A bit of current there. 
Ben jumping in. See his hair?
Nobody says binoculars cuter!
Got into Ventura Yacht Club and hit the beach. Even Samey went swimming. Came back and we had a potluck dinner and met a bunch of members. 
Started talking to people and hooked myself a ride on Disheveled Rogue, a J24. They are racing their last "Beer can" race of the season tomorrow and need extra crew. 
Channel Islands this weekend and then Marina Del Ray on the 2nd to get Jen off to the airport on the 3rd.  

Monday, September 23, 2013

Travelin' man

Wrote this post on the airplane ride back to Appa today and it got lost in the internet ether.  So here I go doing it again.
Flew into Seattle on Thursday for the YMCA Camp Orkila bash.  Stayed over at my mom's and dad's Thursday night and then hit Seattle on Friday.  Did the Fisheries run for fans and other boat related crap.  Also dropped off my old key fob at Shileshole.  Found that damn thing in my pocket while getting clothes ready laundry while I was in Alameda.
Hustled over to Bertschi (Ben's old school) and picked up a good friend of Ben's who was joining us to fly to camp.  Got my flight times switched and realized that we flew out at 1600 not 1700.  Had to rush home and pack quick.  Made the flight with time to spare as it was running late.  The flight up was glorious.  Really nice weather.
Here is a photo album that Alexi shot.  Of course most of you won't know anybody on the slideshow and I am hardly on it either.  Ben has a couple shots. It gives you a good idea about the camp though.   


Seth on his first seaplane ride
On Friday night, three of the dad's prepped some food and whipped it all together for a feast.  We had clam chowder and crab louie wraps with pickled cucumbers and salmon that was flayed open and roasted over the open campfire.  Gourmet, eh?  To top it off Larion brought a 2007 Barolo, that was simply gathering dust.  The kids had hot dogs.   They got scent of the chowder though and ate that up.
Flayed salmon 




Ben plinking at cans


Zip line tower.  The line is over 1000' long

Seth is all ready to go

 In years past, Ben would not leave my side and we would do everything together.  Side by side from sunup to sundown.  Some of the dad's with older kids said that when they hit 3rd grade, you'll never see them at camp.  That is exactly what happened.  Made me kinda sad.  We did a couple things together but after that he ran off with his friends and us dads were standing there bewildered.  You hear how they grow up fast but I felt it this weekend.
That's Tom doing his seagull impersonation
On Sunday the wind kicked up and our seaplane flights got canceled.  So at 1100 we caught the old yellow YMCA school bus to the ferry and caught the 1230 to Anacortes.  The wind hit high gear when we got into Rosario strait.  I'll bet we had 40 knots of apparent wind speed.  The strait also has a bit more fetch so the waves started to come and rolled us pretty good.  Couple times a big wave would smash into us and bring the ferry to a near stop.  Best.  Ferry.  Ride.  Evah.  Very cool.  The cars at the front of the ferry got hosed down with salt water.
Made it to Anacortes and had to wait on the charter bus.  We waited about 3 hours or so.  Some of the kids went to the beach and Ben and I stayed in the terminal.  Seth cracked open a book and started to read out loud to Theo and Ben.He did that for about 45 minutes or so.
Bus finally got there and we enjoyed a lazy trip home.Once back in Seattle, I dropped Ben off at his friend Matthew's place and went to the house.



Table on the ferry

 Now back in Santa Barbara and we are deciding where we want to go next.  We are all Santa Barbara'd out and are looking for new anchorages/marinas.  I think we will head to Ventura till the weekend and then shoot over to the Channel Islands.  The wind is forecasted to be a bit brisk till Friday or so.  Not sure about the anchorages in the Channel Islands.  How rolly, holding, etc.  Have to figure that out.



Thursday, September 19, 2013

I'm leaving on a jet plane

Ben and I are flying out to Seattle to do the YMCA Y-guides camp out at Camp Orkila in the San Juan islands today. This has been a yearly thing since kindergarten. The Y-guides stop at the 3rd grade so this is Ben's last chance to go with all his classmates from his old school.  Unfortunately I have spent more than enough to fly us both on miles alone. Sad. Damn boats. 
This year one of the dad's has chartered the entire group a gaggle of seaplanes (actual term for a bunch of seaplanes as far as you know!) to fly us round trip from Lake Union to the camp and back again.  He also sprung for a photographer to get the moment on film. Our flight leaves at 1700 on Friday. Simply amazing. Once at the camp, the dad's are cooking gourmet food on the beach that will be inline with our flying experience. Then when the kids are in bed, us dads will have our annual safety meeting.  
Ben and I fly home to Appa on Monday. Appa is still lying in Santa Barbara with Jen, Max and Samey tending to her every whim.  Such is the life of a French Princess. 
So now to the typical Appa 'Marcus is going to leave so let me break....right.... Now!!!' Just before I was going to take a leisurely shower before this morning, I decide to run the water maker. They have to be run every 3 days or so.  While running the water maker I noticed that the shore power lights on the panel were not illuminating. The AC light was on which meant we were getting juice to the boat but it was not going into the panel to be spread throughout the boats electrical outlets.  Grrrrrr.  
Appa is equipped with an old Xantrex Freedom 25 charger/inverter. Not sure of the vintage but I'll bet is is older than Ben. It has worked flawlessly since we have bought the boat.  I have wondered about the wiring going to it occasionally, but had other things on my plate and it got pushed down the punch list. I am skeptical of the wiring that the old owner has done and hence my wondering about the Freedom 25. Well wonder no more!!  It sucks. Or sucked. 
The power from shore goes into the boat then through a 30 amp breaker then to the Freedom. Here the power can go to the outlets and also charge the battery bank. The electrical connections on a boat are suppose to be strong so they can't shake loose.  I consider plugging into shore power one of the more dangerous things you can do on a boat.  You basically have lightning going through these wires.  If a connection was to come off or a wire was to rub through the insulation, a fire can start.  Appa is made from petroleum and wood basically and would burn, burn, burn.  
I took off the cover plate on the Freedom and found that all the connections were done with house grade electrical connectors. You know the type.  You have two wires, twist them together, then put this cap on them and twist the cap on.  I should have known.  I moved the wires out of their little metal storage area in the Freedom and two of them popped immediately out of the cap. Bad connections.  
I walked to West Marine and bought the proper type of crimping connectors with insulators and started to rewire this mess. 

That might not be the entire problem. The Freedom is old so it might need replacing but when the problem occurs, I would hit the Freedom and just like the Millienium Falcon everything started to work.  Time will tell. 
I think we are doing ok in the breakage department personally. Autopilot was suppose to fail at some point. I planned on it hence me having a spare.  Our fridge and freezer use the same type compressors and are right on top of each other and if one fails I can use the other.  Freezer not necessary, fridge more so but not essential. If the Freedom fails, we'll have to deal with that as it happens. It is essential gear. Kinda of. I can charge the batteries through the engine and have a spare alternator also not to mention the solar panels. We would have no AC power but that is not the end of the world.  We still have the honda generator that can provide AC.  
In the end we are a sailboat.  Engine dies, sail.  No fridge, bummer.  None of that is going to harsh my mellow. My family is amazingly adaptive.  I have a feeling I'll be proving that point.
Jen and I will be celebrating our wedding anniversary apart this year.  September 21st. What a ride it has been.  Look where I am now and what I am doing with my family.  Who would have thunk it?  Really. Anybody?  I doubt it. Luck. I has it. 

I love my wife. Never could do this without her strength and grace. I am so thankful that I can be apart of a family that can support my dream and even embrace it. 
Well that is it for now. Oh, I am stealing the air sick bags on our flight btw. Beware if you are on Skywest flights. 

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Routine?

Ben and Max are doing school with Jen acting as teacher mainly for Ben. Not high on her list of stuff she would like to be doing I'm sure. But i think she is getting the hang of it. Meaning how to get Ben to focus. Sam and I are at the beach in front of Santa Barbara yacht club. Beautiful weather again today. After a couple hours on the beach, Sam and I will head off to feed the ducks and turtles at the pond we found in this beautiful park. Maybe Ben will be at a stopping point and he can join us.
Laundry still has to get done today. Or not.  I'm in my swimsuit most of the time.
I fly home to Seattle tomorrow with a special guest and will be going to the San Juan Islands for a YMCA outing. I will then fly home on Monday and on Tuesday we will leave for Ventura. Or maybe the Channel Islands. We haven't decided yet. 
It has been fun watching Max and Sam bond during this trip. They are inseparable at times.