2004, The Year of the Cruise

January 31

Stan, the bottom cleaner

Shipwright and diver.  Stan purchased his final piece of dive gear, this beautiful fluorescent air tank. MJ requested a bright tank color that would be visible as she paddled the kayak while he's swimming along the bottom. Today he swam along the boat bottom, rather than the ocean bottom. It was time to clean the coral and worms off the prop and change the zincs. It was also time to climb up the mast for cleaning and checking, but the wind was very gusty, not conducive to swinging around on high.

While Stan paddled around, below, MJ cooked up a toasty batch of chili to warm him when he climbed back out of the water. There's something soothing about working inside the boat when the bubble-ator is just outside the hull. It's hypnotizing, like being inside a fish tank.

January 20

Bilge pump switch cover, open

Bilge pump switch cover, closed

Klutzy crew kept hitting switches and inadvertently shutting down the AC or the bilge pumps. As prevention, Stan fashioned Plexiglas and teak hinged covers.

January 17

J Dock's Chairs and BBQ

Landlord crackdown.  Marina management started enforcing rules about junk on the docks.  Most of that junk is necessary for marina living.  Well, at least it improves our quality of life.  On the latest sweep, bunches of community items were red tagged, meaning they'll be tossed by management at the owner's expense if left on the dock.  Two places to store items, on the boat and in the dock box.  Well, three, actually.  There's always the car.  J Dock's barbeque and chairs were red-tagged. Neighbor Mike moved them to his pickup.

Ian, Alf and Stan

Fred from J Dock, crouching in the
stern working on Valerie Ann

Ian from K Dock on his Westsail 32, Dolphin, was preparing to move aboard with his girlfriend.  Everyone on the dock had something to say about the crackdown.  Fred was thankful he didn't receive any red tags, Ian's doormat was tagged, but he was too busy scrubbing and bring Dolphin up to stringent girlfriend standards to sweat the small stuff.

January 10

            

Prop shaft looking aft toward the stuffing box after repacking with the green goop (right).

Stan pulled the shaft nut and stuffed more green goop from the Moldable Packing Kit into the stuffing box. Apparently, this is a normal routine for most folks. Other than removing and installing the knot meter, this was the first time we had willfully opened a hole in the hull while actually sitting in the water. Thankfully, the existing packing was still solidly in place in the stuffing box, and only a small stream of water made its way up the shaft and into the boat -- nothing like the gushing geyser we've heard others experienced. 

January 9

Skipper and smog

Happy birthday, Mark! It was MJ's turn to be skippy, and conditions were much gentler -- smog hung on the mountains way off on the distant horizon.  Shipwright Stan had cleaned all of the nasty black marks off SolMate's topsides, the accumulation of many dockings and last week's misadventures.  That provided a clean slate for MJ's controlled-crash docking maneuver, much easier with the winds 15 knots on the nose.

January 3

It's when lots of witnesses are on the dock that things go awry. Today the winds were gusting between 15 and 20 knots, and backing out of the slip was a challenge.  Backing out in a good north wind should just be a matter of moving the nose 30 degrees to starboard, letting her blow off, and then motoring straight out to the fairway.  Ha!  First, we didn't blow off the right way.  Facing the wrong direction, Stan prepared to back out to the fairway.  Oops!  The bow wouldn't stop acting like a windvane. First we were backing out to the east, then we were crossways between the docks heading south -- the nose simply did not want to point anywhere but downwind, and that's not where we wanted her to go.  Finally, after many back and fill maneuvers, we managed to motor out of the marina.  Phew!

Stressed shackle from SolMate's main sheet

But our troubles had just begun. While raising the main, the mainsheet shackle gave way. The boom took a quick trip out to leeward, and we were left with no way to control the mainsail. Our only recourse was to drop the main and head back to the slip. Rats! Skunked, again.

We sail alone much of the time, and I thank my lucky stars this little shackle mishap didn't happen while unsuspecting guests were aboard. That boom would have swept anyone on deck right into the drink!

January 1

Predictions of big winds and rains kept these fair-weather sailors in the slip until we realized the weatherman was wrong! The wet weather scooched onshore way north of us, leaving SoCal under hazy skies with glassy seas.  Windless, but determined to take SolMate out for her New Year's Day cruise, we motored out past Point Vincente searching for Gray Whales on their southerly migration. Whale highway, however, was deserted. Skunked by wind, skunked by whales, but still SolMate's crew was incredibly jazzed -- our mantra for New Year's Day: "Starting 2004 in the US, finishing the year in Mexico!"

Olympia Explorer, languishing in Long Beach 

We're in better shape than the cruise ship that's been hanging on the hook out in the harbor. We surveyed it up-close-and-personal -- as up close as we dared with harbor security the way it is these days.  Our survey didn't turn up much, just its name, Olympia Explorer.  A later web search turned up a little more info: the ship's company has filed for reorganization under Chapter 11, they're bankrupt and sitting out the hearings anchored here in Long Beach.