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Tim: Lynette went with her parents who were gracious enough to get her to Redding where she had many details to take care of and retrieve our car then drive it back. Meanwhile I was left to do repairs, improvements and help our friends with their boat projects. The other day I was rinsing the boat down to get it all ready to show and sail. Lynette was down below and I heard her shouting, "we have a leak!" Which is not something you want to hear but the truth will set you free, right? So I sprayed an area where the deck and cabin side joins, there was a crack there and was allowing water inside the boat. It breaks one of the cardinal rules "Keep the water out of the boat" The Dremel was lit up and carved a groove to open up access to the cracks, then I filled with West System Epoxy and special filler. I made a really thick mixture and pressed it into the crack while creating a nice radius called a fillet. This drives the water away with a smooth shape so it does not hang around too long and find its way below. 3-days grinding, filling and sanding. Success! Then I went for the gap below the toe rail and the hull. The starboard side showed signs of water penetration, so I did the same process, clear out the old, replace with new thick epoxy.
Lynette: For me, it's time to check in on our house and meet new students there and make sure Ellis is fine with all details of managing a house. It’s time for all the big mail chores and bookkeeping activities. I’m having a difficult time with all the “here and there”. It is hard to focus! I finished settling things that did not get done before we left: cleaning the garage, errands to get rid of stuff and more of the details to complete my California massage certificate -- those fingerprints! Then a trip to the DMV to get the dinghy title transferred along with the registration. I went home with a list of things to bring back from the house to the boat and a list of things to purchase. At this point it is much easier to get around Redding than San Diego. I spent one day shopping, all day. I stayed the nights away with our friends Jim and Karen, the ones who dropped us off in Alameda and helped us unpack and build things. While cleaning at the house I discovered a rat in the shed! It happens every year at this time! I purchased some new rat traps and Ellis had his chance at baiting and setting them. A raw nut and peanut butter works great every time! The snap traps are the best because they just work quick! In the morning I arrived after my LIveScan fingerprints and the DMV to check up on the traps. The one on the floor was gone! The one up high was still untouched. Where is the trap? The hunt ensued only to find it under the chipper about 10 feet from where it was set. A gruesome view awaited me as I used a rake to retrieve the trap with a rat head and then the visceral lower half. All the feet, legs, flesh and fur were gone! What on earth ate this?! Was it a cat or something else that could be living in the shed? Now I’m freaked out! Was it hiding in the shed? I got out of there until later when I realized I needed something on my list from there. Returning to shed with a rake to make all sorts of noise, I procured my item and noticed the other trap had been set off but there was nothing in it that I could see. I moved over towards the trap to find a very large ground squirrel on the ground on its back…what if it’s not dead? I’d better wait until Ellis gets home to handle this. When Ellis arrived home we took care of the carcasses. The ground squirrel was a very large female and so it was good for it to be dead. The neighbor told me they were creating quite a few problems at their place. Tim live-trapped 2 of them before we left and removed them from the area. I spent an entire day working on all the paperwork from the mail, our businesses and bank accounts. Have you ever tried to get free for a month? How about 2 months? Longer? I finally just took the time needed to fully complete all items that needed doing. Creating a great deal of peace for me. I was not looking forward to long drive back down to San Diego. After enjoying a brunch with my friend I stopped by the house to raid the meat in the freezer and do a couple things, then hit the road! I stopped in Bakersfield for the night and left in the morning to arrive in San Diego about 1230. There was still some time to work on things and unload all the items I brought back; home at last!
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Dock Day 3 San Diego, CA 10/05/2016 I sure am sleeping quite a bit! Today was filled with various chores, all those mundane things like dishes, showering, etc. It takes the morning to complete just basics. Finally time to get the dodger repaired, scrubbed and back on its frame. My sewing machine did a great job. I had to do a great deal of hand cranking to get the needle through some of the layers. This is the toughest mending job I have ever done! My stitching looks like a drunk woman sewed it. The bulk and weight in combination with the shape and fairly rigid plastic windows makes the stitching hard to keep in a straight line. I also applied fray check to all the tiny tears and small holes to keep the material from tearing more or fraying. I was so hopeful to finish the work, but I had to stop, leaving the last patch on the top for reinforcement for another day! Tim spent the day working on the stainless steel, cleaning all the rust off and he scrubbed the whole boat down, which is a big job! Sea Day 13 San Diego Bay, CA 10/06/2016 Today, I finished the mending of the dodger and then scrubbed it with canvas cleaner. There was a lot of mossy green on the fabric. I had to leave for shopping when I was done, hoping that it would be dry when I returned. We had a sailing date with my parents and we needed the dodger back on. After stowing the groceries it was time for the moment of truth: will the dodger go back on? It all went well until the last step of attaching the hand holds on the top! Tim had to really work it to get it back together. It is all back on! It looks much brighter and the green mossy hues are gone! I was excited to see that it was all clean. The dodger really looks much better and should hold up for quite a bit longer. Tim and I took my parents sailing on San Diego Bay from 1430 to 1830. We had a great time. Tim was a bit anxious to try out our new spinnaker and so we gave it a try. I’ve had no experience with a spinnaker other than running a sheet on a catamaran for about 30 minutes. I don’t understand how all the parts come together to work it well. All I knew is that I needed to keep the wind behind us. Tim had me on the helm for the popping of the chute. I did a great job of keeping it full. Tim decided we needed to jibe as we were running out of sea room. The city was coming closer. That jibe did not go so well. He said go slow, but what is slow? I guess I wasn’t slow enough on the helm and things got tangled and my adrenaline shot to the moon! Tim needed the guy loosened and I couldn’t reach it on the winch from the helm and Tim had 4 wraps on the winch which kept the line from easing when my dad removed it from the tailer. It was crazy pandemonium for me back in the cockpit and sheer frustration for Tim on the foredeck. We gave up on the notion of flying the spinnaker any longer and more pandemonium ensued as I did my best to follow Tim’s commands on the helm and for the lines. We doused it and he apologized for trying. I was flat out sick to my stomach after all of this. With just the main up, I can sail our boat quite well. When the jib is added I seem to chase the bubble to stay on course. Tim loves to see me sailing and that is the biggest thing that I need to master for our long passages so I can sail the boat alone during my watch shift. I was fatigued from the adrenaline rush and finally asked Tim to take over. My parents had a great time with us. The time just flies when we get out on the water. We cleaned up the boat and went out to dinner with my mom and dad at our favorite gyro place; the Harbor Greek Cafe. After an afternoon of hard work it tasted fantastic! My parents have an RV with a truck in tow (It’s really a land-yacht with a dinghy) so we took them back to the RV park they were staying at and drove their truck back to Marina Cortez. I will be leaving with them in the morning to hop a ride back to Redding so I can get my car and return to San Diego.  Dock Day 4 San Diego, CA 10/07/2016 I am feeling strange emotions today, ones that I cannot articulate. Trying to figure out what I need for going with my parents and taking care of business in Redding has my head swimming. The decision to go was so quick and I’ve only had a few hours to prepare. I forgot the 2 bags that were supposed to be going back to the house; So frustrating! As far as my feelings go, we've been in 12 different ports in less than a month, we have no new normal. Or is it that my new normal is NO normal? I think that the cruisers are right, its easier to be underway because you get into a groove of your watch times and sleeping schedule. I suppose the bottom line for me is that I really don’t want to be back in Redding and I really don’t want to make the long drive down to San Diego. I know I will appreciate having my car there. It is strange being away from Tim because we have been together every day since the beginning of June! That’s 4 months of constant togetherness. Fortunately, I have an amazing picture of him looking right at me in my phone camera to look at when I’m missing him. It puts my heart aflutter! I sure love that man! Tim worked on the windlass today and managed to get it working! When I get back we will take the boat to an anchorage and put it to the test! How about a health update? I’m feeling pretty rested and I know that I am getting stronger and my muscles have increased in their endurance to do tasks like grinding a winch for several minutes at a time. I’m still sleeping a lot of hours every night, but I think that it’s the darkness on the boat that allow me to sleep for so long. When we arrived in San Diego on Sunday, nearly a week ago, I had some meat that had chilli peppers as a very small ingredient, the last one on the list. As I ate the meat I wondered if it did, there was a familiar burning on my tongue. I am allergic to peppers, anything with capsaicin. I’ve been asked what happens if I have them, well now I know! I’ve had a bright red rash all over my face since Tuesday. The same rashes that I had as a child. It has been very itchy and I’ve been using Benadryl topical and pills to stop the itch. The itching is pretty much gone, but my skin is now all dry and peeling. It feels like I’m a pimple-faced teenager. I would really like my issues with my complexion to be all sorted out. Big sigh! Tuesday 10-4-16
Poop drama continues! I slept until almost 0900 this morning and Tim was up quite a bit earlier. He was chomping at the bit to get over to the pump out so we could find out anything else that may have transpired in this arena. Did I mention that the holding tank is under our bed? We had a crappy night’s sleep. The holding tank plumbing snakes from the toilet up into the cabinet where the head vent is and then another line snakes through the cabinet under the sink, through the wall, through another cabinet and another wall into the holding tank under our berth. From the holding tank to the outlet that we pump out is a pipe and vent pipe that goes from the tank under our berth through a wall into our dry hanging locker with all our nice clothes in it, finally arriving at the top of the deck. All of this had to be checked for leaking, loose hose clamps of which there are about 12 or so on the whole system! (This is similar to trying to find out what is stinking up the refrigerator. It’s never pretty when you find it, but you're glad you did.) Enough of all that, after I downed my coffee, it was hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to pump we go! While I was drinking coffee, Tim completed the engine checks and started the engine. Once my coffee cup was empty, we headed out for the pump out, all before breakfast! We were at the pump out a long, long time! We arrived back in our slip an hour and a half later. Finally, breakfast. Now it was time to check all the other places that might have busted a seam in the poop system. That meant looking in the clothing locker…it was all good there, Tim had already found and tightened a hose clamp from the system when we did our very first pump out in Ballena Bay. If that was not done, we would have lost some of our nice clothes. I decided I had had enough of this sh*t and set about some other chores. First, putting all the groceries away from last night’s shopping expedition. Washing the dishes, drying them and putting them away, followed by the washing of the stovetop and counters. We started defrosting the freezer yesterday so we speed up the process by using a blow dryer to melt the ice so we could take it off in big chunks. We finished that and then we had to move all the food stuffs and such so it was set to go again. We are thankful to have a refrigeration system onboard, most boats this size do not. Next, it was time to tear apart the bed and check out the holding tank situation. To do this means all the bedding comes out into the main cabin, then the memory foam comes out into the cabin, finally the upholstered pieces that constitute the original mattress. Now I could open the storage space to look into it. Yes, there is storage next to the sewage tank. I removed a vacuum sealed clothing bag to reveal the tank! All was well, no leaks and no disconnections. Tim made lunch: hot dogs. I put the foam pieces back, the memory foam back and then the layer we sleep on. Grabbed my pillow and decided I was having a nap! It was now 1500 and I had not done any more work on the dodger cover. Today, all day I have felt off. I’ve felt annoyed, trapped, and crabby. I would like to just get in my own car and drive myself to a ton of stores to get things I have decided are needed to make things work better yet. I can now relate to those who are shut-ins, I value my freedom to come and go, but it is extremely limited now. I know i have use of a car, but that makes me nervous, what if I crash it? I felt much better after my hour long nap. I brewed some more coffee and then made dinner. After dinner, Tim went to Steve and Janny’s boat and I went to work on the checks and balances of payday, bills and money matters. Once all was sorted there I set to work on checking my email, perusing Facebook and then writing for this blog. Having not sewn one stitch on the dodger cover project, it will greet me in the morning, I’m off to bed. Dock Day 4 San Diego, CA It’s so great to finally be here in San Diego. Tim and I slept in. I slept in longer and Tim decided he was going to make me coffee. Well, sometimes or most times, it seems everything takes longer on our boat. The propane was gone and Tim had to switch the canisters before coffee could be made. So making coffee this morning required a wrench in addition to the normal supplies. You landlubbers have it good, count your blessings. Tim and I were eager to get the work started that we have been waiting to do until we arrived here. Before the wind came up Tim wanted to hoist the new spinnaker here in our slip. He prepared everything then we hoisted it and the chute is perfect! I wish I had captured Tim’s satisfactory smile as it went up and a light breeze filled it up. We had to put it away pretty quickly as the Westerly breeze was coming on. We completed the legalities of leasing our slip and getting our keys to the marina. Then Tim set about doing the things he wanted to and I removed the dodger cover, with Tim’s help, and stuffed it down below. I pulled out my sewing machine, and the needed parts to set up to fix this cover that is being held together by the thread loops between the layers for fabric in some places. Jockeying this big thing around with plastic windows that don’t fold was a massive chore. I don’t think I have enough thread to get it all done. As I was repairing the stitching on a reinforcement patch on the canvas my needle broke! Darn! I have a few more. About 1700 we borrowed Steve and Janny’s car to go shopping. We were out of everything! Coffee, butter, milk, and other items. (We were about ready to abandon ship due to the conditions aboard; no bullet-proof coffee!?!) We went to Jo Ann Fabrics to pick up some additional supplies for me to finish the dodger repairs and then treat it with waterproofing and a UV protectant. Then it was to Trader Joe’s for all our groceries. We unloaded all our bags into the boat and I left all the non-refrigerated items for tomorrow! We popped by Janny and Steve’s to return the key and give the some flowers & thank you card. Then we came back to get ready for bed. As I was pumping the head (flushing it), the tank gave a big thud. “Tim! I think we are full!” Without belaboring the point, we (our holding tank) was indeed full. But that meant certain poopy drama might ensue! You never never never want to fill your holding tank. We were looking everywhere to make sure we hadn’t busted a seam or popped a line. We could hear a squeezing-hissing sound from the cabinet in the head where the head vent is, I unloaded all the toiletries out of the cabinet and Tim found a hose clamp loose on the vent so he gloved up and went to work sorting out that part of the system to make sure it wasn’t going to come apart and create more excitement. Then we went to bed. You can guess we did not sleep that well wondering what may have happened under the pressure of methane. Stay tuned.   Course from San Francisco to San Diego in reverse order. Miles: To-from 41 Oceanside-San Diego 35 Newport-Oceanside 40 Redondo-Newport 48.5 Oxnard-Redondo 33 Santa Barbara-Oxnard 102 Morro Bay-Santa Barbara (overnight) 103 Monterey-Morro Bay (overnight) 23 Santa Cruz-Monterey 45 Half-Moon to Santa Cruz 28 Angel Island - Half Moon Bay 12 Ballena Island-Angel Island Total 511 miles In 12 sea days, we covered 511 miles, though it took us 19 days due to weather holds, recuperation and just time to soak up the local faire. We had to hold for a fair-weather gale in Morro Bay for 4 days, a couple in Santa Cruz and Monterey. We really don't have any crazy sea stories because we waited out the bad weather. If we decided to be on a schedule, we'd have plenty to say and maybe broken gear and injuries. No thanks! Sea Day 12 Oceanside to San Diego, CA Tim and I were both so excited to get going today! We ended up helping a power boater by towing him across the waterway to the docks for the boat launch before getting fuel. We took on about 20.5 gallons of diesel and headed out hopeful for some wind to sail with today. We would love to try out our spinnaker to see if it is going to work for us. We left out about 1030. The sun was hot today, I’m getting itchy from all the sunscreen and then no showering. I do use a wash cloth to scrub down at night, but somehow it just doesn’t seem to be the same affect. We tried to sail several times, but the wind just wasn’t enough to keep us going. The winds were not from the right direction to try the spinnaker. Once we got down near Point Loma, we encountered an unpleasant surprise! We did not realize that lobster season had started the day before and there were hundreds of traps with nearly invisible bobbers or floats on them. We had to dodge them for several hours. We even went farther off the coastline! It was so unbelievable! We are so very grateful for not getting tangled up in any of them! All the intense looking and watching in the waves wore us both out. We finally got into the final approach channel for San Diego where there were no longer lobster traps. It seemed like it took forever to get in and see our turn at Tom Ham’s Lighthouse! We decided to get a pump out at the gas dock and a powerboat was there pumping so we circled for 30 minutes! Then the guy finally left and we docked only to find out that it was closed, the pump was off! No pump out tonight! Steve and Janny with their dog Gracie were at our slip waiting, waving, cheering and ready to help us tie up. What an amazing way to land in our new home port! We docked at about 1750. After they gave our boat a quick look over to see what we had, Steve and Janny invited us for dinner. We shored up all the dock details and joined them for dinner. It was really nice not to have to cook. Our friends are great company too! We had a great evening. Everyone wants to know what's next. The goal is to get the boat ready for extended cruising, and for Tim to get his 90 sea days. Currently he's got about 30 and will be doing some sailing instruction at a nearby club. We need to outfit the boat and do some maintenance, brightwork and repairs. Never a dull day on a boat. Sea Day 11 Newport Beach to Oceanside, CA Our main reason for stopping in Newport Beach was so we could go to this amazing surplus store that is mostly sailing. We had a list for this place called Minney’s Yacht Surplus. We called for a Lyft ride from the marina to the store. We then spent over 2 hours looking at all sorts of gadgets, gizmos and odds and ends that could be very useful. Specifically blocks, lines (as in rope), spinnakers, and on and on. We were on a timeline as check out was 1200. We decided after the incredibly rolling night that we did not want to stay there any longer and if we could get out by noon we could make the 36 miles to Oceanside leaving us with another 30 or so miles right into San Diego. We had quite the cache from Minney’s! Line and more line, line for some friends in SD, a spinnaker, blocks for the spinnaker, track slides and snatch blocks all for pennies on the dollar. It was a great day and we had great service there. We Lyfted back to the marina, and carefully got all our booty aboard (as in treasure, keep it PG). Our driver Wail was a real treat. He moved here from Egypt 4 years ago. I asked him, "How is your Saturday going?" He replied quickly with, "Every day is a great day!" Tim replied, "well that is a great attitude." He then said, "God saved my life." So we had a great talk, he escaped Egypt in 2012 when the Muslim Brotherhood took over and they were killing Christians. Wail and his wife and 4 children applied for a Visa and won the lottery. As soon as he arrived he started working to take care of his family. He is so happy to be here, every day is a gift. We need to live with the same gratefulness. We had already prepped to leave so we fired up the engine and pulled out at 1215. We had the sails up for quite a while but there really wasn’t that much wind. Tim dreamed of bringing out the new spinnaker, but I suggested that we set up for it in the morning and then use it on our way to SD. Charlie’s Charts said there could be bar conditions getting into Oceanside so we radioed ahead to get a status. The harbor patrol indicated that there were breaking waves in the entrance to the harbor, but if we took our time and watched the sets, we could make a good entrance. So we're going to surf our way in? Indeed the bar was a small issue, we just needed to be careful and time the surges pictures below show a bit of what we found breaking waves on either side of us. We found the transient moorage and checked in. It’s quite full tonight. The noisiest part of it all is the sea lions! They are louder than the people on each side of us, even their music. We called ahead to Marina Cortez in San Diego where we have hoped we would get to moor our boat. We spent 2 months there this summer and we know people there. Sure enough! Our friends Steve and Janny already talked the Marina office and they have moorage for us there! I’m so excited! I told Tim we should leave early in the morning and get in early! I’m tired tonight, Tim and I both think that it was our shopping excursion where there was just so much to look at and see and thoughts to think, that we are worn out from that. It's been very sunny and hot and that makes me tired too. Tim and I both agree that we have not been drinking enough water these past couple of days. We must do better! Hydration is important! |
AuthorsTim & Lynette Jenné have their feet firmly planted in midair. We don't know what tomorrow brings, but are very excited to see what surprises come our way. Tim's favorite leadership quote: Archives
July 2021
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