The End is Almost Here

5/2/12 - Reno, NV
I suppose I can finally release the confidential information for public consumption....The End is Near!  And I couldn't be more excited.  As of today we have officially given our American dream back to those who gave it to us.
 8320 Opal Station is legally not ours anymore.  I never thought I'd be happier to say I am NOT a home owner.  It has been a long battle to get to this point and I would not wish our predicament on anyone; and now it's finally over!  Everything (and I mean everything except a bag of clothes and our boat) we own is packed into a storage unit; paid cash upfront for 2 months in a little furnished condo; and have truly been enjoying the new found simplicity and togetherness we have gained by not inhabiting 8320 Opal Station.
As of today we have both informed our employers of our plans to leave and travel for a year or so.  There's probably nothing scarier for a guy like me than to tell your boss that you are going to be leaving a great job you enjoy and have been at for 12 years and going to be unemployed, by your own choice.  It seems fairly backwards, especially in this economy we find ourselves in.  Don't worry these facts are not lost on me.  Sometimes you just need to make a decision....Looks like we did.

View from Eagle Rock

 Finally, The end of my single life is here. I proposed to Elizabeth last weekend; and thankfully she said yes. I guess she stuck with me for 14 years so far, so we must be doing something right, right? All I can say is thankfully you only need to do that once, I was nervous as hell trying to remember my rehearsed speech, which I pretty much botched, but apparently I got the critical part out and I believe she said yes. Those moments were mostly a blur to me. Atop Eagle Rock on the West shore of Lake Tahoe seemed appropriately beautiful to pop the question.

Thinking: "I hope this goes as planned"

"Why are you acting so weird"

So life's moving forward at quite a pace right now.  I can't wait to be moving forward at 5 knots in the near future!

looks like we'll be together for a while

The Great Bicycle Seat Adventure

4/17/12 - Grand Marina - Alameda

Who would have known that something so insignificant could be such a coveted item and better yet what an ordeal it could be to replace it.  Some not-so-nice person stole Elizabeth's bike seat off her bike in Alameda.  I guess that in itself isn't that big of a deal, more of a lesson to us suburbanites that if it's not locked down, it's free game in a real city.  We accept that fact and go to replace it.  Little did we know, the non-bicycle enthusiasts that we are, that they make a bunch of different sized seat posts, so the lady at the bike shop really can't tell us what post to buy unless we bring the bike in; which is obviously a little more difficult now that there is no seat on the thing.  We feel fortunate that we have a car and stuff the bike into the Little Volvo; Ellie holds on from the front seat while the bike hangs out the back of the trunk and I drive.  We get there, they measure, they tell us they don't have the correct size.  The bike goes back into the trunk, but at least now we know the size we are looking for.  A few calls latter we find it in Oakland, not too far away.  Off we go; a few one way streets and some good luck latter we find the store, they have the post and we are set...Almost.  I don't know if we have the right size hex wrench on the boat so E runs back in to have the nice guy attach the seat to the post.  While this goes on I sit in the car in a no parking area as the parking ticket guy writes tickets to a couple of other cars, gives me a mean look but carries on.  E come back seat & post attached and we head back to Alameda for a quick bike ride to Lucky13; a cool bar with great beer.
This all leads me to think how much more difficult everything must be in a real city, and I can't even imagine how this would have gone down without a car.  It takes a mind shift from small suburban Reno where everything is a car ride away, traffic isn't bad, you can park where-ever for free, your bike is safely locked in your garage and all you tools are organized and ready to use; to living in a bigger city and a smaller boat.

The upside of our little adventure is Elizabeth found someone selling flowers on the street on our way back from Oakland, so now the boat looks colorful,  Notice the french press vase! We have some new bike seat decorations on the mast ... And it all started when someone decided they needed E's bike seat more than her.  I hope they got the correct size seat post!

Holes in the boat

3/31/12 - Grand Marina, Alameda, CA

Today I drilled some holes is the boat.  For some reason this is always hard for me to do.  It seems so permanent.  You can't undo a hole one you've drilled it.  So you better make it right the first time.  I have to mentally prepare myself for these type of activities.  I'm a planned by nature, but when it comes to drilling permanent holes in the boat, I almost plan myself into inaction.  Just like today, I measured 6 times to make sure everything is centered and looking good.  (Trying to level something is somewhat futile on a boat, especially one that lists ever so slightly to port) I mock up the fit with tape to check it out...and then when I'm confident everything is perfect... I drill.  Still it never seems to turn out the way I expect it to.  Just a little off, not quite perfect.  And then I remember that it's a boat, and nothing is quite perfect, and I go on with life. 



Where are these holes?

Today's mission was to install a couple of pad-eyes in the cockpit.  These are so we can clip our tethers to them and reduce our chances of being lost at sea on a cold dark and lonely night.  The last part might be a bit embellished, but the point is to stay connected to the boat no matter what, and better yet, to let the person who's not on deck know that the person on deck is safe so they can relax down below.  Anyway these little things involved drilling some holes in the boat and that scared me.  I finally got over my fear and started drilling.  It went just fine, except that the bolts I bought were too short.  We'll remedy that tomorrow at the local WM.  (FYI any C34 owners who do this, the bolts under the companionway need to be 2.5" long to get the nuts, washers and acorn nut on)  The story of a boat project.   On the upside, I wandered into our local marine consignment shop, The Blue Pelican, and all of the misc. nuts and bolts hardware had a "FREE" sign taped to them.  I took them up on the offer and found almost all of the hardware I needed.  Very nice.


Who knew something so small could be so scary?

Ellie "helping out"

Makes for a pretty exciting day if you ask me!

Elizabeth's Dinghy

3:30 AM the alarm goes off. Wow that's early for a Saturday. What are we doing I ask myself? Then I remember...We've got a dinghy to buy.

Somewhere along the way we decided that buying a used dinghy would be a good place to save some money while outfitting the boat. Basically rationalizing that if you were going to buy something used, a dinghy would be a better choice than say, a liferaft of EPIRB. Just our thinking, I'm sure others have done it differently.

The search for a decent used dinghy on Craigslit has been long and frustrating. They are too big, or little, too expensive, way too old, the good ones get sold quickly or are in the Bay area while we are stuck in Reno with winter storms making Donner pass a mess. Ellie has spearheaded this operation for a few months and has diligently checked Craigslist every day hoping to find the right boat at the right price that we can get to before it gets sold; and this was it. So here we are at 3:30 AM packing the truck and making sure the thermos is full of coffee.

4:00A we are fueled up and on the road to Brannen Is in the California Delta, to meet a guy at 8:00A to look at his dinghy. I might add, the emails and discussions about dinghies always lead to a smile. ie, Ellie replies to guy: "I'm excited to see your dinghy". Or E to me: "I hope his dinghy is as advertised" Anyway, we make it to Perry's Boat Harbor and find the dinghy just as advertised and Ken, the guy selling it to be honest and great to deal with.  Like most of the marinas we have experienced in the Delta, Perry's is super relaxed and pleasant; with big grassy areas below the levees and no big parking lots full of cars.  I can see how a person would enjoy Delta boating.We take it for a test drive in chilly morning breeze and all seems well.  Ellie is all smiles as this dinghy is a lot more sturdy and stable than our previous one.  That makes her happy, so that makes me happy.  With the slightest prodding Ken knocks $100 off the price and we shake hands.  He even scrubs the bottom off for us as we disassemble the boat.  The boat gets deflated a little to fit in the truck and we head towards Alameda.  It's always great when these type of dealings go well and everyone walks away feeling good.

9:00A we leave Perry's and head thru the interesting world of the California Delta, where the water is always higher than the ground around it.  Sort of like New Orleans, I guess that explains why there aren't a whole lot of permanent structures built around here.  Farm land, sheep and birds for a bit, thru the tunnel under the Oakland hills and hello big city!  10:15A finds us at Grand Marina in Alameda, unloading a months worth of boat stuff in a steady drizzle.  Dinghy, bikes, generator, anchor, and 6 bags of misc stuff disappear into the boat.  12:00 we say goodbye to Autumn Wind and head for Reno. 

4:15 P and 567 miles later we are back home, tired but happy that we finally found the right dinghy for us.  One more box checked off and Ellie's happy with her dinghy.

Autumn Wind Weekend

2/26/12 – Grand Marina, Alameda, CA

Yesterday we planned on going for a nice sail and spending the night at Clipper Cove to get a little more practice anchoring, but the wind seemed really gusty and strong so it turned into an Autumn Wind project day.   First up was installing our new 80amp breaker for the windless.  Once we pulled the electrical panel apart we quickly discovered that the old one wasn’t broken at all.  We just didn’t know how it worked, so we thought it was broken.  Lesson learned & fifty bucks saved.  Next project was to add a second 12V outlet to the nav station.  It didn’t seem impossible, but it seemed a lot easier to buy a splitter and call it a day.  Since we seem to have an endless number of projects in front of us, we went with the splitter.  12 bucks saved.  So at this point we’re almost making money! 

Off to trusty West Marine to get some part for Brian’s projects now.  A couple of shinny stainless screws and a cord organizer latter I set to work drilling holes in our boom.   Before I even got started Elizabeth had already finished her awesome cord organizer project.  Organization is awesome!  After getting myself pumped, I started to drill holes in the boom.  It’s scary drilling holes in the boat.  They seem so permanent.   A little later I had 13 holes drilled in the boom and my new reef track mounted.  How exciting!  Let hope it works as planned.

2/27/12 – Clipper Cove, CA

We gave the new reefing system a try and with a few tweeks, I think it’ll be a great addition.  There was no wind so we decided to stop by Clipper Cove and drop the anchor for lunch just cause.  Within minutes of getting there the wind kicked up to 15 knots or so.   Sometimes you just can’t win.  The entrance to Clipper Cove is shallow and you are supposed to stay close to the pier on the North side and follow the shorline in until it gets deeper.  Once in you are pretty safe.  This tactic put us on a collision course with about about 100 little sailboats from SF Yacht Club departing from the boat ramp getting ready to start a race.  Even though we were under power there was no way to dodge them all, so with a little yelling, swerving and throttle we made it thru and anchored just off the beach for some lunch.  Elizabeth keenly noticed the winery on shore and was feeling a little jealous of all the people heading in.  Maybe next time.  This day we were content to watch the racing and have some lunch before heading back thru the maze of racing boats.

Christmas 2011

12/23/2011 thru 12/26/2011 - Christmas

This being year number 3 in the rotation, ( 1.my parents, 2.her parents, 3.stay home) we had the oportunity to not travel over the holiday.  While we certainly missed seeing our families, it was very nice not to be stuck in an airport somewhere without our luggage trying to find a plane, train or car to get home to see our families for 2 days before we turn around and fly back to Reno.  Elizabeth and I did our Christmas thing a little early on 12/22 and drove to Alameda on Friday 12/23 to spend the weekend on the boat. 

I bought us tickets to see The Nutcracker in an attempt to be cultural and broaden our horizons.  Christmas Eve we drove to SF and went to the War Memorial Opera House to see the ballet.  I know it doesn't sound like a great time, and I had my doubts as well, but it only seemed fitting to do something X-massy, cultural and "one of those things your mom would have forced you into when you were little"  We had decided early on that we would be in trouble if this was a 4 hour ordeal.  We found reasurance from all the little kids in attendance.  Our thought was, there's no way this thing can go on for hours with all these little kids.  Thankfully we were right.  We arrived early and had a glass of wine while wandering around the building.  On the upside, the bartender asked us if we would like to pre-order our drinks for half time (I mean intermission).  You don't get that at a football game now do you!  It was actually a great show.  The sets were amazing and the orchestra was great.  I don't really have anything to compare the ballet part to, so I assume it was top notch as well.  It put us in the Christmas mood and was something new to experience.



Autumn Wind decked out for Christmas



Our neighbors out did us!



Apparently Santa didn't realize we had left Reno, because there were no presents waiting for us on Christmas morning.  It may have been beacuse we didn't have a chimney, I'm not sure.  Christmas morning we lounged in bed, waiting for the heaters to warm up the boat.  (it was about 40 deg. inside when we woke up, brrrr) went for a nice run and then I made some biscuits and sausage gravy to complete a healthy morning!  We finally made it out of the slip and had a great winter sail out of the estuary and out to the city front.  When we turned around it became apparent that the ripping ebb tide was not messing around at about 4kts and we had to motor most of the way back.  I figure if you can't be with your family, you might as well be sailing.



Christmas Sailing



The downside of the weekend was with some big negative tides, poor Dezzie had a hard time making it up the ramp off the dock.  As usual she was a trooper and did her best.





On a good note our Radar and chartplotter came in, yippe!  Now all I have to do is istall it.  Red to positive (I think) black to negative.  How hard can this be?  So for what some people spend for a 54" TV with surround sound we got a 7" (that's diagnogal by the way) screen, no TV or sound, music is a $700 add on, that hopefully will show us where we are in the world and what hard objects are around us.  You know...the things that most people take for granted every day.  I have a feeling this adventure has just started.



Is this how it works?



Thanksgiving '11

11/24/2011 – Thanksgiving

Today we had a big day of fun planned in Alameda and the surrounding areas.  There is no better way to start a day of glutinous eating off than with a nice run.  Elizabeth and I headed up to Point Pinole state park to run the Brazen Racing Nitro Turkey 10K trail run.  The weather was calling for rain on and off all day, so this promised to be a fun run.  Like they say “your 30% more hardcore when you run in the rain”.  I don’t know if that’s necessarily true, but I digress. 



Post race with our medals



The run was pretty small but a lot of fun.  The rain held off, mostly, until after the finish and It was fun to run a “trail” race.  The “trails” were really just gravel paths, so not too crazy.  It was fun to splash thru the mud puddles and run at sea level.  What really made the race stand out was 1.  The finisher medals were cool, 2. The shirts were cool (ie. You could actually wear them around without being embarrassed; like the opposite of the Bay to Breakers T’s) 3. They had ice cream sandwiches and pumpkin pie for post race snacks.  Now that’s awesome! 



It was a long day for Dezzie also



We drove back in the rain to Alameda to start our day of eating/drinking/drinking.  1^st up, a big bottle of champagne for mimosas.  Then some bacon wrapped scallops (who doesn’t eat like this on their boat?) and more apps while we watched some football, walked Dezzie and generally relaxed thinking abot how fortunate we were.  Eventually we made our way to making some green bean casserole (Elizabeth’s only real requirement for Thanksgiving) potatoes and some steaks in place of the turkey.  The oven’s not so big on the boat so we opted for grill food.  More doggie walks, and then we decided to walk off some of our food with a walk to McGee’s for a beer.  I figure by the end of the day we probably had 11 to 12 miles under our feet.  Autumn Wind hosted us nicely for our second Thanksgiving on her.  It was a great day of feeling fortunate for all that we have.



We even had flowers for the table

11/25/2011

The plan was to sail over to South Beach Harbor and make it to Union Square to see the Christmas tree lighting.  I started out by delaying us by playing around with our reefing system, that never seems to work quite right.  After losing the reefing line in the boom and getting a few looks for E. I decided it was time to go.  I tried to convince her that it was a safety issue, but she had no part of it. 

We had a small sail over to South Beach where we ran in to the Solstice crew leaving as we were pulling in.  We had met them on the Delta Doo Dah a few months ago and coincidently they moored their boat at the same marina as us.  Small world.  We got lucky this time and they put us in B8 (or something like that) I know Dezzie was excited that she wouldn’t have to walk very far to the bathroom.  For Dezzie the walk from the end of the dock to the gate may have done her in, so this was a good thing. 



Thirsty Bear Brewery



First things first, we went in search of a brewery.  The Thirsty Bear Brewery.  We found it, it was good.  I’d give it a 7.5 out of 10. A sampler and a beer into it it was time to push on to the main highlight of the day. Union Square and Black Friday shoppers!  Now I’m the kind of guy who usually refuses to leave the house on Black Friday, let alone go into the Devils lair of prime time shopping chaos.  But when in SF do as SFers do.  It was chaos, crazy, there were some occupiers stirring up more chaos, we saw a $750 pair of moccasins at Louis Vitton.  Macy’s was decked out and looked every bit the holiday destination.  The let down, I mean highlight, of the evening was the tree lighting.  The streets were packed with thousands of people.  We took our place and waiting until the time, and waited and waited and waited until 40 minutes latter; and then………….the tree lit up and 5 thousand people turned around and left.  I didn’t figure it would be the greatest thing ever, but it was sort of anti-climactic.  We can now say we saw a tree light up in Union Square.



Look at all those people





We left with the other 5 thousand or so people and walked back to South Beach.  Probably the highlight was our dinner at Paragon, a few blocks up the street from AT&T park.  It was great.  I definitely recommend it.  1 more doggie walk and bed time.

There's the tree we waited for