Mostly pics

Lets see if I can get the photos to upload today.

This first one is my favorite from my midweek sail: my crew making themselves useful at Angel Island.

<a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/58381652@N00/523559766/” title=”Photo Sharing”><img src=”http://farm1.static.flickr.com/229/523559766_377705e832.jpg” width=”500″ height=”298″ alt=”crewnapping” /></a>

Then we have the rationale for why a midweek sail is a good thing.

<a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/58381652@N00/523559756/” title=”Photo Sharing”><img src=”http://farm1.static.flickr.com/252/523559756_bd45b4c098_t.jpg” width=”100″ height=”75″ alt=”Angel Island empty docks” /></a>

A few days later, I sailed on the Sirena with Chris.  Quite windy, lot of fun, then we got chased by the water cops.

<a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/58381652@N00/523559848/” title=”Photo Sharing”><img src=”http://farm1.static.flickr.com/248/523559848_1bdea4dc08_o.jpg” width=”594″ height=”418″ alt=”CGchase” /></a>

Luckily, they pulled over someone else.  I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen guns this big outside of movies or the third world.

<a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/58381652@N00/523559852/” title=”Photo Sharing”><img src=”http://farm1.static.flickr.com/192/523559852_144682350f_o.jpg” width=”849″ height=”520″ alt=”CoastGuard” /></a>

I did see guns that big when I was in Zimbabwe once.  I was on a bus that got pulled over and men in uniforms got on carrying guns like that and took someone off.  I didn’t ask any questions.

AARRRGGGHHH!!!

No, that’s not a good pirate aarrrggghhh.  That’s a frustrated “why won’t WordPress let me upload photos anymore?” aarrrggghhh.  For over a week now, anything I try to upload just leads to an error with a little red x.  Nothing useful in FAQ or Forums and no response yet to my help request.

And there’s a lot of good pictures cause I’ve been sailing a lot!

I did an over-night to Berkeley – first chance to use my bbq grill, and sailed on the Sirena with Chris then did some late night kayaking (highly recommended).

But without pics I just don’t know what to do.

Drat.  Curses.  Hell and damnation.

Midweek sail

I’ve been working a lot on weekends what with all the travelling, so I took a Wednesday off.  Of course, midweek, the problem arises of where do I get crew.  Luckily, Anna works a non-M-F schedule, and my downstairs neighbor Drew isn’t working currently.  I’m confident in Anna’s ability, but Drew was untested entity.  He spent 20 years or so as a flight attendant – I first thought he might be good crew the morning an apartment next door burned.  Five am in the morning, and he’s arranging blankets and shoes for all the displaced people…WHILE THE FIRE IS STILL BURNING!

Anyway, I knew the day was shaping up well when I asked for a diet Coke and his response was, “Would you like a cup of ice with that?”

So many times I’ve had galley boys whose childhood dreams were to be flight attendants.  Now I finally had a real one!  At another point, I asked him to hand me my jacket, and he very carefully picked it up, found the collar, shook it and smoothed it out, then handed it to me.  Most people just fling.

Beautiful day!  It was pretty windy, so I decided to sail on jib alone, which I don’t usually do.  It worked pretty well,  although I couldn’t head up well and couldn’t tack at all in a certain direction.  I don’t know if this is normal for jib alone, or something I was doing wrong.

Tried to sail in to Angel Island without the motor, but the winds didn’t cooperate.  Oh well, first attempt, I’ll do it next time.  Had a great picnic and nap.  Then sailed home and guacamole at Fish.

hmm, none of the photos are working.  I’ll post them later with the pictures from this Saturday’s sail when Chris and I saw the Coast Guard arresting someone.  Then we stole kayaks and went kayaking at 9 pm.

Cabin ceiling issues

This was the most glorious boating weekend imaginable, but seeing as I was still trying to cough up a lung and sick as a sick dog, I decided to be smart and not leave the dock.  (The downside to traveling a lot for business is that airplanes and really really long travel days tend to lead to nasty colds.)This seemed like a good opportunity to address the leak in the cabin ceiling issue.  I’m stumped by where the water could be getting in from outside.  The obvious choice is the lifeline rail base, but it has been resealed, so I don’t see where water could be getting in.  I can’t find any other place that water could be draining from, without stopping off somewhere else first.  I think Michele’s comment about it being damp prior to repair may actually be the case.Here’s a photo of what it looked like prior to my attacking it yesterday with a dental probe. It turns out to have been a problem spot for a long time, as what peeled off was a varnished-over fiberglass repair, under which is damp wood. So what I have done is peeled off all the bubbling, green fiberglass, leaving the wood below.  We should have good weather for a while, so I’m going to give it a chance to dry.  Then I plan to pull off and reseat all the lifeline rails (it will give me a good chance to inspect them anyhow) even though I don’t think this one is still leaking.  Once that is done and the damaged interior is dry, I’ll figure out what to do about the aesthetics.  My first thought is that since its a relatively small area and if the wood isn’t too badly rotted, to try to salvage it using a penetrating epoxy.  Otherwise, I’m afraid I’ll have to cut out and patch a small section of the cabin roof, and I doubt my ability to do that. Thoughts?  Volunteers to help me reseat the lifeline rails – I think its a two person job? Aside from that, I also spring cleaned the boat inside and out.  Washed the cabin down with Murphy’s Oil Soap so it smells great, and washed and waxed the topsides.  Right now, the Indian Summer is a sparkling, pretty boat with a fresh clean scent.Next weekend I’ll wax the hull.