sounds like a garbage truck) w/necessary items for a week long trip. Based on the quantity of stuff
I'll be very interested to see what these guys consider "simplifying" their lifestyle. They must be
major shareholders in Duracell based on the quantity of batteries/battery chargers floating around
the boat. Before you make the usual assumption, let me point out that after we dropped K & J in
San Bernardino to spend the week w/their mom, the pile was only reduced by 20% (oops, that's
right, still one kid on board!). (dd notes: Later in this article Maureen will comment on both the
successful work projects and sailing activities of the week. Hmmm now, do you think that any of
the EXTRA tools and materials packed by D came in useful in those activities? Not to mention the
new jumbo coffee thermos that was packed for M's benefit ! )
We had resolved ourselves to a week on the boat w/no sailing as there were numerous repairs
required....the starboard bow light had suffered two incidents of being used as a fender, one
spreader light seemed to have been taken out during a very slow tack, and the throttle/shifting
mechanism was getting more frightening w/each shift.
The good news was that after David took apart the throttle & cleaned/greased all the parts, our
worries were over, it wasn't the cable after all, just dirty parts. All the lights got replaced &
eventually even worked. Better yet, since at least one of us has some discipline when it comes to
mai tais & christmas cookies, I was able to haul D up the mast repeatedly to fix both of the
spreader lights!
Kathleen was in the xmas spirit and came over tues afternoon to hang on the boat, and took us
to one of the best dinners ever at Skates on the bay!
We took advantage of a "no wind, no tide" condition to take T out and back her into her slip for
home port name change. As with all things, practice makes perfect (well and some studying), and
David was able to turn her on a dime for a perfect entry & landing at the dock so that even I could
jump off w/out fear! Christmas eve rolled around & we had to do something, so we went sailing!
Our first attempt w/only the two of us (well master duke was down below). All went well, and we
put up sails right outside the marina and sailed down the channel. More tacks than we had
anticipated were required, but there was no traffic to speak of, and finally we were on the bay. We
had some great wind and were cruising along at up to 9 kts, heeled over quite nicely when I looked
down below to see master dukes rear end squashed up against the bottom of the navigation seat.
I looked again and no duke, but then he came sliding into view again, unable to get a grip on the
nice teak floors. I went below to find him not very happy about things and put him into our bed in
the aft cabin so he could hyperventilate in comfort. (dd comment: It's not as if Duke couldn't get any
grip on the "nice teak floors". It's just that his little claw marks in the cabin sole from port to
starboard were not secure enough to stop him from launching back and forth again.)
We found our usual "dead zone" between Angel Island & Alcatraz, and after wallowing out of that
we tacked nicely towards Richmond then ran back south for South Beach Marina to spend a night
is SF. Again David was able to pull into our slip like a master, even after slightly overshooting it
(when he temporarily forgot how to count). Whilst I took Duke for his walk and found the
harbormaster's office, David made friends w/our slip neighbors and happy hour was well under
way when Duke & I returned. We managed to use public transportation to get to Fishermans
Wharf for a wonderful Xmas eve dinner (sadly Scoma's was closed), and got up early Xmas day
and motored back to Alameda in order to head off for Xmas celebrations w/David's mom, sister &
family.
how much $%#& David brought aboard !
& Dinner at Fisherman's Wharf
and she's really giving all this up for me !?!?!?
or maybe it's the boat ......
back on Christmas day