Chris and Scott invited me to join them onboard Chris' Farrier F-27 for race 3 of the interclub inside-the-bay race sponsored by Oakland Yacht Club. Six different fleets raced, each with an average of six or seven boats, on a course that was 13.7nm for the slower boats and 18.1nm for the faster boats. We were one of the faster boats.
Dylan and Roshie invited Sara and me to join them for the historic Vallejo Season Opener race on their ultralight custom Dogpatch 26, "Moonshine". We love the Vallejo race - it was the first race we sailed on Velella, our much-beloved Ericson 27.
Dylan and I sailed his custom Dogpatch 26 "Moonshine" in the doublehanded lightship race, a short offshore race outside the SF Bay's Golden Gates.
With the end of September came the end of our gainful employment. Sara's senator, Wes Chesbro, was being termed out of office, so it worked out nicely for her to depart. Although the Senator's term ends in the beginning of December, Sara was so excited to get sailing she managed to escape a little early.
My job situation was a little different. When I first moved to California, I joined a little technology startup named "Centellax". Centellax and I grew together, and I moved from a design engineer to the Director of Sales. Leaving was very hard.
Farewell cake
Laundry day!
Sean arrived, we christened Wanderlust with some champagne, and even had the boat blessed by a wizard.
William with champagne
Wizard blesser
The weekend came way too fast. Everything turned out to be a blur, but one thing kept us going: we were going to go for our first test sail on Monday September 18th. All the work, the drama, the late nights and expensive stainless marine parts - they were all going to be worth it.
Saturday we were up early on a mission. As soon as we got to the boat we had to put the cushions down. The patterns we picked are great, the covers Sara's mother sewed for us are amazing, and you can barely see where we screwed up with the foam cutting! Everything looks just top notch.
Loading up the cushions
Sara installing the dri-deck
This week was completely and absolutely exhausting. Moving out of our small rental turned out to be an epic project. Sara's sister Amy came and helped, plus we finished building the cushions.
Messy living room!
Cushions off the assembly line
The short week after the long weekend was a nice rest from boatwork, and we got a lot done! During the week I managed to tear apart the two main Genoa winches, which very obviously have never been maintained. Never. The grease must have been the original grease placed in the winches in the 1970s.
I used the technique that Jim, the Mechanical Engineer at Centellax, recommended, and a tool from my motorcycle racing buddy Ray. Sorry Ray, it's not that sharp anymore.
Petroleum solvent cleaner
Winch disassembly with Ray's tool
It was a long four day weekend. Sara left Thursday afternoon for Colorado for a week with her family, leaving me behind to do glorious wonderful boat work. Ahh, joy!
Before Sara left we picked up two additional anchors: a 35lb high-tensile danforth and a 45lb CQR-knockoff. Both are awesome hooks, and the price was right. We got them from a boat part re-seller who we've met before at swap meets. He's always running over and asking how much the part you're looking at costs - he'll try to buy it out from under you if he thinks he can resell it for more later. Crazy dude, but he gave us a deal this time, so all is forgiven!
Our anchor collection
Chain locker
We're regulars at West Marine Sausalito. They know us by name. They know about our boat. We go there so much we've started helping other customers looking for parts. Compasses? Over there by the charts. Hose clamps? End of aisle 10.
Saturday morning we went back to check in. Everyone is doing well, Michael is not quite finished our chain-to-rope splice, but Jay had our Forespar MOB flasher. This is the last component in our MOB system, which now includes pole, horseshoe, flasher, mirror, whistle, drogue, water dye marker, etc. It still needs to be assembled.