Once the survey was complete and we had decided to buy the boat, we needed to start fixing stuff. We wanted to take advantage of the boat being out of the water on the hard at Nelson's Marine in Alameda. We figured we would have the boatyard take care of a few quick jobs and then we would move the boat to her new home in the Northbay.
Packing gland hose
Depth sensor thru-hull
After our crazy experience with the Mariner 40 we were considering, we wanted to make absolutely sure the Gulfstar 37 was right for us. On paper, it looked very good - all the design parameters were ideal for our intended offshore use. In person it also looked good. But we needed to be sure.
Full sails
Sara sailing
We started planning right after getting back from our Mexico sailing trip in January 2006. By March we were looking at boats. Lots of boats. We hit yachtworld.com, craigslist, boats.com, eBay, local marinas, everywhere.
We did a lot of research. We went to bed talking about stability factors, advantages of ketches vs. sloops, and sail area to displacement ratios. We crunched numbers and looked at a lot of different boats.
Sara and I decided to quit our jobs and sail to Mexico to get married. First we needed a boat.
Sara and I had been sailing around the SF Bay on our 27' Ericson, "Velella", but we really wanted to learn how to sail out in the ocean. We looked around and found the Sailing San Carlos website. We signed up a few weeks later for a five-day trip in the first week of 2006.
The trip was fantastic; we had a great time sailing and we also got engaged!
Friends and I summited the highest mountain (12,536') in Costa Rica, Cerro Chirripó!
Mike, Larry and I had been talking about going back to Cow Mountain for a few months. The winter was over, the weather was warmer, and we were sure we wouldn't need a trailer or two trucks.
Mike, David (Larry's son), and I headed to Cow Mountain for some dirt riding.
