Progress and Pork

Friends,

As you might imagine, we're off the boat for a few days and with our families for the holidays. I thought I might post an update, though. Taylor and his wonderful mother, Janice, have set out to stitch the drogue together today and make some storage pockets (and perhaps some chalk bags for climbing) out of an old colorful sail I found at the dumpster. My holiday assignment is to place orders for some parts and study for the Ham radio license test. Dana put in a hard day's work in the aft quarter yesterday. And Anna was able to finish the lettering on the transom before heading back to Seattle earlier this week. Productivity remains high and the excitement is building!

We chose as a re-christening ceremony to pour a bottle of rum in our water tank and have ourselves a little shindig at the dock. We managed to roast 8 pounds of pork ribs dockside for four and a half hours pretty much to perfection. Dana (la cabra de la barca) handled the cooking and, with the help of dear old friends Shane, John, Candice, Zac and Charlie, we managed to put back a respectable number of beers in the mean time.



Our pre-Mexico list is getting pretty short. The solar panels arrived so our top priority is installing those and building shelves in the aft quarter for jerry cans. Incidentally, we were able to cut up Clint's old stern pulpit and are going to incorporate all four stanchions into Ardea. Two will go to stabilize the rails holding the solar panels and two will comprise the aft-most support for the jerry can shelves. We (mainly I) get a fair amount of grief for regularly acquiring parts and materials via dumpster diving, but I swear it pays off!

Shane, back from DR, built a glorious shelf in the propane housing and helped us find a home for more than a couple beers.

After the panels are up and jerry cans shelved, we'll service the engine and start to stock all of our spares. We're not ones to spare on frivolities though and I imagine we'll have a bit of a slow down next week due to celebrations: Dana is headed to Bodega Bay with his family and Taylor, Anna and I are all going to be in Tahoe for three days for music (Another music festival?!? Yes.). We've got a couple days to work on the boat this week and then we're really on the home stretch come the New Year. We may be pushing off for Mexico sooner than planned, but only time will tell.

Our happiest holiday wishes to all.

Connor

mini-Adventure...Point Reyes

This past weekend the Ardea crew took a test sail north to Drake's Bay in Point Reyes National Seashore. The morning started at 0430 so we could surf a 3 knot ebb out of the bay and into the ocean. As usual, we had a little hangup, this time at the pump out station. Our debacle is easily summed with a quote from Anna, "It really smells like shit down here."

Once the "situation" was resolved, we were on our way out the gate with the sun rising over an aft quarter!

hawt!

Besides proving to ourselves we could spend a whole weekend on a 31 ft. boat without ripping each others heads off, the main purpose of this trip was to learn how to use our new windvane steering system and, as it turns out, the vane steers a better course then we do. It is hard getting used to just sitting there while watching a big puff scream towards the boat, our instincts yell "hike harder, ease in 3, 2, 1" but in our new reality we should just turn the page in our book and let the vane do its thang.

After a few hours of sailing and naps by various crew members, we approached the bay under motor in calm conditions while dodging crab pots. We anchored in just over 15 feet of water...

Bluebird Day

Once in securely anchored we popped a fairly fine bottle of wine and pretended we were located in a South Pacific atoll, only the water temperature made us realize otherwise.

Red Spectra Line in Action

The sun dropped behind the cliffs of the bay and we all crashed around 2000 after a delicious batch of cookies.

0700 showed 8 knots from the north with fog however, the wind quickly died and the fog stuck around. Weather reports showed no more then 3 knots anywhere on the northern California coast, Plan A (sailing around the Farallon Islands) was thrown out the window as we devised Plan B.

The first order of business was to get some exercise by rowing our new dingy (in need of a good name) to shore for a quick hike. It is the beginning of mating season for Elephant Seals and since we are pretty sure one seal could take all three of us we did our best to find beach with no seals attached, this proved fruitless.

Gimme' your Salmon

Those guys are big. During the hike we decided the prudent choice was to start motoring back to San Francisco Bay and hope the wind would fill enough to carry us our to the Farallon Islands. The plan resulted in a 7 hour motor back to Berkeley Marina. The motor consisted of dodging crab pots, trying to figure out a distress call made over VHF, and another beautiful Pacific Ocean sunset.

California High Pressure System

While we didn't get all the sailing in we wanted this trip was a huge success and exactly how we wanted to start our lives as cruisers.

Cheers.

Hydro-victory.

Friends,

It's been a bit of a trying week. But we've come out ahead. We now have a Hydrovane self-steering system installed and we're getting ready to give it a sea-trial this weekend. I ended up at the office quite a bit less than planned and it took us three solid days and a lot of frustration, but we installed the damn thing. The tough part in the end was shaping the timber pad- a wooden plate that sits between the vane structure and Ardea- that had to project the support arm for the vane at the correct angle in order for the shaft of the vane to slide into both brackets. That ended up being a huge pain.

We first made the mistake of failing to realize the angle was off. We got the top bracket mounted and then drilled the hull for the bottom bracket. Instead of checking the setup to ensure it was in line, we decided to put bedding compound down and go for it like it was impossible to fail. Ignorant. Cocky. Stupid... I don't know- we got a little excited. Not only did this not work- but it took us several hours to cut the tubing little by little for the lower bracket to determine for sure that it was not going to work. As you can imagine, the polyurethane bedding compound was well on it's way to kicked when we realized it needed to come back off. It was a pain, but we got it off without screwing up the gelcoat too much. I didn't make it to work that day...

The next day we measured as best we could the angle and depth that we needed to sand on the timber pad. After a lot of fruitless hand-sanding, we got the idea from my friend Erin Maroni to take the pad to the Wooden Duck in Berkeley. Wicked smart, Maroni. The folks at the Wooden Duck were really nice and put up with two rounds of sanding our block for us- we couldn't have done it without them (by the way- they make gorgeous furniture out of re-claimed wood).

Connor putting the final curvature on the timber pad. To do this we taped 60 grit sanding paper to the hull and, after drawing many parallel lines on the timber pad so we could tell when all was sanded (i.e., a flat surface), we worked it vertically over the area it was to be mounted.

Chittick putting the bottom bracket on for the last time!

Anna in the laz.

In the end, we got it the angle right and everything fit well. We used 0.75 inch thick acetyl (plastic) backing plates for both support brackets for the vane. We bedded the backing plates and the timber pads with Life Caulk. And then we did a dance and celebrated- Ardea is starting to look like a cruiser!

Soon Ardea will be properly adorned as well!

It wasn't the smoothest bit of projects this week, but it all worked out in the end. And we continue to learn. We also now have an amazing two-level shelf in the starboard lazarette, which Dana, who designed and built it, is going to blog about soon. Man-over-board pole is also mounted. Topping lifts and reefing lines are re-done. Solar panels get here next week! The list is getting smaller for once...

We're getting up at 0400 to head out to Drake's Bay on the coast. We'll spend Saturday night there before heading out on the Ocean for a trip around the Farallon Islands. We'll get a chance to sea-test the new vane, practice running shifts and do some drills. The forecast is fantastic....

Have a glorious weekend,

Connor

It's not all fun and games. Here I am, supervising.

Ardea, now teeming with aspiring cruisers!

Ardea is happily accommodating her soon-to-be crew. The weather at the docks in Berkeley has been amazing (couldn't help but notice the weatherfax forecasts on Monday showed a pretty ideal window...) and we are beginning to charge through projects at an unprecedented pace.

With the help of Anna and "Spanish the Easy Way", we're brushing up for Mexico- according to the book, we should expect phrases like, "No es el gato, es la mesa" to be really handy down there.



Still plenty of time for beers!



The next few days will bring the installation of the hydrovane self-steering system, ordering solar panels and numerous small projects. We recently acquired a couple needed pieces of equipment: a dinghy, a whisker pole, some sexy foulies, and we're starting to stock spares. Also, the SSB radio is rigged and working! Still need to get licenced, but soon we'll be HAM ready. It's all coming together quite nicely.

We're prepping for a three day jaunt to Drake's Bay in about a week. Dana, Anna and Taylor are chipping away at boat projects while Connor is busy passing off his projects at the ol' office (only three more weeks!).

 More on projects and SF Bay fun soon!

Back in the Bay

So, I set this blog up a few weeks ago so friends, family and anyone interested can watch our adventure unfold, stay informed about their offspring or learn from our mistakes and start an adventure of their own. Time got away from me in Seattle and I haven't posted anything since the day I published the site (thankfully, Connor has been keeping things rolling here). It is time for me to briefly recap the last few weeks and let you know that I am now in California, currently sitting on s/v Ardea.

The last few weeks have been busy, very busy. November 30th, 2011 marked the end of life as I knew it, both my job and my lease ended and I found myself living out of the wonderful green Subaru that took me to Seattle in the first place. Exiting Seattle was much different than arriving though, the wonderful roommates, co-workers, and friends made leaving hard. I worked at the Seattle Sailing Club, a business that provides sailing on the beautiful Puget Sound. I lived in Ballard (the "sleepy little drinking town with a condo problem"). I met the majority of my friends via live music ranging from jam bands, all the way across the charts to funky soul, and back again to full fledged electronic madness. I love these three aspects of my life and will be back in the Pacific Northwest again, sailing under the Olympic Mountains.

It is now December 7th and I have spent my first day on the boat, my new home. The drive south was painless, my co-pilot (Anna Christopherson) picked album after album of great music, and we spent two nights in Portland with da boyz (and girls). Portland is grand, the people are great and the friends are fantastic.

Now, I do not know what to expect, this feeling is both exhilarating and frightening.

Love.

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