Vindication and New Sails

Hello All,

Since we saw many of you last at our party, it's been non-stop work and organization on Worrall Wind and the home front. Before I move on to what we have been doing the past two weeks, I wanted to share a couple of shared party pictures. One is from niece Teresa, the Worrall Family; two is of wedding party 1969 by cousin Dot, and third photo is from friend Alexis which vindicates me from the cake in the face incident. It's a terrific pictue of the real culprit. The expressions are priceless. Thank you all for sharing your day and photos with us.

After the party, we tore the boat apart once again! We have been busy wiring solar panels, wind generator, anchor lights, fans, etc.. It's exciting to see that our solar panels are producing amps! Yeah!

Our wind meter is broken so we are looking into a replacement for that. The original was made in Germany and it seems we can't get the replacement part we need so it looks like a whole new unit. We bought two large coolers for the back deck which will serve as seats and deck boxes. Russ refloored the engine room and made a battery box out of starboard for our new golf-cart batteries. Looks terrific and clean. We'll see how long that lasts.



Kami from Pineapple Sails installed our three new sails and one refit mizzen sail as a riding sail to keep us from swinging while at anchor.We are almost finished assembling our ditch bag which is about 1/2 the weight of our lifeboat, and all of our travel arrangements for our trip to Garyn and Jessica's wedding in Tuscany have been completed along with finding a berth in Ventura for the boat while we are away. Still outstanding is our boat's refrigeration system. It's now three weeks behind schedule, and we are getting a little concerned that this will stall our departure date. Russ is working on this challenge today. This week we will be back and forth to the boat, offloading things we no longer need, and loading stuff we need and want to take, getting final innoculations and medications. Only 13 more days until we cast off. We are looking forward to stopping the schizophrenia of having one foot on land and the other on the boat.

TRIPLE WOW! Retirement, Anniversary, Bon Voyage

We don’t know where to begin to express our delight and appreciation to over 150 family and friends who came to our triple triumph party at the Berkeley Yacht Club, Sunday August 9, 2009 to celebrate our retirement, our 40th wedding anniversary (married August 9, 1969) and our Bon Voyage on our Worrall Crusier!
It was so wonderful seeing all of you! We know the majority of you traveled great distances, fought the Bay Area traffic, and cunningly found parking places within a mile of the Yacht Club! Sunday was one of the most beautiful summer days on the Bay and sailors were at the marina in force. We couldn’t have asked for a nicer day, however a few more parking spots would have been nice.

We would like to especially thank family and friends who came early to set up, picked up cakes, drinks, ice, and stayed late to clean up, and who were on hand throughout the day to keep the table filled with food, ice chests filled with drinks, sign people in, take photos, run errands, carry stuff to and from the boat.

Speaking of photos, many of you took photos with your own cameras, and we would love to have digital copies sent to us, particularly when Russ and I were cutting our anniversary cake and our cameras all seemed to mysteriously lose their power at the same time. What a sweet surprise to have our friend Marshall, play the wedding march on his harmonica. And just so you know and I can vindicate myself, I didn’t purposely smash cake into Russ’s nose. I had an unexpected elbow pump from our mischievous son. Really!

Our only real regret of the day is that we didn’t have enough time to talk with anyone at great length or even a short length. Many folks were not able to attend because of other difficulties including heavy traffic (no they weren't all coming to the party). When we returned home on Tuesday, there were 15 messages on the home phone from people who found out they could come after all (it would have been fine to come without an RSVP), couldn't come, or lost directions. We are sorry we missed your call and you at the party. We will have to do a better job at checking the home messages in the future. Please keep in touch with us and check the blogpot to see when we will be in the vicinity. We will look forward to getting together with you in July, August, January, and February (or parts of those months). Ask us for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and we will share our slides and stories. Your continued support and love along with the wind will propel us on our journey.

Nevertheless, the party was truly wonderful, and we hope those of you who made it, had as much fun as we did. Too bad there wasn’t enough food! What a feast. Thank you for your generous contributions of hors d’oeurves. We will have to have another party just to consume the wine and Champaign many of you gifted us with. We read through all of the cards on Monday morning and enjoyed the sentiments and personal notes. Don and Diane gave us a card with a sailboat and the sentiment "The Adventure Continues". What a treasure.

Thanks Ted and Marian for the rubber ducky thermometer and ship in a bottle kit, Linda and Gary for the compass, Margo and Dave for the Creative License Guide and sketch pad, Mary and Bob for the cousins photo album, Johnny and Bev for the boat cushions, Mom and Dad for the onboard games, and Linda and Bill for the Left at the Golden Gate Travel Bug. We’ll log it in and out at caches along the way www.geogaching.com . Thanks for taking care of our cache "In and Out" while we are traveling.

Chronology of the week before the party:

Thursday:

We finally got Worrall Wind scrubbed up from the boatyard grit, 250 gallon water tanks filled up, out of the boat yard, and over to the BYC dock on the Thursday evening before the party. But the rebuilt alternator wasn't working as well as it should possibly having suffered from saltwater damage from our mishap to Richmond the beginning of July. So Russ has added another little project to the “short” list.

Friday: Russ taught at Cal while Roz cleaned, oiled and polished inside of boat. There is no running water at the BYC dock so outside cleanup was limited. That’s why we scrubbed down at the shipyard before we left.

Saturday: We worked on several little projects that would make the boat presentable for Sunday – stained some teak rails and steps, installed solar panels, installed a blade on the wind steering system, re-installed the hardware and the front part of the aft bimini, and finished inside cleanup.

Our children and their significant others (Garyn and fiance Jessica, Abby and boyfriend Neal) gave us an eleventh-hour-hand polishing the boat and raising our convertible Ampair wind/water generator late Saturday afternoon and early evening, before we all enjoyed a family dinner. It might be the last time the six of us are together in one place for a while.

Sunday: Along with our regular flags, we raised our Baja Ha Ha 2009 flag for the first time, Seven Seas Cruising flag, and our Time Flies When You Are Having Rum - Jolly Rogers Flag, that we picked up in the Caribbean last year, decorated for the party, and spent a wonderful afternoon with family and friends.

Monday: We spent the morning leisurely reviewing the previous day, opening cards, putting things away, and securing the boat for her ride over to Emery Cove. I drove the car and Russ motored Worrall Wind over to our berth. The Bay was absolutely flat with no wind.

This week, we anticipate that our refrigerator, freezer, and new sails will be installed. We both need to turn our attention to studying for our general class HAM license that is only a couple of weeks away. Russ is almost ready, but woefully, I am far from a passing score. We have a lot of home chores and details to attend to. I hope to get around to writing individual thank you notes, but it may not be for a while, maybe I’ll have some time from the Galapagos to the Marqueses. In the meantime, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for sharing our trimple triumph with us. Love to you all.

Out of the Shipyard!

Yeah! Worrall Wind is back in the water. Her masts are up. Russ motored her over to the Berkeley Marina for our Bon Voyage party. Now we are getting all of the shipyard grime off her decks and things back in order. At the end of each shipyard visit we receive a bottle of wine with our invoice. We got two bottles of wine this time...proportionate I guess to the invoice! Seems to me we should have gotten a case. Our refrigeration system should be completed next week and our new sails installed.

Some of these things won't be ready for the party, but it looks like we are on target for launch on September 5. There is an ebb tide the morning of September 5 with slack current at 8:49. If all systems are go, including favorable weather and no fog, we anticipate sailing or motoring under the Golden Gate between 8:30 - 9:00 in the morning for any of you who wish to watch us go out. Be sure to bring a light colored flag, hanky, pompom to wave so we can spot you at Fort Point or on the bridge. We would love it if you share your videos or photos with us. On the evening of September 4, I will confirm our intentions. By 6:00 a.m. on September 5, I'll post again in the event there have been any changes. Please check the blogspot for updates. In the event it is a foggy morning, we may delay departure until later in the morning.

Check out the new feature in the left navigation bar called Where in the Worrall. That's it for now. Back to the scrub brush. More after the party!

Masts are down. Water line pushed up.

Little by little Worrall Wind is getting dolled up for the big cruise. Despite a chill summer wind, the yard rigger was lifted to the top of the masts on Worrall Wind where he wrapped a harness around each mast. The crane first lifted the mizzen, then the main mast laying them in separate horizontal cradles that were rolled to the mast yard for a rigging refit. Having stepped masts made this a much easier operation than pulling a mast that goes through the deck. Nevertheless, the downed main looked like a tangle of spaghetti.

Russ immediately mounted two brackets on the masts. On the main, he mounted a bracket for a radar reflector. On the the mizzen, he mounted a bracket for the ampair wind/water generator. In the meantime, I worked on cleaning, polishing, and painting the propellor. Thankfully, the bottom painter had already taken most of the growth off the propellor, an ugly - dirty job! He gave me an air pressured drill with wire brush to polish and score the prop. He took pity on me as, I was trying to clean the prop with Brasso and a wire brush. The air drill was amazing, zip, zip and each blade was incredibly shiney. Kind of sounded like a dentist drill so I turned up the IPod and rocked out. Yippee!

Over the course of the weekend, I painted on a base coat and 4 coats of this prop paint that drys like rubber cement and is supposed to keep the critters from attaching.

In between coats, I used the heat gun to strip varnish off the back rails. By the time I was working on the back rails, the sun had come out, and we exchanged out our jackets and earmuffs for sunscreen and wide brimmed hats.

While Russ and I were busy with our tasks, the bottom job painter, was busy raising the water line on Worrall Wind. We are using Trinidad Pettit bottom paint, applying two full coats and a third coat 18" from the water line down. We know once we load on our gear we will need that line raised a little or we will be growing a beard on the gel coat. Our starboard side was already pushed down with the weight of the diesel tanks. Once the painter was done on Friday, Russ scrubbed the boat down on Sunday morning, preparing to polish, but got sidetracked taking off the swim ladder and mounting brackets on the transom for the Hydrovane windsteering system. We didn't head home until dusk and were exhausted. Polishing will have to wait until our next trip down.

Hauled Out and Torn Apart

Another holiday at the dock. The July 4th holiday came and went as we broke the boat down for a haul out, bottom job, and standing rigging refit. The bimini, beautiful and completed was broken down and booted up. It took me about 45 minutes to unzip the sunscreens, unpin the front bow, fold the back bow and put the boot on. With practice the two of us could do this in 15 minutes.

We took off the mizzen boom and disconnected the antennas and radar which meant Russ had to climb the mizzen. We replaced three hatch covers with new tinted plexiglass. Russ continued to work on installing the water maker. He has a few more electical connections and that project will be complete. In the mean time the boat is totally torn apart on the inside. Walking around with floor boards up is quite a balancing act. The refrigeration experts are in the process of reinsulating our old well frig, rebuilding our upright frig and enlarging it, and installing a freezer under the starboard settee. We are having two Frigoboat keel coolers installed which should be energy efficient and give us plenty of space for storing foods that need to be cool and frozen.

While Russ worked on the watermaker, I fired up the computer and started listing all of the boat's equipment with model numbers and serial numbers. Apparently, this is important to have in case the property is ever stolen it is easier to recover. We were going to take the boat over to the boat yard on Sunday afternoon, but the wind was blowing 40 knots and would have been difficult to handle and dock single handed (I would be ferrying the car to the boat yard). The last time we did this in a high wind, it took two dockhands from KKMI to tie the boat down. No one would be there on Sunday afternoon to give us a hand so we decided to wait until Monday morning. We got up early on Monday, disconnected the electricity and water. Russ left early Monday a.m. It takes about 10 minutes to drive and 1 hour and 20 minutes to motor the boat from the Emery Cove Marina to KKMI in Richmond. We left the boom and main sail intact in the event of an engine failure. Russ checked his beautifully refurbished engine and pristine engine room half way through the short journey and everything looked and sounded fine. When he pulled into the slip at the dockyard, there was a lot of exhaust smoke/steam coming out the back.

Holy smoke! The hose clamp from the exhaust hose wasn't tightened enough and slipped down sometime between half-way and the end of the short hop; but in that short time, the entire engine room was covered with diesel soot and saltwater. Needless to say, we had our work cut out for us. We weren't expecting to spend the entire rest of the morning scrubbing an cleaning, but that's exactly what we did. What a mess and it still needs more scrubbing. Russ was heartsick. Fortunately, there was no real damage. Russ got some better clamps and cranked them down...a lesson learned.

Once we got the engine room cleaned up, we took off the main sail, boom and vang, unscrewed saftey pins and screws in the turn buckles, and did as much of the prep as we could. Both of the masts will be removed during the haul out. Russ will be stringing new radio wire and antenna wire. We would also like to install a multi-directional night vision video cam on the top of the main mast and brackets on the mizzen mast for a wind generator. Of course I will have the scrub brush out. Seems to be my new lot in life. Two days into retirement and I've broken every nail (not that I had that much anyway), so I cut them way down and filed them close to the skin. We are going to have to invest in a lot of rubber gloves.

The boat was hauled late in the afternoon. The bottom paint still looked good, but there were a lot of critters and growth on the props and zincs that will need to be cleaned off and brushed. Russ is looking forward to cleaning and polishing the hull. While out of the water we will have the boat surveyed for insurance purposes. Hopefully if all goes well, we will be back in the water in two or three weeks and finish up with the Hydrovane, wind generator, and solar panels. The list is getting shorter, but so much to do.

Our list of vicarious sailors is growing! Hey jbarker0 are you out there? You left a comment for us on the last blog, but we had no way of contacting you since you had not established a profile. For a response, check out our return comment on the same blog. We love to hear from folks and are happy to answer your questions, but will have to do so on the comment section if you don't provide us with an email address or establish a profile. One month and 30 days from our sail away. We'll keep you posted. Wishing you a fresh breeze.

Made for the Shade!

Here are a couple of photos of our new bimini from outside looking in and

inside looking out.

Our canvas smith is still working on the shade cloths which will zip onto the sides of the bimini for angled sun protection. We will be able to fold the bimini back just before mizzen and just in front of the back rail. When open the two folding parts of the bimini are connected with a canvas bridge that wraps around the mizzen sail. When in the folded position, each bimini component will have a protective boot. We wanted our shade to be removable in case of high winds, following seas, and evening star watch.

Looks like our number of vicarious sailors is growing. We are excited that we can keep in touch with you. If you have a digital photo to share of your smiling face, we would love it! Until next time!

Three Months and Counting

I turned in my retirement papers yesterday and stopped my parking...only 4 weeks to get everything off my desk and files cleared up or at least cleaned out. Russ is making arrangements with the optometrist who is buying his practice and beginning to introduce him to the community and patient base. We are both attending meetings for the last time and saying goodbyes. You would think these simple "end" tasks would be easier, but it is surprisingly more difficult than we thought it would be. The last 30 years have been relatively stable with incremental changes like a run-on sentence punctuated with commas and semi-colons. Now it's time to put a period at the end of that sentence and chapter and to start a new chapter by sailing into the uncharted waters.

Russ got the engine started last weekend! Yeah, what a nice sound after seeing the parts strewn about for the last five weeks. There was a slight hiccup when we realized that the water pump wasn't sealed well and we were leaking seawater into the engine compartment. After a mop-up and some moderate adjustments, we started the engine again...and it purred! No leaks, nice and dry, and peace of mind that all the parts and hoses are either new or rebuilt.

The bimini is almost complete. We are hauling the boat out July 6 to replace the standing rigging, new bottom paint, and whatever else we need to do. We got the watermaker two weeks ago and Russ is beginning to lay that out for installation. We already have a saltwater intake thru-hull, so we are hoping not to have to make a second one for the watermaker. The refrigeration expert should be starting that project this month before we haul out and then install the keel cooler components at the haul out.

In the galley, my wonderful little microwave is acting up. My start button gave it up. Now to use it, I have to use one of the special functions. Looks like I will have to replace this unit. I purchased some new silverware, that lays flat and nests together better than what I had. This should save some space and keep things better organized as we sail. I am looking at pressure cookers and solar ovens, and still buying air tight containers to transfer cereals, grains, rice, sugars, and other dry goods to keep the moisture and critters out. That's it for now. I'll be spending the rest of this weekend, sending out invitations to our Bon Voyage party.

Memorial Day at the Dock

This weekend, BYC went to Napa Yacht club. It is one of our favorite cruises, but we are still dock bound. It was cold and foggy most of the weekend in Emeryville. The sun peeked out around 10:00 on Monday morning. We went to dinner on Saturday evening with BYC friends, and took a couple of long walks, and an evening dinghy ride around the marina, but spent most of our time onboard working. Russ is almost finished rebuilding the engine. It looks shiney and new. We'll turn the key next weekend and hope the engine fires up.

While Russ worked on the engine, I spent my time studying for the general Ham license, lots of memorization of stuff I will probably never apply. Back to work tomorrow. It's getting more difficult to go back each week when our minds are already becoming increasingly invested in getting ready for our voyage. Only 29 more work days for me!

Signed Up for the Baja Ha-Ha!

We're all signed up. Russ and I sat down and filled out the registration last night. I started filling out the registration last Saturday, 1 day after the opening day and was already boat 41! Somehow I accidentally closed the browser and thought I lost everything. Fortunately, the Baja registration captured the first page even though I had not finished the process. Our sailing pals Marcia and Dave, currently in Mexico on SV Juniata, will be taking the bus north and crewing with us from San Diego to LaPaz. We are looking forward to their company and veteran expertise.

We got our Portabote and engine last week. We got the aluminum "silver" color. I was really torn between the "silver" or the cream color which would have matched our boat better, but ...the bottom of the boat is cream too....thought it would show too many scuffs and stuff.

Russ and I pried open the "little clam" in our garage last night. Fortunately, it came with a little notched board to keep the two sides opened until the seats were installed. It was like prying the jaws of an alligator open and keeping them open with a stick. We breathed a sigh of relief when the first seat was installed. The boat was a little stiff but went together pretty well. Not sure how we will do this on the big boat after a voyage. We'll have to practice, but it has been assembled on smaller boats than ours. The next adventure will be collapsing it, taking it out to the lake on a summer evening, prying it open again, and trying out the motor and oars.

We Got the Liferaft Mom!

Well we had a grand time.....maybe 20! We got some boat show specials and "saved" some dollars. Mom and Dad, you will be pleased to know that we bought a six person life raft. Hopefully we will never have to use it. The life raft will be shipped to us in August just before we leave. The three year clock will start running in August. Yes in August 2012 we will need to have it serviced and repacked.

We also bought an Echo2 water maker, hydrovane, porta bote with Nissan engine, and some stainless steel, opening portholes for the galley area. When we got to our boat on Friday, we found the steel fabrication installed for our bimini. Our stays are presenting a bit of a problem with the folding mechanism, so we are meeting with the canvasmythe on Saturday morning to discuss some modifications. We are also meeting with a fellow who will be repairing some of the gel coat dings on the hull.

Russ is stripping parts, hoses, alternator, etc.,off the engine, having things reworked and buying spares. Time is starting to fly by. So many projects. But it so exciting. May 1 is almost here. That is the day we sign up for the Baja ha ha. More later.