Bill
10/13/2009, B Bar K - Cascade Ranch

Sole Occupants Of The "Manor House"

Wow - what was that? Time - flying by?

We loaded the u-haul truck Saturday 9/26 in close to 100 degree heat. Showered and changed clothes then went to have dinner with Kevin and Renee. Surprise! They had arranged a surprise going away shindig at the Berkeley Yacht Club for us. It seemed like everyone was there. It was very nice and even Rebecca enjoyed over initial objections. Thanks to all that took the time to see us off.

Sunday, 9/27, we headed out around 10:30 AM with the truck and auto transport trailer in tow. Just South of Red Bluff the noises we had heard coming from the truck came to a head. There was smoke pouring out behind the truck visible in the rear view mirror and a horrible vibration began. We called the 24 hour u-haul road service hot line. They dispatched a contract repair truck that arrived 2+ hours later in 103 degree heat. We nursed the truck to the next exit in Red Bluff where we thought we discovered the cause. An emergency brake drum and shoes that were wrapped around the drive shaft had lost an internal release spring and the shoes were grabbing and overheating thus burning up the shoes inside. So we opted to stay overnight and have the truck repaired the next morning a, Monday, when parts would be available. We unloaded the car from the trailer and drove to a nearby motel with a restaurant attached.

The mechanic was to call us in the morning, Monday 9/28, and let us know when the truck was repaired. Turns out the entire transmission had failed and was also impacting that emergency brake. We were told to meet driving the car 30+ plus miles to Redding where a major u-haul center was located. The truck and trailer were going to be towed to that location for us and we could resolve everything there. That u-haul location replaced the truck with an almost brand new, larger truck and hired a crew to transfer our load from the broken truck to the new truck in one hour. We reloaded the car on the trailer and headed out around 1 PM. We arrived dog tired Monday evening around supper time. We went out to eat with our hostess, returned home and promptly went to sleep.

Tuesday, 9/29, we unloaded the car and put the truck load into the attached garage. We had it ready to return to u-haul by evening time.

The next morning our hostess took us house hunting. We did not find anything anyone liked so we went to the Dodge dealer and she bought Rebecca a 2005 Dodge Dakota 4x4 pickup. We covered about 70-100 miles of driving to do all these things.

We returned the u-haul outfit Thursday, 9/30, and picked up the Dodge from the dealership. We did some needed shoping for some food and personal items. We also spent some time with Betty doing orientation and fun stuff.

Friday we had to pickup some friends at 7:30 AM and be at a private ranch by 8 AM to see and drive a team of draft horses pulling a sled loaded with weights. It was new to me but Rebbeca used to drive a wagon team 5 miles every day when she was a youngin. She drove one of the teams around a huge field and back like it was nothing.

The next day were busy, busy with arranging what we would be doing while our hostess was hunting bear and moose in Alaska. This was the original request that brought us up here. To house sit for her for two weeks while she was hunting.

The next weeks we were slammed with beginning all the chores that had been assigned and "sort of" unpacking. Rebecca will inventory all the vehicles in Oregon, Colorado and the Caymans. She is supposed to organize all the papers into individual vehicle file folders instead of the one folder that had been used for the past 3 years. I am to have each local vehicle serviced and or repaired as needed, or just driven if it does not need service. It is tough duty driving the two Jaguars and the Morgan Roadster.

Voyager is going through her first major storm without us aboard. I worry about dock lines and items that may blow about in the high winds. The temporary cover I duck taped over the cabin may not hold. My new full cover may not be done until December or January.

Betty may return today or tomorrow. It is raining here today and she has just spent two weeks in rainy Alaska. It will be interesting to see what happens next.

Comments [5]

Bill
09/10/2009, Emery Cove Marina

Yup, for shore - Not Ocean!

We moved a load of clothes up last weekend Labor Day. We are going to pack boxes both here in the boat and in our storage unit. Then the weekend of the 25th, 26th and 27th we will load a U-Haul truck and drive up on the 28th. It will involve a huge effort on our part.

I have offered to sell the water maker parts to a friend. I may take the solar panels and charge controller with me as well as the small Honda 2Kw generator. I have contacted a sailmaker to price toe/hand rail covers for Voyager. And to estimate a full boat cover made in thirds of the boat length with zippers to assemble it together. This will keep the boat much nicer than leaving it open to Sun and weather. I have begun disassembling deck objects like Propane tanks, SSB antenna, WiFi antenna and all above deck stuff. I will need to finish some varnishing and put away lines, and anchors. I have double fore and aft lines to the dock with one spring line aft. I will need to set and adjust a spring line forward. I will double my fenders on the dock side instead of having them individually on both sides as they are now. I need to adjust my insurance coverage upward to One Million liability for the marina to meet their new requirements. So much to do and so little time. My head hurts! LOL

We are getting excited about the new adventure and look forward to whatever it may bring. Our hostess has been so gracious and always happy to see us. She, too, is getting excited about our arrival. We have such good times when we are all together.

I have just put a coat of epoxy on my boom gallows and need to check on it. I will put two coats of Cetol (24 hours apart) over the epoxy for UV protection and reinstall it in place within days. I must keep my nose to the grind stone now and focus!

I will try to add more next week.

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Bill
09/01/2009, Emery Cove Marina

So much is happening and so fast! I am amazed.

We are officially moving to Medford, OR planned for September 28th. We are going up with a load of clothes Labor Day weekend. This will be a long term move for now. Rebecca has been offered a caretakers position on a 15,000 acre cattle/horse ranch. Rebecca has dreamed of working with horses since she was a child on her parent's farm. This offer includes many side benefits for her and for me. One is being able to possibly cruise the world on a huge ship of considerable size. Another is being a possible traveling companion. Those possibilities are all unknown at this time but very strong options.

So discussions about Voyager have been rampant. For now she is to stay where she is as she sits. I will be visiting to work on her, play on her and maintain her. I need to find a reliable maintenance person to complete some of the items I was planning or working to finish. The discussions have gone so far as (shudder) selling her. We have decided to wait until we have more information and experience with this new environment. Rebecca has spent ¾ of a year in this new location in the past and knows all parties well. So much of what I know comes from her and there is considerable trust involved with what she is telling me. My feeling is that she has done her best in giving me my dream to work out with Voyager that I should do the same for her dream. Especially if cruising the world, on a huge ship :-) , is a viable option within her dream.

In the meantime I have been on a Catalina 36 sailing with friends, Ed & Kathie Vail, to Monterey. It is an annual event we have shared for many years. Sometimes Rebecca would come and sometimes her work would interfere with the actual sailing. In those cases she would join us later in Monterey after work. One of the annual traditions was to have dinner at the "Duck Club" in Monterey and for me a visit to the Monterey Aquarium. This year the special at the Aquarium was the "Secret lives of Sea Horses" presentation. Just fantastic!

This year as usual we sailed for 6 hours to Half Moon Bay. The trip was very rough and wind and waves conspired to present us with a nasty ride. After docking in the harbor it was decided to try the 10 hour run to Monterey in the morning. If it was the same kind of conditions we would turn back to harbor and consider further options. It "was the same" so after about an hour we turned back to Half Moon Bay. This was Sunday and Rebecca did not have to work so she was called and invited to drive down. We all mulled options and since Ed and Kathie Vail were preparing to leave on a trip later we decided to cancel the remaining sailing portion of the trip and instead drive to Monterey the next day. We visited the Aquarium and had dinner at the Duck Club and generally had a great time anyhow. We arrived home Monday evening, after 10 PM, dog tired but happy.

Now, on to the first clothing move next weekend!

Comments [1]

Bill
08/20/2009, Emery Cove Marina

My First Boat Next To Voyager

Wow - Changes Coming

Well the split attention has split! We may be moving to the Medford, Oregon area, possibly as soon as October First. Rebecca has been contacted by her friend and she may have a new job up there. We will be house sitting for the first two weeks in October and may end up staying after that time.

We will leave "Voyager" at her current location and I may have to travel down to work on her a week at a time as available. I also may end up hiring someone to do the labor needed to complete some of the remaining work. I would love to see her renewed and complete, as I have dreamed, ready to go offshore and to new adventures. But the dream may become a reality in a different way with a different vessel.

Obviously, much is up in the air at this time. As this new adventure begins there is not much that can be said. As time and information becomes more complete I will try to keep this blog updated weekly. Otherwise, ride the wind with me for a while and know that this new path is very interesting and powerful enough to possibly drag me away from the dream called Voyager.

Stay tuned!

PS: Just got an e-mail at 3:45 PM, the move is official 10/2.

Comments [2]

Bill
08/12/2009, Emery Cove Marina

Sunset @ Voyager's Home

Wow, what a week!

I did finish the back of he boat. The rope teak and teak brow above look great. I removed the masking tape near sunset on Friday night after having dinner at Richmond Yacht Club. We were still in our temporary berth but had permission to move the boat back home to our regular berth. So after some clean up we started the engine, turned the running lights on, cast off all lines and headed down the fairway towards our assigned home. "Cibi", one of our neighbor boats, who has caused us trouble before from lack of control, turned into the fairway headed towards us. No problem for me since the fairway is plenty wide but "Cibi" was all over the place upon seeing us coming out. She actually got sideways in front of us for a bit. But I just kept slowly heading her way figuring if she gave me a quarter of the fairway I would squeeze by ok. She did get straightened up and in the darkening twilight we slid by her. We swung around the end of the fairway skirting our neighbor tied to the West of our spot. We then backed into our side tie right in front of our neighbor. It is nice to be home with our wonderful view.

Saturday we cleaned the boat then went to the memorial for "Charlie" in the evening. Charlie had a failing liver issue but died suddenly of pneumonia. Caught everyone off guard including the doctors. She had no family other than us marina folk and she loved being with us around our Saturday potluck bonfires. We said a few words and I understand she was buried at sea by the Trident Society.

Sunday we attended the bon voyage party for Russ & Roz Worrall who are heading off to the South Pacific via Mexico and Galapagos on their boat "Worrall Wind". We were supposed to buddy boat with them but my allergy issues made me back off the commitment. We may help them by crewing on some legs. Their blog is on the left side of this blog as "favorites".

Monday and Tuesday I worked on plumbing and wiring a fresh water solenoid to allow flushing the head with fresh water. Salt water has krill and plankton in it (living organisms) that die in the hoses and under the rim if left very long. It makes for a horrible smell if left for a week or more. Flushing with fresh water prevents that possible smell. The plumbing took four times longer than I anticipated. But it is complete as of today, Wednesday 8/12. Rebecca is happy and so am I over this one.

Next is to re-list all items needing attention and prioritizing. And we have a goodbye party to attend for my old work team. The entire team is being laid off Friday and the team of more than 15 years will be no more. So we say goodbye to KP-IT, first called "E-Mail & Groupware Services" (EGS) and later "Messaging & Collaboration Services" (MCS). Adios Friends!

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Bill
08/06/2009, Emery Cove Marina

Well it has been an interesting week and a half. First off we sailed Voyager (motored technically) to Sausalito for a Berkeley Yacht Club weekend cruise. (More on that later)

But on our return into Emeryville harbor we noticed our friends, Jim and Juanita, had departed. Their pretty white sailing vessel was not at its regular berth. "Arctic Tern" had fled the nest. We have cajoled as many others have done about the actual departure date and celebrated many going away parties with Jim, Juanita and all their harbor friends. But dang it! They snuck out while we were gone. We will miss those two mightily and wish them the very best on their journey. Maybe we can cross paths with them again in a pretty, warm anchorage and swap tales of sailing while sipping cool drinks together again. We wish you fresh, steady breezes and following seas dear friends.

I did rough wire the autopilot for that trip to Sausalito. I ran through all the required commissioning at the dock and during initial sea trials. I then let "Otto" take over for the "learning phase". Otto did perfectly well. First he was swinging in 30 degree wide turns to both Port and Starboard. Then with ever diminishing turns came to a stable Magnetic heading. "By jove I think "Otto" has it all in hand", says I. So Otto drove us across the SF Bay to the entrance to Richardson Bay where traffic dictated that a human take over the helm. Otto drove 85% of the way back home to. Great job Otto! Now to make a dashboard home for ye lad.

We enjoyed the cruise to Sausalito and the other 18 folks who attended. We spent a huge chunk of our time exploring the Army Corp of Engineers "Bay Model". A working model of the Pacific, Bay and the Delta with working tides reaching all the way up to Sacramento and Stockton. It used to serve as a lab for researching proposed changes to any of the bay area water shed or the bay itself. It is now only an educational/training facility but worth a visit any time you are near its location in Sausalito. We had a fabulous dinner that evening and headed home Sunday morning around 10 AM.

Voyager is still at a berth with access to the stern so I have sanded that rope shaped teak and brow above. As of today I am up to my second coat of Cetol (varnish) and will add another tomorrow. (Thursday 8/6 for my brother.) I may be able to move back to my home berth Friday 8/7. If not a 4th coat of varnish will go on.

We have a memorial to attend this Saturday for a dear friend who suddenly passed away. Her close friend Johnny, my friend too, worked hard sanding and varnishing a huge portion of Voyager's painted toe and hand rails last fall.

In the remaining August time is a birthday party to attend, a wedding, actually two coming up soon and the annual sail down to Monterey with friends on their boat "Thistle" pictured a bit above. The remainder of August will fly bye.

But never fear. There will be plenty of Voyager projects to attend to also.

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