The Streets of Alameda

Gloomy, cold and raining this morning....a perfect day for spending money on shopping for boat gear! Geoff already has his boat owners worrying cap on and scooted off early this morning to check that 'Sea Otter' was okay and locked tight on the hard.

A late brekkie at Macca's....yes I know tragic, but Motel living does that to you :( Then we went off and bought some chart and anchoring guide books for Tonga, French Polynesia and a big juicy guide to anchorages in the Pacific! We enquired about Satellite phones, how they work, what they cost and we decided we will probably buy one. I think it means that we can make short calls on a limited prepurchased time card and send Text messages as well. Family and friends can text us for free, I believe :))

Then we went off and bought a portable DVD player and some cigarette lighter chargers to plug all these things into. Next was West Marine a big Chandlery group over here, like a Target for boaters! And we priced a Liferaft, a dinghy and a EPIRB.

We still have some big purchases to spend money on, new rigging for one. This morning at the yard we found out that the owners had paid for the haul out and antifouling of the boat! We were pleasantly surprised. It has saved us $1300 usd. I think they felt bad about the shock we got yesterday, when we found out about the shoal draft keel. They are a really lovely couple and it was very generous of them to pay.

It is just great to eventually have the keys to the boat and be able to look and board and start planning on what we need and what we have to do first. So the next few days while she sits on the hard will be a matter of writing up lists of gear and things to do.

The photo's are of just some of the adorable homes around the island, it is a real distinct Victorian style that apparently the wealthy San Franciscians built for their holiday homes on the Island around the 1860's to 1900's. I just love them, the styles, colours and diversity of architecture on the island. I want to go and take more photo' every time we drive down a different street. It's a fab place to hang out and with the old US Naval Air Station taking up 1400 acres of island land, it really is an interesting place.

Oh and Andrew McSweeney was right! This is where the 'Mythbusters' are located and film a lot of their big projects out on the deserted base.