Skype Me!!

A typical suburban street in Alameda on a lovely Sunday morning!
My lovely friend Wendy in her business the 'Dock Cafe' just opened 5 weeks ago
Yeah I couldn't resist adding another pic of another Fab home
A funky, very cool music store in Webster Street

No I am not swearing! Skype has just come on board Sea Otter and as some of you have already found out, Skype is computer based cheap phone call technology. I actually joined Skype back at Main Beach, but for some reason, probably all the running around with boats and boat issues...I totally forgot about it! Then yesterday it came up somehow, so I was explaining to Geoff that you can call someone even if they don't have Skype on their computer. He didn't believe me, so looked it up on Google and of course....you can. It's not free, but it is pretty damn cheap! So that motivated me to go out today to Radio Shack on the other side of Alameda Island and buy the headset you need. Now we have Skype. Which means we can ring you when ever or where ever we are that we have Internet connection on board (or even from a Internet Cafe) for only .3 cents a minute to a land line or .21 a minute to a mobile....not bad hey?

Whilst I was out enjoying myself today by walking the 5 kms back to the boat from Radio Shack, in the fabulous Sunday sunshine, taking backstreets to see more FABULOUS homes and popping in to visit my friend Wendy at her business 'Dock Cafe' to have an espresso and a chat, then having lunch at the Sushi Smoothie before heading back to the boat 5 hours after I left!!! Ok, it sounds like I have left Geoff with all the work I know, but he was running the wire to connect the solar panel to the batteries. And it required most of the day, with the floorboards up and him drilling into fiberglass to feed wires through bulkheads etc, etc....so it was better I was not around to get in his way. Well.. that's my story and I'm sticking to it!!

He is pretty amazing at what he can do around a boat and is very happy that after most of the week at the yard dock, yesterday the Solar panel and the new stainless steel bridge was finally installed on our stern. Though it of course ran over budget, even with Geoff spending most of the day helping them install it! Now tomorrow he can do the final run of wires to the panel and hopefully we will have free solar power topping up those four big beastly batteries. Whoo Hoo! Now we just need that self steering gear to arrive, so the guys can install that!

This coming week we will go back to San Fran for a day and go see Customs about what we need to do to clear out of the USA and get a nice exit clearance ready for our next port of call. Plus of course do some more wanderings around SF, hmm maybe the North Shore would be nice this time...visit some of the old Italian Cafes and walk around the Golden Gate bridge or through the Presido park? And of course we will do another shake down sail, to check out the spinnaker and how the boat is handling as we keep loading the gear onto her. Maybe even anchor out for the night at Angel Island. That is if the wind backs off...today has been pretty blowy and now the afternoon is pretty cold.

That's about it for news over the last two days. However expect a few phone calls being made before we leave the Marina and the Internet connection!!

Another day waiting

No real news over the last two days, waiting, waiting.....it has made me realise that I am not a very patient person! hmmmm where is my Buddhism book? We have at least got our new chain which is spliced to rope and set that up in the anchor well this morning. We also have all our charts on board now...all the way home!

Today we went to a very unique Bar for lunch, just up the street near the Yard workshops, I think it was called 'Rooster Roadhouse' it looked dubious, Geoff was keen, so I made him go in first. Inside is a smoky dark club with a open kitchen area and a dance floor with a mirror ball!!! Two pretty rough looking dudes were at the counter and grill. hmm, this should be interesting. Geoff went for the BBQ special and I went for the 1/4lb burger, the smallest burger they have. It looks like a lot of bands play here and there are signs all over saying 'No in and out Policy upheld'??? I suppose the one that said 'No guns, knives or flicks tolerated' was the one that made me realise I wouldn't be coming here at night to check out the live bands. Now, Geoff's BBQ special for $4.95 consisted of 1/4 chicken, 4 big smoky BBQ ribs about 10 cm long each and a big bunch of fries and sweet potato fries!!! I HAVE never seen Geoff eat so much.....he sure was enjoying it!! We both smelt of smoked ribs all afternoon!

The good news was that when we got back the guys were finally ready to start installing the solar panel framework. Yay!!! It also started drizzling and the temperature started dropping too. By 5pm the guys packed up with only the brace poles to do tomorrow morning. The rain is a bit more constant now and the temperature is currently at 12 degrees and dropping. I did get a chance on my walk to Pagano's hardware today to take a few more shots of amazing homes. It is becoming a bit of a favoured habit of mine to walk for miles up different streets on my way to and from places. This is the great thing about cruising, no car means lots of walking. That not only means lots of exercise but you really do get to walk through the suburbs and get a real sense of the place.

The big thing that is holding us up now is the installation of the Autohelm system, which unfortunately could still be another 10 days away. :/ As I said I don't think I am very patient.

For your viewing pleasure

It was cold this morning around 6 degrees and we think it is because we are sitting in the shade behind the large Marina Yard workshops. The hatches were covered in dew and our little heater was working overtime.

As we are really just waiting on things to be installed or arrive, it meant another pretty low key day.
A walk up to Pagano's our favourite Hardware shop to grab a couple of things, stop at a little Cafe for a coffee and Greek pastry, found some more fabulous homes to take photo's of, checked out a couple of local Laundromats, they are big compared to what you see in Oz!! Then Dinah and Roger chase us up to say they're at the yard and are we were keen to join them for lunch? It was their day off and they took us to McGee's a pub, an Irish pub and we had a counter meal. It was all a bit like home, sigh...a Pub, ahhh. Then Roger seemed very keen to visit Tuckers Ice cream Parlour. We were pretty full, but......well when you saw Roger's Hot Fudge Sundae, you just had to squeeze one in. I mean it could be the last Hot Fudge Sundae we have in a long while. After that they helped us in the search for fishing gear...which ended up in Roger driving us to Oakland to find the only real Tackle shop nearby. It was a stressful half an hour of collecting the things we needed (too long a story to tell you why it was stressful) then Roger and Dinah kindly dropped us back at the Yard. Whenever Roger and Dinah take us somewhere it always seems to fill the day and by the time we got back it was nearly 4.30 pm and the sun had disappeared behind thick mackerel clouds and the temperature had dropped and the wind picked up, so we scooted down below and spent the afternoon watching You Tube clips of Ricky Gervais.

Since that is about our news for the day, I thought I would just post you a bunch of pretty pictures to look at, oh and some of the local Laundromat ;) Enjoy!




Geoff was drooling over this bank of dryers!

The light at the end of the tunnel

Geoff in the aft cabin working on the fuel filter

The Grand Marina

I can finally admit to seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.....six and a bit weeks since arriving in California, things are coming together. Over the last two days little and big things have started to be crossed off the list. And for once the list is decreasing in size and new items are not being added! Yay!!

After the fabulous day on Sunday it was a little difficult getting motivated Monday morning to start on the mundane boat chores. I admit to having to push Geoff a little (yes this IS unusual) as he seemed to be caught in a whirlpool of little chores - not sure of which one to start on first. So when we finally did get started he worked on the engine, I hauled him up the mast again and he went through the list of charts we needed. Then took a long walk to go suss out about ordering the charts. He also checked on the EPIRB to see how the reprogramming for Australia was going (apparently stressful, if the look on the peoples faces are anything to go by) so it's not quite ready yet. He also checked in on the guys manufacturing the stainless steel frame that our new HUGE solar panel will go on.

All of yesterday's ground work resulted in a fairly productive day today. We moved the boat around to Grand Marina where the workshop is, about 2 kms up the estuary from Marina Village. The boat and us, will have to spend a couple of days here, so they can get the final measurements and then install it all. While here, we are nice and close to the Chandlery where we ordered and paid for our new 100' of anchor chain. And close also to the Chart shop securing the final order of charts to take us right into Brisbane and buying the French and Tongan flags too. Then after that we took a leisurely walk up to Nob Hill, breaking the journey for a coffee at 'The Little House Cafe' before hitting the Nob Hill Supermarket for fresh Sushi lunch. It was one of those relaxed yet positive days, I bought four real life yachting novels from the second hand Nautical shop here at Grand Marina, you can never have enough reading material on a 30 day passage. Geoff secured our new stereo on the bench so that it doesn't go flying in rough seas. I did the washing and Geoff spent more time cleaning up the rusty keel-bolts and putting a coat of lacquer on them. So as you can tell we really are getting down to the final chores.

Hopefully next week will see the new super-duper Autohelm installed. And with the chain, EPIRB and solar panel all on board, we can do another shakedown sail to see how all the new installations hold up. Plus we need to purchase that long awaited Satellite Phone prepaid card, whereas we will then notify family with our Iridium phone number. Iridium has it's own country code!! I have been doing some homework and you will be able to send free text messages to our phone or free short emails that we can receive on our phone. Of course if you ring us then you may need to sell you house, so it would be advised that you check with your phone service provider as to how much it is to phone Iridium Satellite numbers??? Our prepaid card will be a 500 minute card that is valid for a year, the calls will cost us about $1.60 a minute and a text will be about .45 cents and two minutes. Not too bad I suppose?

Then of course we have to have one more final visit to San Fran to spend a day enjoying this lovely city. hmmm so much to see and only one more day. You know, San Francisco peninsular is only 11 kms wide! And we have to visit Customs about clearing the USA and getting the exit paperwork required for French Polynesia. Oh....we still have to find somewhere to buy fishing gear....well you can buy tackle if you want to fly fish, but to find somewhere that sells heavy duty tackle to troll off the back of the boat....with decent lures, well NOT so easy. We may have to add that to our final car hire day, where we go and collect the all the last heavy items ie: pickup cases of beer, etc. We would never have thought that finding fishing gear in a place surrounded by water would be so difficult! Go figure?

And maybe, just maybe after all of that, we can start looking closely at the weather patterns for a fair weather window to leave in. Countdown? Not quite ready to tempt fate yet and start a countdown....but we're certainly in the warm up period.

Easter Sunday in the Park

It was a bad night for me last night with my right knee spasming in pain. First real bad pain I have had in a long while, I dosed up on pain killers and hoped that it would settle down. Luckily it wasn't too bad this morning, so we decided to give San Fran a go. Once again catching the 'O' bus over the Bay Bridge into the heart of town. It was a beautiful morning, clear, little breeze and just a tad of haze. A perfect day for Easter Sunday.

Geoff being a bit concerned about how my knee would take another full on day of walking, suggested we catch the Trolley Bus out to the west coast of San Fran. For $1.50 each it took us right from West to East coast of the city ending up right on Ocean Beach. Not a particularly tempting beach...the sand was a grey colour. Now Geoff's intention was to walk up the boardwalk till we found a good Cafe, have a coffee looking at the crazies surfing in the murky, messy surf and then head back via Trolley Bus again. But when we got there we noticed a Windmill, so crossed the street to check out what it was. That led us to the start of another fabulous days walking in San Francisco.

Now this Windmill the largest of it's kind in the world bulit in 1905, was the start of the Golden Gate Park and this is no park like we have in Australia. This park is mammoth, stretching east to west it is 1017 acres of wonderland. Created in 1870 the site was an area of wild sand dunes that was out of the main city area, the creator got his inspiration from Central Park in New York. It's 1017 acres of lakes, ponds, flat grassy fields, hilly winding roads through Forest, a 9 hole golf course a large polo field, a football field, BBQ area's, ponds designed for remote control boat enthusiasts, a Bison park (yes real Bison and they are massive!!) plus endless areas of just remote beauty. The info says that it gets an average of 75000 people through it a weekend!!! Seriously! It was an incredible days walk. Geoff found himself in the old dude playing with his remote control tanker in one of the lakes. We ate Hot dogs while watching the paddle boats on another large lake. Then we wandered in bliss around the perfectly designed Japanese Tea Gardens full of Cherry Blossoms and shaped shrubs. I got to visit a wonderful Buddha statue, it was built in Japan in 1790 out of bronze and weighs 1300 kg and was donated to the Park after WWII. We walked out of the Tea Gardens and into the San Francisco de Young Fine Arts Museum. We spent an hour or so viewing incredible masterpieces of art, modern and past, beautiful pieces of glass art, some bizarre tribal artifacts and antique american heritage furniture.

Now with our dose of culture done, we felt it was time to hang out with the hippies in what is nicknamed the 'Hippie dome' a sloping area of lush green grass, where those free of spirit revel and enjoy themselves in the sun. So with the inner hippie let loose, we laid in the grass full of tiny white daisies and listened to the random group playing bluegrass up near the statue of Garfield. No not the cartoon cat...I'm not sure who he was, but will have to do some googling. After feeling refreshed by our laze in the sun we walked out of the park at the eastern end to find ourselves in the Haight-Ashbury area. Back in the mid-1960s, this was perhaps the most famous intersection in the world, a place where all the young people came from all over the world in search of love and peace. As quoted in the local guide:

'The district is famous for its role as a center of the hippie movement, a post-runner and closely associated offshoot of the beat movement, whose initiated and "beatific" youth swarmed San Francisco's "in" North Beach neighborhood two to eight years before the "Summer of Love" in 1967. Many of those who could not find space to live in San Francisco's north side found it in the quaint, relatively cheap and underpopulated Haight-Ashbury. The '60s era and modern American counterculture has been synonymous with San Francisco and the upper Haight neighborhood ever since'

Besides all that, it is full of streets and streets of those fabulous Victorian houses, duplex's and apartment buildings. The area just oozes charm and character. So... to totally melt into the scene we found a dusky, dark, moody Cafe to enjoy a latte and coffee cake, while listening to the hip music and pretending we were still in our youth!! sigh....sadly it was time to jump onto that Trolley Bus and head back to the Transit Centre and another 'O' Bus back home to Alameda. What a wonderful, relaxed perfect Easter Sunday in the Park. San Francisco, fastly becoming one of my favourite cities in the world of cities I've visited.

Happy Easter to you all at home in Oz. oh and Peace Out!

Good Friday, yes it is!

Another day broke blue, clear and 6 degrees. The mornings still get very chilly, yet by lunch time you are shedding jumpers and looking for shade in a nice 22 degrees. Today is Good Friday, start of the long weekend......for Aussies! But not here, today everything was open and everyone was working?! We were expecting that we would get nothing sorted today because everyone would be shut. But Geoff found out that bar Sunday when some people go to Church and take half a day off...it's business as normal. Which is great for us!

So, Geoff got stuck into the dilemma that is/was the Auto steering system and by 10.30 am, we had returned the S1 unit to an understanding dealer and purchased the wizz bang S1G Linear drive unit from another dealer (because he is free to install it sooner) - top of the range, for boats up to 9000 kg. Which is about right for us, loaded up with cruising gear and provisions. The Technician will install it asap for us. The treat is that it being a Linear system which is below deck on the steering quadrant, is it will be much quieter and stronger than the wheel drive unit. And the blurb says faster with new computer technology that means it has a memory and a pre-emptive ability. The action happened pretty quickly once the decision was made and the techie was out to see us and measure up before lunch. See, now all seems right in the world again. Geoff even successfully fixed the engine exhaust blower!! So now our aft cabin won't smell of diesel! A good Friday - all round.

Tonight seems somehow more peaceful. We have knocked off 85% of the items on that BIG list I posted and although we still have a fair bit to go.....our ETD of around 10th April seems possible. Well.... more possible than it did yesterday!! Here's hoping that all the parts arrive promptly that are needed for the installation of the Autohelm.

Our Water maker turned up this afternoon too! This is the ex government Katadan Survivor 35 unit, which is the same unit the US Army uses. It turned up a lot quicker than I thought and it looks really good. Sea Otter carries about 320 litres of water in her tanks and we will carry and extra 100 litres in jerry cans. So far we have been using the two full tanks for 21 days and we have not emptied them!! I think our indicator light shows us with about 1/4 left in the last tank. That is heaps better than what we carried on Timana. Considering we have had a few showers on board and are using the water pretty much as we would at home....well it looks good for holding us through the 30 plus days on passage.

So overall a much needed day of action and results. It feels good to be back on track and not so dejected. In fact Geoff is asking if I want to go to San Fran again tomorrow, maybe try and catch the San Francisco Giants playing baseball!!

No good news yet

You know, today was a particularly beautiful spring day, just blue as blue. And I am still in awe of the blooms that are bursting forth on every bush and tree. Garden beds are full of colour and the shops are selling pots of colour outside every door. It really is a beautiful time to be in this part of California. Yet here in our little micro world of boats, boat people and boat parts....the only thing blooming is Geoff's frustration.


Another day spent in the depths of our aft cabin and cockpit lockers trying to resolve the Auto steering debarkle. Geoff sought advice from a local handyman, looked at a similar one on another persons yacht, made numerous phone calls. And in the end we bit the bullet and bought the combination of parts that make up a new steering system. Geoff still had his doubts that the Rudder sensor would fit and he was right. After more time spend measuring it in fine increments, he knew that he couldn't get it to fit without cutting into a rear bulkhead. Not what you want to do to a nice well built yacht. I won't go into any detail as to the agonising that went on for the next hour, but finally a technician was available to come out and look at in person. YAY! Everyone is very busy in the marine industry here at the moment due to the BIG boat show that is on in early April, biggest on the West Coast of the USA. So all the tradies and techies are flat strap.


Good news - he reckons he could get it to fit, just. Bad news - he was horrified that we were going to do such a big passage relying on this particular model of the Autohelm!!! Geoff said he was pretty concerned and suggested we really needed the beefier model to handle what our boat weighed and what we are going to ask the unit to handle. Rats. We know how rotten and difficult and agonising and torturous hand steering would be....all the way back to Australia. The cost of repairing or replacing a unit once in the Pacific would be exorbitant. He left us with a promise to ring back with a quote for the bigger, better, beefier model. He did. AND you don't want to know the cost! Needless to say, tonight we have been doing some more sums.


Tomorrow we will decide what to do. Return the unit we just bought and buy the BBB one OR keep the one we just bought and get the worried tech to install it. And hope that we can gently cradle the unit past the heavier conditions off of San Francisco area into the easier seas of the Pacific.


It could be a restless nights sleep.

Forward two steps, back two steps

When you wake up in the morning, sometimes the weather dictates not just how you feel but how your day goes. This morning when I woke, it was very dull, cold and gloomy outside....

Our little auto steering dilemma got more complicated today. We did the suggested motor out into the estuary and do two 360 degree circles, whilst recalibrating the Autohelm settings. The results? Everything on the unit says the Autohelm is fine and set up as it should be. Then why does the unit find it impossible to steer a straight course when set on Auto, in flat calm seas???? This was the start of many bad downers for the rest of the day. How can two days have such different moods to them. Yesterday, many smiles and happy photo's. Today, the camera stayed in it's bag and Geoff spent most of the day squished into small spaces under the decks of Sea Otter.

The outcome seems to be that the unit we have needs something called a 'Rudder Sensor' to tell the computer exactly where the rudder position is. The thing we find confusing is that the unit apparently worked fine before without this extra piece? Now it doesn't??? The company that manufactures the unit suggests to buy a Rudder sensor, Dinah suggested the recalibration, someone else suggested something else, etc, etc. It was all very depressing. We had hoped that by buying this boat with this unit, that we could easily buy a replacement unit as a backup. Simple. Only to find that the unit has been retired and it is near impossible to buy a complete unit anywhere in the world. We got our hands on a section called the drive unit, and we thought....well good enough, at least we have a part backup for the most likely section to fail on a long passage. And only $570 US HA! Never have expectations that something on a boat will go easily. Now the company has since replaced the unit we have a year ago with another better model, problem is that it will cost $1000 US and it has the Rudder sensor apparently so needed. Geoff went crawling about below deck only to find that we have very limited space to fit this Rudder sensor!!!!! aaaagghhh. So if it can fit, it won't be easy and we will have to get a technician to fit it = more dollars! In the process of looking at the steering cables, Geoff found that the engine exhaust blower doesn't work!!! The things we are finding on this boat that doesn't work, are coming hard and fast, and it stings.

We also find out that the upgraded model is being superseded by a newer model again that doesn't require the Rudder sensor, YAY!!!! Oh, except that unit won't be released until......wait for it, JUNE! We think we are somewhere in the vicinity of spending $1000 -$2000 to resolve this little problem (that we hadn't accounted for) Hence our gloomy mood tonight.

We feel a little unlucky, that this was a little unfair, but who do you blame? No one. Buyer beware. We thought we had got on a good wicket with this boat. Being that it was so lightly used and in seemingly good condition. But what we have realised is that the lack of use, has resulted in some; lack of use problems and repairs, plus the owners lack of experience has resulted in some; problems and repairs, and now we realise the good condition was mostly superficial things like the timber work and the gel coat. The big dollar items....well, they are just that BIG DOLLAR ITEMS. And they are weighing heavy on our poor bank account.

So for those of you sitting at home, as you see....... it's not all blue skies and sandy beaches, what we forgot or let get a bit foggy over the last twelve years was: Boats are large holes in the water that you throw ALOT of money into!!!

So on this depressed note, I shall leave you all, without any cheery smiling sailing photo's, I shall go to bed at 11.40 pm and hope that tomorrow morning when I wake, the sky will be blue and the day warm and sunny. :)

A Shakedown sail

Ahoy Sea Otter, give us all your fair maidens! Oh..ok, give your gold then.
Bay Bridge to San Francisco
Who's a happy chappy when he's sailing/
Looking west to the Golden Gate

Snuggled in, heading back - it's 12 degrees!

It took me awhile this morning to get motivated, but Geoff was keen for a 'shakedown' sail. So about 10 am we motored out into the estuary heading for San Francisco Bay. We ran across a couple of square riggers in the estuary, they must take school children out for educational trips. It was pretty funny as all the crew were decked out in authentic period clothing..quite a sight to sail past.

We tried our new Autohelm but it seemed to want to zigzag along not keep a straight course? Another problem we will have to solve immediately. As our model of the Autohelm is now retired, we could only get a new drive unit, not a full backup model. So we NEED it to be working, as we couldn't hand steer for 30 plus days to the Marquesas's! Well not without a mutiny.

We pull the main up and hauled out the wee jib and sailed out under the Bay Bridge (in the photo above) I can tell you it was a pretty awesome feeling to be sailing your own boat passed the skyline of San Francisco city. Sea Otter seemed to pull a good turn of speed (if the instruments are all accurate) we were doing on average around 6 knots plus!! Whoo HOO! Timana's average was usually around 5 + knots. The boat felt comfortable and was dry down below..... the wind piped up as you got close to 'the slot' as the locals call the open area of water near the Golden Gate bridge. It would have been around 15 knots in the open area, a very nice shakedown breeze.

We sailed passed Treasure Island and the idyllic looking Angel Island (a nice stopping spot before we head off on passage were told) Then towards San Rafael our original US destination, before heading through Raccoon pass to Tiburon (millionaires row) We could see Sausalito not too far off, but decided it was 2pm and we should head back. The tide had changed to a ebb and was running about 3 plus knots. As we passed Alcatraz Island, we ended up having to put the motor on to get under the Bay Bridge to head back into Alameda estuary. I can tell you...those Alcatraz escapees better have picked their tides right...cause they could have ended up out at sea with the ebb tide apparently hitting 6+ knots in places!! hmmm better make sure we pick our tides for when we want to head out under the Golden Gate too!

We motored back into our berth around 4pm and for the first time EVER I brought the boat into the dock. Usually Geoff prefers to be at the helm, but I think he has got a bit soft in his old age and was happy for me to have a go. I only bumped a little :/

So a nice day out, were pretty happy with the boats performance and handling, now if we can just resolve the Auto steering issue?????

Windy days are EBAY days

The sky late yesterday afternoon

Not much to tell today...as yesterday afternoon the weather lost it's blue hue and became ominous. So today being Sunday and windy and cold....was a good day to stay below and search EBAY for a water maker.

I ended up getting one for massively less than they sell in the Chandlery. Mine, new $250 US at West Marine the same model $2000!!! Ok mine is ex Government surplus, but it is still new in the package and should produce around 4.5 litres of water from sea water after just 1 hour of manual pumping!!!! Yes I know, it's going to be hard to pump for 1 hour....but it is just a backup system. And if you are desperate or in need of upper body exercise....well you'll give it a go.

Otherwise the day was spent reading our books, snuggled up on the settee. It's a small settee, that's my excuse for the snuggling ;)

The weather has stayed cold 16 degrees during the day and around 20+ knots. However the yacht clubs still ran their races and all the local sailors were out with their wet weather gear on and fancy harness/life jackets...tough breed of sailors here! We bought ourselves one of those fancy harnesses with the life jacket built into the webbing, very cool and should provide a comfortable alternative to having to wear a bulky life jacket on deck in a blow (which last trip we never did - cause it's too bulky!) In foul weather we always had our harnesses on, so now we have the perfect combination!! And NO excuses (not mentioning names)

That's all for today :)

And a Happy St Paddy's Day to you!

Happy St Paddy's Day

Scenes of San Fran

Well, I think we had the luck of the Irish today.....very spontaneously after seeing on the Net that it was St Patrick's Day and San Francisco was having it's Parade today...we decided to go and check it out. With no idea of the Bus or Ferry time tables, we walked down the block and caught to '0' Bus (well after a 40 minute wait) The bus cost $3.50 and it was a very interesting ride over the Bay Bridge, crossing over Treasure Island (named after the famous book) and arriving 20 minutes later in downtown San Fran. Woo HOO!!

Our timing ended up being pretty lucky too, as we thought that the 11.10 bus we see us miss the Parade, but we found it really close to the Bus terminal and it was only half way through. So loads of fun and colour (mostly green) free beers, free green beads, free candy and some very funny characters...kept us entertained and following the Parade to it's finishing point at Civic Square. By the end I must admit to feeling a little Irish myself. This is a massive park area near the town hall. We passed some incredible architecture. Had a great coffee at a very hip Cafe Trieste, that opened in 1956 and holds a reputation for some very famous musicians and celeb visitors. Then we decided we couldn't say we'd seen San Fran without walking up one of those incredibly steep streets, we did Mason Street...not the steepest (my knees wouldn't cope with the steepest) but they managed with a bit of pain and crunching to make the top and get to California Street. A great view was afforded to us of the bay and the Golden Gate, plus all the posh hotels that sit along the top of the hill. It was here that my Mum decided to phone, how surreal, talking to my lovely Ma while Cable cars rattled past and very well off people walked their unbelievably small dogs.

We managed to jump on a Cable Car in the middle of the street, just, after missing three others due to lack of nerves! That was a hoot to sit on this rattly old machine, as it creaked down the steep street, with the brakeman ringing tunes with the bell. I don't think my knees could have made the walk down the steep hill too. It was worth the $5 each for a one ride only. It put us at the end of the line in the financial district. Walk one block and you are on the waterfront piers. Fabulous!! Walk into the delicious Ferry Plaza Markets. An undercover strip of market stalls filled with farm fresh and local produce. Cheese shops, Caviar Bar, Seafood, Beef, Bakery, it was so vibrant. We stopped for lunch at the San Francisco Seafood stall and had a most delectable battered fish and chips. And as the day had progressively got more squally and cold...it was a perfect lunch in snugly warm environment. I wanted to stop at every stall, cheese, bakery, gelati, but as the American serves continue to be HUGE...we couldn't fit another thing in! :/

We were running out of day, so started our walk north along the piers and waterfront to the north to catch the ferry home to Alameda. It was now, very squally, dull and cold....very windy and very wild on the water. Yet there were heaps of sails out on the bay!! These San Francisco bay sailors are a tough breed....20+ knots of breeze and a temperature not hitting 10 degrees, is a walk in the park for them! We huddled and hurried our way to the MOST famous: Pier 39. It is nearly like an amusement arcade on the waterfront, with shops and tourist stalls and merry-go-round and aquarium (which we didn't have time to visit) restaurants, cafes and fairy floss vendors. It was packed with people even at 4.30 pm on a cold afternoon....we got our tickets for the ferry $6 each and watched the sea lions while we waited. I could have done with another jumper or jacket and Geoff had that look like he did in Tahoe, of being part iceberg. So when the ferry pulled up, we jumped on board, went to the top floor inside deck and watched the skyline of the fabulous San Fran fade into the ragged squall clouds.

It was on the ride back we decided we will go back to San Fran to watch a baseball game of the local San Fran Giants, they play at the stadium just near the South Beach Piers and Marina. Maybe grab a hot dog and a soda.... Maybe do some more exploring, Castro? Lombard that windy steep street shown in all the movies....hmmmm, me thinks you could wile away quite a bit of time in San Francisco. My sister in law Kylie was right, this could be my favourite city I've ever been to. Just a shame about the large homeless population, but lucky for the vibrant gay community, the strong art and music sectors and those fabulous apartment buildings and streets. As the author of the Lonely Planet guide says in the front of the book "San Francisco has collected more than its share of heartfelt compliments over the years, and a writer can get twisted into a dog shaped balloon trying to avoid the platitudes. There's little point in taking issue with the praise-singers. THIS IS ONE GORGEOUS LITTLE CITY BY THE BAY"

We totally agree. :))

It's raining, cold and windy.....brrrr

Our wonderful Roger and Dinah!

Well... it didn't start off that way this morning, there was plenty of that beautiful blue sky about, but this afternoon a good solid squall came in. And now tonight, it's rained again, it's windy and it's only 9 degrees outside.

Today we did well in ticking off a few more items on the list. Thanks again to the wonderful Dinah, who collected us in her car drove us to West Marine and sorted out the mess that was our EPIRB and Liferaft order. Then on top of it, thanks to her were sure...we got a brand new (floor stock) inflatable dinghy for only $650!! It's similar to the one we bought off West Marine all those years ago in Florida, but the next model up with the solid floor panels. Which means it will be more stable, for she of the wonky knees to step into.

Geoff also achieved taking a foot off the spinnaker pole and attaching a new end piece with his trusty rivet gun. It is now the perfect measurement as per the Jeanneau manual for our boat. Now we just need less wind to haul up our new second hand spinnaker to see how it all fits.

I tried to register the EPIRB after we collected it, but we found some confusion as to who we register it with? It says in the manual you should register it with country you purchased it in as it is programmed to that countries code for rescue services. However, it also says that you need to have the unit registered with the country your vessel is registered in?! Doh! I think that means that we have to get it reprogrammed for Australia's code....and that means we have to find out who does that???? Nothing is easy!

Okay the Liferaft was easy, we bought one in a valise (soft sided pack) compared with the canister type we have previously owned, that requires fixing onto the deck with brackets. Which we didn't want to do. This one sits perfectly inside the starboard side cockpit locker, handy in case of that horrible moment where one decides to abandon ship.

The dinghy we will collect next week and it should fit into the port side cockpit locker which believe it or not....is about 5' deep and about 6' long. I could sleep down there!!! Once we get the dinghy we can test the outboard and see if it still works after not a lot of use?

Finally, we went off to our fave Chinese restaurant with Dinah tonight, Roger is in Florida visiting grandchildren. So we wanted to keep Dinah company... it was an early dinner of crumbed prawns, garlic, salt & pepper prawns, egg rolls, spicy chicken fried rice and broccoli in oyster sauce...all that for only $26 for all three of us! Then just to totally stuff us, we went to 'Fosters Freeze' for a choc top ice cream for dessert.....ugh maybe that was too much :/ Now we are tucked up in our cozy little cabin, with the heater on - 20 degrees inside - 8 degrees outside now, listening to the wind in the rigging and rain on the decks, TV's on Doctor Phil and or Cops (Geoff has the remote)

Think I may finish up and go scoot along the saloon bunk and snuggle into Geoff ;))))))))

And we have a Spinnaker!!

A hanging locker turned into my provisions Pantry (one of them)

Heading in to Walmart to spend more money!

Geoff went off this morning and rented another wreck for the day, a little 4 door Honda. But they only had manuals....so poor Geoff is now trying to cope with being on the wrong side of the road and having the gear shift in his right hand! Actually he did pretty well.

So we took off for a run around of today's chores. And here they are:

1. Take back the marine stereo, we decided we didn't want to go cutting holes in the timber panels to put the speakers in.
2. Buy new Spinnaker attachment end to replace the buggered one on the Spinnaker pole.
3. Buy wire cutters and a wire swage.
4. Buy sticky back Velcro to put the clock/barometer on the wall.
5. Go to Pineapple Sails and look at the second hand Spinnaker they have listed that is a bit small for us but should still work. It's an old clunker of a Kite, but still in pretty good nick for $440, so bought it!
6. Off onto the Freeway 880 south heading for Walmart.
7. Bought a new Philips Micro stereo with MP3 adaptor for only $77.
8. Bought a tarp (for those really hot South Pacific days were we want more shade cover between the Dodger and the Bimini.
9. Got a few other minor cheap items at Walmart, grabbed lunch at the mini Macca's inside Walmart ($1.50 wraps)
10. Headed back towards Oakland past the Oakland Colosseum, home for Baseball and NBA to our favourite Diesel expert Barbara at Golden State Diesel Marine. Collected a Fuel filter.
11. Got lost trying to come back to Alameda via the Possey tunnel under the estuary.
12. By good luck found our way back to the tunnel and home.
13. Geoff dropped off all our new gear on the boat and headed off with the Mainsail and the second Genoa to Pineapple for Greg to check them over.
14. I unpacked and got the stereo working, yay, music at last!!! I also attempted to disassemble the charger that broke this morning to find out what was wrong.
15. Geoff returned with the news that the Main was in great shape, the second Genoa was stuffed and so he binned it!

Not a bad day pretty productive and yes I am feeling much better, not 100%, but when have I ever been 100% ?! ;)) Now Geoff is busy trying to fix the charger, he found a broken connection wire. Ah typical it only gets worse, the part is falling to pieces inside the unit....but it's ok, Geoff decided to hard wire it back together. He got me to turn it on after this, funny how he took four steps backwards after he said to turn it on??? hmmm. But it worked and now we have a charger again!!

As I said to someone today: boats - one step forward, two steps back!! hmmm better total up our spendings and see how that Budget is going?

Still on the list to do and buy (and sadly they are mostly Geoff's)

1. Do an Oil change
2. Wire the money to Germany for our Insurance
3. Set up the Sea Anchor (drogue)
4. Buy 100' of new galvanised chain, the existing has a combination rope/chain and for the Pacific anchorages we would prefer all chain. Better in coral anchorages.
5. Check the wind direction connections - it's reading 180 degrees out
6. Service the outboard
7. Fix the spinnaker pole end
8. Buy Fishing gear
9. Disengage the Hot water system (apparently common fault on Jeanneau's is that the Hot Water system relief valve constantly drips water from your tanks into your bilge-we can't afford to loose water on the passage
10. Wire up the Solar Panel when it installed on the frame, next week
11. Check our charts and buy necessary new ones
12. Get antibiotic's and medical items from a Doctor for our First Aid Kit
13. Put together and emergency Abandon Ship bag (a quick grab bag that will hold vital items like; your passports, ships papers, fishing kit, torch, flares, extra water, seasick tabs, etc,etc. In case of having to abandon the yacht into the Liferaft)
14. Collect the 4 man Liferaft
15. Collect the 406 EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicator Radio Beacon) and register our boat and personal details into the system in Australia. This is the latest system and it records your details and has an internal GPS, so that if you switch it on it will send not only your details but your GPS position!
16. Get a Dinghy

Phew! And we hope to leave Alameda in 2 weeks to sail south to San Diego!

I'm still afloat

I'm still floating...so to speak, but I wouldn't call myself chirpy! Am hoping that if I take it easy over the next couple of days, I won't get really knocked down by it. hmmm take it easy, sort of a funny comment considering we are over here doing nothing on holidays! So sorry about that for you folks that are back home doing it hard at work. ;)

Geoff is a man on a mission. The Spinnaker that we hoped we had, we hauled up yesterday to check it out. No good too big and too light weight. So Geoff is going to check out another second hand one today a smaller size, but 1.5 oz in weight, so hopefully more suited to our needs. Otherwise we may just have to buy a new one off the shelf in a size that comes close to what we need. Geoff has also thought that getting a spinnaker sock maybe a good idea. Ah you say, what is a spinnaker sock? Not for keeping it's toes warm but it allows you to get the Spinnaker up and down much easier, it slips over the spinnaker to create, well a big sausage! Then you can pull the sock down to fly the kite and easily pull it back up to douse it. Sounds sweet hey?

The only task I got crossed off the list yesterday was to order the official Registration plate. Once you are a Australian registered vessel you must display the Official registration number and your LOA (length overall) on a fixed plate or burned into a integral bulkhead of your vessel. On Timana and Geodesy we had timber plates, but because Sea Otter is a bit fancier and more modern than our other girls, we have ordered her a nice shiny brushed stainless steel plate with engraved black lettering. For only $54 US!!! delivered!!! within a week!! And I could do it all online while I am sick as a dog. Now that's easy!

Have I mentioned the wine over here? No, wine like all booze can be bought in the supermarket between the food lines and the cleaning products. Appropriate positioning I suppose. I bought a litre of my favourite Whisky Canadian Club for $21 US. That is a very good price. Wine you can get casks, which are suited to cruising, less likely to smash if you are in heavy weather. But, wine in bottles is pretty good deal too. You can buy quite a good range of Aussie wines; Wolf Blass, Lindemans, etc. I got a Wolf Blass red and a white for Dinah and Roger for $5 a bottle!!! Now that is cheaper than you can get the same yellow labels back home. Geoff is continuing drinking one of his old time fav beers, Moosehead Canadian for $12 a 12 pack. But the other day when I was buying him a 6 pack, a dude came up to grab some beer next to me, he saw me checking out the options and recommended this "Fosters Ma'am, best you can drink" Haaaaaahaaaa, had me chuckling for ages. I didn't want to break it to him that I was an Aussie and most Aussie blokes think Fosters is crap!

Well I better finish up for today and try and do some actual work, my next project is to confirm entry requirements for yachts entering French Polynesia. Aussies don't need a Visa for 30 days and less, however you need to either show sufficient funds to be able to fly the crew out, ie: post a $1800 US bond per crew member or have air tickets out to your home country. So I will check with Sascha our trusty Paragliding Travel agent in Bright, about the cost of getting fully refundable air tickets, or I could check using a local Polynesian Agent who for a fee (not sure what yet) can get you cleared without the need for either (I believe) So that's my project for today. Hmm that and maybe the washing up.

A little under the weather

Well, it seems like I didn't miss the virus going around and yesterday afternoon I started to feel the symptoms of something not right (ok more than my usual not right). So far it is not the full fledged virus that Dinah and Roger had/have. And I am hoping that if I stay pretty low key today and rest I may just miss the full blown version of it. So if you don't hear from me over the next few days, well...you know that I didn't escape it.

Yesterday was another day of small achievements for Geoff. He unpacked the new Auto helm drive unit and decided that it looked so new and improved that he would put it on to start off the passage with. When he took off the old unit he found that the belt was cracked and that it probably wouldn't have lasted too long. So sometimes things work out for the best. The only problem is that the superceded ST4000 Mark II that we have, doesn't seem to have spares available anywhere in the USA. So we just better hope that this new drive unit holds true till Australia! I must note that Geoff has fallen easily back into the handyman he is, it is amazing to watch him pulling things apart, putting them back together. This life really does suit him and I am sure he gets satisfaction from his handy work. Not that Geoff would admit that, of course not...he would say; that it will probably break as soon as we leave, and that it was really easy and someone else would have done it in half the time, and that he is really quite hopeless and that the repair looks really badly done......sound familiar everyone?

He also started working on setting up for a Spinnaker, he found a second hand spinnaker pole for only $125 and when measured up, it is only a little bit too long. So he reckons he will be able to trim the end and re affix the attachment end. Now that's all great, but we can't seem to find a second hand spinnaker that will fit!!!!! I am Googling all the possible Sail Lofts and dealers in the west coast to try and find one that will come close to the size we need, but..no such luck yet. Each time I find one, the Loft has sold it or says it has gone missing?!

It started to look like it may be gloomy and cold this morning, but as I look out the hatch above the sky is blue and the day is already at 19 degrees. Boy the Coast guard helicopters are really active flying overhead this morning, so if I wasn't feeling so rotten I would probably peek my head out and see what is going on. But with the Coast guard port just opposite us, it's probably just routine runs.

Geoff is off with Dinah, chasing down some blocks and gear for the spinnaker attachment points, which means I should really sign off and start searching again for this spinnaker! Just as I write this Dinah sends me a Text to say she has found a Spinnaker!! Wow, I tell you she is one awesome person to have batting on your side. The amount of time and money she has saved us is incredible. You can see she was totally suited to being a Emergency room X Ray person in her last profession (prior to being our Broker) used to dealing with the walking wounded, working around the blood and carnage, caring for their emotional needs and determining what's broken (hmmm, wonder if she can diagnose heart cancer???) Did I mention she is off helping Geoff today?! ;)

Got to go folks....need to put this pounding head on a pillow....sorry no photo's today either :(

Sunny spring days

A beautiful morning to do your Laundry

The local gang of bossy geese


Say you love me or I won't let you down!!

Man, what glorious weather we are getting! Today shone blue and warm, with little breeze....it was just picture perfect. Perfect for messing about in boats....sadly we weren't sailing, but just pottering about on deck was still lovely. I headed off to do the laundry. Now usually, I wouldn't be that keen to head off on a beautiful blue morning to do laundry, but.....the laundry room for our marina is a 5 min walk along the park next to Marina docks, it's a lovely walk. And while my laundry is on, for a whole $1 a load and .50 cents for 40 minutes in a dryer, I can sit on a park bench in the sun, right next to the laundry room, looking out at the boats, while sipping my iced tea and reading a book! It's a pretty sweet way to do your laundry.

Geoff, meanwhile was back on Sea Otter pottering about putting up a bracket to hold the extra anchor on the pushpit (stern) and putting the outboard on a bracket on the opposite side. When I got back, Geoff wanted me to haul him up the mast to put the lazy jacks back on (he had a change of mind about having the lazy jacks off or on) Lazy jacks are lines that allow the mainsail to fall more neatly into a pile when you drop the mainsail. We decided it could be pretty useful in strong conditions to have it neatly contained in a pile, than it flapping all over the boat. So in the fancy bosun's chair that came on the boat, Geoff entrusted me to haul him up to the top spreaders. Now... I have to behave, because years ago I teased him by saying I wouldn't let him down until he said he loved me!!! Then of course you can also let a person down in a jerky motion that bounces them about....bad Karen. But I'm older and better behaved now, so I was a good girl and smoothly took him up and down.

The boat is looking more organised and more seaworthy each day. Still waiting on a bit of gear to turn up, but hopefully in about 2 weeks we could head south towards San Diego.

It is 10.14pm (daylight saving started today) and Geoff is wide awake and pulling charts out to sort through what we have from the last trip and what we need to order. The TVs on and we're sort of watching 'Fargo' at the same time. The heater is also on and it is still 15 degrees outside. Maybe it's because we are both a bit nervous as a really bad virus has been going around, it is a nasty chest/bronchitis type virus that lays people up for two weeks. Both of our brokers are currently in the throes of getting over it. So were a tad nervous, if we got it, well....it would be pretty detrimental to our schedule of leaving. And we may have to just leave directly from here to the Marquesas's. So cross your fingers for us.

Now, you read that I mentioned Geoff is still awake and doing stuff??? Yep the old Geoff who'd be asleep on the couch at 8 pm seems to have faded into the past, the new Geoff is up reading or pottering about till much later. hmmmm, this no working must be agreeing with the old fella ;) He is less stressed, oh sure he tries to pretend he is stressed or worried about something on the boat, but you know he is just desperately trying to find something to be stressed about. This is the Geoff I sort of remember from 12 years ago...well maybe even more relaxed than back then!! But I am sure we will have plenty to worry about in the next 8 months. It could be weather related, anchorage related or just the stress of deciding which reef to go snorkel on!!

One month today!

our new signwriting

hmmm someone hard at work!

Hey everyone :) It has been one month today since we flew out of Brisbane, hard to believe as it feels like 3 months! I think we have got quite a bit done in that time, but looking at the 3 pages of to-do chores....we still have a fair bit to do.

Yesterday, saw us running around copying, scanning and emailing off the final 2 documents to Canberra for the Australian Registration. Then we had to post the originals. And all up I think getting 'Sea Otter II' Australian registered has cost about $1000 Australian. However, we are now officially an Australian yacht with home port of Brisbane proudly tattooed on our butt! Check out my photo's from today with the new '2' and 'Brisbane' on the hull.

We also collected the Solar Panel yesterday and dropped it off to the workshop that will create our frame to hold the panel and go on the transom. Then while we still had the car, I dragged Geoff around Lucky's supermarket to get the final heavies to load on board. Cans, drinks, etc. Current running total of provisions on board $1400 USD.

Today we have got stuck into some of the grotty on board chores. I scrubbed the hull so I could put the stick-on name and numbers. Geoff got stuck into checking the mainsail and putting it back on the mast. The second Genoa that came with the boat is shot, the stitching is all rotted and it never had a sacrificial strip to protect it. So that was another bummer. I had a nice hour scrubbing the heavy rust off the keel bolts in the bilge until Geoff took over, to get the ones under the galley sink that I couldn't reach. We also found out that the Anchor windlass didn't seem to be working, so after Geoff had walked up to the Chandlery (rental car went back yesterday afternoon) to get a Current tester then fiddled about with the wiring and the circuit breaker (which may be cracked and wonky)....it worked!! Phew.

Yesterday we opened the BBQ lid to find that the Gas BBQ had a lifetime of cooked food caked onto the inside. We don't quite know how we are going to get that clean, or whether to just dump it? Oh yeah, we also realised why the speed impeller was not in the thru hole. It's because it looks like something has hit it or it has been semi flattened by the slings during a lift out prior to us. When we did the test sail we noticed that the speed log was not working, the surveyor told us it's just because it isn't in the thru hole. It had been flattened pretty bad on one side and the impeller wouldn't spin. So while Geoff was off at the Chandlery I got to work on it and semi straightened out the side and cleaned off the impeller, loaded it with WD40 till it did spin fairly freely. So hopefully that will work and save us the cost of another one?! I think that was all the nasty surprises for the last two days.

It was actually good to get down and dirty today and really see what we are dealing with on Sea Otter. Geoff even started playing with the Radar/GPS chart plotter....hmmm, that's going to take some reading up one I think! Last night we took the new Sat Phone out of the box and put Geoff's Mobile SIM card in it to test it out. He sent a TXT to Ian, which worked and Ian sent a TXT back. The only thing is that the phone wasn't using Satellites to make the call, just the local network. So we may have to wait till we have the plan and are in an area with no network to make our first TXT or phone call.

It was another beautiful warm, clear day today and I ended it by washing the decks down, it felt very decadent after the water restrictions at home, to stand there with water running down the scuppers. And I really enjoyed it!!!! A quick bread throwing session with our local duck, before we took off for an afternoon walk and dinner at Quizno's. A healthy Fast Food outlet that does FAB flat bread sammies (American slang for sanga's, sandwiches) Now, back on board Geoff is finishing up his 10th book and all is very still and quiet. Just lovely :)