Winter Storm and King Tides

We weathered our first winter storm here in San Diego for the last two nights.  We’ve had 3 straight days of rain.  The first day the rain wasn’t too heavy, but we were able to find out where our leaks are.  Luckily for us, none of them are below deck.  The bimini (the cockpit cover) leaks a lot, but we’ve been told we can get some re-weatherproofing stuff to fix it.  Temporarily, we rigged up a big tarp and that kept everything dry during the heaviest part of the storm.

The winds were very strong and made for a lot of noise below deck.  Clanking and squeeking and banging and creaking.  We’re surprised the cats didn’t go crazy.

In addition to the storm we had something they call “King Tides”.  It was just a coincidence that the tides co-insided with the storm.  These tides are higher and lower than normal due to the alignment of the moon and the sun.  Normally there is only a foot or two difference between high and low tide here, but yesterday and today there was a significantly bigger difference. 

You can see the difference by looking at the post next to which Sharon is standing.  The docks move up and down with the tides, but the posts are stationary.

According to our captain, we have now passed his “test” on the engine.  Apparently, we know enough to move onto the deck, which we should be starting on Monday.

We’ve had some trouble with the engine work done by our motor guy.  We have to wait for him to correct some shoddy welding done on our muffler (which is much more important on the boat than on a car, as it has something to do with the heat exchange system).  We won’t be moving the boat until it has been fixed.  Its is our plan to move to our new home, “Kona Kai Marina” on Feb 28.  We’re expecting some more action over there as there are many more “live aboards” there.  We should get a better introduction to the boaters life style and sense of community.

Piggy is slowly starting to come around.  Unlike Archie, who made himself right at home, Piggy, chicken that he is, takes a lot longer to get used to changes.  He wants to go up on deck, but every time he gets close and one of us goes to put his tether on, he runs back inside.  He seems to have found his favorite place, though.  On top of the little shelf in the Captain’s head.

It's A Hard Life

All Work and No Play

Yeah, it feels like another job at the moment – well, almost.  Everyday we have things to do.  We keep finding new storage areas, which then have to be emptied out, cleaned, sometimes, depending on the usage, we have to lay down wall paper to make it look and feel cleaner too.  And because we keep finding new storage areas, we have to unpack and re-pack again so as to put things in their most logical or accessible places.  What fun!  Well, it is a little bit.  Its fun to discover new things.  For example, yesterday we found a hammock!  Can’t wait to get that baby up and into use!!

We’re still working below deck, but are almost finished (I think).  We have to find the post for the emergency tiller (for manual steering, in case we brake a cable connected to the steering wheel, etc.).  It should be under our bed.  Don’t know how that would work yet, cause the bed is below deck and you can’t steer from there (well you could, but you can’t see where you’re going!).  We think it means we’d have to stand up on the bed, put our head out the hatch and steer with our feet.  It is for emergency only, don’t forget.  I guess if the steering breaks we’ll have to do whatever is necessary.

Yesterday we started the engine for the first time.  The cats didn’t like it much.  Piggy stayed hidden all day.  But Archie was fine after the first time.  I guess once he recognized the sound he was ok.  But it sure is loud below deck.  Maybe one day he’ll be ok, or else he’ll be hiding away (and probably praying) until we shut it off.

We found down here there are a lot of “flaming hot” or even “extra flaming hot” munchies.  Even Lays makes chips like that.  There are cheetos and Doritos etc.  Sharon loves them (Neil, not so much).  We’ll bring back a bunch for Lionel and Moe (at least) to try.

We’ve seen a sea lion hanging around.  There is a fish market nearby and he comes by around 11 am every day looking for a hand out.  We didn’t have our video camera handy, but got some pics with one of the Iphones. 

We also discovered happy hour.  $2 for fish or shrimp tacos and $1 for a can of tecate beer.  It pays to be an alcoholic.  We found $5 rack of ribs at the supermarket (already cooked) and tried the restaurant “5 Guys” serving great burgers and fries.  Sharon was also able to use her age to get discounts “Yeah 55 and older”.

We won’t be sailing for a while yet.  Next, we’ll be going over the deck, which means all the lines, etc.  And learning the engine some more.  Captain Marty says next week we’ll practice going in and out of the slip under power.  Docking is the most difficult part of boating, so we need to spend some time on it.   We’ll be doing more once we move to our new marina (Kona Kai) on March 1.  Sharon likes the name cause it’s Hawaiin.

We’ve been taking the dinghy out for a spin every afternoon, along with our beer and wine.  Its calming.  Need the calming influence from time to time as we can get on each others nerves. Every relationship has their moments. Got a video here so you can see where we’re moored.

http://www.youtube.com/user/carrollsites#p/a/u/1/B6zCVfVLx4Q
http://www.youtube.com/user/carrollsites#p/a/u/0/ciY7znlCoH4

Our First Video

Wow, the weather has really turned!!  Its only around 17 or 18 Celsius the past few days, its sooo cold.  (Sorry, I just had to rub it in.)

As we sit here listening to the water gentling lapping against the boat and the sound of the sea birds overhead --- NOT.  Where we are now, Point Loma Marina, all day long we hear the sound of military helicopters and jets flying overhead.  Yes, we’re that close to the military installation.  They’ve told us that this is probably the safest place on earth.  Who cares, really???  I don’t feel the need to have millions of tons of machinery and bombs, etc. protecting me.  Give me back the peace and quiet of nature.  Oh well, we expect to be moving on March first.  We’ll keep you posted.

We’ve been working with Captain Marty for 4 days now.  Today we have a day off.  It feels like we keep taking stuff out of the boat and putting it back again, over and over.  And Marty says we’ll do it a few more times before he’s done with us.  Oh, the toil of it all!  We’ve been through the captain’s quarters, the V-berth and both heads.  We started on the Galley yesterday, but didn’t finish it.  We uncovered the bilge and pumped it out, and discovered more storage down there.  We want to get it bone dry and then continue following pipes and wires as we learn what this boat is all about.

Today, we’re hoping to work on the dinghy and get it started so that we can have a little mini-cruise of the harbour. 

Archie continues to love it here.  Trouble is, he keeps wanting to go out, then come back in, and go out again, etc., etc.  We have to keep an eye on him cause we have to tether him to make sure he doesn’t jump or fall off.  At the captain’s suggestion, we’re going to get a bell for him so we always know when he is moving.  Same goes for Piggy, but he still hides all day, so there is no rush for him.

The other way, we observed a bird fishing.  Too bad we didn’t have the video camera with us, cause it was really neat.  There was a school of really small fish, and he’d start by going beside one of the boats where the fish couldn’t see him.  Then he’d dive down, swim under the boat, keeping in the shade all the time.  Then suddenly, he’s emerge from underneath them, catching them by surprise.  We saw him do this over and over again.  Cool.

So, we haven’t been sailing yet.  After we finish the galley, we’ll be emptying out the salon (the main living area) under which the motor resides.  Once we’ve covered the motor, we’ll start it up, back up and back into the slip again.  We’ll be doing that until we’re comfortable bringing her in and out.

That’s all for this post.  However, we were able to load a couple of video’s onto youtube.  We put the links in our last blog post, but here they are again.  Sorry to all our friends at RBC who won’t be able to watch from work.  Maybe you’ll try from home.

For Videos go to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrlTZpEtygc

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uh4-vMVJcY

Miss you all.