Good work today: cleaned out Ellen’s primary filter (what a mess), moved said filter to a more accessible location, replaced secondary filter and modified/shortened fuel lines. Engine started on third crank. Going to let it sit overnight and test again tomorrow. Should be all good.
Yesterday was the trip on Ellen’s boat to see the Tall Ship parade.
So the sail to Sausalito yesterday was okay. On the way out, two Foss tugs did one of their classic “mess with a sailboat” routines — the two of them passed me on either side at the same time.
The winds were relatively strong, and, of course, it was upwind the whole way. I put up the jib alone, and set the self-sterring. It worked okay, but it was tedious. After passing Angel Island, I motored into Sausalito. I hit some big chop off Tiburon.
My berth in Sausalito was an end-tie at Schoonmaker. The guy on the next boat over was pleasant enough; he helped me dock, and chatted awhile about how he and his wife had sailed down from Canada. They had a big Kelly-Peterson 44. We discussed steering systems.
The great thing about the end-tie was not having anything on the other side. My view to starboard was the anchorage and the lights of Tiburon. Nice.
It was a chilly evening. Had Thai food. Came back to the boat, but only managed a few hours sleep since I had some weird dreams and kept waking up thinking I had heard a noise. Argh.
In the morning I rode my bike over to the ferry dock and watched the boats come and go for a little while. I went back to the boat and took apart my thermostat. Reinstalled it. Fired up the engine. Put up the mainsail, and motored out to the end of the Sausalito channel. Oops. forgot to top off the tank at the Chevron dock, which means I’ll have to stop by Channel Marina and buy diesel there on the way back.
Turned off the engine. Started sailing. Set the self-steering. The boat went charging along on its own once I got it adjusted properly. Gybed three or four times heading back to Richmond. Overall a well executed sailing trip. Somehow I lost the pin in the shackle on the jib, though. No big deal to fix, but weird nonetheless.
As I wrote this morning, I was up early tinkering with the diesel. It’s running fine, but there is still a tiny water and oil leak. I will get to the bottom of this!
So around 1000, I was getting ready to fire up the beast and maybe motor over to the pumpout station. I heard a noise outside, and went to see who was there.
That is how I ended up sailing with a random family that I, quite literally, plucked off the dock. They, big Dave, little Dave and Shawnette, were just looking at boats. Big Dave said they had just bought a 25 foot sailboat, but they had no idea how to work it.
“Wanna go sailing? I’ll show you some of the basics.”
So off we went. I showed them some basics as we short-tacked out the marina channel and out the Richmond shipping channel. Assured them the boat could not flip over, and it was supposed to be heeled over like that.
Little Dave was doing his best to understand. Shawnette seemed to pick up on the concepts almost immediately. I think it just clicks for some people. Big Dave is going to need some serious practice before he gets the hang of it.
We were out for about 4 hours. Sunny, pretty warm, the usual weekend fleet out and about, and races over at Olympic Circle. Came in. Went to pumpout. Flushed the engine. The weather has been so perfect lately. I will have to sail again sometime this week. Or maybe take care of some more projects…. I’m kind of in my project-doing groove, I think.
It’s so quiet here.
No wind blowing. Nothing moving.
I’ve been tinkering with the diesel engine [this morning]. Ready to fire it up, but not willing to disturb the peace just yet.