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Steering Shakedown

19 May 2012

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Steering Shakedown

No matter how well it goes, after any major repair, you’ve got to go out and give things a test run. See what stays fixed, what new things break, and how many other things decide it’s all of a sudden time to pack it in and take a vacation. I don’t like to be ruled […]

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Replace Your Hydraulic Steering Lines in Ten Steps or More

17 May 2012

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Replace Your Hydraulic Steering Lines in Ten Steps or More

Old boats are a lot like old cars, in that the minute you’ve fixed one thing on them, something else decides it’s time to take a permanent vacation. And so it is that our minor hydraulic steering leak went from trickling status to OMG she’s bleeding out. We’ve been trying to isolate the leak for […]

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Shit Tank Shenanigans

12 January 2012

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Shit Tank Shenanigans

When you tell someone that you’re sailing around the world, the picture that pops up in their heads is invariably a lot more glamorous than the down and dirty, day-in-and-day-out reality proves to be. And by down and dirty I mean that sooner or later you’re gonna be crunched up like a contortionist, playing hide […]

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Getting the Shaft

4 January 2012

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Getting the Shaft

Diesels are not at all like their  gasoline brethren. A finely tuned gas-fed engine sort of purrs under its breath and hums high-pitched songs of far off places to the road beneath its wheels. A diesel is not so refined. They growl and jitter and the songs they sing are not captured by the ear […]

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RADAR!

29 November 2011

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After 20 trips up the mast (+-?) we’ve finally fixed the radar. Thanks go out to Johnson Hicks Marine Electronics in Santa Cruz for their help and advice in spite of the fact that they weren’t making much money on us. This is a big deal. Huge.

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Failing Machines

12 November 2011

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Sewing machine died a couple of days ago, I sent it overboard. They don’t float. It was brand new. Inverter died yesterday. I bought it used, no warranty. My last cordless drill battery died today, now I have to wait until after dark to drill holes when the City of Alameda’s light poles energize, we […]

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Almost Ready

8 November 2011

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We have about 2-3 days work left to get ready to go and the weather looks good for Sunday-Wednesday at least, that’s as far out as the forecast goes. Barring any unforeseen difficulties we’re outta here early Sunday morning and we’ll pull into Morro Bay for a day or two Monday night or so. If […]

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Electricity!

29 October 2011

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We finally got our solar panels installed last week and they rock the house! Well the house battery bank anyway. The funny part is that it was just in time but we didn’t know that. Unbeknownst to us we had been stealing our electricity from the City of Alameda previously. The only electricity available on […]

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Almost Done

18 October 2011

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After many many delays and much more time and expense than we ever expected, we’re almost done here. It will be good to leave the Bay Area and get to someplace warm and affordable. We should be in Morro Bay within 2 weeks. Clearly Morro Bay is neither warm or affordable but it’s on the […]

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First Night

11 September 2011

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We slept aboard last night, the first time since right after Eli got the tracheostomy about 12 1/2 years ago. It was the first good night’s sleep that I’ve had in many years. You just can’t sleep like this anywhere else. This boat has the most seakindly motion and in fact it’s even nicer on […]

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