Tag Archives: afamilyafloat

It all began on a nice Monday night romantic sail from Sausalito over to Berkeley Marine Center haul out slip. The girls went with the Kiddoo Grandparents and Taj was asleep in the aft cabin. I think this was the first time in too long that Christian and I actually sailed together, sans kids. We took 2.5 hours under full sail from anchorage to dock. The wind was perfect, but we were fighting a pretty strong ebb, so our average speed was 3.8 kts.

First thing on Tuesday morning the Berkeley Marine Center crew hauled us out. As soon as the boat was positioned on it’s stands, Taj and I took off for the day and Christian went to work. He finished sanding before noon and the first coat of bottom paint was on by 3pm.

omg, a picture of all 5 of us!

So happy to get her bottom cleaned!

First time Josie’s parents have seen a boat hauled out!

Wednesday included another coat of paint and the engine/propeller coupling removal to make some needed adjustments. We also put in another thru-hole for the water maker.

Water maker thru-hole

Thursday: another coat of paint, filing of the coupling for a slightly looser fit, shaft removal and replacement to get the previous summer’s caught trip line fully removed, the drip-less stuffing box removed and replaced with traditional packing gland. We also installed a “tranny saver”, said a few words that shall not be repeated, and realigned the engine.

Shaft entry point damage from last summer’s trip line getting caught. Yikes!

Friday: We were the first to splash for the day! After we came off of the stands and in to the slings, a few coats of paint were added on the areas where the pads were, a few moments to dry, and voilà, splishy splashy in 3 days! Captain Lauducci is AMAZING!!!

As soon as we hit water, all possible leak points were checked and all was good to go. Well, we thought all was good to go. After some fine tune engine alignments, we started the engine. To our disappointment the area around the new packing gland was getting too hot. Urg!!! … many other words….

After 2 days of wrenching on the engine at the guest dock in Berkeley Marina, Christian figured it out, phew! We were worried we would have to haul back out and go back to the drip-less system (which we really did my want on there). The culprit of the hot spot around the packing gland: aligning the engine and shaft on the hard. When the boat was returned to the water, the haul settled, therefore changing the position of the alignment by a whole half of an inch!!! Having the alignment off that much caused way to much friction around the packing gland. Moral of the story; wait till your boat is back in the water to do your engine alignment. Now I think it’s safe to say that we are pretty much good to go!

To Do:
We are just waiting on floating ground cable for our SSB (single side band) radio to finish installing out SSB. We need to finish connecting the water maker and start it up. And we are also going to get the iridiumGo before we take off. Yay!

Petaluma sail: part 2 (better late than never)

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Well, it’s better late than never. I finally had enough time sitting in front of a computer with adequate wi-fi to post a semi-descent blog posting of our Sail/Motor up to Petaluma and back, May 14-18. The trip up to Petaluma was planned with a departure and meeting with our friends, S/V Sierra and S/V Gone Tomorrow, just off of the Berkeley Pier at 7am. We planned the early morning departure with the flood, in order to make our motor up the river easier. Going with the current and with a high tide is key for this trip. Another key point about this trip is making sure you schedule for the D Street draw bridge opening. This requires a minimum of 4 hour in advance notice during the week and a 24 notice over the weekend. We remember to call that morning at 9:30 am, but the bridge attendant was able to work with our schedule. Thankfully we arrived on time. The motor up was perfect; no wind and warm and sunny until mid way up, then it rained. Times like this, we really enjoy our dodger. The rain cleared once we arrived in Petaluma. There was a few old classic boats tied up when we arrived, shortly after, we learned that this was the “Salute to American Graffiti” weekend in Petaluma and that another 15 or more boats would be arriving in the next day or two. Sure glad we got there a day early!

No complaints for my 34th birthday. The weekend was filled with fun times; communal dinners, potlucks, festival activities, a birthday yoga class with Jen, more friends, walks to the park, more friends and one late night birthday celebration. I think this was the only time I felt my aging body. Late nights, although a great time had by all, can’t do those so much anymore.

On Sunday, we planned our departure for our return trip based on the tide again, but this time we also had to wait for most of the boats that were tied up behind us to leave first. We left just in time to catch the 1pm D Street bridge opening. A lovely motor down the river lead us to a lovely sail in San Pablo Bay. S/V Gone Tomorrow had to head back to their port, but S/V Sierra and our family afloat sailed in to China Camp for a night. We stayed anchored for the night. It was quiet and calm. A very different feel from Petaluma. It was a good way to decompress from the busy weekend.

On Monday, after some boatschooling in the morning, we sailed off the hook and in to Sausalito.

What a fantastic little weekend sail. It’s amazing how little distance you can travel by boat and feel so far away.

Picture from Andy’s boat on our motor up to Petaluma.

A view of the boat crew looking down the river at the city dock and market center. S/V Sierra in front, S/V Shawnigan second from front and S/V Gone Tomorrow third from front. Photo credit: to Andy on S/V Sierra.