Boat Woes

It's been awhile since I posted anything mainly because we have just been overwhelmed with issues and when it gets to that point I have a hard time focusing on anything other then coming up with plan B (or C or D). So apologies to family and friends who are wondering what we are up too.

As noted previously we had planned to head to Santa Cruz about a week ago and filled up our diesel tanks in preparation for leaving first thing in the morning.  An hour or so later Keith is smelling diesel and announces we have a leak and it's not a small one but a major one.  He had hoped it was a leaking hose he had fixed but alas it was obviously the tank itself.  We had spent money to have them cleaned and polished and it seems that we had uncovered a leak under all that rust.  After beating our heads against a bulkhead for the better part of an hour, we took the "get the hell outta dodge" approach and headed for family to get away from the diesel fuel smell and give ourselves time to think.  That's kind of how Keith and I work, we need time to mull over options and assess the situation.  As the 4th of July was coming up and the kids wanted to do fireworks we headed to the hot central valley...and when I say hot I mean HOT...as in record 108 temps.  The kids beat the heat at Aunt and Uncle's pool, slip and slides and sprinklers....we opted for AC.

The time away was good and we came up with some options, first was to have Svendsen's Marine assess it and let us know the price of fixing the issue.  The answer was 20K and they couldn't start till  winter time....strike that from the list of options. The yard suggested we just buy a third smaller tank and install it ourselves as this will meet our requirements for the harbor hopping we planned to do so we are looking into that as well.  Meanwhile Keith went with plan C which was to move the fuel all back to our primary tank which we knew had a small leak on the top vs a massive leak on the side until we could go the new tank route.  This would at least get us back on our way.  After a super smelly day of moving fuel and rerouting the hoses Keith had a working system again and started planning for our trip south.  Meanwhile the marina here in Alameda was really great about our extended stay, in fact when we actual checked out they went out of their way to encourage us to stay full time, they had a slip for us.  Very, very, very nice people on staff here....from the office to the care takers....can't say enough about the good folks at Ballena Isle Marina!

After assessing the tides and weather and all, Keith and I planned for an early morning leave and arrival in Half Moon Bay around noon.  We left around 5 am and headed out towards the Bay Bridge....nearly there Keith goes down to check the engine and runs back up and tells me to head back to Alameda.  Something was wrong with the engine and coolant was everywhere.  Ugh...we slowly make our way back to the marina under sail.  Meanwhile Keith aired out below and then began to check on the engine and discovers a broken belt which he was able to fix in time for us to motor into the harbor.  So a little disgusted, and exhausted, we are back in Alameda.   We decide that sleep would be good so everyone, kids and all, headed back to bed and we wake a few hours later much refreshed.  Keith runs the engine again and everything looks hunky dory so we look for our second tide window and decide to head out at 1pm hoping to score some up close and personal viewing of the America's Cup Boats who were suppose to be doing time trials.  One should never set their hopes on something like that, that seems to be the theme here in the boating world.  As we passed the Bay Bridge it was obvious the wind was higher then the 15 predicted, in fact as we went along it was nearer to the standard snotty 25 that we know so well.  We passed the official race boats pulling all the marks back in for the day.  Too much wind for the big 72ft America's Cup cats but just fine for Steadfast to pound her way through and under the Golden Gate. The kids, as always, didn't care much for the washing machine on the other side, but we made it through and turned south for Half Moon Bay.  We arrived around 7pm at Half Moon Bay's calm anchorage and I proceeded to throw food together for the troops who were starving by this point.  The weather still looked fine for a continued march south, a light breeze (unfortunately coming from the South) so Keith and I decide to head out early again to try and make as much distance as possible while kids sleep.

At 5am we head out of the harbor and not 10 minutes later Loren pops his head out of the hatch ready to come up on deck and "help".  After layering him up (it was cold!) he joined us for our jaunt down the coast.  Mason on the other hand continued his teen version of coastal cruising which involves sleeping from harbor to harbor.  Elliot told us the day before that he wanted to be a teenager and sleep the whole way, he tried....and ended up on deck around 9am.  So the four of us enjoyed our ride down the coast, especially once the fog broke about two hours from Santa Cruz.  We pulled in about twelve thirty and promptly headed off to the Palomar for lunch.  After which we headed to the harbor office where things got really complicated....but I'll save that story for another day.  Meanwhile for more photos of the trip down the coast visit the gallery.