| January 21, 2010- Leaving N.C. for California |
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The time has finally come for us to transport "Warrior's Wish" across the country, to San Francisco, to begin really preparing for the Singlehanded Transpac. All things considered, the first two months of this project have been great. I've accomplished exactly what I wanted to; come to North Carolina, prep the boat for the race, learn a ton about boat work, and get ready to go to California. My time here was fun, I really enjoy working on the boat, and i'm ecstatic with how much i've learned, but I am more than ready to get back to the West Coast and begin sailing again! Things are definitely progressing, and racing the SHTP is becoming more and more of a reality every single day, so all in all, i'm really excited right now.
This is about where I left off in the last blog. I finished painting the bilge and then cleaning up the inside of the boat. I think it came out pretty well.
I cleaned the floorboards as good as possible and put them back down. It's kind of nice having a relatively flat floor and not having to step over/ trip on the stringers...
We FINALLY got some nice, warm days in North Carolina, so I could finish painting the foredeck. All deck fittings are installed, both toe rails are back on, and I re-tied some twine from the toe rails to the life lines (to keep sails and stuff on the boat while working on the foredeck.) I painted the starboard side and port side about a month apart, and had to custom-mix white and grey deck paint to get the color we wanted, but I got it *almost* the same color.
I cleaned up the emergency rudder's gudgeons and re-installed them on the transom. Don wanted the gudgeons a bit further out from the boat, to make emergency rudder installation easier, so he made some aluminum spacers.
We used "Rig Chek" dye to inspect all of the rigging. Basically, we disassembled everything, cleaned it, and then painted it with that purple dye. You let it sit for a few minutes and then re-inspect/ re-clean the rigging. If there are any cracks anywhere, dye will seep into them and make them visible. Pretty cool I think. Definitely feel good about the rigging, it seems very stout and in very good condition.
Don inspecting a turn buckle with our his super high powered magnifying glass.
Motor maintenance day. This is our rip-roaring, earth shaking 1 cylinder, 9.8 horsepower beast of a diesel engine. Meet the Yanmar. I installed a new alternator belt, new fuel filter, checked a few things, and then we test-ran it for a minute or so. (Don't want to run it long, since it's cooled by sea water.) I'll change the oil in California.
Line locker. Just started re-packing the boat.
Sail inventory before packing. 1 main, 6 jibs, 4 spinnakers, storm sails.
To do list a few days ago. Definitely a lot of progress since we started, and I was able to cross a about 4 more things off of that list in the past 2 days. Very close to being ready to go. Which is good because we leave in less than 24 hours! In addition to the stuff in the pictures, we went through all electrical systems (okay, Don did most of that while I worked on other stuff), ensuring that everything worked properly. I also tested out our hydraulic auto pilot and made sure things are working properly, which it appears that they are. That thing is AWESOME... Mounted auxillary fuel tank in the truck, prepped for trip, etc. All we have to do now is lay the mast back on top of the boat, and finish packing. With a little luck and a hard day's work, we'll leave tomorrow night. We plan to splash the boat at Marina Bay Boatworks in Richmond, CA and park her in a slip at Marina Village in Alameda. Can't wait to be there! See you in California! (Which is looking incredibly lame with the current weather situation...) end
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January 21, 2010
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