| February 13, 2010- Alameda, California |
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I've been here in the bay for a couple of weeks now, and things are rolling right along. I've been sailing the boat around singlehanded several times now, becoming much more familiar and proficient with sailing it. I've had stuff break/ mess up and have to fix it, i've met a lot of neat people, and hopefully this week I will be heading offshore for the first time on it. All in all, i'm reallyy excited to be here and my first few weeks in the Bay Area have been pretty positive. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQrKHWF8jcU Video of the boat sailing in the bay. I tried to embed this video, but can't figure out how to.
View of the cockpit when leaving Alameda/ Oakland
Sailing South of the Bay Bridge
Approaching Bay Bridge on San Francisco side, from the south.
Motoring back to Alameda. Port of Oakland is on the left.
Warrior's Wish at the dock.
I've been taking the boat out a lot. I guess 3 times this week and once last week. I think even day sailing is good for me at this point, as i'm new to the boat and still not that experienced in being singlehanded on a racing yacht. Sailing my old Bounty II or Cal 25 is one thing, but sailing the Jutson is an entirely different animal. Being on a boat this "busy" and powered up is kind of intimidating to start with, but it's becoming less intimidating and more comfortable each time that I sail. I started out by motoring out the estuary and putting the sails up in the bay, where there was more room, and then sailing around and dropping the sails before motoring back home. Now I motor off the dock and raise sails immediately, sailing out the estuary, around the bay, and all the way back in. I'm getting little systems for doing things. Like tacking for example; Sheet in on the main, get my new running back ready, tack the helm, cut the jib, sheet in the jib, drop the old running back, sheet out the main, travel down (or up), and then start fine-tuning everything. As you can tell, the boat, even just tacking around in light air is SOOOO much more involved than any of the cruisy style boats i've had in the past. The good thing, it's WAY faster than my old boats. :) I went to sail it on Monday and the motor wouldn't start. Well, kind of anyways. I went to start it and it wouldn't even turn over. When the key was turned, the loud "beep" (to let you know your alarm is working, and that the key is on, but engine is off) wasn't even going off, so I knew the ignition wasn't even getting power. So I look down and the main fuse coming off the alternator was blown. "Huh". So I put in another one and started the motor. The fuse glowed while the motor started and then looked normal. So I ran the motor for a few minutes and shut it off and tried to restart. Bam! Fuse popped. Same procedure again. It started once, and on the second try, blown fuse. So, 3 blown fuses in a matter of minutes. Obviously something is wrong. So, after consulting my good buddy Ed McCoy down in San Diego and then reading some on-line forums, I thought I had my problem figured out, so I went to check. Taking a volt meter and checking the starter solenoid, I noticed a definite voltage drop when cranking the motor over. This confirmed what I found online. The Yanmar (make of our motor) factory wiring for the starter is said to be undersized from the factory, and with age it begins to corrode and create resistance. All of the connections looked good, but I noticed on the grey wire going form solenoid to starter wiring harness, that there was a male/ female plug with corrosion on it. Bingo. Problem found. I didn't see a reason for the male/ female plug in the first place, so I cut off both ends and just spliced the wire together. In place of the fuse, I simply replaced it with a marine-style circuit breaker of equivalent amperage. Problem solved, and it's been all awesome town ever since. (I was only so lengthy on this paragraph in case anyone owns a boat and has had similar problems. After doing online research, this kind of stuff is pretty common. Maybe this will help someone out one day. Similar write-ups helped me out, so who knows.) I have met a ton of absolutely cool people in the past week or two. First I went to an awards meeting from the "3 Bridge Fiasco" at the Oakland Yacht Club. This was cool because I got to meet a ton of people that I had read about/ emailed with/ heard about, etc. A lot of Singlehanded Transpac guys were there, Pac Cup guys and just generally neat people that have done some cool stuff on boats. Everyone I met from the SHTP seems cool so far, so it kind of just makes me that much more excited to do the race, and make it Hanalei, getting to really know some cool people with similar aspirations, and hopefully make some good friends in the process. Also, I met a girl here who is a total inspiration to me. Her name is Emma. Basically, she is this totally cute 25 year old skiff sailor, who's done a bunch of offshore deliveries, boat work, racing at very high levels, is super handy in anything sailboat related, and has actually managed to purchase a prototype Mini and begin putting together a campaign. Basically everything I aspire to do/ be capable of in the next several years. The Mini Transat is what I ultimately aspire to do in a few years, once I have the Singlehanded Transpac under my belt. It's kind of neat when you meet someone who is actually doing something that you really want to do. Makes it seem more realistic, so to speak. I've talked to some people, and from what I hear, she really is the real deal and a very very good sailor with tons of experience. Personally, I think it would be pretty awesome if this cute little American girl goes and kicks a bunch of French ass in the Transat. She's doing Pac Cup doublehanded in her boat this year and Mini Transat in 2011. http://emmacreighton.net/ Ed McCoy is coming up from San Diego next week, and with any luck, we'll do several days of serious sailing, some really good training, and sail doublehanded around the Farallones mid-week. That will be a 70-ish mile trip, going around some islands that lie about 26 miles offshore of the Golden Gate Bridge. There is the potential for some very big wind and big seas, so this will be a really good shakedown run for me and the boat. Definitely stoked! end
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February 13, 2010
99.27.139.166
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