Monday, November 29, 2010

Thanksgiving at Angel Island

Santa paid a visit to our bow

turkey is in the oven!  A five pound breast with ribs, with an herb rub (thank you Paula Deen / Food Network for the GREAT recipe).

The mooring field in Ayala Cove as viewed from the top of the island. That is us on the far left.

The Golden Gate Bridge as seen from the top of Angel Island.

The Golden Gate Bridge as seen from the flybridge, shortly before we went under it. 
We stuck our nose out briefly on our way home. 

We had a fabulous four nights at Angel Island.  We arrived Wednesday afternoon and enjoyed a steak and baked potato barbecue.  There were three other boats in the mooring field.  A few more boats arrived on Thursday and Matt helped several people tie up to moorings.  One boat was trying to pick up moorings right next to us and didn't seem to be having much luck.  Matt jumped in the dinghy and the skipper said they were fine and did not need help, as their boat was getting pushed by the current right towards our bow.   Luckily they hit the mooring ball our bow was tied to and not our bow.  The woman on the boat was more than happy to hand Matt a line and let him help get them tied up.

The couple that did the best job picking up the moorings actually got a line around their prop after they picked up the first mooring.  They borrowed a wrench from the boat next to them, got the line off the prop in short order, and proceeded to quickly pick up the second mooring with no harsh words exchanged between the two of them.  Matt wasn't able to help them out as he was helping someone else at the time.  They didn't need help anyway!  Most people are more than happy to hand off a line. 

As for our mooring experience, we again solved the "how to pick up the mooring ball" dilemma by using the dinghy.  It seems like cheating but is SO much easier.  We pulled it off a lot better this time than the first time, though I was kind of tired and having a hard time with the dinghy.  I accidentally goosed it at one point and did not realize what I had done so I pulled the emergency stop.  I didn't realize until I restarted it that I had it throttled up.  Despite my bumblings with the dinghy it went really well.  I haven't really driven a dinghy that much so I need to practice more with it and get more comfortable with it. 

Thanksgiving day we cooked a great meal with our Princess electric range.  We carried our saloon table out to the sundeck and ate out there, enjoying the views of the cove and the peaceful surroundings.  Friday we hiked up to the top of the island and spent a few minutes enjoying the view before a huge pack of people came up.  Some friends arrived on their sailboat later that afternoon and we had another great steak and potato cookout with them. 

Saturday our friends cooked up another Thanksgiving feast and we went over and enjoyed it with them.  We had spent the entire day on our boat, tracking down the issue with the autopilot and working on a few other projects. 

Sunday we decided to poke our nose out the Golden Gate before heading home.  It was a beautiful day and a great end to a fabulous trip.

Holding Tank Photos

First, we had to empty the old holding tank.  To do that we had to go to the pump out station.  To do THAT we had to get the dredger to move so we could GET to the pump out station.  We couldn't get them on the VHF so we drove over there and just started honking at them until they noticed us.  I think we woke up a guy on one of the end ties.  He came out on deck in his robe and slippers.  Oops.  Well he can't have been sleeping too well with the sound of the dreding going on!
Before, a tiny (9 gal) tank in a large space


 removal begins

 space prepared

new pieces and parts
 in place

Almost all hooked up! 

All in all it wasn't really that bad of a project.  It was fairly accessible, which helped a lot!  We only had to go to our house and two stores to get all the pieces and parts we needed and only a small amount of blood was lost in injuries.  The seemingly wet ceiling tiles seemed fine this day so I did not investigate that.  We spent five days on the boat for Thanksgiving and didn't fill up the tank!


Monday, November 22, 2010

Holding Tank Installed

We managed to (mostly) complete the project on Saturday!  the only thing left to do is hook the macerator back up.  This isn't a high priority for us so for now the outlet for the macerator is capped off.  I took a bunch of photos.  Hopefully I can get those downloaded and posted in the next few days.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Big Day Tomorrow!

Tomorrow we are ripping out our 9 gallon holding tank and beginning the process of replacing it with a 30 gallon holding tank.  I HOPE we will be able to finish the project tomorrow but since this IS a boat project, I don't want to get to wrapped up in NEEDING to finish it tomorrow.  I will be happy if we can at least get the old one out and get all the parts we are going to need to get the new one in there -hoses, fittings and whatever else we might need.  I hope if we need to replace hoses we can get that done tomorrow, too but again, not trying to set myself up for disappointment.  Last time I was crawling around in the engine room I noticed the ceiling tiles over the tank looked wet and I sure hope we don't run into any deck leaks or anything.  Though it IS a boat so...  sigh, guess I'll find out soon enough.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Ayala Cove

I need to catch up on my blogging! 

On Saturday, October 23rd we took the boat up to Ayala Cove on Angel Island.  It had been raining on Friday and the weekend forecast was iffy but we were bound and determined to go on our trip.  We had our new dinghy (some friends launched it off its trailer for us the day before) and we were really exhausted about mooring out and spending the night. 

It was quite beautiful when we arrived and we pulled up to one of the docks so I could hop in the dinghy to execute our plan for pocking up the moorings.  The rules in the cove require that you pick up bow and stern moorings and they are all color coded so you know how you are supposed to be lined up.  There were a few boats there already so we decided to pick up moorings on the opposite side of the field from them, closer to the island.  Our plan was for me to take our two long lines (they are in bags) and get the bow one through the ball and hand both ends of it to Matt, then while he tied them off to the boat to get the stern line through the ball and be ready to hand him both ends of that.  We had planned to time our arrival to slack tide so we wouldn't have the current working against us, but sleep won out and we were a couple of hours late per our plan.  So the whole thing was quite entertaining as the boat was being pushed sideways and Matt had to make a few runs at it before we were able to pull off our mooring.  Usually when someone is mooring, everyone already there is watching but we got really lucky in that another boat was mooring at the same time we were and the other folks already there new that person so they were all focused on that boat.  I think we will try the same thing again next time, except do a better job getting there at slack tide!  Here is PG on the moorings.



Once we were settled, we hopped in "Spirit", our dinghy, and did a quick tour of the mooring field and greeted the other boats.  They invited us to join them on shore late that afternoon for a chicken barbecue, as they had lots more chicken than people.  Plans made, we went to shore and had lunch at the cafe there.  The food was surprisingly good!  Here is Matt at the Cafe.

We also purchased tickets for the 2 PM tour of the immigration station.  Angel Island was the "Ellis Island of the West" though it was more in the business of turning away Chinese than welcoming immigrants. 

We left the Ayala Cove area around 1:30 to hike up to the Immigration Station for the tour.  By the time we arrived it was pretty much pouring down rain.  We went to the appointed meeting place (outside of course) and there was nobody around.  We slowly made our way up to the building, pausing to read all the plaques and info as we went.  Once we were inside, we were told the tour was at 1:45 and was already well underway!  We showed them our tickets that said two, they looked at how wet and pitiful we were, and one of them agreed to give us a private tour!  It was REALLY REALLY cool.  We did not know how poorly the US treated Chinese immigrants.  Lots of them spent many days confined in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions.  It was not the quick breeze through like Ellis Island.  The building was slated to be torn down and an intern there made a rubbing of a poem carved into the wooden wall (in Chinese) and showed it to one of his professors, I believe at UCSF or SFSU.  The professor asked where it was from and the intern told him and said the walls of the immigration station was covered with similar poetry.  The professor rallied together the Asian American community in the area to raise funds to save the building.  Several years and millions of dollars later the building has been rehabilitated and is open for tours so that we may never forget the past! 

When the tour ended, it was raining even harder.  I don't know that I would have believed that was possible.  The young man who'd given us a tour tried to arrange a ride for us but the electric cart out front was dead.  So we set off in the rain.  If we thought we were soaked before, we were well and TRULY soaked when we got back to Spirit.  Spirit was pretty soaked as well and we had to scrounge around for something to bail all the water out with.  We came up with a disposable coffee cup and spent several minutes scooping...  It was pretty evident that the other folks in the mooring field were not, after all, barbecuing chicken on shore!

From this higher view you can see the other boats there, as well.  Sorry for the raindrops on the lens!


Once back on the boat we fired up our diesel heater (which we are THRILLED with) and put on dry clothes.  We fired up the generator so we could use our electric stove and oven to make dinner.  I can't remember now what we had but it was hot food, which was what we needed after our soaking!

The next morning it was raining hard and blowing harder.  A few of the hardy souls sharing the mooring field set off mid morning.  We were watching the weather and the forecast and it looked like the storm was supposed to blow over in mid-afternoon so we decided to wait.  We checked the wind readings from the back side of Angel Island each hour and were astonished at the wind speed and the gusts.  They peaked in the mid 40s with gusts to 51!  It was getting towards 3PM and we decided to at least get ready to go and hope for a break in the weather.  We decided to take the motor off Spirit and put the motor in the cabin (we don't have a place for it on the rail) so that if the dinghy did capsize we wouldn't lose the motor!  This was a bit of a feat of acrobatics but we pulled it off with no major injuries to ourselves, either boat, or the motor.  Just as we had everything done, the wind died and the sun came out!  That seemed like a pretty good omen so we fired up the motors and headed out!  We had a nice trip back.  There weren't many other people around!