T-minus 2 months

From Nancy:

Having a great summer as we watch the calendar days march towards Sept. 15^th.  Aside from a few remaining boat projects that will require a few days being unavailable to play, Rob reports we really are ready to go.  Now we are also in social mode, getting in as much facetime with our land-based friends. 

Home has become two places, Los Altos and Sausalito, and we are back and forth each week, with our comical ‘family calendar’ which is NOTbased on Google or Outlook, but the basic 365 days at a glance in the home office.  

Bryan has settled into a great full-time summer job at Cisco, which keeps him busy, and me closer to Los Altos during his work week.  Last weekend was a flurry of phone calls, emails and texts, as several bigger household items were posted on Craigslist and Autotrader.  We sold our beautiful pool table and ping pong set to a couple in Modesto, parted with the rocketbox to a younger family that still camps and skis, and entertained lots of questions on our cars.  It was much easier to give away some bikes and other furniture to friends!  There are 55-60 neatly stacked and labeled boxes in our house, which are good reminders of all the things we really don’t need, but want to keep. 

The most common questions we get are “How long are you going to be gone” and “where are you going?”.  My response is based on practical things like, “well, we’re renting out our house a year at a time, but will be flying back for visits at least next spring and a longer stay in the summer”. (Note: America’s Cup 2013!). The “where are you going?” is easy, as Mexico seems like a fine destination with way too much to enjoy in one sailing season.  I describe Bryan’s finals schedule in December and his airplane ticket already purchased from Boston to Manzanillo. We know we need to be there December 16th. (Barra de Navidad)

The list is much smaller but here are some more notables on our calendar:

• Swing dance lessons – this week
• First aid/cpr class – next week
• Consult with our doctor friend on medical emergencies and needed prescriptions – this week
• Piano recital - (why not have more stress on my calendar?) –Thursday!
• Physicals, lab work, eye exams -scheduled
• Custom work out routine for sailing life  – I met a great trainer at the club who went cruising for a year in Mexico
• Get house ready to rent – starts showing end of July
• Sell two cars – in process 
• Enjoy 10 days in the Delta with sailing friends in August – Yippee!!!!

Shindigs

We've received feedback that the blog is a bit too technical "and boring".  Guarantee there will be a better balance once we actually leave on our adventure!  In the meantime, we're having Lots of fun with friends as we get ready for our travel south.  Here are some photos of recent sailing Shindigs.  Enjoy! - Nancy

Cockpit party in Sausalito

Women in Sailing seminar with Captain Rob

Yacht Club cruise in to Tiburon

Capt. Mark, Rob and the ladies

Rob skippering Bounty in Master Mariner's Race

Got Amps

Shindig carries 13 batteries on board and 8 of them make up the 24 volt house or "domestic" bank.
I had been noticing that this bank was not holding up well during weekend trips and that two batteries in particular were always 0.3 to 0.7 volts lower than the rest in the bank. 

I conducted a 20 hour at 5% of the battery capacity test and discovered that indeed 2 batteries were bad and 3 were marginal.

To conduct at load test you fully charge the battery bank and then put on a 5% load.  In my case 440Ah * 5% = 22 Amps. 

I only ran the test for 5 hours and the data clearly told a sad story.

This is really a bummer because the previous owner had replaced the batteries 3 years ago and I would expect much more from AGMs.  I diagnosed that the root cause is the Link 2000 charge controller.  The controller has been floating the battery voltage too high (28.3v).   So all that time at the dock, plugged into shore power, the Xantrex charger had been slowly killing the batteries.

Unfortunately there is no calibration procedure for the older Link 2000 units.

Rather than replace the Link 2000 I decided to put in a good high output charger that can be programmed.  I bought the Mastervolt 100Amp/24V model and I'm very pleased with it so far.  I can set the bulk, absorption and float voltage parameters with 0.05volt precision.  In addition to being able to properly maintain all my batteries with the charger I will also reduce the amount of time I have to run the generator for battery charging by 50%.  The unit can pump 100 amps into the domestic bank during bulk charging.

So out go come the existing batteries..... All 8 of them. 

....And in with the new Lifeline AGM 6V golf cart batteries.  Each one weighs in at 68lbs and it was a slow and methodical process to muscle them into place.  I bought these from American Battery in Hayward, CA.  Jim Ramos was really good to work with.  He gave me a fair "boat show" price and free delivery to the boat.  His driver was on time and hauled away the old batteries too.   I can't ask for more than that.

The Lifeline batteries were an exact fit for the existing MK batteries. 

A preliminary load test shows these new batteries are rock solid and and the new charger is floating them perfectly at 26.6 volts or 6.65 volts/battery.

Yes..... Got amps!

T-minus 4 months

By Nancy

It’s May 15^th and we are leaving on Sept. 15^th.  Summer is here, as our son Bryan is home from his first year at college.  I’ve been enjoying a slow thorough clean out of the house, as Rob continues boat projects mid-week.  Have designated June and July as Play months, so trying to get most of the heavy-lifting done now.  After months of verbal plans, (no lists, all in my head), the Home To-do list is in action.

• Found a very nice babysitter for my Steinway – Yay!
• Purchased a nice Yamaha keyboard that will slide right onto the boat.  It feels like a Yamaha, and is digitized to sound like a 7’ concert grand.
• Hired our property manager to rent our home. – We’ll vacate by Sept 1^st to do final cleaning.  New tenants can move in the 15^th. 
• August 4^th – Summer pool party for our land based friends
• Scheduled the PODS service for two drop offs and pick ups in August
• Found another nice recipient for donations – Los Altos Discovery re-sale shop for the American Cancer Society.  – I ran out of shopping bags and boxes to bring the stuff over…need to go shopping and get some more
• Sold some stuff on eBay.  Most notable, an authentic strait jacket that was given to us as a corporate gag gift.  A local doctor snapped that up in a day!.Hmmm….
• Boxed up the china, buffet, kitchen and home office things we want to keep (why?) but don’t want for the summer (or the next few years)

Some of the remaining to do’s:

• Take care of the home business stuff (insurance, finances)
• Sell two cars (later this summer)
• Find a home for the 8 ft pool table/ping pong
• Paint the master bath

I enjoy these things, and am making time for cooking, working out, music and our friends. After 9 years in Los Altos and working full time, it’s great having freedom. 

It's all about the Journey - Overnight to Monterey, CA

After several missed weather windows earlier this year, we finally had a clear week for our first overnight voyage down to Monterey Monday.  We left Sausalito at 5pm, and our friends Dan and Betsy waved (and called us on the VHF) from the Marin Headlands as we were tacking up through the Golden Gate Bridge. The winds were NW at 20 knots as we cleared Point Bonita.  At the end of the shipping channel markers we turned south and headed down to Monterey.    15 hours and 90 nautical miles later, we successfully arrived into the beautiful Monterey harbor.

This was my first overnight watch with Rob. We divided the shifts into 3 hour intervals, and dozed mostly in the cockput during our off-shifts.  Wind conditions were mostly 11-16 knots, allowing us sail most of the way, motoring the final 2-3 hours as the winds diminished once inside the Monterey Bay.   At times the night sky was clear, with lots of stars to admire.  We used the chartplotter a lot, toggling between two main displays, the Charts and Radar, to check for traffic.  With mid-week, there were only a few fishing boats at night.  Despite my 'mind over matter' strategy, sleep deprivation was tougher than I expected, even at the start of my 11 - 2am shift.  Rob was a great captain, and ready to jump up to help or advise during the whole time.  We tried out some new 'stay-warm' approaches learned from the Boat Show last weekend, as well as hot beverages and snacks to keep us alert.

With this first voyage complete, we've learned a lot, and have a list (some already started) of things to do to make the next overnights, with or without crew,  even better.

Now we've been reacquainting ourselves with Monterey's attractions - fresh seafood, picturesque waterfronts, friendly locals.  This morning we toured the Aquarium which continues to update their exhibits to be fresh and appealing for all ages. There is a new Jellies Adventure exhibit that has  psychedelic themes from the '60s that was fun.  Rob even found a penguin that was tagged "Rob N".  He was the excited one pushing against the tank, trying to escape.

Tomorrow we'll be in Santa Cruz, then Half Moon Bay, and back in our slip by Sunday night.  

Equipment you never want to use

We are servicing our life raft and hope to never pop it in need.....
Here it is inflated at Sal's in Alameda.  It passed the overnight pressure test and will need all new safety gear from Winslow.  The pressure bottle will be hydro-tested and the valve replaced.  The service cost about 1/3 the price of a new raft.  Ouch!

Spinlock Clutches

Having fun rebuilding the Spinlock clutches.....  A few of them had lost spring tension and the only way to fix the spring is to take the entire clutch apart.  The most difficult part is getting them off the mast.  The stainless screws were really frozen up good and when I finally got them off the mast they took some paint with them.  I'm priming and applying some touch-up paint before they go back on.  The photo shows 3 of the 6 clutches that have been reworked.

 Rebuilt clutches on the mast

 Rebuilt clutches under the dodger.