11/12/2009

Cap’n Mike, our newest friend, owner of a 35′ Erikson, world traveler, banjo/mandolin playing, Irish music loving, Vietnam Veteran, former “Duck Tours” operator, Bed and Breakfast owner and sailing lesson instructor who came into our lives thanks to the magical world of Craigslist advertising. Mike is working on his 6th boat, modifying, sanding polishing and painting all whilst dreaming about the wind in her sails and much anticipated voyages to the outer islands and beyond. Between his Scottsman jokes, bagpipes and Bud Lite he is teaching us the ropes to this whole boat repair life. We started small, scrubbing and polishing off the stanchions, windlass and winches and much to our excitement were rewarded with a sunset sail and drills in “Man over Board” rescue techniques. It felt good to walk across her decks, to get our hands dirty, to sweat over her while polishing away the rust and salt that dulled her beauty. She shines now and sails with such life that you can feel her grin as the wind fills her sails and pulls us onward. We have lots more work to do, so much more to learn and are eager for our next adventure with Cap’n Mike and his newest jewel.

Today I learned:
Lazarette
Mackerel Sky
“Red Sky at night, sailors delight. Red sky at morn, sailors take warn.” Is true! Red sky at night means the storm is behind you, red sky in the morning (east) means it is coming towards you.
Ready about, coming about
Figure 8 man-over-board rescue
Main Halyard
Steer the mast into the slip
Read the direction of the waves, pick a cloud, watch shadows, fell the wind on your face to help navigate and stay on course without a compass
Tell Tails-should be horizontal. If you fall off too much the back one will drop, if you come into the wind too hard the front one will drop. Try to keep them both horizontal and you are in the sweet spot

11/13/2009
And we’re hooked. Made our first ever offer on a sailboat. The dream is quickly becoming true. She’s a 27′ Cal with dirt, grim, rust and most importantly potential. I think *hope* she is the one!
*Also rappelled off a 31 story building today, it was pretty sweet! Can you say “Aloha Friday”?

Mike (as in our Mike) always jokes that you can tell a real sailor from a vacationer by what happens after their boat is anchored. A true sailor goes straight to work scrubbing, polishing, checking and re-checking every system, whereas a vacationing sailor goes right to mixing sunset cocktails. I feel like a true sailor and we haven’t even been out to sea. Each day we visit our boat there is more scrubbing to be done, more systems to check and double check, more added to our to-do list. The work never ends and the rum has yet to be bought let alone enjoyed. Although our backs are sore, our hands stained with oil and our fingerprints worn from all the bleaching, we are enjoying the hard work. We now know the actual meaning of “elbow” grease and anticipate much more when we return tomorrow.
Today we:Went through each locker and threw out two large trash bags of junkBrought home another two large bags of items to be cleaned and properly storedRyan continued his greasy ordeal with the bilge pump (it didn’t help that I dropped something down there in the midst of cleaning, we fished out: a bottle cap, a twisty tie, a metal bracket and discovered a wrench/nuts/bolts that were impossible to recoverI began the bleaching process -starting with the v-birth and bathroomFound 3 jibs and a spinnaker-checked them and stored as best we could
Tomorrow the plan is to continue bleaching the cabin, scrubbing all floors, scrubbing all lockers, and hopefully finish scrubbing the deck. We are planning on having our first visitors over to the boat tomorrow! Mike, Winnie, Glen and Melanie are coming over to check out Sundance and join us for dinner at La Mariana’s. I hope they like dining with smelly, mold covered, new boat owners

11/18/2009
Arrived at the boat today and were greeted by our new pet pufferfish. Ryan called him “Buddy” and I called him “Francois” so his name is appropriately “Buddy Francois” from this point on. It’s great to have a pet who feeds himself and doesn’t require any maintenance. In fact, we think he’s actually helping to clean the hull of our boat!
We spent the majority of the afternoon scrubbing the interior of the boat. I tackled the moldy headliner and Ryan went to work on the nasty floors. What we thought was mold on the floor was most likely a combination of oil, dirt and mold. It was so tough that we had to use straight acetone and a scrubbing brush to remove the gunk. At least the tough job is done and from this point on we just have to maintain her. It was nice to get the bulk of the icky work out of the way and just in time for our guests.
Mike, Winnie, Jeff (from Mike’s company), Mel and Glen were our first visitors! They stopped by this afternoon to check out our latest family addition and we all ended the night at La Marian’s restaurant over cocktails and great music. The lively piano players carried us throughout the night singing everything from New York, New York to Michael Jackson’s Billy Jean and even threw in a little holiday cheer with the greatest version of “Silver Bells” I’ve ever heard. It felt like home on our boat today and like we were in perfect rhythm with where we are supposed to be in life right now. That’s what its all about right, living in the now? *wink wink Mel* It’s so nice when everything comes together.
Today we:Scrubbed the floors and headliner (still have to figure out what to do with the rest of the cabin lining)Tied up new fendor lines and bought rope to make new dock linesFinished scrubbing the deck- FINALLY! Time to soap her up and give her a proper bath now that the bleaching is done

With such an adorable little smile I can’t help myself from snapping a zillion photos when home. Here are some of the latest:

Does this one ring a bell?

We are so excited to show off our dream Sundance, our 27′ Cal Jensen sailboat! She needs some love and care (translate dinero) but we are so thrilled to see our dream coming true! We can’t wait to have you all out for an afternoon sail. Day by day we are working on her and hope to be out in the water by January. The biggest question besides why our engine doesn’t work, what should we name her?!?

Were you worried? We realize it has been a longggg time since our last post. So much has happened and this post is our attempt to catch you all up on the recent events and excitement of our lives!

Where to start?

For Halloween we dressed up as “cave people”. It was the best, cheapest and fasted costume we have ever attempted for Halloween and judging from the reaction of everyone we passed on the streets our efforts were pretty convincing. Check us out and tell us what you think?

I met my fundraising goal thanks to Uncle Fuj and his company Prudentials generous donation. A HUGE MAHALO to everyone for your encouragement and support. The event was a total blast, adrenaline rush and thrill. I was so happy to share such a special event and cause with great friends. Lauren, Uncle Bill, Uncle Didi, Uncle Glen and I were so excited to see our huge cheering squad down below and out in canoes in the water. Check out these great photos that Richie from Uncle Didi’s Aloha Beach Services stand took for us!

31 stories and our cheering crew out in the water:

Here go the uncles:

Here I go:

Me and Lauren:

And one upside down just for the fun of it!

A quick trip to Cali provided some much needed love from family and friends and the weather was amazing. Thanks to everyone for taking the time out to spend some laughs with me. I was so excited to visit San Luis Obispo and spend some time with Christin, Kenny and their two beautiful babes Rylan and Elle. I was able to visit Jaime and her fiancee Steve’s new house, visit Farmers Market and hike the Cal Poly “P” a goal that Jaime and I have had for a long time. I also made it up to San Francisco to hang out with my lovey Jill and visit with her amazing roommates. Thanks for being such great hosts and friends everyone. To top everything off I was able to snuggle with baby Connor, who isn’t much of a baby anymore! Mom, dad, Davie, Brenda and everyone else I love you guys too! And of course….I can’t forget to mention my baby boy Chewie! Lots of fun in just a few short days!