sailing homepage :
trip reports :
summer refit :
finishing touches
Previous: blessing & first sail!
Next: 1: sf to sd
Oct 1-4: Finishing touches: hawse pipes, tri-anchor system, dinghy and outboard onboard, extra halyards; sailing with friends and family; farewell from Centellax
With the end of September came the end of our gainful employment. Sara's senator, Wes Chesbro, was being termed out of office, so it worked out nicely for her to depart. Although the Senator's term ends in the beginning of December, Sara was so excited to get sailing she managed to escape a little early.
My job situation was a little different. When I first moved to California, I joined a little technology startup named "Centellax". Centellax and I grew together, and I moved from a design engineer to the Director of Sales. Leaving was very hard.
I like to think that I had a hand in Centellax's success, and I'm incredibly thankful for the opportunities given to me by Julio, our President and CEO. I'm proud to say that I have been the longest-running Director of Sales to date, that we hit almost all of our sales goals over my tenure, and that we had our first profitable quarter just before we left!
The good news is that my departure isn't perminant. Just like Arnie, "I'll be back!". Before leaving I was granted an extended leave of absence, which works out very nicely. When we run out of money, get bored, or want to come home - there's a place I know I can come back to.
Anyway, so this week had a lot of farewell parties. Sara's colleagues took her out to lunch, bought her flowers, and met us for dinner at an Irish Pub in Sonoma. Will's colleagues also did the lunch thing, along with some cake and sparkling cider.
|
|
Farewell cake
Laundry day!This week also got a little more complicated as we sold my truck, Sara's car, and my dirtbike in the space of three days! We had just enough time to do a quick laundry run before we were completely stranded at Loch Lomond. It turns out the timing was perfect - we kept Sara's car until Saturday, and ended up leaving on Wednesday.
There were tons of small jobs to finish before we could leave, and we missed our intended departure date messing around with stuff. Sean finished the hawse pipes and new bow cleats. The cleats both have huge backing plates, and of course the deck was overdrilled, some of the core was removed, epoxy filled the holes, and the cleats are mounted through epoxy.
|
|
Hawse pipe and snubber line
That cleat is solid!We mounted two anchors on the bowsprit and a third on the stern. Our primary anchor is the 45# CQR, with 100' of 3/8" BBB chain and 300' of 5/8" three-strand rode. Our backup bow anchor is a 45# Bruce with 50' of 3/8" BBB and 150' of 5/8" three-strand rode. Our stern anchor is a huge 45# Danforth with another 50' of 3/8" BBB and 150' of 5/8" three-strand rode. Any one of these anchors is huge massive overkill for Wanderlust's size and weight.
|
|
|
|
|
Sean attaching the Bruce
Sara wiring the shackle
Danforth on the stern
Sara the locker monkeyWe added another chain pipe on the stern, and also attached a rearward-facing cleat for emergency anchor purposes. I'm really happy about our anchor systems. All three are connected to chain and rode and are ready to go; all are two sizes larger than recommended for our boat in heavy weather!
|
|
Sean running halyards
Henri with a presentNext was adding a pair of halyards - one for the spinnaker, one as an emergency backup. Sean went up the mast to attach and safety-wire the blocks. Sometime in here, one of our dock neighbours Henri dropped by with the news that Christmas was coming early for us! He had bought a boom preventer - a device intended to slow the boom down during an accidental jibe - but it wouldn't fit on his boat. He gave it to us! Thank you, Henri!
|
|
Sailing with 11 onboard!
Sara's uncle Mark and aunt JudyWhile cutting our last connections to land, and frantically trying to finish the boat projects, we also managed to squeeze in a little pleasure sail for Sara's family and some of our friends. It was very relaxing, and somehow we managed to get 11 people comfortably onboard!
|
|
Hanging out on the bowsprit
Sean hoisting the outboardWe also changed sails, fixed a few sail-related problems, added reef rigging components, stowed parts, drilled holes, attached electronics, etc. Just getting the dinghy and outboard onboard was a challenge! Good thing we installed extra halyards.
|
|
Dinghy stowed onboard
Evil devil duckThe last thing we did before leaving was install our figurehead: evil devil duck.