Cat Harbor, Two Harbors, Santa Catalina Island

All the holiday traffic here has gone home, and we are at home. How cool is that?! I have tons of great pictures to attach to these posts, but alas our Virgin Mobile 3-G Dongle is having connection issues, and I’m only able to work online for about 10 minutes at a time before losing the signal...  (UPDATE:  WE ARE IN DANA POINT HARBOR AND I AM FINALLY ABLE TO ADD PICTURES!!!) The stars have to be aligned correctly, the tide must be high, and the boat must pitch ever so gently. It is forcing me to be very organized and less verbose which is probably a good thing.

We have been hiking in the island hills, kayaking on our new inflatable and playing ball with Dover on the beach closest to where we are moored in the harbor. Yes, that is correct, the boy went ashore now three times… the poop has left the pooch… onboard the boat and begrudgingly. He is learning the new ropes of living on the hook, and is certainly very much more appreciative of his trips ashore. Dover is now a Salty Dog!
We are doing little organizational things aboard and small projects (backing-up files on hard drive, re-stowing things for better access, etc) Craig caught a small bonita fish off the boat, but we let him go as he was not big enough for a good meal.

Tomorrow we will head into town and fill our water jerry jugs (we will not attempt hooking-up our reverse osmosis watermaker until we are in Mexico) drop off garbage and recycling, pumpout our holding tank, and generally prepare for departure. We are thinking of bypassing San Diego and heading directly for Ensenada, and our Mexican check-in to the country, due to our unplanned stop here in Catalina… we’ll see. The great thing about cruising is that you are on your own time frame and can make these decisions as you go.
We are very much enjoying everyone’s comments and holiday emails. Please keep them coming! If we don’t respond right away, don’t despair, we will respond eventually…  (If you have, what I like to call "super zoom", you will find Craig and Dover hiking on the trail that I have photographed...  Good stuff that is!)

New Years Eve

We left Channel Islands Harbor at 1pm on the 30th with every intention of heading to San Diego. There was a mild rain when we left, but it did not seem mild when we got out to sea and had to contend with beating (yes, beating) to weather going on what should be 99% of the time a down wind, down current run. Combine that action with two sailors who are exhausted from all the “last minute” stuff we’ve been doing for the last month and a dog who hasn’t done a sail in over a year, and by 10pm Captain Craig put Catalina on the table for the crew… Yes, by all means, let’s stop and finally, relax! That is exactly what we are doing… Well, maybe not Dover. He has faced a tough-love demon the past 32 hours. Dover is used to going out on walks/beach runs with us 4 times a day. Even at Channel Islands where there is no beach access for doggies, we managed to “chuck-it” ball on the grassy bits above our guest slip at least twice a day. Bottom line, Dover has got to learn to go #1 and #2 on the boat, solo and with impunity. He absolutely refuses to defile his boat, which was cool in the marina community, and is not in the cruising environment. Long, painful (for everyone) story short… He pissed on the deck after 32 hours of whining and holding out for a trip to shore. Huge praise from us, but he still has not gone #2. We are hoping for the am on January 1st, 2010 so that we can treat him to a shore run on the kayak. I’m upping the anti in our favor with cheese snacks. It works for me! Dover poop news will follow!!
Engine ran great. Radar was right on. The only problem we encountered via boat systems was, well, US. We need to give ourselves the time to catch-up to what we’ve accomplished with this boat in the last two years and get on to the business of reaping what we have sewn! First lesson being learned right now… Happy New Year to you and yours. The souls of South Trail wish you peace, health, happiness and new adventures in 2010.

Merry Christmas

We are in Channel Islands at the guest docks finishing up our boat projects and provisioning.  Our van is now safely tucked-up in the Los Padres National Forest at a wonderful little mountain community called Reyes Creek at our friend Marvin's cabin.  It was a gorgeous drive through the mountains yesterday, and now without vehicles once again, we really feel like we are cruising again!

So far, Craig has successfully installed the old Furuno Radar and it works like a charm.  He spliced this crazy multiple colored wire and it actually worked which is like some sort of black art to the technologically challenged such as myself.  The Radar tower and davit that our friend Travis designed and manufactured is really a thing of beauty and looks like functional art.  We have it rigged so that if anyone of us, God forbid, needs to be lifted out of the water the other person can easily accomplish the task.  It will also be handy for putting our outboard on and off our dinghy and lifting heavy provisions.  Craig installed some very bright lights on the tower as well which light up our cockpit and the side of the boat.  It has the added benefit of attracting bait fish at night too!  We are spending the holiday at Craig's mom Sue's house and should be departing for San Diego on Monday.  Happy Holidays to All!

2 days until depature...

...from Ventura Harbor at least.  We are resigned that we still have a couple days of projects left to complete so we may head to San Diego to complete them or someplace along the way.  It will be good to get out of our slip here if only psycologically.  Craig is STILL finishing a clients boat project today, and we have our annual Holiday Parade of Lights this evening with Sue and Roxie coming down to enjoy a last bit of holiday cheer before we head out.  Craig's only been able to put in about 2-3 hours per day on our boat for the last week.  The time is counting down and still there are many projects to complete on South Trail.  Eva is attempting to fit all of our gear aboard while also trying not to impede the fix-it projects Craig has going.  Dover is just trying not to get stepped on and frequently has a very concerned look on his face.  It will be nice for all of us to get back to a regular routine and have the boat put back into "home" order.

Diesel Ready...almost

Our boat is powered with a Universal 5432. The more I learn about this little beast the more I've come to love her. Having a 30 year old engine used to concern me considering what we will be expecting of her. But now, I have few worries. She has a new oversized heat exchanger, new raw water pump, new exhaust mixing elbow, and all new belts and hoses. The past 2 weeks has been fixing minor fuel leaks, repairing a chaffed heat exchanger (totally my fault...rubbing on bellhousing bolt), all fluid changes, all new hoses and clamps, and alignment.

The engine was running a little hot yesterday (195 at full load) so I drilled a small hole in the 180 degree thermostat and reduced the coolant ration to 30%. Lesson learned: change only one thing at once. The temp is now too cold. Soooooooo, back to the "no hole thermostat with the holed one as a spare for the warmer water we're heading off to. I believe the high concentration of coolant was the problem. Live and learn and spend time and money.

I believe today that this engine could motor around the world...and hopefully will have to! The Kubota block that the Universal is built around might just be the most robust and bomb proof diesel ever made. I know people love their Yanmars, but I'll take this ol' girl any day. 30 years old, pushes this 10 ton boat at 6.3 kts at 80% throttle, 7.3kts wide open, 45lb of oil pressure, and burns less than 1 gal/hr. With our 93 gallons of fuel onboard (ok, this includes 4 jerry jugs), our range is well over 500 miles with plenty of reserve. This, of course, with no wind. And it doesn't take much wind to make this boat go.

We also have a day tank system with onboard fuel polishing and transfer which is similar to commercial fishing boats. This means that fuel from the day tank to the engine fuel filters (racor 500 and engine mount filter) has already been pre-filtered with seperate Racor 500 and a 30 micron racor. It also enables us to keep the 12 gallon day tank topped off, eliminating the possibility of sucking air into the system in a rough seaway (this happened on our last boat and was not fun!)

Anyway, we blew up the diesel on our last boat (12 hp Farymann) and have no intention of a repeat. The Farymann had no gauges or alarms and got hot enough to sieze. We now have all gauges and an alarm system to wake the dead. Add to that, when the alarm goes off Dover barks like the sky is falling. I think he knows the importance.

Tomorrow I'm going to delve into the black art of NMEA 0183 and try and make the Navman wind instrument and Garmin GPS talk to the Furuno Autopilot. I rate my odds at about 35%. It sure would be nice for the autopilot to steer off the apparent wind. But, to be honest, I'm so thrilled just to have an autopilot (last trip was 4000 miles of hand steering) that none of this matters too much.

A week of rain is in the forecast and we just want to go go go. Anything non-critical can be installed someplace warm with many cervesa breaks!

No Rest for the Wicked... or Cruiser's Readying for Departure!

To do this story justice, we need to go back 24 hours to Friday, yesterday, morning.  I had a relatively short list of "TO DO's" on my daily list: stow boat for autopilot sea trial, study, study, study for Ham test Saturday, pick-up present and food from restaurant for Aunt Rox's B-Day Celebration in the evening.

We all woke early to greet the day with great enthusiasim and positive energy!  Craig spent a long day on Thursday finishing our engine maintenance, and removing our old Robertson Auto Pilot, and installing our brand new brain, the Furuno.  At 8pm Thursday night, he completed the "at dock" portion of the autopilot programming.  He stayed up late reviewing all the steps necessary for our "sea trial" phase of programming where we take the boat out to the ocean and it "learns" how the boat steers. 

Friday AM we were ready for just that.  After walking the dog, I set about to tidy the boat (Ha!) or at least get things stowed so that no one would get impaled or we wouldn't lose valuable equipment.  This minor project included re-bedding our galley cabinetry atop our engine compartment after the maintenance was completed.  I had it off for two days and was more than ready to have our galley back to normal.  After an hour or so, the boat was ready to go out for the test.  Craig came back from The Captain's Breakfast Table (or old sailor's coffee clutch as I call it) and was upset about a neighbor getting involved in a business discussion which was not his affair to be involved with.  Craig takes great pride in what he does, and not feeling good about leaving the discussion the way he did, he went back to have a further, calmer dialogue with the neighbor.  Meanwhile, it is now about 10am.  I decide to go online and check mail as I am waiting for two boat insurance quotes.  Yippee!  I get one...  Seems a little high priced.  Oops.  I got dyslexic with the value of our boat to the tune of several thousand dollars.  No message from our current insurance agency who seems to be dragging their heals.  Craig is back.  He talked at length with the neighbor in an effort to communicate rationally, and is feeling like he's beating his head against a brick wall and wasted valuable time.  Our earlier optimisim for the day has taken a good hit, but we are going to rally for the sea trial!  Craig goes to get a glass of water from our galley and no pressure water.  We check and our 30+ year old pressure water pump and it has in fact given up the ghost...  Put that on the list for tomorrow... 

Our Universal Diesel Engine, "Goldie" starts right up and away we go to sea trial!  Our new Furuno is a dream!  "Doc" as we have named her, is a super star!  She is steering the boat better than either one of us ever could!  The only negative is that she is not yet hooked-up to our speed indicator and has a rather annoying alarm that sounds whenever she can't tell what speed the boat is traveling, which is quite often.  Put "Call Furuno" on my list for tomorrow. 

Back in the slip Craig noticed some smoke coming from the engine and took a look.  Bad news again.  There was coolant leaking from the engine, and we couldn't initially tell where it was coming from.  Time to take off the galley cabinet... again!  Craig was panicking and thinking it was the engine block which would be a HUGE fix, but as luck would have it, it was our heat exchanger that had been rubbing against a bolt and warn through.  Starving at 2pm, we took a break and ran up to Carrows to grab a quick lunch.  Craig decided not to attempt the Ham test as he had not had a minute to study in days and had to work on our client's vessel on Saturday.  I will go alone for team South Trail, and am starting to feel the pressure!  Craig took our leaky heat exchanger it to our neighbor Travis at the Ventura Boat Yard and got the hole welded while he waited, and then spent time putting a fiberglass patch over the weld and painting the whole thing.  Meanwhile, I managed a whole 2 hours of uninteruppted study which only served to show me how totally unprepared I was for this test in the morning.  Ahhhh!!! 

No time to worry now, I ran out to pick-up a b-day gift, stop by the post office, and then swing by to grab Craig and Dover to go to pick-up BBQ and get to the B-Day party.  It was a nice event, and when we finally got home to our boat last night at 8:45pm I started to study.  I studyed most of the night.  I took a little nap and a shower (in the public showers... no pressure water!), and DRUM ROLL PLEASE... at 8:15am this morning I passed my Ham test!!!  I am now a Technician Class Amatuer Operator and in about a week I will check the FCC database online, and have a call sign assigned to my name which will be mine for the next 10 years.  I'm at the lowest level and don't get to talk legally on hardly any radio bands, but it sure feels good to have it!  Craig is proud, I'm proud, and now back to that never ending list of THINGS TO DO TODAY!  Only 15 days 'til departure!   

One Step Forward, Three Steps Back...

As with all good fairytales, the hero must, by design, get through an evil forest, lay waste to a few dragons, and fight some bad guys before he can claim his "happily ever after"...  We souls aboard South Trail are wading through our own ying/yang bog of hurdles necessary to get our boat out of the harbor and onto our own "fair winds and following seas" ever after...

Our Robertson Autopilot, which Craig has painstakingly installed, has a serious glitch.  It will hold a compass course perfectly for about 3 minutes, and then just stop steering the boat.  We can then adjust course +/- one degree and it "wakes up" and starts steering again...  for three minutes.  It's a sailor's version of "Groundhog Day"... Not a great scenario for the relaxing cruise we have been planning!  Craig is 99% sure it is the control head computer which needs to be replaced.  Unfortunately, we have not been able to locate a used one to fit our unit in all our usual favorite internet and land based spots.  Our other option is to purchase a whole new "brain" for our quadrant linear drive, which by virtue of it's cost, would shorten our cruise.  Either way, we have to have reliable self-steering while crusing.  Our previous Mexican cruise '04-'05 we completed the Baja Bash from Acapulco to Long Beach with no self-steering autohelm.  That was 4 hours on and 4 hours off watch schedule with one of us always at the helm steering 1800+ nautical miles.  I never knew it was possible to actually miss someone's company on a 30 foot boat.  Although that was a great sailing experience with valuable lessons learned, it is not a scenario Craig and I will willingly repeat!

Meanwhile, our new ICOM 718 Ham Radio has been successfully installed (the old Kenwood we got turned out to be a dud unfortunately) and along with our new ICOM antenna tuner, we have been listening to all sorts of radio traffic from all over the world.  It is pretty cool, I must admit.  It does inspire one to study for the Ham test.  Craig is definately going to pass.  Eva?...  Jury is still out.

Craig also finished putting together our new fuel transfer and polish system which is very cool.  On our last cruise aboard our old Cal 2/29 Tigertail Street we had some real issues in rough seas with our engine cutting out due to lack of diesel flow in half empty tanks.  Craig designed a pretty genius system on our Newport 41 by installing a 12 gallon day tank which is the only feed to our engine.  It sits in our salon settee, amidships and just port of our centerline which all but eliminates the tank sloshing about.  Our two original diesel tanks each feed to a Racor filter which polishes the fuel prior to being pumped to the day tank.  The day tank feeds the engine after it goes through a second Racor filter mounted next to our Universal 5432 engine.  The fuel transfer and polisher sits in our "garage" aft of our companionway and also has a spare hose to allow polish and transfer to the day tank from jerry jugs or fuel bladders.

Eva has been attempting to tame the storage beast.  Storage has grown exponentially over the last few years, and with the addition of Ventura Boat Doctor projects overlapping eachother, we have managed to create quite the disorganized mess.  The boat itself has been cleared of all extraneous extras (books, pillows, cushions, etc) in order to make our system's installs easier.  All of that is in storage too!  It is a big project and one that must be accomplished before we depart.

Dover is our "One Step Forward" success story this blog.  He has turned a corner in recent days, and is now enjoying being a social doggie with his previous dock dog nemesis'.  He actually played and frolicked on the beach with Jenga, a small white dog, which we have lovingly refered to for the last year as "the other, other white meat".  After a year of lighting-up at poor Jenga and her master, Vicki, when they walked past our boat, Dover met her on the beach sans leashes and acted the perfect gentleman.  They played and frolicked in the sand.  It was a wonderful moment!