SEAYANIKA - Cal Vader 49

IN THE WATER WORK

1/30/04 Living on the water Well...the day finally arrived. On Thursday, January 22nd, San Diego Boat Movers loaded Seayanika and took her down to Driscoll's Boat Works. It was quite a parade of vehicles following her down the freeway. Channel 8's Larry Himmell did a great report on the move. Once in the boatyard, Erik went to work double time, to do the final preparations. It was very hectic to say the least! On Saturday, January 24th, the party began at 11:00 a.m. There were about 120 people who showed up, along with Channel 8, Channel 10 and Brian Turken from Extreme Retirement. The launch happened exactly on schedule at noon, the champagne bottle broke on the first whack, and Seayanika sat perfectly straight in the water. After a few false starts getting the engine going (we had a pin hole air leak in one of the castings feeding the fuel tank), we motored around Shelter Island to the Kona Kai Marina, where the "after" party was well on its way. The success of the launch was due to the invaluable assistance we received from Costa Haramis (Port Supply), Bob Dow, Rita Archer, John Crial, Valeri Golish (my sister), Tracy Buckley, Eleanor Pigg, and everyone else who pitched in to help keep the party running smoothly. Also, Driscoll's Boat Works did a fabulous job at reasonable rates and I can highly recommend them. Since the launch, we moved Seayanika over to the Police Docks on Shelter Island. I've been driving back and forth to Vista packing up supplies and stowing them and Erik has been busy hooking up systems. We now have most of our lighting, hot and cold running water, the microwave, coffee pot and heater. I'm told I will 'soon' have a toilet and refrigeration. Ah...the comforts of home!

2/19/04 More systems On February 9th we moved from the Police Docks to Montego Bay "Marina" on Coronado. It's not much of a marina as there are no restrooms, no showers, no facilities, no access and no parking, but the slips are nice, the area is beautiful and it is very quiet. Loew's Coronado across the way was kind enough to let us purchase a parking pass for the duration of our stay (on e month) and use their dingy dock for access. Meanwhile, Erik keeps working away at hooking up systems and mounting hardware. We now have plumbing in both heads, all of our lighting, TV, VCR, washer/dryer, VHF and GPS, computer, and just last night I hooked up the computer for Internet access and sent my first email from Seayanika. I'm doing this with the combination of my desktop PC and my cell phone, connected with a USB cable. I haven't worked out all of the bugs yet, and the connection is REALLY slow and unreliable, but I'm happy to have gotten this far. We still don't have our sails but the mast and boom were installed on February 6th by Pacific Offshore Rigging. Wow, talk about guys that know what they are doing! The mast was up, in and secured in no time. We've taken Seayanika out several times around the bay (motoring, of course) and the engine is running smoothly, the steering is very responsive and the 30 year new/old Ritchie compass is spot on. Could life be any grander?

3/16/04 Re-Haul While hooking up systems, Erik discovered that the transducer we installed wouldn't connect up to the sounding module. After a quick call to our vendor, we discovered the wrong transducer had been sent to us. Not good news. This meant we had to haul Seayanika, pound out the wrong one and install the correct one. However, looking on the bright side, Erik was not happy with the 30 year old Groco thru hulls he had installed, so we decided to haul out right away and change out the transducer and the thru hulls. We scheduled with Driscoll's Boat Works to haul on last Friday and spent the weekend on the hard scraping out 5200 and Sikaflex. Yuck! Now we're back at the Police Docks, hooking the plumbing back up and waiting for our sails and sail hardware. On a fun note (?), a couple of weeks ago I had my first experience going up the mast. I actually had to go up three times; once to take a measurement, again to recheck the measurement, and finally to connect the inner forestay. The first time was scary and I had my arms and legs wrapped around the mast so tightly that I came down with bruises. But the second and third time up was actually fun. I don't think I'd like the trip up so much if we were out at sea or in a rough anchorage!

5/7/04 Sailing? A lot of things have been happening since I last made an entry - but old as I am - I can't remember them all. Let's see. From the Police Docks we went to Oceanside Harbor for a few days. We planned on staying longer, but it was just too expensive ($.75/foot/day) for a guest slip, and they only have two available. So we moved up to Dana Point - all this by the way is motor sailing. Dana Point has a great anchorage. It's really beautiful next to the replica of the Pilgrim, which is the boat that Richard Henry Dana sailed on in his book "Two Years Before the Mast" There is also a great yacht club there, Dana West, which some friends of ours belong to. So we hoisted many drinks there over the month that we spent there so far. We motorsailed up to Newport for the annual Cal 46 meeting, staying on a county mooring the first night, and at the Balboa Yacht Club the second night. Hmmm! Kinda liking this yacht club stuff! We sailed (get that SAILED!!!) back from Newport to Dana Point, and eventually motored back to the Police Docks at Shelter Island. The Dana Point-San Diego trip was memorable. After 9 hours of great weather, flat seas and no wind (bummer), we arrived at Point Loma. Rounding the corner, all of a sudden it was victory at sea. The wind picked up to a steady 30 knots with gusts to 35. We were very unbalanced with our main alone so we dropped it as soon as we could. We were taking buckets of green water over the bow and from the forward quater all the way into our center (read that high) cockpit. We went from sweating to shivering in less than 5 minutes. Then, in those same gusty conditions we had to take an inside 45 foot slip at the docks. Erik got one chance to get it right or take out a few transoms - and several people on the docks were looking nervous at our intentions - but with the help of our trusty bow thruster, he made it look easy. Thank you IMTRA (our bow thruster vendor)!! We're off to Dana Point tomorrow for two days and then to Catalina Island for a couple of weeks. We've got a couple of gatherings to go to and I know it's going to be fun, fun, fun. Oh yeah - on the more mundane side, the watermaker is up and running, as is the windlass, but not the autopilot. Soon, I guess.

8/8/04 Dana Point Work The entire month of July and this month we have been subleting a slip in Dana Point trying to get Seayanika ready for her upcoming adventure. There were four critical tasks that Erik had to accomplish and hundreds of other things that we'd like to have done before leaving. The four big ones included; installing new motor mounts because the ones that came with our engine were too hardened from age; finishing up the pilothouse, installing it and installing windows; finding out why the autopilot was motoring the wheel instead of the rudder; and building and installing the stainless steel arch so we can install our radar. To date the motor mounts are done, the autopilot is fixed, the pilothouse in on the boat sans windows and the arch in in process. In Erik's spare moments he has also built and installed our salon table, made more drawer and cabinet faces, hooked up the refrigerator and freezer, and installed the aft shower, among other things. I have been busy making cockpit cushions, purchasing and organizing the contents of our medical kit, and making list after list of things we should do before leaving. It's a hectic time and a preview of what's to come in October. Our current plans (subject to change of course) are to do our final Channel Islands shakedown cruise in mid to late September and then get to San Diego in early October for final preparations.

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1/30/04	Living on the water	Well...the day finally arrived. On Thursday, January 22nd, San Diego Boat Movers loaded Seayanika and took her down to Driscoll's Boat Works. It was quite a parade of vehicles following her down the freeway. Channel 8's Larry Himmell did a great report on the move. Once in the boatyard, Erik went to work double time, to do the final preparations. It was very hectic to say the least! On Saturday, January 24th, the party began at 11:00 a.m. There were about 120 people who showed up, along with Channel 8, Channel 10 and Brian Turken from Extreme Retirement. The launch happened exactly on schedule at noon, the champagne bottle broke on the first whack, and Seayanika sat perfectly straight in the water. After a few false starts getting the engine going (we had a pin hole air leak in one of the castings feeding the fuel tank), we motored around Shelter Island to the Kona Kai Marina, where the "after" party was well on its way. The success of the launch was due to the invaluable assistance we received from Costa Haramis (Port Supply), Bob Dow, Rita Archer, John Crial, Valeri Golish (my sister), Tracy Buckley, Eleanor Pigg, and everyone else who pitched in to help keep the party running smoothly. Also, Driscoll's Boat Works did a fabulous job at reasonable rates and I can highly recommend them. Since the launch, we moved Seayanika over to the Police Docks on Shelter Island. I've been driving back and forth to Vista packing up supplies and stowing them and Erik has been busy hooking up systems. We now have most of our lighting, hot and cold running water, the microwave, coffee pot and heater. I'm told I will 'soon' have a toilet and refrigeration. Ah...the comforts of home!
2/19/04	More systems	On February 9th we moved from the Police Docks to Montego Bay "Marina" on Coronado. It's not much of a marina as there are no restrooms, no showers, no facilities, no access and no parking, but the slips are nice, the area is beautiful and it is very quiet. Loew's Coronado across the way was kind enough to let us purchase a parking pass for the duration of our stay (on e month) and use their dingy dock for access. Meanwhile, Erik keeps working away at hooking up systems and mounting hardware. We now have plumbing in both heads, all of our lighting, TV, VCR, washer/dryer, VHF and GPS, computer, and just last night I hooked up the computer for Internet access and sent my first email from Seayanika. I'm doing this with the combination of my desktop PC and my cell phone, connected with a USB cable. I haven't worked out all of the bugs yet, and the connection is REALLY slow and unreliable, but I'm happy to have gotten this far. We still don't have our sails but the mast and boom were installed on February 6th by Pacific Offshore Rigging. Wow, talk about guys that know what they are doing! The mast was up, in and secured in no time. We've taken Seayanika out several times around the bay (motoring, of course) and the engine is running smoothly, the steering is very responsive and the 30 year new/old Ritchie compass is spot on. Could life be any grander?
3/16/04	Re-Haul	While hooking up systems, Erik discovered that the transducer we installed wouldn't connect up to the sounding module. After a quick call to our vendor, we discovered the wrong transducer had been sent to us. Not good news. This meant we had to haul Seayanika, pound out the wrong one and install the correct one. However, looking on the bright side, Erik was not happy with the 30 year old Groco thru hulls he had installed, so we decided to haul out right away and change out the transducer and the thru hulls. We scheduled with Driscoll's Boat Works to haul on last Friday and spent the weekend on the hard scraping out 5200 and Sikaflex. Yuck! Now we're back at the Police Docks, hooking the plumbing back up and waiting for our sails and sail hardware. On a fun note (?), a couple of weeks ago I had my first experience going up the mast. I actually had to go up three times; once to take a measurement, again to recheck the measurement, and finally to connect the inner forestay. The first time was scary and I had my arms and legs wrapped around the mast so tightly that I came down with bruises. But the second and third time up was actually fun. I don't think I'd like the trip up so much if we were out at sea or in a rough anchorage!
5/7/04	Sailing?	A lot of things have been happening since I last made an entry - but old as I am - I can't remember them all. Let's see. From the Police Docks we went to Oceanside Harbor for a few days. We planned on staying longer, but it was just too expensive ($.75/foot/day) for a guest slip, and they only have two available. So we moved up to Dana Point - all this by the way is motor sailing. Dana Point has a great anchorage. It's really beautiful next to the replica of the Pilgrim, which is the boat that Richard Henry Dana sailed on in his book "Two Years Before the Mast" There is also a great yacht club there, Dana West, which some friends of ours belong to. So we hoisted many drinks there over the month that we spent there so far. We motorsailed up to Newport for the annual Cal 46 meeting, staying on a county mooring the first night, and at the Balboa Yacht Club the second night. Hmmm! Kinda liking this yacht club stuff! We sailed (get that SAILED!!!) back from Newport to Dana Point, and eventually motored back to the Police Docks at Shelter Island. The Dana Point-San Diego trip was memorable. After 9 hours of great weather, flat seas and no wind (bummer), we arrived at Point Loma. Rounding the corner, all of a sudden it was victory at sea. The wind picked up to a steady 30 knots with gusts to 35. We were very unbalanced with our main alone so we dropped it as soon as we could. We were taking buckets of green water over the bow and from the forward quater all the way into our center (read that high) cockpit. We went from sweating to shivering in less than 5 minutes. Then, in those same gusty conditions we had to take an inside 45 foot slip at the docks. Erik got one chance to get it right or take out a few transoms - and several people on the docks were looking nervous at our intentions - but with the help of our trusty bow thruster, he made it look easy. Thank you IMTRA (our bow thruster vendor)!! We're off to Dana Point tomorrow for two days and then to Catalina Island for a couple of weeks. We've got a couple of gatherings to go to and I know it's going to be fun, fun, fun. Oh yeah - on the more mundane side, the watermaker is up and running, as is the windlass, but not the autopilot. Soon, I guess.
8/8/04	Dana Point Work	The entire month of July and this month we have been subleting a slip in Dana Point trying to get Seayanika ready for her upcoming adventure. There were four critical tasks that Erik had to accomplish and hundreds of other things that we'd like to have done before leaving. The four big ones included; installing new motor mounts because the ones that came with our engine were too hardened from age; finishing up the pilothouse, installing it and installing windows; finding out why the autopilot was motoring the wheel instead of the rudder; and building and installing the stainless steel arch so we can install our radar. To date the motor mounts are done, the autopilot is fixed, the pilothouse in on the boat sans windows and the arch in in process. In Erik's spare moments he has also built and installed our salon table, made more drawer and cabinet faces, hooked up the refrigerator and freezer, and installed the aft shower, among other things. I have been busy making cockpit cushions, purchasing and organizing the contents of our medical kit, and making list after list of things we should do before leaving. It's a hectic time and a preview of what's to come in October. Our current plans (subject to change of course) are to do our final Channel Islands shakedown cruise in mid to late September and then get to San Diego in early October for final preparations.