Start of the voyage
The Captain says that I have brought everything plus the kitchen sink on this voyage, and in this case, a double sink. The boat is well provisioned, even I will admit to this. However, we did leave a few things behind that may prove to be consequential or not. I'll let you be the judge. We left behind a cappuccino maker, 2 Barbie convertible cars, books on Landscape Architecture, a matchbox car collection vintage 1950-60, a dozen pairs of shoes (guess whose shoes), two storage rooms and two secret closets. The cars are gone. The futons, beds and furniture are gone.
On board we have the normal seafaring stock of tools, gear and gadgets some of you fellow sailors might want to know what that is and I'll have to refer to a technical write up at a future installation. My mood is more to the nonsensical and whimsical. It is by the way a Sunday, a beautiful, warm day on the SF Bay. We are enjoying an old fashion thing called a day of rest.
We have not left the SF bay area, but will within 48 hours. The additional week away from Oyster Cove Marina enabled the Captain to finish projects that were continuously being interrupted by his gregarious wife who kept
enlisting him in social activities. Gracious friends were with us for the full 2 months prior to leaving. We know it was pleasurable, and less sure if it was hazardous to the schedule.The Captain finally had to "pull our home out of port" to get the crew away from the social demands of departure. With at least 15 of our friends who reside at Oyster Cove Marina and Mark, they waved us off. We set sail on September 15, 2003 at high tide: 15:15 local time. A few tears shed, but we were off and the sails were up fifteen minutes out of the channel.
Our destination, Point Richmond, the home of John's sister, Cathe and her husband Griff. We took them up on their generous offer to let us dock the boat so we could complete our final projects before taking off to blue
waters.We had a good sail on the bay. Even fully loaded, this steel hulled 60' boat, with 40 lbs of rice, life raft, 2 bikes, 3 cases of ramen, nearly 500 books, school and art supplies, propane and water tanks filled, we were sailing with just the jib at 7-9 knots. Not bad for a late summer sail on the SF Bay.
The tranquility of Cathe and Griff's home and dock made it easy for us to get some long overdue projects DONE; like the doors hung in the galley, button latches placed on the doors, completed the installation of the wash down pump, covered the bikes, essentially dealt with a number of the 20 minute tasks. We know we are getting close when the Captain goes to West Marine to buy the American Flag that will hang from the stern.