The beauty of not sailing (but still being on the water)

This was a post from 3/29 that I neglected to post. 

Saturday I had a bad migraine, so I was inside most the day except for my daughter's soccer game. Sleeping and sitting in the dark. I had wanted to get to the boat with Uncle Thom and work on Hideaway's gauge that isn't working,

After driving my wife to the airport this morning, I knew today was all about my daughter. I took her to her kung fu class and then all I could think about was spending some time together kayaking.

She loves it as do I. She's a fun conversationalist, and she absorbs all sorts of stuff I think to talk about while we're sharing time on the water. Getting the large 2.5 person, 70+ lb kayak onto our SUV isn't the easiest and I'm usually sweating quite a bit by the time we get onto the water. But then it's very relaxing as we just chat away, with no particular hurry and no expectation that we're going to make it anywhere in particular.

Today we brought some bread for the gulls, and we got some waves from power boats. We saw a bunch of sailors, and a bunch more kayak renters. We read boat names, which is a favorite activity of ours. And she helped quite a bit,

A beautiful day. Some QT with my cutie. Even though we didn't go out on the big boat, I don't mind one bit.

Rebedding grab rails

I knew I would be learning on the job so to speak. Fixing things and maintaining my boat that is. Other than replacing an impeller, this was the first real project. 

The concept of mirror image grab rails on topside and interior ceiling seems straightforward. Thru bolts joining them, some type of sealant keeping the water out. But this isn't an easy job. 

First, drill out the existing bungs to get at the bolts from both sides. Did I mention this job has been done a few times on a 1977 boat? So there are two or even three bungs at each attach point because they've had to be repositioned. So drilling some bungs leads to nothing. Others to the actual bolt. 

Drilling produced a lot of debris. And wouldn't you know it, that's when the wife visits to note the cushion backs getting dirty (I was smart enough to move her cushion bottoms to the V berth). 

A few hours I've got the bolts out, rails off, cleaned up with acetone. And taped the bottoms of the holes in the topside  do I can add epoxy into the space between the two layers of fiberglass. The balsa core I dig out a bit and time has helped with that part. 

The epoxy mixing process is one I think you learn with experience. Well the pre measured pumps are good except the hardener one didn't work right. And then curing seemed to take awhile then happen at once. So I had to syringe in liquid epoxy to the voids. It took a lot which should've been the warning. But no. The warning was epoxy dripping in through the window seams. 

Cleaned up, then on to taping the rebedding surface for the 4200 sealant. Only, lining up the rails, and using pressure to get the bolts to close once again required a hand from a kind volunteer. 

Finally closed up, removed tape. Then took my daughter to sushi then 31 Flavors. 

Next up, the 18 new bungs, sanding, and revarnishing the rails. Fun times this boat ownership. ;)

Hideaway from a distance

I finally got a distance photo from a friend as we motored by. I really am looking forward to having a friend with a drone capture us sailing in the Bay, but that's quite a bit to ask so for now, this one will do.

Bilge worries

I realized that I'm doing more posting about where we went and who was on board, and part of the reason I wanted to blog about Hideaway was to document my learning process. 

Last week, when we went aboard, the bilge was full of water. Definitely salty so couldn't have been from the modest rain we had earlier in the week. It definitely has me a little worried. I'm going to go check on her tomorrow and no plans to take the boat out this weekend. 

I think it's just that the fuses had flipped on the boat. That may be because of dirty shore power or an overload of some type. I really don't know. 

But I left the boat getting power working again and tested the bilge to ensure it was in working order when I closed up for the week. So fingers crossed all is well. 

Even more practice

I like this every Sunday cadence for more sailing practice. I am learning by doing, although I definitely still want the structured classes at Tradewinds I have on credit but not yet scheduled.  

Great day and decent winds. I kept the diesel on in case and that may sound wimpy but until I'm confident in my sailing skills, it actually proves useful. Like when the Oakland ferry or a barge has right of way in a narrow part of the channel. I could heave to and wait but putting it in gear and pulling forward gets us out of the estuary faster. 

Once we made it out into Bay, we were heeling significantly and my kid was not at all comfortable. But she stuck it out by digging fingernails into her auntie. Better her than me. 

Overall a good day and good company. Our nephew joined us for the first time, too, and proved to be good crew. 

A little more practice on a sunny day

Last Sunday, my daughter and I were joined by our friends, and my salty dog sailing mentor, my wife's uncle. A beautiful day. We motored out the estuary and it always takes an hour to get to a sail worthy location where it widens by Coast Guard Island. Then I worked the port winch and Uncle Salty the starboard one, while my buddy took the wheel. The wind was modest at best. We only sailed for a half hour or so, but we navigated around a container ship being tugged in a circle to turn around. I took the wheel as we squeezed by, and I learned one important lesson. That tug boat prop wash will slide a 35' sailboat sideways 10' in a heartbeat. We were pretty close to a NOAA ship in dry dock, but bough room to maneuver around. 

Then we returned, sealed up the boat, and went to Quinn's Lighthouse restaurant and bar. A bit of a wind (ironically) meant it was chilly on the upstairs balcony. But the food and company was good. A fun day. 

Can't Motor Without Water

Yesterday, I took my daughter and my wife's Uncle Thom (who is generally the sailing mentor being an old salty dog) out into the estuary to practice motoring and docking. All was going well for the first hour. 

Then we picked up two sort-of cousins who are staying with Thom to motor further down towards Jack London Sq. About a half hour later and past two draw bridges, I heard the tone of the motor exhaust change. Checking for water coming out the back, and not seeing any, I immediately killed the Yanmar. Luckily we were in a relatively wide part of the channel and even though there was a slight tide, there wasn't much wind at all so we didn't have to put in an anchor. 

Thom and I went below, and the cousins (who are in their twenties and very chill guys) played some cards with my kid to keep her busy. 

We localized the problem to the water pump, which I've learned is pretty much the go to culprit. We took off the hoses and pump, after determining that it was further than the intake hose or strainer. The impeller find all looked good and were pliable so the usual broken fin wasn't the issue. 

Unsure how much time we had to test things, we had also called BoatUS, which is the AAA of the water. And just like AAA, they estimated an hour before rescue. Amazingly, our position in the estuary stayed relatively the same. And while Thom and I discussed possible issues,Phil's Vessel Assist arrived. Another amazing thing is that other than sheer abuse of the system, BoatUS has no limit on tows or rescues. Well worth the expense--more so than AAA.

Phil towed us through the two bridge and expertly docked us despite boats on either side of our dock location. Then we called it a day for the boat and hurried to make my daughter's soccer game. 

Then I returned to the boat this morning with Thom, and we got it all figured out. Pulled the pump again and yanked the impeller to learn that the impeller inner ring had somehow disconnected from the rubber fins, so it wouldn't soon. Luckily the previous owner had a replacement impeller and paper gasket on board (I ordered two more of each!). So with another hour on board, the motor fired up and water was expelling out the transom again. Phew. 

(Now, I haven't written about the difficulty in getting the pump bolts off in the first place and my and Thom's idea to start our own YouTube series with tons of swearing and ending with what we expected would be a Yanmar service technician out there finally fixing things. Luckily it didn't come to that.)

I only have photos of the rescue from BoatUS, not the water pump repair. Oh well.