Lots of updates
As my server had acted more like a boat and less like a computer and repeatedly and painfully crashed, I haven't posted much here.
Since Memorial Day weekend we've been to the Delta and back twice. I've begun the inverter and new battery install project and those trips have really reminded me how badly I need the inverter.
On the first trip, we headed up to our favorite anchorage with Spencer and Tara. We stopped on Friday night at the New Bridge Yacht club in Antioch and had a wonderful meal and an even better reception with lots of hands to get 50 feet of boat into 70 feet of dock with 30kt winds. Saturday morning and we headed off to our favorite anchorage in Disappointment Slough. We found that we really are larger than Southern Comfort was and that I clearly didn't have enough chain on my anchor tackle. The owner of the dock next to where we anchor caught our rode on his outboard with no damage and recommended to us that we tie up to his dock instead. I demurred at first, but after a ski boat actually wrapped a prop, we took him up on his offer. Spence did the diving and came up with a complete though frayed rode.
Nathan and Allison joined us from Paradise Point. We would've taken the dingy, but I couldn't pull the start chord on the 4 stroke for the life of me. After picking them up with the big boat, we investigated and I found that I must have stored the engine wrong at some point as the crank case oil had filled the cylinder and that was why I couldn't get compression. We drained the oil, added some to the reservoir, and she started right up. We all had fabulous meal - as usual - at the Breadfruit Tree. Jim joined us for a while Sunday and Spence and Tara used the dingy (finally) to pick him up.
On the way back through San Pablo, I finally admitted to myself that Garmin's Bluecharts where not up to the task. I ordered and have since received Nobeltec's Visual Navigator Suite 7. I've also ordered the NMEA to SeaTalk adapter so that it can drive the autopilot until I upgrade the rest of the electronics.
Between trips I put on 100' of chain, got Nobeltec running, spliced the anchor rode, and sealed the port pilothouse sides.
The second trip was last weekend with friends. We tied up again at our favorite (formerly) anchorage and had a ball. The only really exciting thing was venturing a little too far south in Frank's Tract. I found that the boat really does only draw 1.8' under the sonar transducer. We left nice mud wakes for a large swath. Take it from me. Don't venture near there anywhere near low tide if you draw more than 1.5' from the water line. The less exciting but notable thing was that San Pablo Bay was actually relatively calm.
Both of our trips have made it pretty clear that we would like to leave the boat up there for a couple of months. My electrician is at Bethel Island, and it would be very nice to not have to run back and forth. I'm going to try to get into either the Bethel Island area, Discovery Bay, or Pittsburgh. The newly opened Bart line from Milbrae really makes the Pittsburgh option interesting.
Now we are simply trying to find a place to squeeze in around the Bay for the 4th.