That also means that I'm now in the market to move up even more than before. I've got my eye on one boat in Mexico and a couple in the Puget Sound. With the newest and smallest human addition to the family and the fact that H's sister is now living in Seattle, it makes a lot of sense to station our next vessel there for a little while.

Even H said that letting 47' CP go was like losing a member of the family. I call her 47' CP because soon she's going to be a 58' to 65' CP... The name stays with us, but a part of our heart will always be afloat on 47' CP. We're really glad she's going to such a good home.

Discovery Bay worked out pretty well, but we spent a lot of motoring time getting over to our favorite places so I may try to find something a bit more northern or a bit further east next year. A good friend just bought a 40'er that I've been assisting him with and he's now at Tiki Lagun which looks like a pretty good compromise. Those statements are all about balancing driving time/conditions with length of runs to our favorite places and not a comment on the Disco marina. We did enjoy it quite a bit and it came in very handy all summer long.

CP is on the hard at Delta Boat Works mainly for a bottom paint refresh before heading back to salt. While I'm there I'm going to have them repair some minor damage to my swim platform edge. The big internal debate is whether to replace the depth sounder/speed modules while its out and to what extent I have to commit to a complete electronics refresh to do that. That will be a couple of calls on Monday I think.

Once back to the slip its time to start making the fall repair list. Quite a few little things to make better including installing new tach senders and digital tachs. I'm also adding in the non-zero chance of an off season 10 to 15 foot itis...

The dingy davit decided to jump the pulley and strip to the last 3 strands while suspending the dingy above the water. We were able to get it down and I have been able to fashion a great tow harness. Interestingly, I've learned a lot about the davit crane's lift tolerances. The motor is a Rule V33SR that is rated to 3300lbs on the first coil down to 1800lbs on the fourth coil. The as shipped wire rope is rated to 2100lbs as well. Published numbers for the davit are 750lbs, but it looks pretty safe to be a bit heavier but I am not a lawyer and will not take responsibility for your choices. This is a classic moment of your mileage may vary. The way the wire rope is retained is that the final loop's bitter end is secured by an allen screw. To remove the entire rope, just spool the wire rope all the way out, remove the hood over the motor, remove the motor bolts and the power leads and slide it out. Then you can easily remove the allen screw and thus the wire rope for replacement or whatever.

My hard decision is whether I want to go to 2:1 by attaching the hook back to the davit or not. The Rule manual states that that adds 85% to the pulling power of the various loops and it certainly adds a larger margin of safety.

Otherwise, the boat has performed flawlessly. In fact Spence and I were worried last weekend as we couldn't come up with what broke. Luckily we both remembered that I lost an oar lock nut due to vibration...

The weekend previous was freakish however. It was just H, E, and I, and my was it hot. It was 113 and what was really weird was that it was humid and stayed around 95 at night. We ran the Genny and A/C from 10AM Saturday to 11PM Sunday. It was wonderful watching the boat perform so well in such a hostile environment.

Charles joined me and we ran her up Friday the 30th to the Rusty Porthole. After H collected our friends Spencer and Tara from BART, we had dinner and spent the night on the guest dock there. Both dinner and the next morning's breakfast there were great. They have some of the best Biscuits and Gravy I've had this side of the Mississippi. We then headed to Disco to arrange our slip. After dropping a stranded boater off at Holland Riverside we anchored out in Mildred Island. After grilling (new rod holder grill mount!) we slept well. Did I mention that I forgot where the anchor windlass breaker was? Mid-day on Sunday we motored over to our favorite anchorage on Disappointment Slough. My friend and co-worker Steve showed up on Monday with his ski boat and I actually got up on a kneeboard. The drama was Spence causing the tow rope to recoil into the boat...

One of the most impressive things? Spencer's photos from his new digital SLR. They start around page 4 of this gallery.

And only the master head failed. Good times. Seriously good times.

One huge new benefit is to be able to get raster and vector charts for most all around North America.

I also looked at chart plotting software. As a current owner of Nobeltec VNS, I was pleased to learn that Nobeltec 8 supports both types of charts. Passport Vector charts are superior due to Nobeltec's implementation. I tried a bunch of the other charting software options and the only other one I can recommend is Rosepoint's Coastal Explorer. I had to stay with Nobeltec (I needed to upgrade from 7) as the Delta vector charts are important to me, I'll need to wait for NOAA to make those available before I switch

My mobile number is on the Evite. We will be picking people up at 5PM and 6PM on the North guest dock of South Beach Harbor which is Pier 40. They have a map of the guest dock in PDF and the street address is Pier 40 and The Embarcadero. In past years we've picked up on the South guest dock so note that this is the one on the Bay Bridge side of Pier 40. We have about three dingys so we should have plenty of seats and space to transfer everyone to the boats.

This should be fun! The forecast is for sunny but a bit cooler than we've been experiencing so make sure you have San Francisco appropriate cool weather gear.

Double Index Marine Bulb
Trade #10801
12 Volts
25 Watts
2.08 Amps
Model Number 4810834 (Which I think is West's number)

Now that I know the correct bulb I might opt for an LED in the future. This bulb cost me $17 in the retail store.

One of the cool things about South Beach is that its about 4 blocks from West Marine. I plan on fixing a couple things during the weekend too.

The airhorns have a big scripted S on the back of them. They are the Signaltone Tornado model. The current manufacturer in the United States is Fiamm America. They are located in Michigan and you can reach them at 231-775-2900. They will tell you that you need their repair kit number 21340. They don't sell it directly, but they will refer you to:

Speed's Carquest of Cadillac
(231) 775-9772
(800) 748-0251
423 N Mitchell St
Cadillac, MI 49601
Ask for Ralph.

The compressors are made by Grover Products. Mine is hidden behind the ice maker below the stereo cabinet.

Also, The APL Panama container ship which got stranded on the beach of Ensenada MX when it was heading there from Oakland is finally off the beach. You have to scroll down quite a bit, but these CargoLaw pages cover the grounding, salvage efforts, and reports that she is off.

Heather and I went by the boat the other day and the freshwater pump was cycling.. A quick troubleshoot and it looked like maybe I had a tank leaking. I added water and things seemed happy. Fast forward a week or two and after some business travel I headed back. Again the freshwater pump was cycling... Start debugging and I notice that the strainer in front of the pump has cracked and is leaking... Aha! The next day, $10 and a West Marine trip later I've got no leaks.

I head off to do the every couple of years Lectra/San acid bath. As I'm waiting I hear a noise and then the freshwater pump cycles again... The freshwater line heading into the guest head faucet has a 1mm strong leak. That explains so much.

Add it to the list and keep on punching things down. The weather has been artificially warm and beautiful earlier so all we Bay Area boaters are getting boat fever.

Nobeltec is supposed to work with the BSB raster charts today. I don't think Nobeltec is supporting ENC in the version I currently own. Keeping digital charts fully updated is a huge step forward.

Update: It looks like Nobeltec 8.0 supports NOAA ENCs as well.

I did spring for a wetsuit to clean the bottom - wish I would have remembered to spring for a weight belt... The refrigerator died after a successful Kaboom. I've got a temporary on board and will be buying a T-80 soon. She performed very nicely at Jack London for the 4th and she and I enjoyed her clean bottom on the way back.

Most important to us is that I finally got an end tie at Coyote Point. Due to the strong crosswind there, the end tie is really, really nice. I can stern her right up to the side of the now windward end tie, allowing Heather to step right off and tie a short stern cleat line to a dock cleat. Once that's complete I put the opposite engine in gear and step out on the bow to hand her the bowline.... No more exciting stern in controlled crash landings on the leeward finger when its blowing the usual 25kts with gusts to 35... Ah Coyote. The other fringe benefit is that I'm also now closer to the wifi hotspot.

And now I have enough room for the 65's I have an eye on...

The guest dock at South Beach Marina is parallel to Pier 40 and can be found on online map systems as the intersection of The Embarcadero and Pier 40. Note that Google Maps has the indicator one pier north. Also, take note that there are a bunch of street closures around the ballpark and Kaboom. In this satellite photo the guest dock is the far north dock with about 3 boats tied up parallel to it. Also check out KFOG's transportation page which links to the street closures.

Use SMS to my cellphone if you need to reach me. I'll also be monitoring VHF-71.