Preparing to sail away

Rick sweats over the plumbing

cleaning the bilge

sun cover made from Camaro car cover

Alicia made a custom cockpit cover

Rick being an engineer made an excel spread sheet of all the tasks we needed to complete before our departure from San Diego. So here are a few pictures of only a small number of the jobs we checked off the list. Rick replaced all the fresh water plumbing and made improvements. I sewed 2 sun covers for when we are in lower latitudes, thanks to to use of a Sail Rite machine owned by Arlene, our neighbor. We had a friend, Alicia sew a bimini and shade cover for the cockpit. Dennis would be proud of me cleaning the bilge with a bottle brush until it shined.

Bon Voyage Party

Last night our great neighbors Ron and Arlene on B dock hosted a wonderful bon voyage party. It was so much fun and I was so busy talking to people I forgot to take picts to post on this blog. I want to thank everyone who came to share great food, good stories and blessings on us before our departure. We will be leaving some kind and fun friends in San Diego. Memories last forever and we hope a few sailors catch up with us in far off seas.

COFFEE

All who know me, know I love coffee, especially my best friend and daughter Karen. She arranged with Steve and Ann Pulkkinen to give us a grand selection of the roasted beans I am so fond of. These treasured beans, that will keep my eyes open on night watches, were delivered to us along with an excellent Italian dinner. Steve and Ann slaved over the gourmet meal to send us off in grand style.

Teak caulking in the cockpit

We stripped the old caulking out of the teak planking and filled it with Teak deck systems 414. It is a fun, sticky job done in the sun before you drink a beer.

Up the mast the old man goes

Rick went up the mast for the first time to replace the anchor light, adjust wind vane and install new Lazy Jack lines. Lazy jack lines catch the sail as it is dropped making putting sails away properly an easier task. This latter installation was to please the wife who struggles with the new heavy main sail. The first mate is happy now.

Returning to Talaria on 9/8/11 was blissful. Even Snoball is happy to be "home" again. In this past week we have made the lists all sailors do as they plan to depart on the next leg of adventures. We plan to leave 11/1/11 from San Diego traveling south towards Panama City. The sail plan includes anchoring along the route to enjoy the pleasures of the Pacific coastline before we transit the canal. So this picture is Rick upgrading parts on the boom that we found deficient on our trip south from the Pacific NW in 2010.
We have wonderful memories of the past 6 months seeing freinds and family during our land travels. But we feel the pull of the wind and a desire to continue sailing.

Finished!! Finally despite sore knuckles and knees we finished replacing the caulking of our teak decks. After receiving bids of $12K to $17K, we practiced on a section and found success. Thanks to a generous neighbor with a custom tool that helped scrape the old caulk from the sides of the teak planking. We worked 5 hours every day for 6 weeks and did it for $600.00. Using Teak Decking Systems SIS 440 and #218 fine line tape from 3M under the caulk worked great. We lightly sanded the caulk flush to the planks and will let it gray naturally. We love the teak decks for the secure footing on deck when sailing. One of the NO items on our list when shopping for a boat was teak decks.....funny how you 'think' you know what you want.....

Tomorrow we leave Talaria for land based travel to our niece's wedding, daughter's graduation and to play with our grandson. We aren't certain when we will return but have a trusted neighbor to watch over her.