Another Week on the Water

Quick Recap....

Ahoy followers!

I hope that August has been treating you well. It's been a busy couple of weeks for McKay and I, both on and off the boat. I've had a small gap in the blog postings due to spending a week in Ventura with McKay while we were attending a friend's wedding. While I wasn't able to get much work done physically on Te Ara during that time, it did allow me to get some woodworking projects and future planning out of the way. Looking back at my last post (the Naming Ceremony), I realize that this one will be a pretty substantial update for you all, with new projects and some new sailing experiences! Super excited to share with you this week.

Projects

Where to even begin?! This is a question I ask myself at the start of each week when I am building out my project breakdowns and goals. I think that followers often only see the glorious before and after shots of boat rebuilds and new projects. It's important to note that 99% of the time, a project looks like the image to the left..... bits of detritus spread all over the boat and me crammed into small corners looking for just the right screw.. It's not glorious... but it sure is rewarding.

The first projects that I tackled in the past two weeks were ones I actually needed to do back in Ventura. I have the benefit of having a twin brother with a full woodworking shop set up in the garage. This lets me do some more complex and visually appealing pieces of work that I would never be able to get done onboard. (Where would you put a table saw on a 42 ft boat.....?) It also gives me the opportunity to get input from my brother and dad, both of whom are much better woodworkers than I. I used their expertise to put together 2 new pieces for the boat: a new dining room table and a new aft cabin tank cover / step. McKay and I have looked at pictures of other boats that have a fold down table backed by a cabinet, used to hold all sorts of cups and plants/decorations. We decided that Te Ara also deserves to have this feature. You can see below the main piece that will make up the dining table. I expect to have the rest of the cabinetry installed by the end of the month.

Walnut sandwiched between iroko slabs

One of the other major woodworking upgrades I am making is the addition of a series of steps from the back cabin up to the deck hatch. The space was previously taken up by the day tank and a bunch of non-functional electrical wires. The tank itself is an incredibly good idea as it allows you to filter diesel from the main tank during transfer and before it goes into the engine. The wires are also critical for all the electrical components running up the mizzen mast. All this being said, the previous set up was not the most visually appealing. I was making some improvements to the fuel system (see next section) and decided to upgrade the looks while I was at it. There is still some work to go here (electrical organization), but the current set up is already much more visually appealing and functional than it was previously.

While I'm on the topic of fuel tanks..... I also used this opportunity to clean my main tank, the system that transfers and filters fuel from the main tank to the day tank, and the day tank itself. To do this for the main tank, I had to hire someone who could pull all of the old fuel out of the system and run it through a series of filters while pumping it into a big 30 gallon drum (this cleaned the fuel as it was coming out). While the fuel was out of the boat, the crew also cleaned the inside of the main tank to remove any scum/sediment that formed. Not a pleasant job as diesel fuel can be politely described

as extremely aromatic.... Once done, I spent a few days cutting out a lot of the old copper transfer and vent tubing and replacing it with 3/8 inch type A1 USCG approved hose. The hose is much easier to use as it is not a rigid pipe (but expensive at $4 a foot!). To cap it all off, I emptied the day tank and cleaned it myself (absolutely disgusting), rebuilt the fill fitting to allow space for my new step and put in a new sending unit (fuel gauge). All in all, what I thought would be about 10 hours of woodworking and installing new hose turned into a week's worth of work running back and forth to the marine parts store for new fittings, hose, elbows, etc.... it all works now though and looks much better!! As a result of this work, Te Ara's motoring capability just jumped from ~50 miles to ~200!

Sailing!!

Probably the best part of the last two weeks was getting to take Te Ara out for another sail. McKay and I are still very much in the "training phase" where we are both learning how to sail the boat and work as a team to do so. On our previous sails, we have been very careful to take the boat out on light wind days and sail in sheltered areas. I have had McKay do most of the work manning the helm while I scuttle about playing with sails and trim. It's gotten to the point where I think McKay can probably hold a much straighter course than I can. This is a great working system for day sailing in the bay, but for longer passages, each member of the crew should be comfortable with any position on the boat because there is no telling when you may need to jump on the helm or up on deck to do a sail change. McKay and I decided to do a little role reversal on this last sail. I manned the helm and tried to walk McKay through all the work to do with the sails, from putting in a double reef to trimming the mizzen and genoa that balances the boat. It was a learning experience for both of us to say the least. McKay got to put up with my wandering course and slew of nautical terms while trying to translate them into something resembling English. I will always be amazed at the amount of patience she has for me....

Once we got into a rhythm in the south bay, we decided to push ourselves and the boat a bit by venturing under the bay bridge. At this point, the wind had been blowing ~5-8 knots south of the bridge. As we headed north, the wind started to climb and the sails really started driving the boat along. A quick note... I do not have any wind instruments currently functional on the boat, so all of my next estimates are based off of weather data I looked up for the day and my own experience on the water. Once we passed under the bridge, the wind started to clock more to the west and increase its speed to 10-15 knots. The boat heeled noticeably and picked up another couple of knots of speed. We also started experiencing some minor swell from the wind pushing water all the way across the bay. This is sailing!! Rail down, wind in your face, and spray starting to come over the bow. Te Ara seemed to handle everything well, even with the suboptimal sails I have rigged. We got to experience balancing the boat with the mizzen sail to prevent the headsail from dragging the bow downwind. It is an awesome feeling to be clipping along with a balanced rig and feel the boat respond to your smallest touch. As we traveled north, the wind started to increase and get gustier. All of a sudden it seemed to be a sustained 15 kts with gusts up to 20 as we approached the "slot" (area where wind funnels from the west coast, under the Golden Gate, and across the bay). Anyone who has had to beat into 20 knots of wind knows that it is not the most comfortable point of sail. At this point, we decided not to push our luck and turned around to head back to the calmer southern waters. Big surprise for me... the mizzen that was so beautifully balancing the boat before was now giving it a ton of weather helm. I was battling to keep the boat on a straight course as the gusts tried to turn us from our broad reach up into the wind. Not the worst situation out on the open ocean... but we were very quickly approaching the bridge pilings and an uncontrolled turn near those would not be ideal. Luckily (or skillfully), McKay was able to hold a perfect course while I went and doused the mizzen sail. Then it was a smooth, sunny downwinder all the way back to happy hour at the dock.

One of my favorite parts of sailing with McKay is her exceptional communication skills. We always talk about our experience after each sail, what worked for the boat and for us, what didn't, and how to improve next time. It turns every experience (even the frustrating ones) into a learning moment that helps us grow as a team. I would highly recommend that other sailing couples try this, especially if you are learning together.

Up Next

I have a couple of fun plans for what's coming up next. With any luck, I will have the major haul out scheduled for next month and get some much needed love to the bottom of the boat and her thru hulls.

On top of that, I am in the process of pulling out the old refrigeration system (ran on 110V and water cooling) to replace it with a more modern and efficient setup as well as rebuilding the port lazarette locker. The new rebuild includes taking out an old fuel tank, putting a new one in and adding another spot for the new refrigeration compressor.

Lastly, with any luck my father will be able to come up for some sailing later this week and we can take Te Ara out a few more times before haul out. In the meantime, McKay and I have taken a restful break on the Russian River to celebrate our 2 year anniversary! Looking forward to many more years of this: