"Reaching" New Heights

In case you can't tell, the title of this blog is a pun..... "reaching" is a point of sail and McKay and I did some work up the masts this week. Overall, we have had a stellar time since we got back from the holidays.

We both spent a ton of time on Te Ara and actually were able to practice living together on board! We took turns switching off managing our work projects in the "office" and (somehow) never had any conflicting meeting times. This is a once in a blue moon moment for project managers.

Whats New?

McKay and I grew up in neighboring towns in southern California. This makes it very easy during the holidays because we get to see both of our families and only have to do one big day of travel to get home. This Christmas was an especially busy one bouncing back and forth, but ultimately it was a grand old time and we got plenty of boat gear for presents..... so I guess it was an excellent first Christmas for Te Ara! In addition, I was able to do a ton of project planning while away from the boat and work.

New Decking!

Before leaving the bay area, I took my old hank on headsail into the local sailmaker to get it converted into a roller furling setup (Hogin Sails: https://www.hoginsails.com/). The previous version would just sit on a jib boom (@Adam Cook and @Andrew Cooney, yes this is a real boat part) attached to the forestay. This is a less desirable set up in my mind because it is difficult to reef and takes up a lot of deck space. We have a roller furling headsail on Te Ara now (meaning that it wraps around the forestay rather than sitting on deck) but the sail is actually older than the boat, built in 1970. I am extremely satisfied with the crew at Hogin Sails. They took my old sail on a days notice right before the holidays and finished it in less than two weeks! The previous sail was not really built for the boat, not the right height, and old/saggy. It was also massive at almost 150% of the foredeck space. This new sail is only 100% of the foredeck space and I moved the sheeting angles so it should help the boat point upwind much better. I'm just waiting for a day of light winds so I can swap out the old bag and put up the new one.

When we got back from the holiday trip to So Cal, I worked on finishing up the port lazarette so that it can finally store fuel again. This basically entailed me cleaning out the interior space and fitting a new marine plywood shelf covered in water proof sealant into the cavity. The tricky part was that you don't want a plywood board resting directly against the side of the hull because it will eventually cause deformation. I used a combination of SS corner braces and a custom made (by me) fiberglass shelf brace to help distribute the weight of the shelf and new fuel tank. In the pictures here, you can see my fiberglass job. Not as neat as some of the pros, but I made up for it with a "can do attitude" and a F!@$load of epoxy fiberglass matt....

As you may have guessed from the picture at the start of this blog, we also went up the mast this last weekend. McKay got me a climbing harness for X-mas, so we got to take turns going up the main and mizzen (back mast). I plan on replacing the lower standing rigging next month and needed to get some very specific and exact measurements at the connection points on the masts. Standing rigging is essentially a combination of stainless steel metal rope and terminals that connect the rope to the mast in a strong and lasting connection. The previous rig used swaged fittings, meaning that someone crushed the wire rope into a metal tube with so much pressure that it cold forges the pieces together. I plan on re-doing the upper standing rigging with this method, but the lower rigging will be with a newer technology called StaLok (https://www.stalok.com/product-category/marine/sta-lok-self-fit-terminals/). This is just a simple mechanical fitting that boaters can do themselves (and don't need a professional rigger or $10K machine). I'm excited to give this method a shot. It seems very straight forward, so I'm sure I can do it with enough patience. This system holds up the mast in high winds... so its critical not to make any mistakes.....

On top of all this, we also purchased a transportable deep freezer/fridge that can run off of 12V or 110V. Until I get the new CoolBlue systems purchased and installed (sometime in the next few months), this will be our main fridge on the boat. Its a great little unit made by ICECO. It has the same compressor and battery protection features as some of the high end Dometic models, but it half the price. When running, it is almost inaudible and has a low amperage eco mode that can save juice in the house battery bank. Overall, I am very satisfied with the unit and it has a killer warranty (1 year for the fridge and 5 years for the compressor.) I also had a lot of fun creating the new home for it under the navigation table seat (now on a hydraulic hinge).

Sailing

To cap it all off, McKay and I got to go sailing on an absolutely stunning day out on the Bay. We made it our goal to round Angel Island on Saturday, and could not have asked for better weather to do so.

The wind was a bit too much on our nose coming out of the estuary, so we put up the main and mizzen to motor sail all the way to Angel Island. Between the motor, sails, and an outgoing tide, we managed to get to the Western side of angel island in under an hour going at about 6 knots the whole time. The air was crisp and the sun was out with about 5-10kts blowing from the north-northeast. Once we hit the western edge of the island, we turned east and had a lovely little motor through the passage between Angel Island and Tiburon. We were greeted by a bunch of seals and harbor porpoises. The video of the whole sail is coming soon, but until then, I hope you enjoy the pics here and on instagram.

We timed the rounding intentionally so that we could hit the incoming tide on the way home and had a lovely downwinder for about an hour, calmly cruising toward the eastern side of treasure island at 3-4 knots. We accomplished the whole trip in under 4 hours and had an absolutely grand time. After seeing all the hiking trails and harbor at Angel Island, McKay and I determined that we have to come back later this month for an overnight. Can't wait!

Up next

The work doesn't end here. In the next month, I hope to get a new stove (and ditch the electric one I have now), put in some new lower shrouds for both the main and mizzen mast, install my new headsail, and update a bunch of the running rigging. Stay tuned for more pics to come!

As always, McKay and I wish you all fair winds and a following sea. Feel free to reach out via the blog with any questions you may have. If there are certain aspects you really liked and want to learn more, we are always happy to share our experiences!