Te Ara Update - We're Back (in Black)!

Hi everyone!

I have to apologize. Between work, holiday travel, and Te Ara's haul out, it has been a month since my last blog post! So much has happened since then that I had to sit down and make an outline before starting this.....

Haul Out

Where to begin? I suppose the last blog post was about all the haul out preparation and our last sail before taking Te Ara to Grand Marina for the work to be done. It makes sense that this one should cover the actual work! I feel like I could write a book on all the activity around the process I had Grand Marina perform and my experience with them. Instead of going into my trials and tribulations, I will summarize the haul out experience as this: Grand Marina delivered very high quality services and products..... in about 5x the time, 2x the cost, and half as much total work getting done. I believe I would use them again if necessary, but the haul out really taught me that I prefer to do the work myself. In the end, Te Ara ended up getting 3 thru hulls removed, 2 replaced, a new prop shaft and pack-less prop seal, and a new bottom paint job (all black of course). McKay and I picked her up from the yard 5 weeks after I dropped her off and went out for our first sail on her after the haul out the very next weekend. It gave me endless peace of mind to know that all my problem thru hulls were now removed or replaced. Another plus: with the new bottom job, she practically flew through the water! It was great to see a boat this age and size move so swiftly!

Sailing!!

I mentioned earlier that work and travel have been keeping me busy. I spent about 2 weeks back in southern California for Thanksgiving and a work summit. Even with this time away, McKay and I managed to take the boat out on the bay twice. Each time was a very unique experience and so much fun!

Our first time on the water after the haul out was by far one of my favorite sailing experiences since buying Te Ara. The wind was forecasted for 5-10 knots and sunny 70 degree weather. We invited our friends Nick and Elli to join us. I believe both of them are relatively new to sailing and I was looking forward to giving them a fun, gentle, and memorable time.....it was definitely memorable!

Remember how I said the wind was only supposed to be 5-10 kts? Well that's how it started, and slowly increased as we travelled up the Alameda estuary toward the bay. By the time we got the sails up and outside of Treasure Island, it was probably closer to 15 kts sustained and gusting to 20. To add to the experience, the tide was going out and the current was travelling against the wind. In general, this will produce some pretty substantial wave action and we were seeing 3-5 foot standing swell on the south side of the Bay Bridge. Combine that with the higher than expected winds, and we were in for one wild time! I learned a couple of really cool things about my ship though.

1.) She is heavy enough to build up significant momentum and plow right through the smaller chop. We went surprisingly fast to windward in (what I felt was) a smooth ride. Every once in a

while when the wind would gust and we took a wave to the side, the boat would heel over 50 or more degrees, but she always came back up... cant ask for anything more than that!

2.) She surfs!! We hit one of our top speeds coming down a pretty big wave during a gust. 7.2 kts SOG going into the current! I was shocked and thought the GPS speedometer was off, but we sustained the speed for a solid 10 count. Its a far cry from the fastest I have ever gone on a sailboat ....21.1 knots on the 31 ft corsair, Indefatigable..... but considering Te Ara is 10 feet longer and probably 5 times the weight, its pretty damn impressive. I was having an absolute blast out on the water and after a fun hour or two of ripping around, we decided to head back for "docktail hour".

No wind makes for easy motoring!

We also managed to take Te Ara out this past weekend. The wind forecast was supposed to be light, but since this was our last chance to get on the water before the end of the year, McKay and I decided to give it a try. The "light" winds ended up being "no" wind so we motored around the east Bay Bridge in search of the mythical "troll of the bridge builders". Apparently, the group that built the bridge left a troll figure underneath one of the arches as a joke (troll under the bridge) and he holds a little hammer to symbolize those who constructed the structure. The group was ordered by the city to remove the troll prior to opening, which they did with much fanfare in a covered container. As it turns out, that container was empty and they just left it up there, where it remains to this day. Take that city ordinances....

McKay looking for the troll as we pass under the bridge

Projects

Finally, I have managed to make a little headway on the various projects over the past few weeks. I am currently in the process of putting in a new fuel tank inside the port lazarette.

I'm sure some of you saw the process of me taking out the old one on Instagram... needless to say it was an exhausting week of cutting, chiseling, and cleaning to take out close to 80 lbs of old steel and another 30 lbs of expanding foam. Everything is out now though and has left an absolutely cavernous space for me to put the new tank and refrigeration compressor. This will be my first project to complete once we are back from the Christmas holidays. I have also brought the old hank on jib into Hogin Sails on Alameda to be converted to a roller furling unit. They essentially cut the edges off and then sew luff tape and sunbrella fabric along the edges to allow it to wrap around the forestay. I'm hoping they are done with this conversion by January when I am back up in the bay. THe new sail will be in much better condition and smaller than the massive old blown out bedsheet I have on the boat now.

And finally, I have been completely re-doing the cockpit by removing all the old teak and adding in new synthetic teak, re-doing the instrument and gauge cluster from the old ugly "box" that was sitting in the cockpit, and completely overhauling the pedestal with a new mini-table and stainless steel grab rail. Check out these before and after shots!

Final Product (still needs floor panels)

I expect this will be my last blog post until January. McKay and I will be leaving for a wedding in Mexico tomorrow and then will be home in Ventura until after Christmas. Hopefully, the new year will bring many completed projects and new adventures!

Adios for now!