Anthology of A CENOURA @itsacenoura - Tumblr Blog

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Sep 10-15 Body surf, boat work on the steering wheel. Saw Hozier live, won tickets to the Dan band.

Sailed on the hunter 33.5 my friend bought. It was my first time to Avalon, it went well. The weather was great - really windy- Saturday and then a micro storm passed through Sunday before dawn and it was cloudy and calm on the way back. Pretty wiped out Sunday afternoon, I did a small project of putting button snaps in the place of the wearing valcrow for the curtains. Functional again.

My long time friend Ross and my college friend Stephanie got married! I introduced them 4.5 years ago so I got a quick shout out during Ross’s speech. The wedding marks #7 for us this year, and this one had all my good friends attending. The next day Mia and I recovered and worked on some small boat stuff. I found out the exhaust manifold hose was contacting my oversized heat exchanger, so I put a heat resistant rubber between them. Could this have had something to do with the white steam I have been noticing? On Sunday I installed two new deep cycle batteries for the refrigerator- the existing ones did not work the fridge and had dates of 1998-2003 on them. However, as is almost every project, it was not a simple replacement of the batteries. The fridge still doesn’t want to run/switch to DC (battery) mode. It works perfectly fine and automatically when connected to the AC (shorepower) though. Hoping the wiring is still ok, maybe it’s a simple switch that went bad on the refrigerator unit. I’ll have to do more research but I still have hope that we’ll be able to keep the fridge cold without needing ice all the time.

Also I went to tackle a simple job of replacing the caulking tape in the head that is between the counter and wall. Of course it peeled up the paint of the counter revealing sort of soggy plywood countertop. I’ve know about this since I bought the boat. I quickly taped off the walls and blasted the counter with white paint to see what would happen. It looks fine, but now do I dress it up with a few more layers of paint, or do I enter the project of building (cutting, sanding, staining or painting, installing) a new counter top? It would probably be nicer in the long run, and I could get under the area and see what else it back there. I just don’t have the saw equipment. So, $10 of paint, or much more money and time for a new counter? Fun things to ponder.

I still need to climb up the mast and replace the windvane, spreader flag line, and anchor light. Next weekend I head to Catalina on my friend Derek’s boat for his first trip there.

Mia repeated her lifesaver blood donation too! We drive by hermosa city hall and see a donation truck and signs and she just wants to do it. Really cool! I will next time but I’ve felt sick for about 4 weeks

Really fun trip to Emerald Bay, which is a few coves northwest of two harbors. The motor sail over was uneventful, still seeing some white steam smoke from the exhaust but only when the exhaust is sunk under water at cruising speed. As we passed another sailboat I noticed he had even more steam than I did. I'm beginning to wonder if it's always been there and I just noticed this summer. While the stern floats higher out of the water at slower speeds or in idle, there's basically no exhaust noticeable. Now, is that because the engine has less stress or because the exhaust is above the water, therefore perhaps not steaming up the sea water that makes its way in when the stern is lower in the water? We got there and took a mooring next to my dock neighbor Connor and a few away from Jim on Blue Sky also from my dock. Mia and I went snorkeling over to a cliff, to the beach, over to a reef, around and back. I got some GoPro video and photos that I'll post more or later. Here is one of the bottom of my sailboat. The water was so warm that in the 90 minutes we swam around in just swimsuits, we never felt cold. I cleaned the knot meter paddle wheel to get it to work again. We then relaxed in the 85 degree weather and did some diving and swinging off the boat. Around 5 we got in Connors dinghy and stopped by Jims boat for cocktails and stories. Then we all went into shore for dinner at the Boy Scout camp. The truth is that it was a Boy Scout weekend and for $90 a person you could get dinner Friday, 3 meals Saturday, and breakfast Sunday. We knew we wouldn't be there Friday and also don't have a dinghy to go to shore whenever we please so passed on this offer. However, the night before we left we saw our neighbors mike and Joanne who were supposed to be part of the $90 deal and at the island. I fortunately they were stuck at the dock because one of his carburetor stopped working. He texted the person at the island in charge that Mia and I will be taking their spot - super nice of them - so we were welcomed on land. Additionally Connor asked the yacht club members if Mia and I could join as guests and they said yes too, so it's like we were double covered. Everyone is really nice, and we enjoyed are mashed potatoes, canned corn and chicken tenders like part of the team. We also got a tour of a science center at the camp that had squid and sharks and things to see. We slept outside because the boat was rolling pretty bad whenever another boat motored by - which happened a lot from dinghies or fishing boats at night. So we woke up around 6:30 when the sun came up, the ocean looked like a lake. We made breakfast and absorbed more sun until about 10:30 when we decided to leave. The motor didn't a start. I sort of rapidly pushed the start button until something clicked and it fired up just as it should. Phew. We had an epic sail back across the channel for a couple hours. Really making good time and leaning a fun amount (for me). It felt special to have such perfect weather and see sailboats all sailing everywhere around us. It was awesome. Just as we got to the R10 buoy which is at the entrance to Santa Monica bay, the wind died. This time the motor fired up right away... Luckily...confusing boats.

Had a decent tsunami scare. Some contradictory reports about the size and severity of the tsunami kept me up all night. The dock master came by around 11pm handing out flyers and telling me to just listen out for any alarms, if I hear it then get in my car and head uphill. The ETA for the tsunami was around 4:45 am. I was awake, never felt a thing.

Cleaned this gritty dirt from the Shade Hotel construction off the boat, but not all of it came off. It will probably take a more serious clean or wax. In fact, a few of us on the dock are trying to get the construction managing company to actually take responsibility. Doubtful, they claim that it wasn't from them even though they admitted that nobody worked Sunday and Labor Day Monday therefor never watered the dirt which likely cause it to blow into the marina. Whatever I can clean the boat if necessary, the real frustration came when I went sailing and unfurled the jib to notice that the 1/3 of the sail closest to the cover edge is just dirt brown, clearly dirt and grit and dust that settled in between the furled sail. Annoying. Other than that, the water was lake-flat and the wind light for a comfortable sail, the engine is running well, I fixed my dehumidifier because it shook a bolt loose, ordered a new windex wind vane because the old one is missing, decided to order an anchor light and just go up the mast (maybe next weekend). Sunday we anchored in the channel to beat the heat and then had to leave because they were shutting off the power all night into Monday morning. Can't sleep without the fan running when it's 81 degrees inside the boat. I've been sick for a week so it was nice to get fresh air all weekend. Also, sprayed the boat with a bug/spider killing "fogger" because Mia and I were repeatedly bit Friday and Saturday night by something, at 3am we just grabbed a sleeping bag and blankets and I rigged up shade for when the sun came up and we slept there.

Wedding 6 for the year - Emily and Brandon Wiepert - super fun, classic rustic barn wedding perfected. There was a lot of time spent celebrating, great speeches, lots of whiskey and coors lights from ice bucket in the bed of a truck, and Mia's group of friends are really awesome. I also finally saw the gumball alley of San Luis Obispo. Also photographed is Jake and Christina who's wedding was the Santa Clara wedding three weeks ago. Mia, the bride and Jen, as well as me and Jens boyfriend Nick hanging out by the ice cold beers.

#wedding

By request, here is a quick glance at the cushions underneath my dining-table-bed. I was lucky that they all came with the boat. At first they all belonged in other places. The largest rectangle and smallest rectangle pieces were previously buttoned against the starboard side wall in the rear berth. The long-narrow piece was hanging on the port wall in the rear berth just under the stairs. I forget how I figured out the puzzle, it may have even been from looking at an old boat manual, and the cushions appeared to have very little use to them so they are good and firm. I'm not sure if Catalina had always done this with the dual-purpose fitting cushions or if they began doing it mid-80s. I don't think any of the C30's I looked at with my friend a few months ago had complete sets, but they were all older. Hope that helps!

Found out, after learning a lot more about my engine exhaust, that the problem was actually this build up in the raw water pump hose. Fixed that, engine seems really happy again. Replaced the impeller, bent back most of my bent bow rail with tie-downs, might try a halyard next. Installed a light, tied up loose wiring, cleaned, added a strap to keep the table leg up and free up more storage space, went sailing on my neighbors for-sale hunter 15 to bluff cove and back. That was the most fun of the weekend. My other neighbor Connor and I took turns sailing the boat on its limit and being towed behind by a rope in the warm water.

two weddings with a break in between for work. Santa Barbara was awesome, stayed in a really cool vrbo hosted by a lady famous for the art she does with used coffee machine cup lids. I wish I took more pictures. On Sunday the traffic leaving Santa Barbara was awful because everyone was departed from fiesta weekend, too. So we just waited it out on the main beach. It felt like I was in Europe on the Mediterranean. Mostly because there's tons on euro tourists wearing speedos or in some cases just underwear (batman underwear) to the waters edge. But also because it was an unusual 80 degrees and sunny, no wind, sailboats and speed boats all cruising close to shore up and down the beach. Really it was a rare sight. The other wedding was up in Santa Clara and Morgan hill. Saw a lot of great people and even got to see my mom the following day for breakfast. On the way back driving down i5 it was about 100 degrees out and the air conditioner clunked out for longer periods than it worked, make for a bit of an uncomfortable drive. Another sad part was passing by the reservoirs in the area that were about 25% capacity, coupled with wildfires going on and smokey air, it's a scary sight and feeling.

Home improvement

Replacing the CNG tank

Well I knew this moment would come. I ran out of stove gas while we were making dinner. No idea how old the tank was that was hooked up, but I went about a year ago and got a replacement back-up tank. There's no resource online about how to swap them out and I was admittedly afraid because it's highly flammable. Thanks to Jim on my dock, he said it was just like scuba tanks. Great- I've never done that either. Anyways, it was late and we needed to keep the water boiling to make dinner so I went to it. Really it's like changing anything out, except for some reason gas stuff doesn't abide by "righty tighty lefty loosey". It took about 10 minutes of wrenching until I try the other way, clockwise to loosen, and it worked. New tank plugged in, supposedly 40 burn hours of gas for our future cooking, easy job.

August 1-2, 2015 Up in San Luis Obispo for a very very sad reason, can't quite put it into appropriate words yet so here are pictures of the rest of the weekend. Mia's family is temporarily in a house because of a pipe burst in their home. It sits above pirates cove in shell beach. Awesome views of boats anchored in the protected cove and also sailboats sailing in Avila bay. The weather was unbelievable even for summer time. On Saturday I was given a tour of Cambria (where my boats "hailing port" is named) which is funny because I've never even been through the town until now. And we went to check out the elephant seals nearby.

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Anthology of A CENOURA