So much fun at the show today. Merileigh took care of the kids (awesome!) while we went on our annual date. We picked up our life raft, wind vane, epirb, foulies, keel cooler, and met our New England Ropes contact. Friends are coming over in 10 for margaritas so I’ll leave you with the photos. We’re headed back tomorrow with the kids in tow.
Way back in 2009 I promised Ruby that I would take her backpacking. She had forgotten for a while and I will admit that in the flurry of buying our dreamboat, selling all of our stuff, and moving aboard, I was happy for the furlough. Recently the topic came up again. First it was just “Daddy, do you remember that camping trip we were supposed to go on?” Before too long it turned into crying tantrums with doozies such as “You promised me you would take me hiking when I was just TWO (or three) and you’re never going to do it.” With our family adventure deadline looming, I feared she might be right. ...
“Olive, what was your favorite part of today?” “Anchoring out. Don’t you think it’s everyone’s favorite part? I bet everyone in the world loves anchoring out.” We almost didn’t anchor here. The Cruising Guide to San Francisco Bay, had more caveats than usual for this anchorage— Don’t even attempt if it’s foggy; you might get sucked right out the gate as you approach; the Coast Guard won’t take nicely to your presence on their side of the anchorage; etc.. After calling ahead (another recommendation from the guide) we were told that we were more than welcome to anchor, but there was a lot of surge, a few other people had called that day, and there was a pile of flotsam tied to a mooring out in the middle of the harbor that they were worried might work itself loose. But sure, come on down. ...
Sunday’s plan was to take the kids on a hike while Vick got some stuff done around the boat. Around 10:30 I got the kids dressed for the day and up to the car. Sitting in the parking lot looking out at the storm clouds moving over the Bay, I suggested to the kids that maybe today wasn’t the best day for a hike. We decided the the California Academy of Science was a safer bet and drove in to San Francisco for a day of museuming fun. ...
Our boat came to us with 11 sails. Since we need to keep people on this boat some sails need to go. We’re keeping our main, our 153 genoa, our new 110 genoa, our #3 jib, a 3/4 oz drifter, a nice striped spinnaker, and a heavier excellent spinnaker. I can’t figure out how we’ll keep all of these sails of course. We’ll work on that later. North Sails Spinnaker ...
“Ya think we should go out sailing tonight?” This kind of question only has one right answer. I checked with Vick quickly and when I got the okay I popped back up the companion way to give that right answer. Thirty minutes or so later Ruby, Olive, Victoria, and I joined Chris on her Ranger 26 for an early evening sail. The wind was howling in the harbor so we donned our foulies and embarked with a week’s worth of snacks and things to distract the kids. We motored out the channel and set the sail in about 2 seconds flat. Chris had her all set up for a reef, and within another minute we had the genny out and the main tied down. I love smaller keel boats. We had an exhilarating beat upwind towards the Berkeley Pier and then tacked and fell off to a reach that tucked us in the lee of Treasure Island. Once we got on a starboard tack everything settled down and we took hoods off and loosened our coat collars. ...
…I’ll have your HAM darling, I LOVE it. I passed my HAM Technician license exam on Saturday. I finished it in something like 10 minutes and aced it. They practically forced me to try for the General as well, which I did… and bombed (50%). I didn’t even think I would bother with the General, but now I’ve got to pass it so I started studying today. After the test I took the kids for a walk in Muir Woods (the test was in Mill Valley). It was pouring rain, but we had a ball splashing in the puddles and doing the treasure hunt. After the kids got worn out we loaded back into the car and headed over to the Ham Radio Outlet in Oakland (by way of Blue Bottle) to pick up my new set. We got an iCom IC-7000 with an AH-4 antenna tuner and a Signalink sound card modem (for email). ...
We just got the word from the contest organizers. s/v Convivia will begin her circumnavigation with all new running rigging provided by Dyneema and their partners. This prize is doubly sweet for our crew. First it provides us with an outstanding spring board of safety and performance for our round the world trip. Second our old lines, which still have some life left, will be outstanding backups. Extreme disasters notwithstanding, we shouldn’t need to buy new lines before we cross our path. ...
We had the boat ship shape and ready to rock by the time Deneb and Seren showed up at 10:30. The kids were overflowing with excitement to have little Seren aboard, and just couldn’t wait to show him everything. Seren, warmed up to the chaos and excitement much more quickly than I would have expected (being his second time aboard a boat). After a quick detour at the pump out we made our way, ever so carefully, out the channel. We were worried about the latent tsunami effects and the low tide, but between the chart plotter and the crew’s watchful eyes, we made it out at dead low tide without a snag. Once safely out of the harbor we were greeted with the sight of several races, replete with their golden and graphite sails, underway all around us. I engaged the tiller pilot (or Otto, as Deneb dubbed it) and headed up to the mast to raise sail. We quickly killed the diesel and everyone exhaled and inhaled the warm(ish) salty spring air. ...
It’s 2:30 PST and the majority of the tsunami seems to have come and gone. Reports from around the Bay seem to be marginally more severe than what we experienced but still nothing serious. We observed 2’ walls of water moving at several knots parallel to the Golden Gate Bridge. Just before the tsunami surge hit our breakwater the standing water receded and left the muddy bottom bare. Then the wave(s) hit and created a ton of turbulence, kicking up mud and causing an impressive flotilla of water foul to stream by in parade. Inside the harbor things were calmer. It looked for a while like the channel markers that were being swiftly carried around the harbor on the current might be a problem. Luckily the Emeryville Harbormaster was out there taking care of it (over and over again). We watched the depth sounder fluctuate by two and three feet. Luckily nothing broke loose and our boat acted like it was just an unusually fast changing tide. ...
I just finished Poke the Box by Seth Godin. One thing I have always liked about Seth’s work is that he asks very little for the knowledge he gives. This book cost me $5 (Kindle version) and I finished it during my lunch break (alright I read for about 2 hours last night too). His blog posts can be read on the way to the break room. Poke the Box is Seth’s rant on the importance of starting and shipping. In 83 pages he makes a compelling case for why we should not let the fear of failure prevent us from starting something that could pe potentially amazing. ...
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how the kids’ childhoods will differ from their contemporaries as a result of this wild adventure we’re about to embark upon. Ruby understands that there are many things we will be giving up to go sailing around the world but I don’t think she’s got the context to understand it fully yet. The following are some of the experiences that Ruby and Olive might never share with their peers. ...
Conserving water has been one of our biggest worries lately. With only 110 gallons of water tankage (plus whatever we can fit in cans on deck), we have a good reason to be concerned. The average Pacific crossing for a boat of our size is ~21 days. Conservative water consumption for 4 people (adults) is 2 gallons per day per person (or 8 gal/day total). We have been using about 17.5 gallons/day since we moved aboard. At that rate we would have just a little more than 6 days worth of water (sans Jerry Cans). ...
Writing two blogs is stressful. Trying to balance content, cross linking, updating those plugins on both sites, it sure takes a lot out of a guy. So when Cindy of Zach Aboard suggested merging the two sites, I didn’t have much of an argument. So it is with great pleasure that I announce Forgeivia. Just joking. I’m going to keep the Forgeover “brand” as the primary because it’s more established and more general. I’ve split all of the s/v Convivia content out by Category and you can filter out the Forgeover stuff (and see just the sailing content) by clicking on the s/v Convivia link in the Navigation bar. ...
Just got the email, the contest is closed! First, thank you so much to everyone that helped Team Convivia to reach the Top 10. It was so amazing to see our tribe come together in support of our dream like this. Truthfully, that was worth more than the re-rig. But since we’re in the top 10, I don’t have to choose. So without further ado here is the final scores for the Top 40 contestants (numbers may change slightly if they still allow activations). ...