Maiden Voyage

     So we took the dinghy out for a run and the girls are trekking cross country to arrive tonight. Sadly, we have no video from what I suspect is the far more entertaining of the two events. The whole crew will finally be together on tuesday this week (theoretically. You can do it Carl!) 

     Our plan continues to evolve but somehow we seem to be getting things done and moving forward. We may end up staying in Ventura for all of our prep now, but who knows. We'll have our second in person crew meeting ever (we've had quite a few through skype and conference calls) on tuesday and I'm excited to really get moving with the whole crew working on things. 

     Hopefully the rain will let up and tomorrow we will have some nice pictures of our new stove installed to show tomorrow. 

there is actually more video but it was taking ages to upload, so we'll put it up tomorrow

EDIT: here it is

Like sands through the hour glass, these are the days of our lives....

coffe shop CAD

We have had a pretty productive few days here on the ol' Aldebaran. We have replaced most of the running rigging and are finishing up the two big windows in the salon area today (the living room to you land folk). Doing the windows has really made us want to do the other 5 in the salon, but we ain't got the time or money for that biz. That is especially true because of our solar power system which seems like it is going to require a bit of finagling to make fit.

Boom! new window

Yes, he really does things like this

 We also would like to mention that Jeff Hull should be voted man of the year. He has made so many things incredibly easy on us and is always pumped to help out. We went and picked up our new boards for the trip yesterday.
The girls are on the road, rambling through the treacherous mid-west snow. Carl is trying desperately to stop working, but stopping work has never been a strength of his. And Andy and I are just trying to make sense of things so that when they all get here in a few days, we can really get rolling.

The man himself, Jefferson Davis Hull

The new waterproof point'n'shoot in action, Andy in the sun

Tat-a-tat-tat!

I know you've all been sorely missing a post from the ladies, while we've just been sore; skin-wise, at the boys, at too many unaccounted-for possessions not fitting in a pinche minivan, and at the stupid, stupid snow! We're on the road now (actually in bed watching Metalocalypse at the Comfort Inn), but posting retroactively, and also briefly. It's late and I want to go to bed! 

Friday Lee and I got our crew's requisite anchor tattoos; variations on the publisher's mark of Aldus Manutius, an Italian credited with the invention of italics, the modern use of the semi-colon, and precursor to paperback books. The anchor and "dolphin" (yep, that's a dolphin) symbol comes from an older Roman coin associated with the term, Festina Lente; to make haste slowly. This term might somewhat apply to the way we packed up our lives in New York, but more on that next time.

Lisa contemplates the pain of her upcoming rib tattoo.

Clean slate? Not for long.

Touchdown! Hm...not so bad. Owww...

Done in half an hour!

Like a sleeping angel; no pain at all!

Jk, you can't see the wincing.

Feeling great!

Finished! Beeeautiful!

Freaking Out Man

 This post was written yesterday but was help back a day due to crew management concerns.  We apologize for the hold up but under the circumstances it was probably the best decision.

Oh what a 24 hours.  Yesterday Don and I went down to LA.  We went back to our favourite second hand sailing store and got some rope for some big lines and some dock lines , some more anchors, more rags, an important book or two and some other stuff I have foregotten.  Then it was off to an industral plastic supply company to hunt for some polycarbonate for our windows.  Found some. Done, sorted and presently being cut.  The part I missed here was the 3 hours last night Don spent creating a cad file to send to a fulla to cut the windows.  Don had a little freak out followed by another little freak out and finshed off by a medium freak out.  Evidently his widnowsXP set up on the computer is not the best of friends with the cad program making a seemily simple task into a monster.


The good freak out of the day came courtesy of Leslie and Lisa.  2462 miles away in New York Lisa and leslie are packing up and finishing off the New York Project.  Evidently this isn't going as smoothly as the girls thought it should be.  Yesterday Don and I spent a good part the afternoon/evening talking the ladies off the proverbial ledge they had established themselves on.  If at any point during this trip we had wanted to pitch our trip as a reality tv show, I have a feeling yesterday would have been the day to use.  Somehow the space available inside the vechical aquiured by the ladies did not match with the space needed for the essentails packed inside the apartment.  This combined with the last minute selling of things (which then means a lot of waiting for people who are never on time) and the general feelings about leaving New York and living on a boat for the next year finally pushed both of them over the edge. 


Now I see your what you are thinking here.  Its an easy solution.  You harden up, deal with it and move on.  If you need to get rid of Stuff, Get rid of Stuff.  If you need to ship Stuff, Ship Stuff.  Get a big burly neighbour to sit on a few things in the car to create some more space.  Just do what needs to be done.  But Here I would need to stop you and remind you that not everyone see's the world your way and you need to have a little compassion especially with poeple in the middle of a mess like this.  I would also propose that I would fly you here from anywhere in the world just to watch you try and reason with these two ladies during a full blown panic attach.  That is something I would pay good money to see.
"Don would like to include here that it is probably best if you read the last paragraph in the context of Andrew Looking in a mirror"


More to the point.  Solutions were finally found.  Tears where wiped away and two very tired and drained men went to bed(the ladies had more work to do).  Lets see what happens tomorrow

YOU SHUT UP ANDREW WEBSTER

Mr Webster has been making some suspect comments along the lines of 'The blind leading the blind'.  Response numero uno is as above.  Response Numero Dos(we have to learn Spanish sometime so mise as well start now) is "If by the blind leading the blind you mean two dedicated , knowledgeable, POLITE and supportive individuals taking turns at  navigating through a consistent flow of tricky situations and always coming to a positive and satisfying conclusion, then you are spot on Mr Webster.  Thank you for your support".

So the last few days it has felt like it is 'the blind leading the blind' around here. Don and I have been fumbling our way through cleaning/sanding/taping and painting engine parts as we slowly head towards a refurbished engine.  We replaced the middle support for the engine doors, stabilizing them (by we I mean Don. I did watch and supplied a number of supportive comments which really helps with Don's self confidence in these situations).  This was important as they are high traffic areas and are showing lots of wear.  We measured out the windows in the main salon and have decided to replace the two biggest and most venerable ones.  We also pulled out and tested the storm windows.  We were very happy with their performance.  I also bought a new Radio.  My dad and a local ham here in Santa Barbara recommended the same model radio.  So I hunted one down on eBay and sorted myself out.  Once it arrives I get to build my first little radio station so we can talk to people and maybe send some e-mails when out on the ocean.  Another tricky situation to be navigated.

That was about it for the day and our reward for a solid work week was a evening watching the Jets lose to the Steelers.  This made me very unhappy and Don very indifferent as he couldn't care less about Football(any kind of football, he doesn't discriminate)

Lets see what tommorrow brings.  Maybe some more supportive comments from certain "FRIENDS".

Peaks and Troughs

This whole processes has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster. Every step wrought with doubts, every decision second guessed. It seems yesterday was a team low however. With five people, usually there is someone up, but with Lisa and Leslie a day or so away from leaving they are buried in everything we are leaving behind,  Carl being mired in work until the bitter end, and Andy and I getting caught up in the mountain of work ahead, yesterday was awful all around. But things turn quickly, and despite all of our wallowing we all managed to keep moving forward. 

The engine is getting a top end rebuild and we got it all disassembled on Friday. Stu, our mechanic, has taken the head, injectors, and various other parts off to be thoroughly rejuvenated. Stu has high hopes for our engine. He thinks it looks pretty good and should run significantly better after this bit of attention we are giving it. 

lookin good

off to the machine shop

Stu in all his glory

Andy in the thick of it

Andy spent a good portion of the day crawling around the bowels of the boat removing the old propane lines. We should have our new system this week and are getting closer and closer to actually having a hot homemade meal. We'll see on that one though.

We did get to go check out a surf competition at the infamous Rincon point just north of our marina. It was cool to see first hand and the announcers were ridiculous.  They were constantly harassing a wave skier who was near the competition area. 

Rincon point, the actaul surf is up around the point, don't judge

Take a Lap

So this morning don and I moved the boat from our slip to the boat yard so it could be hauled out for the prop to be re-pitched.  This would seem like a simple endevour but as with anything with this boat or any boat it seems it has not been.  First,  Donald (remember he is the captain so the cofidence he exude's dictates the rest of the crews feelings) has been making nervous comments about moving the boat with the two of us for the last few days.  I have heard this before so didn't really think anything of it and just put Don's nervouosness down to his questionable manhood.

So last night I went to sleep happy in my thoughts of our productive day (more on that later) and woke up around 2 in the morning needing to go pee.  After satisfying this need I got back into bed and listned as the wind outside got steadily worse.  After about 2 hours of no sleep and general restlessness I got up and removed all the things above deck that could be blown off and tied down a few things to eliminate some noise.  This semi worked and I proceeded to gain another 2 hours of kinda sleep.  Upon waking in the morning I am now groggy and a shower and stretch do nothing.  I also find out funnily enough that our fearless captain had also been up in the night and felt pretty similar to me.

Now lets put this move into perspective.  It includes us backing out of the dock. Turning the boat and driving about half a mile to the boat yard where we need to stop and tie off a 17 ton boat.  All with two poeple.  Seems pretty simple right.  Didn't sound like a big deal to me. 

So off we go.  We both take the time to unhook everything and make sure everything is out of our way and stored (this did not happen in a previous occasion).  We move the dinghie out of the way for when we come back.  We start the engine up and let her warm up.  We take a look around and get ourselves ready.  It is about now that don lets me know that when they docked last time it was him, leslie and two guys on the dock(4 people) and that this hasn't been done with just two of us yet.  He is also bitching about how the thing doesn't turn right when it is under power (he's been doing this for a week now).  Cool, everything still sounds pretty good to me.  Untie everything,  push the boat off, jump on, boat is swinging the right way, looking good, easy as bro.

Fast forward one minute and we are 3 feet away from one of the other boats and pointing the wrong way down a dead end, and Don is cursing a little.  Well we havn't hit anything yet and we havn't sunk so i am still feeling pretty good but getting a little more nervous.  The next 10 minutes went like this.  I got a big pole and prepared to push off anything and don went back and forth and few dozen times.  However we got out and I was pretty impressed with Don's effort and my everlasting optimism.

Time to cruise over to the dock at about a half a knot (its a 17 ton boat, you try and stop that thing).  We get there, turn in with ease, I jump off and tie her up and we are done.  Wait there has to be more to this.  Nope, evidently if you feel unsure about driving a boat just make sure the engine is really good and you have lots of time to go back and forth. We were even there early.

PS  yesterday was really productive and we got lots done but still have lots to do.

When life give you lemons, and you want lemonade, hit them with a hammer

     We have been moving pretty well over the last few days. We got the stove taken out, cleaned the propane storage lockers, had propane cans checked, tracked propane lines, cleaned and repaired the anchor locker, rebuilt the mainsheet winch, and probably a few other things I'm forgetting.
     The mainsheet winch was/is interesting. The original plan was to remove it and replace it with a self-tailing winch (ours is a flat top or "grinder"). This would allow us to raise the main with only one person at the mast as opposed to two. Sounds great, so we ask around on how to pierce these seemingly monolithic constructions. With not a screw head in sight they are a little perplexing, that is until you have that forehead slapping moment that comes with every new project on a boat (you really gotta remember that boats have been around for ages and they haven't changed much, even the newer things tend to be pretty simple). So once we had the retaining ring pointed out to us (right dead center on top) the drum and upper assembly came right off. It was almost like someone designed it to do this! But now the fun part.

     Now we can see the six bolts holding the winch to the mast. They are some of the largest flathead screws I have ever seen. Quickly realizing we don't have have a worthy adversary for these things, I run down the pier to our brother in arms, Greg. He is similar in age to Andy and I, on a similar sized boat, and planning a passage to New Zealand. Needless to say we chat regularly, and joke constantly about the losing battle that is boat repair. Anyway, he lends me a 15" screw driver that is essentially the biggest you can get. Yeah that didn't work. Off to the auto parts store, and after chatting with the guy at the parts counter he tells us our best chance is something called a "drag link". It looked a little too big but we talked about how I could re-tool it without ruining it's temper.
     It's too big. After and hour of time with the angle grinder pretending to be a bench grinder by being pressed to my thigh, we had a perfect fit. Pop it on the ratchet handle and pull! Yeah, our new drag link twisted.
    So I break out our winch rebuild kit (basically grease, oil and a little brush) and begin reading the instructions. If the damn thing won't come off, then it will work perfectly. The instructions say "be sure to only use paraffin to clean all parts" and I immediately think, 'dad would have just stuck all this stuff in diesel, but maybe I should listen to the instructions'. I run to the marine supply shop at the end of the parking lot and ask about paraffin to clean winch parts, and the guy behind the counter says "I would just stick all that stuff in diesel".
     Sitting in front of a bucket of diesel fuel and greasy parts, I can't help but think of my dad. Andy and I have been talking a few times about my father's tool chest we gave to a friend in Colorado and what it actually was. It certainly isn't just a 3/4 ton pile of steel. It's kind of like a half burnt book. A treasure trove of stories and knowledge, but it's written in some personal shorthand and chunks are missing. Eventually you are just banging your head against the wall trying to read it without the author. At this point I must have gotten some diesel in my eye, or something. It is tough loosing a mentor, amongst other things. The thought of legacies broken, stories half told, and the lost black magic of masters.
    Whoa, where the fuck did I just go. What' that over there? I gotta go. Oh, but the diesel did work like a charm.

Rule #1. Don't do business with anyone name "Mide"

As if selling stuff weren't hard enough! I've sold stuff on Craigslist before (although never so much!), and it's always been fine and sketch-free. But recently, I got what I thought was sort of a strange response to one of my postings:

midwayltd010@gmail.com

Thanks for your prompt response i will love to make an instant purchase ,i hope it is in good condition like it stated, i have taken a close look at the advert,and am completely satisfied so please do withdraw the advert from Craigslist.I don,t mind adding an extra $70 dollars for you to take the advert down from criagslist, so that i can be rest assured that am in hand of the item.I will also like you to know that i will be paying via CERTIFIED CHECK and it will be an over night payment.............You don,t need to bother your self with the shipment ok,I will take care of that myself.... So I will need you to provide me with the

following information to facilitate the mailing of the payment....Not p.o.box

Name to be on the check_______________

Home address or office address________

City__________________________________

State_________________________________

Zip Code______________________________

Cell phone #__________________________

**Once again ,I will like you to know that you will not be responsible for shipping of this item . my shipper will move down to your place for the pick up...as soon as the money order clear.  hope you assure

me in hand of the item...  Have a nice day.......


Oookeeey. This seems abnormal. But maybe this guy's bad English is making him seem sketchy. Also, when people use all caps, you know they're trouble. Still, he's not asking for my SS#. But...


leslieannhenkel

Hi there, 

Sounds great, I will definitely take you up on your offer and remove the post to hold the couch for you for $320 total, but I'd love to call you and chat about the details of the shipping. May I have your number please? What's your name by the way? 


midway

Well My Name is Mide ..so i will like you to get back to me with your information so that i can issue the payment out to you asap and more so i will have call you but my cell phone is having problem but when i fixed it back i will try to call you asap ..so i will want you to get back to me with your information so that i can issue the check to you asap


Wow. So persistent without having even viewed the couch in real life? Then I start to wonder if you can fake a certified check. I look it up, and yes, yes you can. Ebay describes the way the whole thing goes down, so I decide it's safe to try one more thing with Mide. I give him an address. Surely he won't tell me he's going to send me a check for $3,000 dollars and ask me to pay his shipper with that money and then Western Union him the remainder. Mide, I believe in you! 


midway

Hello

How are you and how is your day? Hope everything if ok? .Well i will like to tell you that you will receive the payment next week.But, there is something i will like you to do for me. I just got married last week, i leave in New York, but will be relocating to your city as soon as i return from my honeymoon and will be going for my honeymoon in Dubai somewhere in the Asia next week. I might not be around to coordinate the pick up,and i will not want any delay from my side regarding the pick up so ,i will be adding the shipping fund with you money. As soon as you receive the payment,and get payment cashed.Then, I will instruct my shipper to get in contact with you for the pick up schedule time and date. so i will be sending the money to cover the shipment of the item, . You will receive the payment of $3,876 As soon as you have it, i will want you to deduct your money plus $100 for your effort and send the balance to the shipper via western union or money gram at any walmart store around you, the shipper will be pick up some other items for me in your city. I want to buy this item for

our my own use as soon as we return from Dubai. I hope i can count on you to do this for me. I will await your response asap, so that we can set the ball rolling


leslieannhenkel

Yeah, nice one. Actually don't send me anything. I now know that this is a scam. NO SALE!!! Have fun on your honeymoon, I hope your new wife enjoys being married to a  SCAMMER!


Yeah. After two more emails similar to Mide's, but with better English, I'm replying with this: 

leslieannhenkel

Please get a real job. You should know that your scam is retarded and you should really find a new email template because this is just like 2 I've gotten already. 

You suck for trying to rip people off, and karma is a bitch. So enjoy your scummy, scammy life in Scamtown! 

Corrections and Reminders

    I feel I may have offended Andrew in yesterday's post. So please take a moment to re-read the edited/updated version. Also please remember to plot and plan your trip to Baja and send us music.
     As for actual boat work updates, we will be back tomorrow with pretty pictures and everything. For today just enjoy the debauchery found in the ladies post from earlier this morning.

dead in a ditch

Incapable of taking a nice pic of ourselves.

greetings from bed. last night leslie & i had our going away party. yeah. umm. i may have been drinking whiskey straight from the bottle. someone may have gotten a ticket for public urination. we may have been serving ourselves. thanks roberta's- we love you. it's 5 pm and we are still in bed. just ordered indian food & it will most likely be consumed in bed. somehow we are still getting stuff done. wood rafters that make up our kitchen table will be gone in about an hour. i would like to take this opportunity to tell everyone that shedding your stuff is amazing. i love it & highly recommend it. i have unloaded some stuff this week that i thought i would be more upset about. like the green leather chair that is one of the last pieces of furniture left from the house i grew up in. i can remember my grandfather, my father & my mother sitting in it. but it's made me realize that stuff isn't them. it can't pinch my cheek, fix anything & everything, or dazzle me with a smile. it's just stuff & holding on to it only holds you back. so the house is getting emptier, our pile of cash from selling this stuff is getting bigger & we are getting closer to our last day in new york. we still have a lot of work before we shove off in mid-february, but i'm finally able to start picturing this trip.

Aye-aye captain crazy!

I'd just like to say (this is Leslie now, using my capitals) that Lisa picked the most delicious pies for the civilized, dinner portion of the evening (though Lisa and her friends claim that me and my group were civilized for the entire night; that is not a compliment coming from that gang of ruffians!). Bosc Blues: gorganzola, pears and carmalized onions; Speckenwolf (I only know it had speck and mushrooms on it, and looked good), and A kale pie with tallegio (fatty melty delicious cheese), and potatoes. I was initially skeptical of this one, but it proved to be my favorite. Anyway, it was a fun night overall. Enjoy the photographic highlights!

Thank you Matt the gracious bartender. Did anyone pay you?

Matt and Ulyses cuddling..

Lisa wants you to see his beard. 

Nobody puts Mao in a corner!

Stina, Nick and Megan. Loaded!

Young love.

Hi Ann and Nick!

Pam learns to pour a beer.

Ellie dances like a champ.

Bri and Pam are cute, in that psycho kind of way

Stina makes a funny face while Nick makes a weird face.

George, on top of things

Andy is an asshole

     So we are sitting at our usual bagel/wifi spot, being as productive or more so than we have ever been, and Andy just starts getting antsy encouraging for no reason. Telling Asking me to get off the phone keep up the good work, type the blog enjoy my breakfast, finish the ordering we are doing stay hydrated, and to stop waisting time in general generally relax and enjoy myself. He is a prick gem.
     Anyway, I am actually feeling somewhat better today and food it not seeming so evil. Thanks for asking.
    We are struggling a bit this morning as it is becoming pretty obvious that this is going to be a big money week. Just this morning we ordered the stove, anchor, propane system, and anchor locker liner. (Andy just told me to get back to typing and we can talk in the car let me know he would wait in the car but I should take my time) Later this week we are going to be ordering the remaining lines for the running rigging, solar panels, wind/water generator, a new battery system, and I'm sure something I'm forgetting. Oh and at noon today we meet with the mechanic about doing a top end rebuild on our engine. Yeah, the budget is spent. Oh yeah the nav station was what I was forgetting. So add some thing in there. Oh god we are screwed. I wonder how much of this stuff we will realize we don't need once we are going? Ah, can't think like that.
    Well Andy's about to blow a fuse burst into song if we don't get moving (he just said "how's that blog going?" in the shittiest loveliest tone possible, then followed that with "I'm gonna go extend the parking meter for a week , be right back!!", rare form). So that's it. Today is all about consuming, whether it's me finally eating something or us just buying way too much to be comfortable.

Roller Derbie

Today we are both feeling pretty lethargic.  Don spent most of last night throwing up due to food poisoning.  I pretty much ate the same things as him yesterday so I guess this just shows how much of a man I am and Don isn't.  Due to Don's musical number that lasted into the wee hours of last night I didn't sleep very well and now instead of one very grumpy individual and one happy individual we now have one very grumpy and one semi grumpy individual which equals two grumpy individuals.  Just goes to show how good we are at teamwork.

Yesterday sore some more cleaning work on the boat.  We are very close to having the anchor locker cleared out sorted and done.  We found we do have a drain in the locker which was doubtful for a few hours and a pleasant surprise to find.  We have devised a Way to keep the chain off the floor so the water can run to it's drain freely and so the chain and rode won't sit in lots of salt water for extended amounts of time.  We also took another trip to LA and bought two 300 feet rope rodes, some shackles, some pins, a guide book, some rags and a deck scrub.  So now all we need to finish off our anchor set up is 250 feet of chain and a new anchor.  The new anchor seems to be the problem as we can't find easy access to the ones we want but we can get cheap knock offs.  Then the question becomes will they work well enough.  We will see.  If you feel like nerding out on anchors we are trying to find an original Bruce anchor(lots of knock off versions around) or we really would like a rocna anchor(which is made in New Zealand and is the new buzz in the anchor world) but are having a hard time convincing ourselves to spend the money.

In between the boat work and the buying things I did my usual coffee finding mission.  I have been hunting down places for coffee everywhere I go these days and any trip to LA has been no different.  I have had limited success and I think I am running at a 50% success ratio.  But then this is mainly due to the existence of intelligentsia in LA who seem to have a plan for domination.  Without them I would really be struggling.  We managed to waste a good 2 hours looking for coffee and taco's(I think don feels left out with my coffee excursions so yesterday he felt the need to focus on finding a good taco We think this is what led to the food poisoning).

After our little sailing purchasing spree.  We drove over to the local Orange County roller rink to watch Lisa play her Roller Derbie.  Now to me anything that starts with Orange County feels like it should be a reality TV Show and this scene definitely agreed with that assumption.  Thankfully this group had not progressed that way and it just ended up being a small stadium filled with people shouting at ladies in funny outfits rolling around in circles smashing each other.  And I do mean smashing each other.  Just girls laying other girls out like it was nothing.  Lisa performed wonderfully and even ended up winning the game for her team (this is even better when you take into consideration that she spent more time during the game in the penalty box than out of it).  If you have never been to one of these it is worth making the effort.  After watching a whole match I concluded there was no way I would be able to participate as with my fragile body I would be taking up to much of the on site doctors time and hence not allowing any relief for the real players.  Don on the other hand thought he could take most of the girls easily and that he would have no problem making the A team.  Again putting into question his manliness (I don't care if this isn't a real word it just works OK)

Then we went home and Don started throwing up.

One is the loneliest number

Since Don mentioned me (Carl) in the last post, I figured it's about time I spouted off from my currently rain soaked region, the beloved Pacific Northwest.  Up until recently I've been relatively calm & organized about getting everything in order to take off for So Cal on the 30th.  Up until recently, that is.  Last night at a friend's birthday soiree I was asked, as we've all become accustomed to lately, so are you ready to take off?!  I usually respond with a quick "I'm gettin there!", but this time I actually paused before answering---and when I took a minute to think on it, I instantaneously got panicked with all the logistics left on my to-do list.  Raleigh's importation paperwork, selling the car, packing everything up---not to mention the inconsequential task of finally finishing the solar & wind/water power generation system for the boat and getting the equipment TO the boat ASAP.  And of course there's always the extra details not on the list that end up taking the most time.  Before I know it I've sent the panic text out to my fellow crewmates.  Fast forward to this morning.

Great phone call with Lisa & Leslie (after what seems like ages since our last official boat meeting).  I'm done panicking and back to getting shit done.  So what if the guys are on the boat together and the girls are in Brooklyn together---who really needs moral support anyway?! (I'm raising my hand, but you can't see that)


Evidently this started off as a self-pity post, but now has turned itself completely around into a self-help post.  Love that thar cathartic blogging.

FAIL

So some of you may be wondering why the lack of pictures lately.  Well it is because don (yes he is little d again) left all the important batteries back in New York.  So Now we have a very expensive camera doing nothing while so many important events in this trips lifespan pass all of you by.  Now right here you should be wondering why a trip of this magnitude only has one camera involved in it.  well, it doesn't.  It is just that andrew (yes I have eliminated my capital too) put his little digital in such a safe place it took him two days to find it again.  So now we have my little camera and a new waterproof camera to bring you more pictures while our big camera has a couple of days off.  To be fair the big camera probably needs it couple of days off and it is time for the little cameras to step up anyway.

So today I have given the both of us a Fail.

Yesterday ended up being a very productive day.  We were back to being up a 7 and on the net by 7:30.  We proceeded to make our usual two trips a day to Home depot (we only do two trips because we manage to forget something the first time, every time).  Don got himself an angle grinder and had a good time cutting through our rusted anchor chain.  This footage is on the big camera but unfortunately you have to use a decent amount of imagination to really see it.  We managed to save a 100 feet of the chain.  We think this will probably be the start of our secondary anchor rode(a rode is the anchor line and is usually either all chain or a combination chain/rope).  After that we blew up the dinghy and put it''s floor in.  We have been patching this for the last two days and as of this morning it was holding it's air and looks in good shape.  The outboard is in the shop for the next week and we are hoping it come's out and work's like a new one.

After the events of the anchor chain we spent a few hours going over all the port holes and seeing what needs replacing.  Don designed some new netting fittings for the port holes which worked really well and will save us another few hundred dollars.

That's about it.  Happy Martin Luther King weekend to everyone and see you tomorrow

Oh and there has been someone severely missing from these posts, Carl. Last night we all received a text from Carl that read "I'm having a minor panic attack right now". So I (this is Don typing now) promptly called him. Now normally any conversation between Carl and I is pretty much just an exchange of insults and belittling remarks to which we both laugh and retort appropriately. It is always this way, whether we are talking about hockey or a death in the family. Always. Last night was the first time I ever consciously stopped winding Carl up. Basically he had things all set to be a reasonable move over the course of 9 or 10 days. Now, due to some out of his hands work delays, he has 2 and a half days. Yeah.....two and one half days to wrap up a life, make sure Raleigh is legal (which has required more work than any other aspect of preparation of the last two years) and drive to SoCal. Thankfully the conversation quickly returned to our norm once I told him of some moronic happening around the boat. He quickly laughed, called me an idiot, and sounded rejuvenated. All hell on the northwest front, or something like that. You can do it Carol Anne!!

Baja or Bust

COME TO BAJA!!!

Some of you may have already heard us talk about trying to organize a send off sometime in February. Well here is our plan; Our friends Christine and Josh live in this great little spot called Todos Santos, right down the end of Baja. There is also this very picturesque and reasonably priced place right next door to them. We are going to be there anytime between the middle and end of Feb but we are comfortable committing to being there by the 25th. So let's say the actually get together will be on Saturday the 26th of February 2011. That is the day, but there is a good chance that we will be there for two weeks or so, starting around the 20th. So hang out for a bit. The airports you want to look at are La Paz and Cabo San Lucas (SJD). Now get booking!!

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"Every Day I'm Hustling, Hustling, Hustling..."

Snow daze!

Alright boys, we've had enough of this "new post every day" showboating. Lisa and I haven't had the luxury of cruising around in LA traffic (in what I can only imagine is a red convertible), eating burritos, getting tattooed, wearing shorts, testing dinghies, and certainly not going to bagel shops to write blog posts.

Oh stop. We know you've been working hard too. But you guys could be tarring rooftops every day in Southern California, and we'd still envy you for getting out of this 20 degrees, "feels like 6 degrees", black ice and snow everywhere weather.  

It's like Goodwill up in here!

But, now that stuff has started moving, stuff, the albatross around the neck of anyone trying to move onto a boat for a year, we've started to breath a little easier. Last night's selling soiree, while not the social event of the year (I blame you, snow!), was a roaring success in our minds. 5 bottles down, $500-something up, and we're not having such a bad time ourselves. It's weird though, living in what basically amounts to a second-hand store; spaces taking the place of furniture we've all grown to associate with our life here. It's harder on the Fierros, who grew up with some of these things. 

Charles Shaw showed up.

But I know this is what Don intended to happen when he thought up this crazy scheme. To let all our various albatrosses fly free, across the Pacific; trading heavy memories and inertia for new, unbelievable adventures and experiences. And as we all break our butts to hustle, build, clean, pack, fix, finalize, and say goodbye to friends and family, we embrace the tradeoff for all it's worth, and look forward to February, when we're finally together and ready to fly.

Here today...

Gone tomorrow.

Sold!

Don's work desk.