Well, we've been busy making things official (marriage and cruising). In the last several weeks we've both given notice at work, and Julia's last day is 1 week from today. In fact, both of our jobs were very supportive and offered 6 month leaves of absence. It works out very well given the timing of the Mexico cruising season, if we get down there and have had enough, we'll have great jobs to come back to.

It's been interesting now that we are in a position to speak more openly with our friends at work about our plans. Most people are supportive, but there's usually an element of hesitation, or a feeling that they are holding back from saying what's really going on in their head. Often I get the feeling that it would be much easier for people to fit our trip into their cognitive framework if we had some goal. If we were doing a long-distance ocean race, people would get it immediately. We could probably even be tracing the route of some obscure lumber schooner and people would still accept it more readily than just going cruising.

The author of one of my favorite sailing blogs refers to his sailing as a '15 year circumnavigation to say goodbye to the world.' 

Dinghy chocks are surprisingly difficult to find. We contacted Spaulding Boatworks to get a quote on bronze castings using Lin and Larry Pardy's patterns that they donated to Spaulding. The total cost of the quote? $400 for two. So it was back to the drawing board.
When we joined techshop, we learned of a place called Metal Supermarkets near us in Redwood City but because they are only open during the work day we'd never been able to go. This week we stopped by for a look around.

For $40 we purchased enough stainless steel for both the chocks and the backing plate for 3 chocks. In one afternoon at techshop using their band saw and metal grinders we have two lovely chocks and backing plates.
We also made a quick stop at MacBeath Hardwood and picked up a 3 foot slab of teak to install in the chocks.

This project is coming along surprisingly well. Considering how difficult our prior two projects were (engine repower and boom gallows), I wonder if I have a redefined definition of complicated.

Update as of 08/03/08
After two weeks of playing with the HP, we were not thrilled with it. We had doubts about it's long-term durability and reliability in being our prime communication link in many ways with everything.
We were resigned to just making do until we had a conversation with Jacob's parents who have a MacBook with the new chip, and who (it turns out), would much rather have a PC! So it's back to mac for us, and it's SO GREAT!!!!


Today we purchased a PC to use when we're on Pisces. Jacob found a great price on a spiffy little HP with lots of memory (so we can take tons of photos once we leave).

While I use a PC at work I've always been a Mac person so it felt a little weird to buy a PC for personal use. But it's surprisingly nice and has all sorts of cool features (that Jacob assures me are not the important ones) such as web cam and a little remote control for the DVD/CD player etc.
It will be our video and voice link to family and friends as well as our entertainment center for music and video.

Right now, I'm excited to start using it to download weather faxes. We've been listening to the cruising nets using our world radio receiver, and I'm itching to start figuring out how to download the weather forecasts and faxes onto the PC.

Kathy is a friend of mine from work who happens to be a nurse with many years of experience in medical air transport and emergency treatment for yachts and airplanes.

Today we met at Pisces and she brought us a comprehensive medical kit for us to take when we leave. We spent a lovely day out sailing with her and she taught us how to start IVs.

Thanks Kathy!!!!

We took advantage of the long weekend to spend some time out on Pisces. We had a great weekend, with everything from drifting calm all the way to 35 kt gusts.

We spent Friday night at anchor in Richardson bay and enjoyed front row seats on the foredeck for the Sausalito fireworks show. Saturday we had an impromptu raft-up with Fancy, followed by a lazy sail around Angel Island. Saturday night we spent at anchor at Paradise Cay, followed by a wet and wild beam reach home in 28kts with gusts to 33kt+ with two reefs in the main, the staysail, and the monitor (name currently under debate) steering.

Getting out for a few days at anchor reminded us that beyond how many individual items there are on our 'to-do' list, there are so many categories of things to focus on. It's very easy to start focusing in on one category of things to-do, and lose track of all the other equally important types of things that need to be done.

For example, we've been spending some time looking at safety equipment, and from storm anchor to trysail to sea anchor we've been thinking a lot about safety. However, being out this weekend reminded us that we need to think about how to get the dinghy easily launched, whether the jib sheet blocks are correctly located, where to store our clothes, and so on and so forth.

Here are some general categories of things that need to be considered:

Safety: Storm preparation, medical supplies, etc.

Sailing: General sailing equipment, running rigging, standing rigging, positioning of blocks, sails, etc.

Daily living comfort: The boat has to be comfortable to live aboard, frequently used items should be accessible, etc.

Admin: Where's the mail going to go? Health insurance, boat insurance, etc.

Spares: This deserves its own category...how many of what are we bringing?

Here's a couple of pictures from this weekend:

We randomly saw Fancy (the boat we race with) going by in Sausalito, so they stopped in for a lunchtime raft-up.


This last week we bought a used Luke 65 lb storm anchor. As Julia demonstrates above, this thing is huge.