The Boate

smooth sunday sailing

phil and doctor mark joined captain eric as the boate cruised around in some unbelievably warm and smooth weather out on the bay today. we tacked around without a clear destination for a while, with a vague idea of heading around the windward of angel island and back down the strait. the temperature was in the mid eighties and there was nary a swell to be seen, although occasionally we encountered a massive boat wake. we had a bit of the doldrums through the strait and in the lee of angel island, and eventually fired up the motor for ten minutes in order to get back to the marina with some light left. i cut and pasted three of the photos from today to capture the day:

race day

there was a pretty good breeze out on the bay today as we made our way to the starting line of the match race between the oracle bmw and alinghi america's cup class boats. our timing could not have been better as we crashed through the swells at a brisk enough pace, and close enough to the racers to draw the attention of at least one of the committee boats (or maybe it was just one of the homeland defense boats). they must have briefly mistaken the boate as a vessel of disruptive anarchists bent on creating an embarrassment of one-upmanship out on the bay. they soon realized that we were not there to offer additional competition, merely cruising in a sightseeing capacity. the boate shall leave her contesting of the america's cup for another day. check the photos.
and here's the start of the race viewed from the boate:

indian summer and the racing boate

another spectacular day of sailing out on the bay. don't just take the captains' words for it, here is an article describing the conditions out on the bay today.

here's the current america's cup-holder cruising close to the boate to a get a closer look at the secret to our success:

and today, the answer was: LADIES. those world cup boats are dude-ranch fiestas, whereas on the boate, we believe that having some babes aboard always makes for a more beautiful cruise. we were joined by cary and rachel as we cruised behind angel island, up the rack and along the golden gate, then down between alcatraz and the city, running with the wind and against a massive regatta racing their way back up towards the bridge. that article was right about the tricky currents right off alcatraz. forget racing. try steering the boate through tricky currents while avoiding collision with oncoming racing boats. that's where the true skills lie....

out the gate

today was another unbelievably gorgeous day out on the bay. kin jung was aboard as the boate made her way outside the golden gate bridge for the first time.

early in the afternoon, we had a nice breeze that was coming farther from the south than usual. this allowed us to take a heading almost at the center of angel island, right out of the marina. the timing of the tides was also ideal, carrying us out and flowing back in with us on our way home. (i had researched this last night and wanted to make sure we left early enough to take full advantage). there were some white crests on the longer period swells, and with a temperature in the low 70's, the occasional spray in the cockpit was pretty refreshing. cruising under the golden gate was pretty exhilarating.

headed through raccoon strait was, as usual, a calm and easy sail on the way home. we got caught in the lee of angel island ever so slightly, but made it back to the marina right after sunset. the high clouds in the late afternoon reminded me of montana. it was pure big sky country out there today, and towards evening we had the bay practically to ourselves and the seals.

the triumphant return to the bay

you may have noticed the scarcity of entries over here in the captains' log. this is because, quite frankly, this last month has been the darkest period of time in the boate's history. in fact, one might say it has been sucking shit since the 6 horsepower johnson two stroke threw out its shift lever. while it was interesting and at times even fun to take apart the motor and then rebuild it, quite honestly this is not why we bought the boate.
yesterday, phil and i pulled out of the slip late in the afternoon with the rebuilt johnson wheezing away. we were creeping up the main channel with some breeze at our head when the pain started. the wind was coming across our port pretty briskly, and rather quickly we went from making slow headway towards the breakwater to being in irons. this situation was only temporary however, as we were almost instantly moving again, on collision course with some rather expensive and large boats. unable to turn off course quickly enough, i managed to get the johnson into reverse and revved while phil fended us off at the bow. still in reverse, we managed to back out of this ugly situation. shifting into forward, the engine.....died. now we were drifting, and drifting fast, towards the monstrous hornblower boats, the ones that the radison or whatever hotel it is uses as party cruisers. these may actually qualify as ships or marine vessels (MV). the johnson started back up after one or two pulls, but now refused to go into forward. i got her into reverse and managed to reverse our current course past the hornblowers and into the rocks. i was planning to gain as much ground as i could in reverse when.....the engine died. this time however, there was no hope of restarting it. the thing has either seized or something in the gear box has slipped into an immovable state. we managed to grab hold of some other boats and push our way into an empty slip thereby bringing the unpleasant adventure to an end.

so this morning, after a discussion with captain steen, en route to los angeles, it was time to get a new motor. there was just no choice in the matter, and several incidents involving jeopardy of life and property were enough to convince me that the johnson is a liability. (i felt like throwing the piece of shit into the murky waters of the marina and watching the fucker disappear). here i am calling captain steen to inform him that the new four stroke honda 5 hp is purely tasteful. even at the break-in period speeds of just above idle, the boate was practically planing on the way out. (slight exaggeration).

chav and brenda and brando and phil were aboard for the triumphant return to the bay of the boate. brandon was pretty psyched to get back to the marina once we had left it, so we cut our trip over to angel island short, headed back and called it a day.

one thing i rediscovered today. beauty is in fact in the eye of the beholder. when the boate was sitting there with the johnson aboard, promising uncertainty in powered navigation, she was nowhere near as beautiful as tonight at sunset after a hose down, with the new rock solid honda aboard.

fixed

well almost. after a lot of dealing and assistance from martin and phil, we finally got the motor back together. (i only found one washer that got left out after everything was reassembled....not bad). so we fired her up and.....we sheared off the prop pin that i had fabricated a replacement for. problem was, the aluminum stock that i used could not withstand the overwhelming six horsepower of torque, and broke immediately. i might as well have used toothpicks, captain steen observed, to which i defensively replied that this project has seen no shortage of fuckups on both our behalves. captain steen readily acquiesced to this statement, so we could remain friends. in any case, we need to get the real part, probably made out of some very rare MARINE (i.e. VERY EXPENSIVE), alloy of titanium and diamond. or maybe just hardened steel. luckily, everything is shifting tastefully, she idles very tastefully (after i gapped the new spark plugs), and the impeller is pushing an impressive volume of cooling water through the engine. i have a feeling of satisfaction almost as if we had actually gone out sailing today.