I guess it's part our fault for not writing more. We have plenty of excuses though. You want to hear them?
I didn't think so.
We're in what has been beautiful, sunny, Alameda for just one more day. Claudia and I hitched a ride down here with Dennis Perry and Nina Rose on the 6th of October. After spending most of my Summer preparing IRIE for a voyage, we were finally ready to have guests aboard. There were a few tasks left to do though, so we put them to work before play time, and had a great time through it all. The weekend turned out to be the 30th annual "Fleet Week" on San Francisco Bay. There were seven Navy ships in the bay including an aircraft carrier. And we watched an air show with the Blue Angels and the Canadian precision fliers that lasted almost three hours. WOW!! It was magical. We were sailing the bay on a beautiful afternoon with these awsome jets doing what only they can do. What a special day that was. Just us and about a thousand other boats.
This is a shot of Commodore Perry taking a turn at the helm. (Sorry Dennis, I'll do better with the lighting next time)
Since that weekend, we've been finishing the jobs on our lists and looking for just a few days where the Pacific wouldn't be trying too hard to eat us up on our trip South
Here's Claudia with the final touches of the wax on, wax off.
And yours truly at the top installing the new wind sensor.
OK, this is a bit out of context, but we just had our second earthquake today. The first, at about 2:30, I felt on shore. It was a 4.0, and felt like kind of a quick jolt. I'd been talking with Hajime Jesse. We looked at each other, checked the perimeter, and just knew in a few seconds what had happened. It had been many years since I felt the earth move around, but it must be like riding a bicycle. Claudia, on the other hand, was aboard, and told me that the whole boat shook. She thought that someone had run into us! I wondered how that could happen. The second quake a few minutes ago found me aboard this time, and it did shake the whole boat - felt like the boat and the water and everything around just dropped a couple of inches and landed. I still wonder how that could happen. Strange stuff. I belive I feel safer aboard.
So tomorrow we'll be joined by good friends and crew Mitch Manina and Chuck Reckner, both of whom have been in these pages before. Together, the four of us will head out past the City of San Francisco and under the Golden Gate on Saturday morning for about a 260 mile trip down the Pacific coast. This should be two to three days and nights at sea. We're about to find out what kind of sailor IRIE is. Also, we will not be lollygagging, as there is a growing high pressure in the Pacific right now which will be sending big swells and waves to chase us along. We plan to outrun them and have a good time doing it.
E
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