Friday, July 11th meant one thing that we’ve been looking forward to for weeks: our weekend moored with Shanti at Angel Island.
Shana and I left Berkeley Friday afternoon in small craft warnings. A very wet ride and two hours later we were successfully moored in Ayala Cove and awaiting Jon, Heather, Kaarrrvin and Eli’s arrival in Shanti. We launched the dinghy and Shana decided it was as good a place as any for the much anticipated “first beer” ceremony. 
The gang arrived soon enough and so began a great weekend and not a bad sunset! 
On Saturday, Eb (aka Silver Eagle) came over on the Ferry and we all went for a hike around the island. Highlights were a bird’s eye view of the start of the Single Handed Transpac (the idea has been percolating with Bob ever since) and a great picnic lunch by Kev and Eli. 
After a great hike/great day, back to the boats for some cocktails and BBQ. Cocktail hour did bring about a small disaster. While trying to make Dark and Stormies (i.e. rum and ginger ale), Kaarrrvin grabbed the Scotch decanter (they aren’t labeled, but he HAS sailed on Charisma enough to know…) by accident and poured a vile concoction that all agreed would forever more be named the “Burnt Bagpipe”. Still gives me the shivers thinking of the taste. Over the side it went and all was forgiven but definitely not forgotten. The other “incident” of the weekend were the burnt mango muffins. Great idea and they tasted great, but the paper cups that I cooked them in burnt and for the rest of the weekend we had the aroma of burnt muffins wafting through the boat. 
Sunday dawned and Shanti had to go back. Among other things, Jon and Shana were racing at 11 and needed to be back in Tiburon to board Elusive for the race. As part of a great deal, er, I meant HUGE SACRIFICE, Bob had to stay on the boat the rest of the day at the mooring relaxing in the Sun until the racing was done and Elusive dropped Shana off on their way home. Nice day! Music, nice warm, sunny cove, good book and as a bonus, I got to watch the “carnage” around me as other boats dropped on and off the moorings. For the weekend, I saw two collisions and a rope tangled in a prop as one boat was leaving. They had to get a diver who came over from the mainland to cut the rope so they could leave. Fortunately other than being raided of beer by the Elusive crew, we were otherwise unscathed and had an uneventful trip home.
Finally Back In The Water
We’re back in the water and Charisma’s now officially in Berkeley! After seven long weeks Charisma is finally done. Going down to the boatyard every day and project managing the guys working on her finally got things done. We now have new rigging, halyards, lifelines, prop shaft, re-cut prop, bottom paint, replaced 20-year old holding tank hose, roller furling jib and new electronics. The new nav instruments are great. In the cabin, there’s my Garmin 396 showing graphically where we are plus coastal weather feeds and next to it is a B&G graphic display programmed to show boat speed, depth, and wind speed. At the helm we now have depth, boat speed and wind speed on one side of the binnacle, wind direction in the middle and a GPS feed showing speed over ground (to compare to boat speed), course and distance to waypoint and estimated time to waypoint. It’s all easily configured so we can change the feeds anytime we want from dozens of choices of data input. 
Yikes, March 25th And Still On The Hard!
Who’d a thought we’d be out of the water for so long? Turned out the yard got busy and Charisma sat for over two weeks without any work getting done. So now, I go down to boat every day for an hour to supervise and make sure the yard knows I’m watching. They are finally getting things done. They are doing nice work too.A bonus I just found out is that we’re going to be able to hard wire the “portable” Garmin gps such that it will “talk” with the new instrument displays at the helm. We put in two Brooks and Gatehouse Graphical Displays at the helm in the hopes that eventually we’d be able to get gps data when we get a chartplotter (hopefully next year?). But in the mean time found out the Garmin will send the data just fine. So we’re adding a permanent gps antenna and wiring the garmin to a data unit that will send the info to the displays and to the new panel. Then we’ll be able to configure one display for speed and depth and the other display to show gps course and distance. In the center of the nav pod we also put an analog wind speed/direction gauge. We also put a “repeater” display over the nav table to we’ll have the same data down below. The “new” prop and prop shaft also went in today. Turns out the prop was probably too big, but the pitch was OK, so the shop ground it down to a smaller diameter. They took about 2 inches off, so now it’s a 16 inch diameter prop. Looks much better. I hope it performs as well as it looks. Also they said the shaft was “toast” (their words), so we’ve a brand new one. One final bit of good news is while digging in the storage compartments to run new wire, the electrician solved another boat mystery. He uncovered a strange looking pvc tube with numerous rope loops on it. Aha! The spreader bar for the sunshade! We have a sunshade with lots of attachments but no visible means with which to stretch it. I’ve been trying to figure out how in the world it worked. Mystery solved. Here’s a picture of the new prop versus the old prop. Not sure if you can see the difference in these photos, but now the blades have a better shape. 
The Big One-Cont’d
Well, it’s March 10 and Charisma is still on the hard. I dropped by today (after a couple weeks of traveling) to see what progress has been made. They’ve had the boat for about three weeks now and the bottom paint is done, the head intake was fixed (an uncooperative clam had set up home and clogged the water intake). There’s a new diesel fill line (the old one was not rated for fuel), the inside is torn up as they’ve started with the new instruments, but just barely. I don’t think they have yet tackled putting in a new line to the holding tank. That will be a lot of work and I decided it better to leave that to the yard than to tackle it myself. The binnacle’s off in the metal shop being altered to accept the new instrument pod since-you guessed it-the new instruments wouldn’t fit in the old one. Also the prop’s off and the shaft was deemed “toast” so a new shaft will be part of the overhaul (extensive corrosion pitting likely due to the previous owner not sailing her enough). They have not yet started work on the new circuit panel. The old one had no more space for electrical “stuff”, so I’m having a new one put in to make additions easier. It will also begin the development of a real nav station in the quarter-berth as it will allow for installation of a new data repeater that will show speed, depth and wind and future adds likely to include GPS, Radar and SSB Radio. Lastly, the new rigging is not started yet since that’s not done until the boat is put back in the water. All in all, looks like at least another two weeks at the least. Probably just as well, since the garden needs attention anyway. 🙂 
The BIG ONE
Yep, if we thought previous work was expensive, today I scheduled the big one. The haul out. Actually part of the purchase of Charisma included budgeting for some of what is to come.
- New standing rigging including a roller furling headstay and SSB backstay antenna
- New lifelines
- Running backstays (as a cutter rig, the staysail needs a bit of extra support. You can see the mast pump in a lot of wind. When we’re on the ocean pounding into 15 foot waves, I don’t want to have to worry about the mast!)
- New halyards
- New electrical wiring in the mast
- New masthead Tri-color
- New wind, depth and speed instruments
- Bottom sanded and painted
- New prop (mentioned in previous post)
And a bunch of other misc stuff. I’m going to do some work on the boat while she’s on the hard as well. The fun one should be installing the new gasket kit for the head. Ahhh, boat ownership is sooo glamorous! February 19 is the big day, but when we’re done, we’ll have solid new rigging to go with our overhauled diesel. The combination gives us the confidence that we’ve replaced “the big stuff”. Even though Charisma’s actually in great shape, she is after all, 20 years old and we want to make sure that her rig and systems are solid and ready for the next 20.
More Diesel
More Cowbell would have been cheaper. But diesel it was and January. Lousy time to sail, great time for maintenance. Mentioned a while back during the general maintenance of the engine that some more major issues were found. Even though the engine sounded and ran great, we wanted to have the engine as reliable as possible, so scheduled the needed fixes. One diesel mechanic and three days of full time work later, Charisma has a practically new engine. A real tear down. Both aft engine mounts were rusted out and it turns out, not actually holding anything down anymore. This necessitated that the rear of the engine get lifted so the mounts could be cut off and replaced. The air filter was corroded so off it came, and in the process it was discovered that the manifold had corrosion inside. Off came the manifold and a new one was ordered. The cooling system needed to be flushed and in the process off came the heat exchanger. It got sent out to be overhauled (cleaned and flushed). The original 40 amp alternator was judged too small for long term cruising, so guess what? Off came the alternator and a new 120 amp powerhouse was put in its place. I was hoping to fix the hot water heater hoses during this event (water system is heated by the engine), but discovered that a 20-year old hot water heater lasts about 19 years. Off came the hoses and plugs were substituted in the engine until a new unit is decided upon. After a few hours of watching all the stuff come off, coolant dripping on the floor, rust going in the bilge, mechanic muttering; “uh oh, this doesn’t look good”, parts stacking up everywhere, etc., I couldn’t stand the carnage any longer and went home. So…a few days and couple more boat dollars later a new corrosion-free, newly painted completely overhauled engine is now awaiting future adventures. Oh, did I mention that we found out the exhaust diameter is too small? Another project sometime this summer.
The Dreaded Diesel Inspection
Ah, well. Nothing in life’s free as they say. In this case, we had our diesel “full maintenance session” the other day. Four hours of work, and the good news is that everything’s now up to date. “Bill the diesel guy” with me (Bob) watching over his shoulder, did the full maintenance. Changed the water cooling impeller (the old one was failing-one vane was ready to come off), adjusted the valves (whatever that does), new alternator belt, put on new oil and fuel filters, changed the oil and cleaned the Racor (primary fuel) filter which was very dirty. Probably hadn’t been cleaned in several years. So nice to get all up to date. The bad news: a lot of stuff that needs to be done: new aft engine mounts, new air cooler, new oil cooler. All have significant corrosion issues. Couple of boat dollars’ worth. Ah well, that’s boat ownership. I used to think flying and maintaining my own airplane was time consuming and expensive. Not even close!At least I learned some stuff:
- How to bleed the fuel line (although Yanmar has a very clever hand fuel pump that helps to fill the line when you change the filter)
- Where all the stuff that breaks is
- How to bleed the line by loosening the injectors
I also found out that probably the boat is “over propped”. The engine power curve wants to power the boat at 2800 RPM. However, with the prop we have on, the engine wants to run at more like 2100 RPM. Too big a propeller means the engine is lugging. Like driving around town at 30 MPH in 5th gear. We’re going to have to do some testing while under way to find out for sure, but seems likely we’ll be looking at a new prop as well. Another boat dollar for sure. But, that’s what ownership is all about. Tweaking the boat to get it exactly where it (she) and we are enjoying ourselves to the max!
Shana On Top Of The World
Preparing for a trip to the Farallon Islands, which is a 30 mile open ocean sail, we wanted to make sure all the navigation lights were working in case of the need for nightime operations. Alas, the masthead light was out, so the only solution? Shana up the mast in the bosun’s chair. 57feet is a long way when you’re sitting in a canvas seat. Once she got up there, she found the problem pretty quickly…there was no bulb. So back down and a quick trip to Svendsen’s and back up the mast with the new bulb and success! Now the lights work AND we have some pictures of Shana and Charisma from a great new angle. The finale of the day was a nice dinner on board with Jon and Heather. 
Shanti Sighting!
While we were cruising about, we thought we saw Shanti come out the G8, but what was up with all of the extra (and wrong) numbers on the Main???? It was great to see Shanti and crew, but it would have been better if we were all on the same boat. 🙂
Sunday Sailing with Tom and Marily
We took Charisma out for a little stroll out the Gate on Sunday. Light northerly winds kept us warm until late afternoon when the chilly westerlies took over. Tom took the helm, Marily worked the traveller (and lunch!), Shana worked the jib sheets, and Bob pointed us in the proper direction (go that way!). 
