Are we scared? Are we excited? No, we’re in denial. We’re just focusing on our To-Do list, like we would if we were hauling the boat or planning a cocktail party. No big whoop. We’ll have time to get nostalgic for Mexico, second-guess ourselves, and generally freak out when we’re under way.

A couple days ago we got together with about 5 boats who are also going to Hawaii in the next few weeks. People going to the South Pacific are known as “Puddle Jumpers”, so we call our group the “Piddle Jumpers”. Todd volunteered to create a daily schedule for us to talk on the radio.

He says he’ll come up with a set of times and frequencies so we’ll be able to contact boats nearby, and at longer range (because depending on the time of day, certain frequencies work for specific ranges). Someone asked if he’d communicate the schedule using UTC times (what used to be called Greenwich Mean Time). “Oh, yeah, of course,” answered Capn HAM. But, given that (a) he’s regularly baffled as to what time the daily radio nets are on, and (b) he’s hit and miss with tasks as basic as reading tide tables, I’m guessing the odds are pretty low that this whole radio thing will pan out.

Unfortunately, somewhere we picked up some water with just the slightest bit of diesel in it. Even trace amounts of diesel are disgusting. The solution we’re trying out: put vodka in the tanks, then flush them out. After the first treatment, the entire cabin smelled like happy hour at a cougar bar. But with each additional flush, the vodka taste and odor are diminishing. Oddly, Todd seems much less able to detect it than I. “Seems fine to me,” he says, licking his lips and going back for more. He’s never been more hydrated.

Todd says he knows how to do blog posts via the HAM radio; I remain skeptical. But, you will be able to track our progress here. This link is also on our main blog page, on the right; click ‘Where is Sugata now’.

See all of our prep photos (ok, really mostly pics of cruisers dining out) here:

20100427PrepForHawaii

We bought a new set of batteries for the boat, and hit Trader Joe’s to stock up. Capn Iron Chef looked on with concern as the cart grew full. “Are you sure we have room for all this?” he asked. “Are you kidding?” I replied, “I did this three times over before we left San Francisco. How do you think we made it down the outer Baja coast?” His stomach growled. “Whatever makes you happy, honey, I support you,” he said.

The drive back to San Carlos was long and hot, as we blew a fuse in our AC. Luckily we made it intact, and the very next day we launched! All went without a hitch; the only casualty was a champagne flute (Todd calls them ‘shot glasses’.)

That night we went out to our favorite taco joint, J.J.’s Tacos. While waiting for our food, I heard a mewing. I looked over and saw a newborn kitten, eyes closed and helpless, lying in a little walkway. I hoped Koiya wouldn’t notice, but the kitten had quite a mew. Soon Koiya was looking him over. There was no sign of the mother, but we hoped she’d come back for him.

All the next day, Koiya kept asking when we’d go to J.J.’s so she could check on the kitten. I was sure the thing would be dead if it’s mother hadn’t come back for it. But amazingly, he was still alive and seemed strong.

Other cruisers have asked us, “Do you have any pets on board yet?” When we say no, they say, “Oh, you will. Everyone gets one eventually.” Behind their backs we’d say, “Those suckers! We’re not gonna fall for some hard luck Mexican puppy!”

Ok, Ok, I’m a sucker! I couldn’t bear to leave that little kitty to slowly starve, crying for his mother! Capn Push Over said “No! I don’t want a cat!” But I gave him a big sorry-eyed look, and he caved. Koiya was thrilled!

So we took in little Carlos Gabacho de la Taqueria, aka Squeaky Gonzales. We were happy when he ate the formula we made up, and once he started peeing and pooping, we thought he was gonna make it.

Sadly, last night Carlos took a turn for the worse. He got weak and seemed to have fluid in his lungs. We kept him comforable and this morning, he died in Koiya’s hands. Poor little guy! We all sat around the table, holding him and sobbing.

So tomorrow, we’re casting off from Marina San Carlos, hoping to head north. Along the way we’ll have a burial at sea for our newest crew member. Adios, sweet Carlos!

We left Sacramento on Tuesday, Feb. 10, and headed down to Mojave, where we got to visit with the Peasleys of our buddy boat, Imagine. They’ve just returned from New Zealand and may be settling in San Rafael! We hope that works out, as we’d love to have them just across the bridge.

The second night we stayed at a fabulous inn in Tucson, the Big Blue House. After the eight hour drive, it was great to walk around the neighborhood, and we had a yummy meal at a Greek restaurant. The inn was so warm and welcoming, I had a hard time convincing Todd to leave!

I was a bit worried that we might have to postpone our trip down due to Capn Achy Breaky Heart’s latest health concern. Over the last month he’s had heart palpitations with increasing frequency.

“I’ve done hours of internet research,” he told me, “and I’m still not sure why I’m having all these palpitations.”

“Must be all the Viagra,” I muttered under my breath.

“What’s that?” he shot back. (He’s also a bit hard of hearing, due to his excessive ear wax production, and all that fuzzy white hair that’s been sprouting out of his ears.)

“Vitamins!” I replied loudly. “Has Capn Koala been taking his vitamins?”

“Yeah,” he confirmed, “But I’m getting low, especially on those funny-shaped blue ones you got me.”

“You mean your vita-MANs?”

“Yeah, gotta get more of those if I’m gonna head south,” he said.

“Don’t I know it!” I replied.

Luckily, he seems to have hit upon a cure for the palpitations. He’s been taking magnesium citrate and is much improved. I’m a bit suspicious he will continue to use his “heart condition” as an excuse for avoiding work, though. Coming down from Tucson to San Carlos, as soon as it was his turn to drive, he reported numbness in his left arm. “You better keep driving,” he said, “because I could be about to have a heart attack.”

“Well, you’ve had numbness between your ears for a while now, and you haven’t had a stroke,” I replied.

“What’s that? Had a toke?” he asked. “Of course not! You think I’d risk that in Mexico? What do you think I am, an idiot?”

Luckily, Capn Heart Throb survived the drive without incident. When we finally arrived at Marina Seca (where the boat is hauled out), I barely got the car into park before he was up the ladder and scrutinizing the boat’s condition. After I hauled bags after bag out of the car and up the ladder, he felt strong enough to move everything a strenuous six feet back to the cockpit, from which I hauled everything down below decks. All the excitement must have given him a boost of adrenaline.

We’ve had all of the bottom paint stripped off the boat, and they’re grinding out all the blisters where water has gotten into the fiberglass. On Monday they’ll be putting epoxy on the bottom, followed by primer and two coats of bottom paint. If all goes well, they’ll be done on Friday the 20th.

Sequoia is scheduled to fly into Tucson on Tuesday the 24th. We may go up a day early to be sure we aren’t held up at the border. We also want to do a big provisioning run to every sailor’s favorite store, Trader Joe’s. I’m not sure if it is legal to bring 10 lbs of peanut butter across the border, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take!

For Valentine’s Day, I treated Todd to a yoga class. I know, I know, it’s a little selfish of me; but before you judge, consider his gift to me: a new impeller (for the water pump to the boat’s engine). Ay Toro, muy romantico!

See all of our San Carlos pics here:

20090214SanCarlos

Special thanks to Milt and Eva on S/V Bellavia for giving us their list of must-have items. It was extremely helpful to us, and is the basis of the list I’ve posted here.

20070807 Move to Boat

Emotionally, it was hard to leave 68 Douglass, because it has been such a great place to live! It was almost exactly 3 years ago that we initially moved to Douglass, and those have been 3 fantastic years! We will miss our comfortable home, the neighborhood, and having great friends living right upstairs.

We also said (temporary) goodbyes to Komodio (our lizard, a bearded dragon), and Flame and Spot (our goldfish). Komodio will be living with Sequoia’s good friends the Herbertsons in Ukiah, while the fish will live with Kelly and Zai on 16th St in SF.

Although it is probably one of the easier challenges we’ll face, moving to the boat seemed like a big hurdle. Now that we’re here and getting settled, the trip seems so much more real, and immediate. We have two months to finish our preparations.

We couldn’t afford to leave our place empty (with the mortgage and homeowner’s association fees to pay), so we wanted to find someone to take our place for 7 – 11 months. The problem is that in San Francisco, you can’t require a tenant to leave just because the term of the lease is up. So theoretically, if we had a 10 month lease with someone, at the end of that time, our renters could choose to stay in our house and we’d have no recourse! This is due to rent control.

We came up with a solution that had been suggested on a craigslist forum: keeping one bedroom of the place, and signing a ‘roommate agreement’ instead of a lease. When I ran a bunch of ideas past the counter man at the Rent Stabilization Board, this was the only one he said would be legitimate, because rent control does not apply to roommate situations.

Another benefit of keeping one room is it gives us a place to store our furniture and things that we won’t be taking with us.

Luckily, we’ve found Omar, a great guy with whom we are totally comfortable! He’s going to be a visiting professor at UC Hastings so the timing is perfect.