What I Saw

[BobJ]

Ah, the magical white cup hook - the stuff of legends.

Yes, Jean Armel Mampouya and family keep Surprise!'s brightwork shipshape. They have a good business maintaining the Alerions at RYC and a select few other boats. Jean also does the wood restoration and finishing for Rutherford's Boat Works. He's very good at it.

[Philpott]

While Greg is sailing around the Farallones and preparing to do the Long Pac for fun, I'm here fixing one small thing.





It has taken me weeks to glue it back together. Finally I drove to the Ace Hardware on Grand Avenue to get two 3" #10 bolts and locking nuts. $5.25 with tax. Whoa. Is this Chinese or American stainless? I know, I know. Cry me a river, Jackie.

Crawl into the vberth, dive into the chain locker with my headlamp, attach the vice grip, climb up out of the cabin and onto the dock. Screw in one bolt. Not real tight, now. Repeat.Crawl into the vberth, dive into the chain locker with my headlamp, attach the vice grip, climb up out of the cabin and onto the dock. Screw in one bolt tighter. Repeat. Where is everybody when you need 'em to hold a screwdriver for you?



Whew! That was hard. Too late to sail now. But oh, look! There's still chocolate here. Not a bad day at all and a (very small) job done with an oversized sense of accomplishment.

[BobJ]

When you pop over to BMC to drop in the engine you can have Julio color-match that for you.

[Philpott]

When you pop over to BMC to drop in the engine you can have Julio color-match that for you.

That's a great idea, Bob! How would you describe that to Julio? Urban guerilla w a little South Bronx in the boot stripe?

[BobJ]

That's an accurate description, but Julio will take a look and know what color(s) to use. He's a magician.

Not to meddle, but I always line up the slots in the screw heads:

[Philpott]

Just got back from Port Townsend. Drove up in my zoom zoom car to see off all those lunatics who sail in the R2AK. I have lots of stories. Of interest to us singlehanders? Well, on the drive up Interstate 5 I passed Crazy Rhythm, being towed by someone who looked not unlike John Simpson (SHTP 2018). Just south of Eugene I blew by him going 73.86298 knots.

The morning after arriving in Port Townsend I walked down to the docks from the Swan Hotel in order to find him. I found the boat, newly splashed, with two fellas bent over parts of the boat, diligently working away. The mast had just been raised, but the shrouds were still squiggly and the fellas looked a little wild-eyed.

"Hey! You're not John! And neither are you! What are you doing with John's boat?" I asked.

They squinted up at me.

One guy said, "You can call me John." The other guy said, "You can call me John, too." So I christened Tim Duncan and Richard Treadwell John One and John Two. They just bought Original John's Santa Cruz 27 a month ago and towed it up to give it a trial run up to Victoria, the R2AK version of the Long Pac. 40 miles across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to British Columbia. Gotta have a passport for that.

After Victoria Richard is going to cruise around the San Juan Islands, and a Santa Cruz 27 seems to be a perfect boat for that purpose. I am envious.

John One and John Two are Inverness sailors, so they know what to do with puffs. They arrived in Victoria safely, and if you are interested in reading more about the race, click here:

https://r2ak.com/2024-teams-stage-one-participants/

Until I put together more stories from my trip up north, here are some bits from closer to home:

https://yachtsmanmagazine.com/what-i...e-philpott-29/

[AntsUiga]

Cookies amd perseverance and patience works.
Green is such a sexy color.

Cheers,
Ants

[Philpott]

hahaha. Thanks, Ants. This is gonna cost a whole lotta cookies.

[Philpott]

Just got back from the annual Owl Harbor Swap Meet with lots of stories and some photos. I have a new, swanky XPS 13 Dell laptop and I'm not quite sure how the photos will work, so here goes:



Well, good. That seems to work for me. Didn't have to go through all the previous permuations. Must be because my laptop is smarter than me.

Ripley and Tillie jumped into this inflatable, called out "Daddy! Daddy! Can we have this boat?"
Daddy said "yes". The seller and dad knew the drill. The seller said, "I'll throw in the engine, you just have to replace the fuel cable." Daddy said, "Well, thank you. You don't have to do that. I'll buy it from you." The seller said, "Oh, no, take it." Don't you love swap meets like that?

I bought this yesterday at the Swap Meet in Isleton for $1.



I certainly love swap meets like that

And then there are the bathrooms at Owl Harbor. Oh my! So nice.



Let's see. What else? Well, the alfalfa has been baled. Here's what I saw from the levee road. Notice the tanker making its way upriver over on the San Joaquin.



Was it hot? Well, sure. It was 88 glorious degrees at noon. Winds were 10-17 knots. There were whitecaps on the Sacramento at 7:50 am. If you like sailing, the San Joaquin does not disappoint.



And yes, the tunnels are still being fought. So, Kids? Prepare your netting and stock up on water. Call up Devery if you want a slip at Owl Harbor, otherwise prepare to anchor wherever you choose. There are no AIS transponder requirements in the Delta.

[Philpott]

Just got back from an errand in Alameda. Wore my running shoes because I really should exercise. Ran from Grand Marina along the estuary, but it was really hot, so I stopped in at Oakland Yacht Club because I knew it would be air conditioned. And it was! Then I remembered Brad Belleville meets up with other members of the San Jose Yacht Club for lunch at Wednesday, so I went upstairs, found him sitting with a buncha sailors, asked him to buy me lunch.

"Sure," said Brad.

So I sat with Brad and his friends and had the nicest chats. What did we talk about? Boats. Duh. I love this yacht club reciprocity business.
Thanks, Brad!

Back at Grand Marina, there is a Navik for sale just inside the door @ Blue Pelican. I already have mine, but in case you were looking for one? It awaits your credit card: $750



Oh, and here's a photo of the start of the R2AK. So pretty. Posts are better with pretty pictures.