Long weekend at Angel Island

chartOver the Labor Day weekend we had a great four day trip to Angel Island. In order to beat the rush, we sailed over from Alameda on Thursday to grab a spot. Fortunately plenty of mooring spots available still on Thursday afternoon so we grabbed one relatively close to the beach.

I brought some floating towing line (Samson Ultra Blue) which, combined with the ‘Happy Hooker’ mooring hook, made it quick and easy to tie up.

DSC17A_3237Preparing for four days, we brought all the toys! The BBQ of course, both an inflatable kayak and an inflatable SUP. Even brought my son’s bicycle in order to bike around the island. (Our bikes were too big to bring, so had to rent adult bikes on the island.)

DSC17B_6993Water in the cove was flat all weekend, it was absolutely perfect for kayaking and SUP’ping.

DSC17A_3251DSC17B_6975This was the weekend of a record breaking heat wave in the bay area and it was over 100F at Angel Island. This made the cold water invitingly refreshing! And so we spent a lot of time swimming between the boat and the beach. Also from boat to boat, as my son made friends with the kids on the next boat over. It was surely a miserably hot weekend in most parts of the bay but it made for a perfect way to enjoy the water!

Here’s a pic of our boat as I’m approaching on the kayak.

DSC17B_7008On the first morning, my son stood up in his viewing station (the V berth window) and announced there was a boat upside down just outside.

And turns out, there really was! Later I read in Latitude 38 that it had flipped while racing and they left it overnight at the cove. A bit later a boat came and towed it away.

DSC17A_3231And that’s why I prefer monohulls.

The bike ride around the island was fun, although hot on that weekend.

DSC17B_7047Finally a nice sunset photo, because every travel story needs a nice sunset photo.

DSC17B_7067This was the first longer (more than two days) trip on our C270 and was great fun. The only downside is we ran out of water in the tank on day two (of four) even though we were trying everything possible to conserve. The C270 water tank is only 13 gallons, so not much there. I’ve been thinking of adding a secondary tank under the V berth, as there is some empty space there.

Americas Cup: Weakest show in the world

I love sailing, so I’ve been trying to watch the Americas Cup in San Francisco but it is just too painfully weak to bother. Day after day, races get canceled due to wind! Wind! The breeze is under 20 knots and they are too afraid to sail. Do none of them understand sailing is about wind? What a sad joke is the Americas Cup.

Bring on the Big Boat Series, for real San Francisco sailboat racing. Let the pathetic Americas Cup be forgotten.

How not to fix a gooseneck mount!

After 8 years on the waiting list, as of this summer I have a slip in Santa Cruz Harbor and my Colgate 26 is here, home, at last.

For the last several years she has been in charter service with Club Nautique in Sausalito while I waited for the slip to come in. Now that she’s finally home I’ve been fixing some of the damage from the charter service. Chartering is a hard life for the boat, she gets used often mostly by novices and for them it’s a “rental” so there’s not a lot of care. Fortunately the Colgate 26 was designed and built specifically for training so it can take a lot of abuse. I always expected to have to do some cleanup to bring her back to top shape, but some of the things I’m discovering as I go through the boat are shocking.

The gooseneck mount is nearly torn off the mast. Probably, I can only speculate (Club Nautique never told me about the accident), due to a violent jibe.  In any case, instead of fixing the damage, Club Nautique put two hose clamps around the mount and the mast to hold it in place!!! Unbelievable.

torn gooseneck mount

After I removed the hose clamps the full extent of the damage was visible. Of the six rivets, two were gone and the other four were completely lose. I drilled out the remaining rivets and need to decide how best to fix this properly (the existing holes are too elongated to try to use the same size rivets again). The bracket itself shows some stress cracks as well.

Update: Ballenger Spars built me a nice custom bracket to replace the damaged part, it has a different shape so the rivets fall farther apart to avoid the damaged holes in the mast.