Foggy San Francisco Bay and 93 degrees

We came home to 93 degrees and these photos wouldn't prove it. We could not believe the heat here on the Bay. This morning was fog and we were lucky to get 74 degrees. But that is a good thing as we are unloading the Alameda locker,(three storage units is too much junk!) and sorting and resorting and we didn't need the heat to do it. We have been collecting boat parts for so long that we don't have a clue as to what some of these misc. twetchels, pipes, screws, etc. are and are donating them to Dave and Bridget for their boat. Let them figure out what to do with this stuff. One person's treasure, etc. Robert weas concerned that there would not be any room - but we had built all sorts of storage and surprise, we can fit things in. The big surprise/shock is the foldaboat that has some pretty hefty seats and parts that have to be stowed. The boat folds to 4" wide and the seats are a heavy plastic that will slide around under one of the rear bunks. So much for saving space! The seats also serve to keep the boat from folding up on us when we are putting around. Supposedly it goes through surf better than the inflatable. We shall see, in Turtle Bay, Mexico in November. Now that could be a scene: two German Shepherds crying to get out of the dink, us counting waves and yelling go now, and , and.....getting swamped. We did this off the Mokuluas in the inflatable one day, with me swimming the boat out, passengers rowing like mad and Robert trying to get the engine started. One of the passengers was our priest, and he was was oaring with such vigor that he didn't see that he was oaring across my chest while staring straight ahead as if we were after Moby Dick. I was laughing so hard that I had to swim out once the boat was started. And those were little waves. But great memories. How do you tell the parish priest he was messing with private body parts...although with an oar?

We took a short weekend off of working on the boat - and went to Placerville to do some work for Jeff, then to Lodi to kayak with Bridget and Dave. Jeff is the fellow who drove for hours to work on I'O because he likes to do boat work - well, we like to work on houses, so we drove up to his beautiful part of the country and did drywall and insulated heater ducts. Placerville is probably named for placer mining and is in the fooothills of the Sierras, full of hills and valleys and fruit stands. It had the name Hangtown as it was built on some steep hills. Beautiful place. Lodi, is in the central valley with parks, lakes and the Mokulumne River running through it. Some pretty big fish splashed around us with some pretty big idiots on Seadoos, but the peace and beauty of he place was barely disturbed. A huge turtle sat on a log to watch us glide by - at the end of the day I felt something that had been missing for awhile: relaxed. It was an unusual feeling - but one we are going to find a lot in the future. Living for the now is tough when you are peparing for a long trip, but I muttered something about finding out how the"real America" lives - sitting around a table, outside, under trees and talking with friends. People do it in summer all over the place, except we used to run from an air conditioned car, to air conditioned houses, to air conditioned restaurants. Some of the best parties that I remember at our house in Az. were outside, sitting around under the trees. Strange how perspective is created by where we live.

Boatyard bootcamp

This is the good, bad and the ugly in reverse of the normal progression of work - the bottom shows the liftout, then what is not shown is hours and hours of sanding the bottom, after cleaning strange and horrible critters off the bottom. Then more sanding, then painting with stuff that costs the same as a small city in Montana per gallon, then taping, more sanding, and smoothing with foul smelling putties, washing, and more sanding....good fun. At the end of each day we are so sore from stretching, painting, climbing the scaffolds, the ladder, the lower stands, that we reach for the ibuprofen and fall into bed. We will be fit at the end of this week. Sort of - although we have discovered new aches and pains that we didn't know were possible in the human body. Aching toenails? Right. The new green stripe at the gunwhales is to cover up a lot of bumps from water getting under the fairing - a great guy, Jeff, came down from the mountains and spent three days grinding and sanding, driving two hours each way, just to help out. He smoothed the bumps. We couldn't have done it without him! Launch is tomorrow and we will be in Monterey, vegging out for a few days. After this week : sleeping alternately at Motel 6, nice and on the water as it is, and/or sleeping in the van, eating whatever and whenever, it will be luxury to just be zombies in front of a tv. But, after this week of hard work and pushing ourselves, I can safely say that old farts rule!