San Diego: from the Great Cabin
San Diego: from the Great Cabin
I had no problem flying from Chicago yesterday.
After all the cancelled flights on Tuesday, I expected chaos at O’Hare, but there wasn’t. With an official total of 9.2” making it the biggest snow storm to hit the city in two years, it was only a one day disruption and not remotely as cataclysmic as portrayed on television. Most residents shrugged it off. It’s Chicago. It’s winter. Move on.
I arrived to find GANNET in good condition and bicycle unstolen. No water in the bilge. No mold. No smell of mustiness. A place where it only rains 10” a year is a good place to leave a boat. Well, maybe not a wood one. All that really needed to be done was to scrub the deck which had soot, if that is the right word, from airplanes flying overhead after taking off from Lindbergh Field four miles east of the marina. When in the early 1970s I lived aboard EGREGIOUS at Harbor Island Marina which is right across the street from the airport, it was much worse.
An oyster shell, or something similar, was in the cockpit, dropped I expect by a clumsy bird also flying overhead, but presumably lower. Fortunately birds had not made GANNET their home in my absence.
I moved the bow sprit from cabin to deck and unpacked and stowed the almost 50 pounds of stuff in the duffle bag I brought with me. I hadn’t looked at it since before my cancelled trip in January and wasn’t even sure what was in there.
It included my second set of foul weather gear, sea boots, a flashlight, twenty freeze dry meals, a heavier sleeping bag than those on the boat, a pot, a small electric heater, a waterproof laptop case, a waterproof iPad case, a lumbar Sportaseat pillow, a bicycle pump, and some other stuff.
As I unpacked, I had a reminder of how quickly GANNET’s interior can become a mess. But the mess was sorted through and organized before dark.
A few bumps on the head and shoulders were reminders of the vastness of GANNET’s Great Cabin.
The bicycle pump doesn’t fit the stems on my bicycle. I didn’t know there are variations. It doesn’t matter because the tires are still firm.
The pump now resides in the dock box.
The lumbar cushion doesn’t feel right, so I probably won’t use it.
And I find I prefer my old 64 ounce plastic water flask, which is transparent so I can see the amount left, to the new stainless steel flask. The new one is indestructible and I’ll keep it for back up.
The temperature fell to about 50º last night. I didn’t use the heater, which I’ve double plastic bagged and also stored in the dock box, but was glad to be in the new sleeping bag.
Rare rain is forecast here today and tomorrow. At 3:30 in the afternoon, it hasn’t happened yet; so this morning I bent on the furling jib, setting the new one this time rather than the old as I did last time by mistake.
With generous application of McLube and repeated journeys from winch to head foil to keep the luff tape in line, the sail went up without difficulty, although I did need to use the second gear on the Harken 20.2s for the last few feet. I had only smaller one-speed Barients when I first struggled getting that sail up last year.
And then I got down on my hands and knees and scrubbed the deck with Comet.
GANNET looks good, if I do say so myself, and there isn’t anything else I have to do before I can go sailing.
Last night and today, I’ve heard sea lions, but I haven’t yet seen any.
Being on the water again is wonderful. Even while scrubbing a deck.
Thursday, March 7, 2013