San Francisco is right there.
Golden Gate in the fog
The PC crew: Guillaume, Bernard, Bob, Dianna and Marc
Golden Gate in sight
Almost there!
The computer tells us that our ETA at the Richmond Yacht Club is around 11PM tonight. We had a nice sail from 2:30 AM to the early afternoon. This was nice because that saved us another refueling stop along the coast and additional delay. It looks like we are also perfectly synchronized with the current under the Golden Gate bridge. A few hours later we would have a 5.77 kts ebb current that we would not want to fight…
I was able to reach John, the very helpful harbormaster at the Yacht Club in anticipation of our late night arrival. He gave us a temporary docking spot for the night so we know where to go upon arrival – very nice.
Yesterday we had a wonderful show of humpback whales jumping out of the water. This is a very rare sight (especially since Sea World is not allowed to play with whales any longer!).
So far we had an amazing delivery. No wind at Point Conception (this is a good thing!) and SW wind all day today. Both are very rare occurrences and having both on a single LA to SF delivery is almost a miracle! For the time being, the sailing gods are with us!
A stop in San Luis Obisbo
All is well on Med Viking. We had to stop to refuel in San Luis Obisbo. Our timing was not ideal because we arrived at 1AM so we stayed until the fuel dock would open at 8AM.
Next stop?
We left for San Francisco
The boat was still very messy on Sunday morning when my 2 girls dropped me at the marina. After a few hours of hard work, we managed to clean the boat well enough to decide that it was time to leave so at 3:06PM on Sunday the 8th of May we are finally attempting the delivery to San Francisco.
It looks like we are going to have a nice weather window to pass Point Conception (aka the Cap Horn of the west!).
The crew includes the Pacific Cup crew + Jerome, a friend of Guillaume from Quebec. So we have 4 french speaking sailors against Bob and Dianna!
Our schedule and a possible weather window
There is light at the end of the tunnel and hopefully it is not a train coming our way…
Our current schedule is to leave from beautiful Wilmington, CA this coming Sunday the 8th of June and start the delivery to the Richmond Yacht Club inside the San Francisco bay.
A frequent sight in LA
Bob and I did some more targeted work in preparation for the delivery north:
- Changed the engine oil and oil filter
- Flushed the old engine coolant and replaced it (some coolant had been lost when the water heater was replaced)
- Finished wiring the new alternator/ regulator and verified its operation
- Started to clean the lockers: The only way it works is to fully empty the locker, clean it and only put back what is needed. After just 1.5 lockers, the trunk of my car was already full of junk to take home!
On the weather front, it looks that the weather in the Central coast was a little rough over the last few day but it looks like the weather is going to be improving giving us a weather window for the trip north. Nobody is willing to speculate as to when we will arrive in San Francisco…
Not the wind we want!
Boat leak: the verdict
It has been a little bit more than 2 months since Med Viking was almost lost due to a leak at the speed sensor. Here is the (hopefully) final verdict of what got damaged and required to be replaced or repaired as a result of the leak:
- The electric bilge pump
- The bilge pump float (really an electronic sensor)
- The freshwater pump (the replacement failed 1 week after replacement and was exchanged under warranty). The new variable speed pump allowed me to remove the expansion tank which was ugly and full of rust.
- The engine battery: the battery wire and connector on the negative side were also completely dissolved due to the electrolysis.
- The water heater (the water heater works with AC at the dock or with the coolant when the engine is running)
- The motor from the electric toilet
- The paint under the engine (oil pan). This is not repaired yet…
- A lot of spare parts, the most valuable ones being some spare pumps.
Are we done yet?
As Bob and I are working on getting Med Viking ready for the big race, we have good days and bad days…
Bad days: changing one of the two heads looked like an easy project a few months ago.In reality this project took a very long time. First the holding tank was leaking so I ordered a new tank from Beneteau. When the new tank arrived, I had moved on to another project so the tanks sat uninstalled for a while. Just as I was ready to install the new tank, I discovered that the other head also needed a new tank so I “borrowed” the new tank. At that point we had at least one head fully functional. I ordered a new tank from Ronco Plastics in Tustin (highly recommended). The new tank is more practical than the Beneteau original because it has all the pick up at the top:
Tank from Ronco Plastics
After the tanks was installed I discovered that the motor that runs the electric toilet had been damaged when it got soaked into water. So I ordered a new motor… A few days later I was able to test the whole setup only to realize that the macerator pump was not working well enough to empty the tank. So yet another trip to West Marine to get a new macerator pump…
Good days: after I removed the diesel generator, I needed to find a good way to charge the house bank. One of the members of the Beneteau 411 group on Facebook offered a never-used 100 Amp alternator at a pretty nice discount. I bought it from him. The good news is that we were able to install the alternator pretty quickly. The 100 amps alternator is coupled to a smart charger (MC-614 from Balmar) so we should have plenty of juice to run all the electronic gadgets we are bringing with us!
The 100 amps alternator
When the cat’s away…
When the cat’s away, Bob is sanding! It is wonderful to know that progress is made even when the skipper is at home!
More sanding!
Thank you Bob for working so hard and to Dianna for allowing Bob to flirt with Med Viking so often.
Yet another very busy weekend
After the inspection, it was time again to work on the boat. This was another very busy weekend. The highlight of the weekend was to frame the emergency rudder to tun a regular rudder into a cassette type system. The rudder will need to slide into the cassette:
The cassette
The rudder can be seen here as the cassette is constructed:
The rudder
A lot of epoxy was used:
A fresh batch of epoxy
The frame is taking shape:
Almost done
A few good stainless screws and we are almost ready to go:
Closing the frame
Ready to test the rudder blade before glassing over the wood:
Does it fit?
Perfect fit!
We did a lot of other things such as:
1) Installing a new holding tank
2) Adding our sail number to the 135% jib:
Our sail number
3) Testing the new AIS Class B transponder
4) Cutting a piece of foam to create a new bunk in the salon
5) Routing the TV antenna coaxial from the mast: while the TV antenna is not a race requirement it must be noted that the admiral (spouse of the skipper/owner for those who don’t sail) is very supportive of the race effort. The TV antenna is a small reward for her support.
7) Changing the main sail halyard
Inspection: the verdict
Our inspector Rowena came early from San Diego. It was nice to finally get her on Med Viking since we met almost a year ago. Everything went well: what was not available (such as the spare rudder) could not be inspected. I had forgotten the chart of Kaneohe Bay at home so I obviously did not get a pass on that one.
What was really surprising to me was the fact that I had misinterpreted some of the basic requirements. We had to check the ISAF rules a few times to verify the actual wording.
The verdict is that we will need to be checked again on a few items when we arrive in San Francisco.