My mom and stepfather own a trawler named "Spirit", which they purchased in 1999 and sailed down the Delta near San Francisco, around the Golden Gate, and down the coast to it's new home in Moss Landing where they live today. It's a doubles as their house, as well as a great way to travel the California Coast, which is exactly what we did in July of 2003. The trip was to last 3 days, and would be filled with some exciting moments. We left on a foggy afternoon, and just as we were making our way out of the harbor toward the open sea, a flashy new coast guard boat roared past the port side at full throttle, sending out at 6' wake, prompty rolling Spirit (and us), about 30 degrees back and forth. Fortunately, the only casualty was a plate full of grapes in the galley. During the passage, Nicole got to try her hand at the helm. I took the opportunity to catch up on lost sleep down below in the forward cabin. Under the stewardship of our capable Captain Dirk, we finally arrived in Monterey, to be greeted by the hundreds of resident seals, sea lions, and otters. Of course every boat needs periodic bottom cleaning, which involves a very unfortunate individual (professional bottom cleaner), donning an 8mm wetsuit, hood, gloves, etc. and scrubbing the hull underwater using a high-speed pneumatic spinning brush. Nicole and I kept a close lookout for sharks while he got the bottom all shiny. On Saturday, Nicole and I took the dinghy out for a row along the coast off the shore from the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where she shot the picture of the sea lion to the right. That night, we celebrated Mimi's birthday with a sushi dinner at Benihana -which has amazingly good sushi. Sunday we set sail again for our return trip to Moss Landing, and were greeted along the way by a pod of humpback whales! (video coming soon) -Rob |
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Cleaning
the bottom