Sail: Dude Sail (No. 2)

Wendy and I changed the oil the weekend before last. We only managed to pump out about 8 quarts rather than the 11-12 listed in the manual. Seems like a lot to leave in there. Is that normal? Jonathan (the P/O) recommended changing while its still warm, but I think next time we might do it first thing in the morning to see if we get more out. Also getting gobs of black soot blown out of the exhaust if I rake the throttle. I may replace the exhaust hose to the transom soon -- looks like this dates back to 1982 (although looks in good shape, and I don't get any fumes).

Also, hopefully will start on sprucing up the exterior varnish next weekend. Had originally planned on stripping some of it back, but I think there's not much to lose by experimenting with lightly sanding it down and and adding a couple of coats first to see how it looks.

Took a sewing class at the Tech Shop in Menlo Park yesterday morning. They've got an industrial sewing machine that I used to stitch in reinforcing webbing straps onto the boat's LifeSling bag where the Velcro was pulling away from the bag. Also planning to make some new canvas covers. The ones I have are getting pretty ratty and the canvas guy I know wanted $500 for a new sun cover for my dodger. (Its just 4 panels of canvas stitched together!) Have ordered fabric samples from Sailrite -- seems to be very difficult to find marine canvas suppliers locally. Given the cost of getting canvas made or the cost of renting time of the TechShop's machines, it might be worth investing in a sewing machine.

The Dudes turned out for a full on Dude Sail today. Also Erin, Arjun and Wendy. Its the last day of the Festival of Sail and I wanted to get out to see the cannon fight. The wind was honking pretty hard. We stopped at Paradise Cove for lunch. Even though we found a fairly sheltered spot, we slowly dragged anchor for a 100 feet or more until we left. Was warm there, but pretty cold and overcast in the central bay. I'd estimate that we were getting 25-30kts between East of Angel Island to the city. We sailed just on the main in the afternoon and had to motor sail against the current (6kts at the gate) to make it up the city front. I've been finding that my boat sails much worse without the jib and points much worse than I'd expect.

We missed the cannon fight. We heard on the VHF that that the Californian
had lost their bowsprit and so the they gave up the fight early and headed
back to port. We motored around inside a lot of the city marinas and
piers and checked out all the ships: a replica of The Nina (Christopher Columbus's favorite), The Eagle, California, Lynx and a bunch of others. Included in those was the Bounty. Wendy and I saw the Bounty at St. Petersburg Pier in Florida earlier this year. Rumor has it that The Bounty, which starred in "Mutiny on the Bounty" with Marlon Brando was also used in the high budget porno "Pirates." Also got a good look at the bowsprit of the California. Looks like the wood failed in a spectacular way, cracking down the length of it.

Throughout the day at hour intervals, the Coast Guard was reporting a 1950's 35ft Chris Craft carrying two men that went missing from Channel Marina (?) in Richmond. It disappeared between Richmond and Tiburon in the prior 24 hours. Its hard to imagine what might have happened to them. The central bay is generally so busy that disappearing without a trace seems hard to pull off -- even a boat were to get hit in the busy shipping channels between Richmond and Tiburon. Whatever happened to them, I suspect happened somewhere else.