Leukemia Cup

Wednesday, Sept. 17^th – It was a workday around the boat in the morning, little projects, filling water tanks, cleaning, etc. In the afternoon, Annie, Rosie and I headed into town to look around and see what cool things we could find. It was pretty much your typical town/city main street (except called Park St.) with shops of all sorts and a grocery store, a few bars and the BEST ice cream place, called Tuckers. They made all of their ice, cones, chocolate sauce, etc on site there and the smell of the place was wonderful, like a real old fashioned ice cream shop. Their flavor selection was awesome and the banana split even better.

            A friend of Holly’s who lives in Alameda invited us over to dinner with her husband and kids. We had a delicious meal and the yummiest salad I have had in a long time and then a play put on by Mary and their three kids. We even got a special visit from a hedgehog (Peter with a hairbrush on his back J) and yummy apple pie.

Thursday, Sept. 18^th – Hogin Sails allowed us the use of their loft and machine to sew up the new water bottle holders, which was amazing! It is impressive for someone to allow us to use their own machines. Usually people will do the work for you but then you end of paying them. Annie and I had everything stapled and just sewed and sewed and we got everything done! A big thank you to Hogin Sails! We finished up lots of other projects and hung around the boat for the day!

Friday, Sept. 19^th – Another work day in the morning and then relaxing in the afternoon. We found a very cool nautical consignment shop and found a couple things that we needed for the boat and a hank for my knife lanyard! Annie and I did a quick run into town and then relaxed on deck reading and eating chips while watching all the rowers go by, which is more entertaining than it seems! After an early dinner, we walked into town to go get ice cream from Tuckers, and I found my favorite flavor, mocha almond fudge.

Saturday, Sept. 20^th – We pushed off the dock early in the morning to head back to the San Francisco Yacht Club for the Leukemia Cup tomorrow. We took the Commodore and his mom/friends out for a day sail around the bay. His mom was an avid sailor back in her day and still extremely nimble around the boat. She was climbing in and out of the cockpit and navigating the boat at 82 better than I can sometimes at 20. We sailed under the Golden Gate and around the bay. It was foggy and misty all day but the sun came back out as we came into the club. We were put on the inside dock with a spotlight on us for the evening of events. $1,000/plate dinner and auction for the Leukemia Cup, Wowzers. Falling asleep listening to them call out auction and how much they were going for was mindboggling. However they came in with over $500,000 raised for the cause.

Sunday, Sept. 21^st – Race day! After a breakfast on biscuits with honey butter (a favorite from my childhood J) we pushed off the dock and headed out into the bay. We had the commodore and his wife, Robert’s buddy, Craig our trusty navigator for Transpac, Pat Vineyard our trusty handy and fix anything man, and then inherited two Norwegian guys for the race. The wind was much lighter than previous days and we played around the start line as we were the first to start. There were four classic yachts racing and powered through the first leg and beat our way up wind and then had a blast setting the spinnaker and golly for a couple of our down wind legs. The second time around we tried setting our larger spinnaker(the one we already blew up) and it went up with a twist and when it popped out, the spinnaker went pop too. Except instead of one seam ripping, the whole thing shredded, it was like spinnaker spaghetti on deck! But our hard work paid off and we placed first (look at the really cool trophy we got). There was lots of free beer and an awesome barbeque that involved ice cream with LOTS of chocolate sauce and whipped cream J.

Monday, Sept. 22^nd – We headed over to the St. Francis Yacht Club/San Francisco Marina for the day/night and hooked up with Robert’s buddy, Steve. He hooked us up with a car and laundry, lunch and then proceeded to take us all out to dinner, yummy, yummy sushi. Steve used to run a surf shop right on the bay for all the wind surfers and kite boarders and then moved onto working at REI so he has a whole bunch of gear and we got to rummage through and I ended up with a great puff ball jacket (bright orange too) and he got me a fix-kit for the hip straps on my backpack. Annie, Mary, Rosie and Holly got some great gear too. THANK YOU STEVE!! A million times over.

Tuesday, Sept. 23^rd – Today we push off to head further down the coast, finally! We have a couple people boarding this morning and we eventually headed to Oxnard with a few stops in between. First is Monterey Bay, I will update when we arrive there safely J

Next mailing address, I love to get letters!

Meryl Friets
c/o Holly Kays
614 Corte Campanero
Camarillo, CA 93010

Hanging out on the bowsprit.

At the helm.

Old photo from when we toured Balclutha, that helm is taller than me!

The new water bottle holders! 

The trophy :)

Get to pass under this beauty today!

This, That, and the other Thing

Monday, Sept. 8^th – We all slept in after the long night and had a leisurely breakfast and then went ashore for some Frisbee, playing on the beach and hike around the island one last time! Mary and I built a sand castle which we then proceeded to run and jump on, destroying it completely. No one will ever know that it was there! Mid afternoon we hauled back anchor and set out for SFYC once again.

Tuesday, Sept. 9^th – It was a work day around the boat.

Wednesday, Sept. 10^th – Got to go to the big city! We took the ferry over and spent the afternoon tromping around San Francisco. We went to the ferry building market place to get ice cream and see the shops, watch the people go by. Walking from the pier to market place we went by a little sitting area with a sign that read, “people watching area”. We were quite amused by that one. After ice cream we walked up to Chinatown to wander through endless shops filled with junk, but someone entertaining non the less. We quickly grew tired with that and made our way to Little Italy for some pizza and dog watching at the park. Bermise Mtn. Dog, two great Pyrenees, bull terrier, a couple labs, and TWO husky puppies. The cuteness overload was almost too much. We stopped to pick up some cannoli’s on the way back to the ferry (cause you can’t go to Little Italy and not get cannoli’s) and started the trek back. After a quick stop at the playground, which included spinny chair things, and another great sign that read, “adults must be accompanied by a child”. 

Thursday, Sept. 11^th – Today was a work day and library adventures with Mary!

Friday, Sept. 12^th – We found a sewing machine in the city that we could use to fix up our spinnaker so Mary, Annie, Holly, Rosie and I trekked onto the ferry with the spin and headed for the National Maritime Museum where a friend had a sailwright we could use for the zig zag stich we needed! While Anne and Holly stiched away, we headed with Erin (our savior with the sewing machines!) down to the boats which they have under their care and were able to tour some of them. VERY COOL, see the pictures below!

Saturday, Sept. 13^th – We had a morning full of guests (relatives of Martha herself) and a couple returning the original Taffrail Log that Martha used when she was first built, we strung up all our new halyards! YAY! And it was a good thing we did because a couple were starting to get pretty worn out and frayed. Some had been on the boat for more than 10 years! With our new halyards and some new sheets led, we headed out of the bay for evening in Bolinas Bay, just north of San Francisco for a night away from the city, which was perfect.

Sunday, Sept. 14^th – After a very rolling night resulting in not much sleep for me I hung out the boat instead of going to ashore and read, slept, ate and then repeated while the crew played in the breaking waves (a little bit jealous but I also knew that my body could use the extra sleep, plus there will be much more of that in Mexico). We ate a delicious lunch of ramen noodles, perfect for the cool air and clouds that were rolling in.

With a sail planned for Monday (the crew from Seaward), we had to leave Bolinas and head back to the city but we had a beautiful down-wind sail all the way up under the Golden Gate Bridge (the sun even came out). The schooner Seaward (http://www.callofthesea.org/home.php) which runs educational programs and does charters in the bay area, invited to come alongside them for the evening and we rafted up and shared stories for the evening.

Monday, Sept. 15^th – The Seaward crew came onboard around 10 for a day sail around the bay and we had a blast!!! It is one thing to have people come onboard for a day sail and teach them, which I love, but to have a crew come on who already know how to sail was just simply awesome. We raced back and forth across the bay before sailing out under the bridge and then back under. Being able to trade stories about our sailing adventures, where we have been and what we are looking to do in the future made the day just spectacular! After dropping them back on the Seaward (very sad, we wanted to keep them) we headed to Angel Island to anchor the evening. We decided to try somewhere else, Hospital Cove, for the night which turned out to be not so good. All the ferry and boat traffic made it VERY rolly, weeeeee (not so much actually). But we made it through the night with all the shallow water alarms, resetting anchor and getting blown every which way.

Tuesday, Sept. 16^th – Early this morning we decided to move anchorages because of the roly-poly-olys and spent the morning playing on the beach, swimming and collecting an amazing amount of sea glass. I have never found that much anywhere! This afternoon we headed up to Alameda for a couple days where it is more of a working mans town and we actually find some real boat things that we need. Tiburon/Belvedere where we have been staying is very nice, but it is not very real, all very expensive with no real hardware shops, grocery stores, etc. Alameda is very cool, nestled up in east bay and motoring past all the big freight carriers and docked across from a coast guard base, better not misbehave for the next couple days J.

The amazing cockpit crew from the race on the 6th! (finally found the photo)

The taffrail log that made its way back to Martha, what a beauty! Taffrail logs were used to measure the distance that you traveled, long before GPS systems came into play. The round dial would be attached near the stern of the boat and the fin would be attached with a long piece of line and stream out behind the boat. The fins would spin when water flows past and this in turn would spin the back of taffrail log, spinning the dial to tell you how far you have traveled. 

We are little afraid to use because we don't want to lose it, but we also want to know if it works!

The Golden Gate from the other side, headed out to Bolinas Bay!

Beautiful sunset over Bolinas Bay.

We like to call this...Bird Poop Rock, now open for tours if you dare.

Sailing under the Golden Gate! What an amazing feat of engineering!

Near Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, there are docks built for the sea lions. Have you ever sat and watched some sea lions, they are hilarious. One fell asleep with his nose in the water. 

The first of the funny signs we saw on our day in the city. 

Second of the good signs that day...

The things that you find in Chinatown...still not sure what to think of this one. 

This sign, I just can't. TO PERFECT. 

Fixing the spin! Yay for Erin and the National Maritime Museum.

Erin and Chris talking about how you plank a ship and the techniques you use to make sure water does not get in. 

The pier where you can tour a bunch of the boats that the National Maritime Museum has.

Balclutha

Everything is super size!!

The anchor chain is HUGE, bigger than my foot and I don't have small feet. 

Another of the great signs.

Once again, everything is huge on Balclutha

They have weird cottage cheese...

Angel Island is the west coast equivalent of Ellis Island.

I have never found so much sea glass on one beach! And so many pretty colors :)

Annie being a pro at slack line.

The amazing banana split that Annie and Rosie shared, I'm getting in on it next time.

The Great San Francisco Schooner Cup

Tuesday, Sept 2^nd – lazy morning around the boat. We took the bus into Sausalito to visit the Bay Model by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. We ate lunch at a place called “Fish” and then went to the Bay Model. The Bay Model is a small scale model (sort-of, it does take up an entire building) of the entire bay area. It was originally designed to let engineers see how water moved throughout the bay and see how dredging here or there effected the flow/movement of water. There are many dynamics that go into play. After that we headed back to the boat, stopping at the grocery store along the way. We also found the library today!! They have great books for sale, free wifi and guest cards so that we can rent books/movies while we are here!

Wednesday, Sept 3^rd – after a morning of cleaning the boat inside and out, we moved further into the harbor for the evening/night of the presentation. Mary, Holly, Anne, and I spent the afternoon in the library working on different things. After an early dinner, we opened the boat for tours before the presentation. Robert gave an excellent talk about Martha’s history, restoration, present and future work.

When Martha came under the care of Robert and others, she was in need of a lot of work. Just to give you an idea of some of the work needed, her bottom needed to be replaced and re-planked, the entire sternpost was rotted out and her keel needed to be re-built. All of this work ended up taking 15 years to complete, but Martha was, and still is, worth it. With all the work that was done, Martha was able to push harder and expand the work that she was doing, including this offshore year.

Thursday, Sept 4^th – The crew went out for sail around the bay to practice setting and striking sail in preparation for Saturdays race. We had the intent of setting our light air sails, and we did! However, we blew up on of our spinnakers. Oops! Don’t worry it is fixable. The wind was a little bit stronger than we were hoping for. We set our other spinnaker for a minute or two but decided it was best to probably strike it and set the job instead. With only the reefed main and the jib, we were easily doing 8 knots. Talk about wind ripping through the bay. After the exciting day sail, I spent the afternoon hauling little Mary up the masts to wax the tracks and putting whippings on our new three-strand line we got today!

Friday, Sept 5^th – With the race course in hand and our crew plus day sailers on board, we set out to sail the course and see what it was like! We had a blast playing around in the bay. What a blast, again! I just can’t seem to get over how much sailing in the bay is! We set one of spinnakers only to have it blow up(shred right down a seam), but we rallied and pulled it down quick! We set our second one (which we call the chicken chute) for a couple minutes but decided the wind was just a tad to strong! We already have a sewing machine lined up to fix the spin and get back out there!

Saturday, Sept 6^th – RACE DAY! With the whole race crew on board, we had an excellent breakfast and then motored out to set sail and practice around the start line until it was our turn. The great San Francisco Schooner Cup uses a staggered start with slow boats first and two divisions, Gaff and Marconi. The winds were between 15-20 knots the whole afternoon, with a strong ebb flowing out of the bay. Fabulous sailing all day and a strong showing of the Bay schooners. Martha started 35 minutes after the first boat. There were 10 schooners overall and an honorary schooner/ketch chasing everyone.
We started catching other boats by the windward mark and were able to reel in the fleet by the bottom of the course and were able to pass Elizabeth Muir while we all started climbing back to weather (between Alcatraz and the city water front.) Local knowledge prevailed on the beautiful schooner Elizabeth Muir and they nipped us by 3 seconds with an exciting gybing duel at the finish. My competitive side definitely started to come out during the last couple minutes as we made our way to the finish. After the race we dropped sail and headed into the harbor for the barbeque party after the race. With a short and sweet awards ceremony we sat down with burgers and chicken and chowed! We were hungry.

PHOTOS:

http://campsherman.smugmug.com/Schooner-Race/n-LpXvv/

Password is: Martha (case sensitive)

Sunday, Sept 7^th – After a week of being in a fish bowl, we were ready for some relaxation somewhere else. We headed to Angel Island to find a spot to spend the night which involved poking around 2 coves, checking not only tides, but currents and then finding a spot deep enough to hang for the night without grounding ourselves at low tide. We eventually decided on Ayala Cove and anchored the bow out and then stern tied to the outer mooring. After the very eventful afternoon of finding our spot, we watched a swimmer get himself stuck in the strong currents of the point and slowly start to fade behind the corner and we caught a glimpse of a frantic hand waving. Holly and I went out in kayaks to try and help, turns out he was picked up by a boater going by and they dropped him in near shore. We then hiked up to the summit of Mt. Livermore for a 360 view of bay! SO COOL. At some point during the night we were all jolted awake by a loud sound of some sort and ran up on deck to see if we had pulled the anchor our and were sitting on the rocks, but we were all good. Something hitting us (no scratches, dents, etc. though) and we all tried to fall back asleep without worrying to much about all the little noises the boat was making as the current swooshed past.

 Next three photos are from the bay model, they don't really do it justice though. 

This is a perfect quote for me and sums up perfectly what happens once I get around water (of any sort).

THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE. WOOOHOOOO

Mary playing in the rigging!

It is just so cool, I couldn't help posting another picture :)

The City!

The little island of Alcatraz...haven't explored it yet though. 

Cool trees (slightly dead) on our hike up Mt. Livermore

Part of the 360 view from the top of Mt. Livermore

Anchored in Ayala Cove

Our new paddleboard is fantastic!