Christmas Boat Parade party

Clear Lake was packed with party goers. The VHF was abuzz with securite and calls for tows. We were very glad we stayed land side for the parade. We also overheard a call to the CG about a fast moving 70 foot powerboat slamming into boats as it used its bow thrusters to "slalom" around the other vessels....crazy!


Some friends from my hospital came by the enjoy the parade. It was cold and windy!! Actually it was kinda funny, the weather was pretty quiet and benign until right at the start of the parade, then the wind shifted from the south to the north and ramped up to 30 knot gusts, seems to happen every year. The Lake is already very shallow at an average of 6 ft, when the north wind starts blowing all the water out.. well let's just say it makes for a lot of aground vessels.

Brian, reading Beth Leonard's book The Voyagers Handbook.

Harvest Moon Video

Harvest Moon Video
Here is a video at the start of the Harvest Moon race aboard Rain Dog. Winds were very light at first but it got rough and rowdy that night. The crew for the harvest moon was Jack, Joe, Brian and I (Erika).The start was really cool with about 200 boats at our stern, hellicopters flying overhead, and the Coast Guard out in force.

Wood project

She is a 1989 Pacific Seacraft Crealock 34, very well built and beautiful. Brian (sigh.. he is such a dream boat) anyways, Brian bought her about 2 years ago. She was a dream to sail offshore during the Harvest Moon race. She (rain dog)loved the ugly weather and I never had a moment of fear for my safety. Brian really sailed the heck outta her, that man is quite a sailor!


I want to restore all the wood on RD inside and out (it is in need of queen varnisha!)The interior is good but all bare teak, I'd like to tung oil it and put a couple coats of varnish on. The exterior is is very bad shape, the previous owner used some kind of metal brush on it cause the soft grain is all but gone. I thought I'd start small at first so I'm restoring the chopping block trash can cover. We decided that we will turn the once trash can and cavernous space underneath into a storage for dry goods, the snacks will be in the "trash" rubber bin for easy access.



Our trash can is in the galley, we both hate this arrangement. There is a Rubbermaid trash can that fits in the cut out and hangs in place.










After cleaning and sanding the wood the laminent was a bit weak. So I used GFlex west systems to fill the gaps and clamped it all down, it is now nice and tight :-).I have it curing next to a dehumidifier.

RAIN DOG..A LOVE STORY

:-)