Chula Vista 1996-1997

October 1996 to June 1997

Time flew the first 3 months that we were here. Bill was real busy at UNISYS trying to make as much progress as he could so that there was some hope of being finished by June.

Doreen made a trip to The Dalles and returned with our car, saying our "hellos" to friends while there and then stopping on her way south to visit Ginger and Chris in their new military housing near Monterey. New friends that we met cruising down the coast finally arrived in San Diego. We spend several weekends visiting with them and showing them around the area, since we now had a car available. Many Saturdays or Sundays were spent just driving around to see all the changes that have occurred since we left the Southern California area 20 years ago, and we even made it to the Borrego desert for a Saturday of off-road exploration. We have formed some new friendships here at the marina and found time to take the boat out for a few exploration spins on the bay.

Thanksgiving was spent with Bill’s mother Betty at her mobile home. Doreen made the dinner on the boat and transported it to her place for the feast.

Over the two weeks at Christmas we took Lanikai out of the bay, up the coast and out for a week on a mooring at Two Harbors on Catalina Island. Christmas Eve we were tied up in Oceanside and Christmas Day we anchored in Dana Point before crossing to the island. In the winter the same moorings are used, only they are picked up backwards so the bow is pointing out into any incoming waves. We had some rain, some wind and even some sun during our stay; actually weather very similar to many of our summer trips into British Columbia waters.

After returning form our Christmas trip we started work on some of the boat projects that we hope to finish before heading south next November. A new autopilot, a smaller and fancier ham radio and an automatic tuner for it were purchased and installed. We removed the engine’s transmission and took it in to be repaired. In the process we discovered that the damper plate that connects the transmission to the engine was just about ready to go so it was also replaced. During this period Doreen climbed under the engine and we removed the oil pan and reinstalled it with new gaskets. It took two attempts, as the first time one of the gaskets did not seat right. Doreen sure became a black oily mess after spending a day under the engine but it did stop the oil leaks.

Bill and the mechanic reinstalled the transmission while Doreen was up north visiting her sisters and our youngest daughter, Gretchen. They got the engine all properly aligned again and installed the new damper plate. While in Oregon, Doreen gathered up our snow ski equipment and flew off to Montana for a few weeks of skiing. Bill even managed to sneak a week away from work to join her there. The cross country skiing was the best that we ever remembered and the snow was the deepest.

Upon return to Chula Vista, a cruising spinnaker kit, ordered from Sailrite, was waiting for Doreen to start sewing on. The material was light and easy to sew, but there were many long seems to sew and it took about 6 weeks working on Betty’s floor to finish the project. On the weekends we got the new autopilot and radio installed and tested. By the time the cruising spinnaker project was finished, the 110% working jib kit had arrived. Doreen started to sew it together, but it quickly became too heavy to handle alone and it took the both of us to finish the project (with some important help from our friend PJ). The finished sail weighed just over 70 pounds. The wind here is much lighter than what we had come from on the Columbia River, so we need the bigger sails to move the boat. The sails are now both completed and the jib is even hanked on as our main working jib. It should be very strong as it has been sewn with triple seams.

Doreen made another trip north in early May to help Ginger transport her stored things from Portland down to Monterey and to take Gilbert, Gretchen’s Brittany dog, north to live with her and husband Rusty since they had finally moved into a house with a yard that allowed pets.

Its mid-June. Although not quite done, Bill is finished working on a daily basis. We will celebrate by another trip to Catalina Island and upon returning we pulled both masts for repair, repainting, rewiring, and rerigging. Work on them will keep us both real busy for at least 2 ½ weeks as we plan to remove the sail track (stainless steel) to electrically isolate it from the mast (aluminum) when it is reinstalled. Just about the time we finish that project we will need to make another, hopefully final (for now), trip north to welcome our first grandchild. Every trip north we manage to fill the car with no longer needed items from the boat and this will be no exception as we again place into storage some items and bring back others.

June and July 1997

Our trip to Catalina in June was a great success. We all had a great time and the weather was perfect. Doreen’s dad Don had fun visiting camps he had attended in his youth and was surprised at "how little" had changed. Our return to San Diego was an over night trip and we were entertained with the Navy doing night time helicopter landings.

After a fun week it was time to get down to real work. We had the masts pulled by Pacific Offshore Rigging (wonderful people - we highly recommend them) and set to work drilling out the many bolts (400 in fact) that held the sail track to all four spars. After Bill got the tracks off, two weeks of work by itself, the spars were cleaned and painted before the tracks were put back on. New conduits were riveted to the inside of the masts for better security of the electrical wiring. The entire process took over four weeks but the masts were finally re-stepped on July 24 (an all day chore by itself), just in time for us to head north to see our first grandchild.

Emily Christine Tennison was born July 15 and weighed in at 8 lb. 13 oz. And she had already gained another pound by the time we arrived 11 days later!

August, September and October 1997

It is now mid-October and we are just about ready to head south for the next hop in our journey. The last several months have been spent in final preparation. Bill has really finished his "real work" at UNISYS although that took some doing. We spent a very nice weekend at Catalina Island to "check things out" and only discovered a few essentials that were forgotten.. Murphey is lurking about and is quick to pounce on any holes that we leave. We had not tested out our new inverter with the freezer and when we finally did, just before leaving for Catalina, it did not have enough power. The day before we left was spent installing another new inverter that has more output. Our little outboard motor does not fit well on the new dingy so in Catalina we found it "swimming" one afternoon at the end of its safety line. It took a few hours but it was soon up and running again.

The next few weeks will be spent entertaining visitors and finishing up the few last minute items on our list including additions to our spares locker, and just enjoying the nice fall weather in Southern California.

We left one car with daughter Gretchen and Rusty when we visited The Dalles in August and in November, just before we leave, the other daughter is arriving to collect the other car.

Both of us are beginning to learn to "go with the flow" which is so important in the type of travel that we are doing.

October 31, 1997

The first of our visitors have arrived and left. We spent four delightful days at Disneyland enjoying the midweek short lines and the weekend shows. Two trips south of the Boarder took us to Ensenada via auto. The first trip we checked out the marina where we will have our boat hauled out, for bottom painting, as our first stop south. The second trip was just to enjoy the town with our visitors from the north. The town is developing a proper tourist center as several cruise-ship lines make stops there. It was fun exploring and shopping in the area even with the "in progress" construction.

Tonight we are expecting the arrival of youngest daughter and family (Gretchen, Rusty and Emily). They will be here for a week ending with the overlapping arrival of our oldest daughter (Ginger). We plan on a few more days at Disneyland, a trip to the San Diego Zoo, an offshore fishing trip for the guys, and a visit to Sea World. When Ginger leaves she will be taking both the car and Bill’s work computer with her. On November 14 we will make the final break, losing both our Chula Vista address and phone as we head out to find an anchorage for a few nights before we actually leave San Diego bay. Our current plan puts into Ensenada the morning of November 17.