Sailing Pearl: Travels on a Beneteau Oceanis 373

March 30, 2012 — Houston, TX

We left Simi Valley bight and early at 8:00am. Chris’ kids had a doctor’s appointment, so Denise and I figured that we should get an early start and make tracks for Houston. Since people were already starting to as where we were and when we would get places, I decided to turn on the Byonics MicroTrack AIO APRS tracker that Joe had loaned the the Pearl so that people could tell where we were. Tracker lit, we cruised out of Simi Valley torned south onto the 405 and then the 10 — where we more-or-less stayed until we hit Houston.

It took us until about midnight to get from LA to El Paso, TX. It then took us until late afternoon to get from El Paso to Houston — driving in shifts, swapping off about every four hours when we got tired. Denise was a complete trooper through all of this — game for anything. Actually, it was she who suggested that we drive straight through to Houston. I figured it would be a good idea as it would let us know how we might do with staying alert and running shifts on a longer passage.

There isn’t much to say about the trip except that it was long. Curious highlights were the “Tokyo Massage” offered in the back room of a sleazy feeling gas station/diner in Blythe, CA. No I did not get one, though Denise suggested I be a bit more adventurous. I on the other hand was a bit concerned about peeing there on the off chance I caught some dread disease. I noted that Denise wisely DID NOT use the facilities there.

The other curious highlight of the trip was a yard in Harper Texas. Instead of following I-10 through San Antonio to Houston, we decided to take a “short cut” along Highway 290 through Fredricksberg and Austin instead of keeping on the loop to the south on I-10. Harper in an interesting town in an interesting area. The town is SOLIDLY bible belt. There were more churches than gas stations — which may be true of most places other than big cities — but people seemed pretty religious. The other curious feature was a “red neck” yard decorated with the slowly decaying carcasses of airplanes?!? That was worth a second look.

Apart from those two events and a side trip to Fry’s in Phonenix. Needless to say, Denise and I were thrilled to get to my brother Suren’s house that next evening and establish base camp for a week.

March 20, 2012 — Los Angeles, CA

Today was a pretty easy day. Last evening, we got to visit with Nira, Joe, Faye, Avanish, and kids. Today it was Tom and Phil (aka Fido) who live in Santa Cruz, CA followed by a night stop at with my cousin Chris and his family in Simi Valley.

We initially met up with Phil in San Jose, CA where he was working on a couple of projects at TechShop (see www.techshop.com), a candy store for anyone with a lust for really cool and expensive tools: 3-D printers, laser etching printers; hudro-jet cutters, and CAD assisted routing tables, the list goes on. Phil was busy custom etching some of his electronic cigarettes (see www.e-smokeytrats.com) for customers so after taking a tour of the facility, Denise and I headed over the hill to Santa Cruz for lunch with Tom, a technologist, master gardener, [kite and board] surfer, and all around good guy.

After lunch at Rumble Fish, a decent sushi restaurant in Scotts Valley, we all headed over to the e-SmokeyTreats Corporate offices where Phil was supposed to give me a quick lesson in how to become a “stone cold killing machine” with a pole spear and possibly get me back into scuba diving. Tom, who’s also a diver/spearfisher giggled hysterically at Phils instruction and assertion re my potential as a stone, cold, dispatcher of ichthyians. Regardless, I left with Phil’s priced and as yet unused carbon-fibre pole spear and a promise to send him a picture of the first fish I speared with it.

Despite Phil’s generally relaxed attitude, he’s one of the two people I try to suck into the more hairball activities in which I engage. Phil’s every talented and extremely capable — and for some reason is motivated to come save my a**. Joe’s the other person who fits the same bill — though more with technology than physical/mechanical stuff which is Phil’s forte.

After a fun afternoon with Phil and Tom, our path turned east and then south. We were headed for the LA area — an environement I try to avoid at all costs. My cousin Chris, however, had bought a new house and had been lobbying for me to come down and visit after he’d been up to see me in Portland.

When we finally got to Chris’ in Simi Valley, we were warmly greeted by Chris, his wife Julian, and his twin sons — who had grown a lot since I had last seen them. Julian and Chris had very graciously prepared a Sri Lankan dinner with chiken curry, black pork curry, veges and fixins’. It was great. The perfect recipe for a nice warm sun-shiny day.

 

March 23, 2012 — Houston, TX

Denise (support for the Caribbean tour) and I finally left Portland on at 6:00am on March 19. Despite having stayed in Portland for an extra evening so that I could rest a bit, I ended up puttering around the house — the upstairs mostly as I had “handed the house over” to Ron who is renting the place for 6 months while I figure out my sailing plans — until about 1:00am. When Denise called at 5:00 am to say she was coming over, I was not as rested as I wanted to be. Whatever. We needed to leave. We needed to get to Houston and get the boat set up. We hit the road.

The drive down to the Bay Area wasn’t bad. I took the first shift down to about Corvallis. When I faded out, Denise took over. I slept through most of Oregon. We traded off back and forth after that until we got close to the Bay Area, when I took over for the last bit.

While my friends in the Bay Area come to visit me at some central location while I am down there, this time I went to visit a couple of them. The first was Nira in Mill Valley. Nira’s a friend from Portland who moved back home to the Bay Area and was happily back home a couple of streets from where she grew up. While I’d been back to the Bay Area several times since she moved back, I’d never made the time to visit her in her own home. So off to Mill Valley it was. Since it was around 4:00pm on a Monday, Nira vectored us from I-80 through Vallejo, and into Marin. This was a great way to get into the Bay Area as we ended up going against rush hour traffic.

Nira’s new digs were a cute little cottage, replete with Sauna, plunge pool, and raised vege beds. Add chickens and/or a couple of Pygoras (pygmy angoras) and you could have been in Portland, but with warmer weather. It was also nice to see Max, Nira’s black labX who is Harley’s best buddy/cousin, and to visit with Nira’s mom — Nira. I’ve attached a pic of Max getting spanked by Suzie the short tailed and apparently ill temperd cat.

From there it was off to San Carlos via the Golden Gate Bridge where Denise and I were staying at Hotel Sahai — also known as the home of my friends Faye and Avanish. That plan, however, was altered by my friend Joe (remember Uncle Joe) from the radio installation?) to collect more radio gear for Pearl. Joe had bought a self contained APRS transmitter that he thought I should have on Pearl so that I could be tracked whenever I was close to land. So, after a mandatory brief stop at the Golden Gate Bridge, it was off to Joe’s after a brief stop at 3 Amigos in San Mateo to grab a couple of burritos before heading off to Joe’s in Milpitas for radios and how to install them.

Needless to say, it was pretty late by the time we got to Faye and Avanish’s — a long but good day. This is the first step in a completely undetermined journey.

 

Portland, OR — March 17, 2012

Weeks of waiting following relaunching Pearl and returning to Portland to pack up are almost at an end. The house has a tenant. While the lease needs to be inked, that’s pretty much a done deal. The details are agreed. And the tenant is ready to move in. Interestingly, he would like the place furnished, which makes the move easier for me.

The stuff from Portland that’s headed to Pearl is packed and staged by the front door. There’s a bunch of gear: a Nova Lift to help get heavy stuff like the dinghy engine on and off without mishap; a life raft; an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB); books; tools; spares; charts; the list goes on. I’m not sure where we are going to store some of this stuff, but it’s headed down to Texas. The rest of the stuff is stored in the master suite upstairs.

It’s amazing how much stuff one collects over time and how much of it is used so little of the time. Things just but wait around until one needs the perfect thing for the perfect occasion. Living on Pearl will be an interesting departure from this lifestyle. Hopefully it will be an exercise in doing less with more — except for Harley. I am experiencing serious separating anxiety from him. He has been the metronome of my life for a while. He expects to go to the park about an hour before sunset to fetch his ball. That’s it.

While we are ready to push off from Texas, we still aren’t quite ready to jump off into the Caribbean and the wild blue yonder. Pearl is still undocumented. The officials in Sri Lanka charged with getting her registered there are dragging their feet. Why? I think it’s because they can. Perhaps they are looking for some consideration. Perhaps they are really busy. Regardless of the answer Pearls entry into the Caribbean is being delayed. Tick-rock. Hurricane season approaches and perhaps Pearl should be in the Med.