Cutting the land ties
06 September 2011 | Richmond, CA
Our day started out doing our usual morning coffee, while watching the local news and cruising the internet. Next came our chores/projects, which I must say, are all winding down.
We added another 80 feet of anchor chain to our anchor locker, to give us a total of 160 feet of chain. Add another 260 feet of anchor rode, for a grand total of 420 feet of ground tackle. We are ready for the deeper waters of the South Pacific!
We also put together our ditch bag. Now this is the "oh crap we're going down bag". This bag is only removed from Tanga in life threatening circumstances. It's a weird thought process to think of our survival needs when we are about to jump into the life raft and say goodbye to Tanga in the middle of the ocean. With that said, we packed 1 gallon of water, a whistle, first aid kit, sunscreen, pocket knife, flares, emergency solar blanket, flashlight, one set of cotton shorts and tee's for both of us, and 7 MRE's. We also have a supply of goodies packed into the liferaft itself. IF the situation arrives that we have to jump into the liferaft, we won't be hungry, thirsty or sunburnt!!! So weird we have to plan for the worst.
Next on the list was to turn in our mailbox keys. With a $5 toll fee to go over the Richmond Bridge, we broke our ties to San Rafael and our California mailing address.
On to the most exciting news of the day.....we sold our truck!!! The last land tie we had was our truck and it has been sold! While we were in San Rafael today taking care of the mailbox, we decided to get the truck cleaned. We had planned on Craiglisting the truck. On a whim, we decided to take it to a dealership and see what they would offer. Wouldn't you know it, they offered a very acceptable price. It only took a short 1/2 hour, and a deal had been made. No hassle deal, love it! The nice thing about it is that we still have the truck as a loaner for 2 days as wait for our check to arrive.
Tomorrow, we are going out for sail on Tanga. We plan on practicing picking up a moorning ball, anchoring, heeving to, and reefing the mainsail.
Come friday at 6:00am. we hope to be sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge!