Sausalito Photo Gallery

You can never go back... Last time Kirk was in Sausalito was in the mid-60's and in his mind it would still be that artsy-hippy-houseboat colony from it's hey-day. But the times they are a' changin'. The houseboats are still here but they are now more modern, tricked out, waaaay expensive, and the artsy-bars and studios are now tourist restaurants and t-shirt shops. With it's Italian heritage and houses clinging to the hillside, it reminds us of Cetera, or some of the other small towns along the Amalfi Coast of Italy.


Sausalito hillside reminds us of the Amalfi Coast.



Due West anchored in Sausalito with her million-dollar view of the SF Bay.

It's very fun here anchored out in a front-row seat with a million-dollar view that can't be beat. We've mostly been anchoring, but we headed into the dock for a few days at Schoonmakers Marina to meet up with the RayMarine tech, as well as some fellow cruisers we'd met along the way.

To recap our electronic issues, our RayMarine chart-plotter/radar/multi-function display named "Marianne" [because Heidi's mild dyslexia thought that RayMarine said Marianne!?] that worked so well at home, has been acting up since we left Port Townsend. We've lost all depth and wind data. The radar randomly cycles on and off, and the AIS randomly turns itself off. [AIS is a signal that all commercial ships broadcast with their name/position/travel info which is very helpful in combination with the radar to know what other boats and ships are around you and which way they are heading.] The depth is the most important of these items that aren't working correctly. We could revert to the old Mark Twain traditional lead-line use (and have), but we'd rather not.

To our way of thinking (and that of others who've worked on Marianne), if four different inputs coming into Marianne aren't displaying properly, possibly the issue is with Marianne. However, the RayMarine tech thinks Marianne is just fine, and that we have 4 different issues on our hands: radar, depth, wind, and AIS. Huh... really???


Journeywoman electrician Heidi, re-wiring the depth-sounder.

He gave us homework to do in tracing all wires and re-making connections to double-check everything (even though we'd already done that a couple of times...one more for good measure.) As the saying goes, one definition of "Cruising" is fixing your boat in exotic locales! Well Sausalito may not really be exotic, but fixing our boat we are... and as if 4 possible electronics issues weren't enough, our bilge pump decided to die at the same time. Fun and games on boats!

We took advantage of being at the dock to fill our water tanks. [Our water maker is still not fully installed yet, but that's another boat project for another exotic locale!] As is typical when filling our water tanks which overflow into the bilge, you wait to hear the bilge pump turn on to know when your tank is full and over-flowing. We filled the first tank, and the bilge pump came on so that tank was done. We filled the second tank, which kept filling and filling and filling... until Kirk said, "Huh, that tank has been filling for a really long time." So he opened up the bilge and YIKES!! We had about 10 gallons of water in the bilge, and the bilge pump would not turn on.

To make matters worse, we suddenly realized that both of our manual bilge pumps were also not working. When things start to go south on boats, they usually happen in multiples. Luckily, we'd brought along a Super-soaker giant squirt-gun to use as a bilge pump for our dinghy. BIG THANKS Dick & Pam! Kirk had wanted to toss it before we left Seattle and Heidi insisted on bringing it along. So we pumped, and pumped, and pumped the Super-soaker for almost 90-minutes to remove those 10 gallons of water.


Captain Kirk fixing the bilge pump, one of his MOST favorite jobs aboard ☺.

Next morning Kirk took the bilge pump apart [a job he just LOVES to do because access is SO easy...not!] and discovered the power wire had come lose. YAY!! Two hours later and we had a working bilge pump again. Now to get both manual pumps fixed, ASAP!

Meanwhile while we're working on boats in exotic locales, Tikka and Tosh are doing their part keeping watch, chasing flies, and taking naps at the helm...


Tikka chasing flies and ready at the winch.


Tosh chillaxin' at the helm, who's on watch anyway?!

Four 4-mile round-trip hikes to West Marine later...we'd had enough of working on boats already... so we took a break for the day and took the ferry to downtown San Francisco to meet up with Heidi's cousin's Peder & María who live in Los Gatos.


Golden Gate Bridge in the lifting fog.


Coit Tower atop Telegraph Hill, we plan to hike up the stairs next week when we get back to the city.


The iconic San Francisco Ferry Terminal, where Heidi's great-grandfather was one of the first to arrive from across the bay to help out after the 1906 earthquake.


A new addition to the San Francisco waterfront, a Claes Ouldenburg sculpture of "Cupid's Bow"


Fun day in the city with Heidi's cousins Peder & María. They even took us to Trader Joes to stock up on provisions, and drove us back to the boat, thanks guys!


Beautiful ending to a beautiful day...

So back to the electronics... we fished re-wiring and triple checking everything, and still no dice. So tomorrow Marianne gets shipped back east for a checkup and hopeful lobotomy. Meanwhile we'll hang out without instruments and not go anywhere that's too shallow!

We'll check out some more of Sausalito like the Model of the Bay, and try to track down the shipyard where our fishing buddy Cap TD's Sea Pride was built almost 100 years ago. We've hiked to get groceries, hiked to do laundry, we are definitely getting our exercise and glad we brought the big backpack! We are hoping to take more cousins out sailing this weekend if weather permits.

Cool animal sightings here in Sausalito: a few harbor seals which are always cute to see, and pelicans which are one of Heidi's favorite birds. We don't have pelicans in the Pacific Northwest and so love watching them glide over the water and diving for fish.


What a strange bird the pelican, his beak can hold more than his belly can...

Heidi's dad Verne continues to amaze us with his recovery from his massive stroke, almost no residual effects at all and he'll be head back home soon. We feel SO lucky that he got the t-PA treatment within 3 hours, which clearly made all the difference in the world. Heidi still plans to go visit sometime in the next month.

We plan to head to Tiburon on Friday, and maybe Angel Island over the weekend, then on to the Aquatic Park downtown San Francisco next week. It's a block from Ghirardelli Square and a cable-car ride to anywhere, so we plan to take full advantage and visit all our favorite SF haunts. Stay tuned for our next installment of the electronics saga and our San Francisco Days!

We miss all of our friends and family back home and really appreciate all of you who've kept in touch. It's also been fun to meet new friends along the way and see so many of our family in-route.


The Golden Gate Bridge, pretty in pink sunset.