So, pretty much none of that stuff I wanted to do in the first post actually happened. Eight months would have been plenty of time if I were independently wealthy - however, seeing as that is not the case, it's taken me considerably longer to accomplish the laundry list of tasks required to take this boat offshore.

I finally managed to make it up to the boat, the new plan was to live aboard. Not such a stretch of the imagination as my Dad had lived aboard Moor'ea for several years previously, as had I. That had been mostly in Moss Landing, Ca., but when Dad got an Islander 36 the idea was to keep Moor'ea in the Delta as a sort of a holiday spot. Over time she saw less and less attention until I took the conn. Apparently a few years earlier she had been the home to a roost of some kind of bird, I don't remember which. The result of which was no interior cushions. Bummer. Those are expensive.

The First task was to clean her up. Some knuckle skin, lots of biodegradable boat soap, a healthy dose of bleach and we were on our way. Getting that black mossy stuff out of the waffle pattern in the nonskid was a real joy. Three days later and the boat was sparking clean (sort of).

Now to see about that engine. The Atomic 4 had its exhaust rebuilt during a yard period prior to heading to the Delta; unfortunately the mixing elbow was installed backwards and the water was channeled into the exhaust manifold. Buh. I didn't figure that out at first, but I did figure out that I had no fuel delivery, no spark and no compression. Awesome. Good thing the Nissan 8 runs well.

An inspection of the standing rigging was what I'd expected of 15 year old wire in the Delta. Some corrosion, but nothing totally bad. It'll do till I'm ready to replace the rig.

I had been told that the VHF had been stolen when some vandals had boarded the boat and broken in. Also missing was the AM/FM Radio. They left the empty beer bottles, though. I brought with me an old car radio and plugged it in to the spot where the old one used to be. Gotta have tunes! Once I had the stereo installed I realized that the speakers were blown. Sweet. I had also brought with me a new VHF and plugged that in where the old one of those used to be. Check, Check, uh, Anybody copy, over? Cool. Communications, check.

Among the other gear I brought were an array of blocks, halyards, sheets, medical supplies, tools, personal gear, saftey supplies, charts and other various goodies. I set about rigging up the boat in such a way that I could at least put the sails up and putt around. I knew that this would all be temporary as I wanted to lead a few more things back to the cockpit, and generally redesign the running rigging.

With all those details attended to, I was ready to cruise my new home around the Delta for a tick before I settled down in Sausalito for a spell.

I went from Dissapointment Slough where the boat had spent it's long slumber, down the San Joaquin River to Three Mile Slough, then though that to the Sacramento River, where I got to open my first bridge! I didn't have to wait long before I had to hail the bridge operator in Rio Vista to open my second bridge! Then I hung a right into the Old Sacramento River and went all the way up to Sacramento. I hung out there for a week, kicked it with friends, saw some of the Jazz Jubilee and had an all around good time (except when I dropped my phone in the water). Then back down the river all the way to Berkeley where I spent a couple of nights, then turned around and went back up to the San Joaquin to check out some more of that. Then I had to go back to work and headed back to Sausalito and dropped the hook.

Unfortunately, I didn't have a camera for the whole trip, or for much of the early stuff for that matter. What I do have of that trip is here.

Anyway, I'll get to work on posting the engine overhaul!