Thursday, July 23, 2015

Carnage on the Glacier



Went up to see the boat the other day.  She has been in insurance limbo for the last 6 weeks.  Thankfully our claim was paid by BoatUS.  One of our partners hit something in the water back in mid June.  It caused the casting at the top of the mast to fail and the furler came down.  With our insurance claim, we are getting a new furler and the ding on the bow fixed.  Along with that we got the bottom painted and then with the mast off the boat, we elected to do a bunch of upgrades.  We will have a new goose neck, halyards and shrouds.  If all goes according to plan, she is going to be back in the slip this weekend.

This is the second summer in a row we have missed a chunk of summer sailing.  Last summer, she was offline due to a dead engine.  It took us good 10 weeks to decide on a plan, remove the old Yanmar and install a new electric engine.  With most of the mast work almost complete, we will have a brand new boat!  Well, kind of.  The $20k in improvements over the last year are huge.  We just gave this boat 20 more years (she is 34 years young at the moment) of amazing sailing on the bay.  It was a great feeling receiving a check from BoatUS for almost $10k!  I can't wait to throw off the lines and take her for a spin.  I am busy with events and a little vacation, so I expect my next sail on Addiction won't be until the first week of August.

On Sunday, we will be sailing up the Napa River for a few days on my buddy John's boat.  She is a 40' Islander from the mid 70's.  John picked her up a few years ago to get into the charter trade.  He would like to do some charters from the bay up to Napa and this is a test run.  We went up in September of 2012 on my boat and he was so impressed with the fun we had (as well as the fantastic sailing), he decided it might be a great trip to sell to clients.  We sail to downtown Napa and head off to wineries on our bikes for some tasting and fun.  We will be hooking up with friends along the way.  It's difficult to beat the Napa Valley if you love food, vino and natural beauty.  And being able to sail there is just icing on the cake!  Wish us a bon voyage.

Check back next week to read about our trip.

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