King of Tides and Waiting to Escape

Unfortunately we are still here, waiting for a sufficient lull from all those nasty storms marching down on us from the Pacific Northwest. Add to that a few days of southerly winds and that makes for a very uncomfortable and dangerous sea state that we don't particularly want to endure. So we wait. We need a good two days of decent conditions to get around Points Sur and Conception, then it is more or less downhill to Ensenada. We hope.

Cinnabar has been peacefully berthed in Richmond at the rigger's dock as we complete our boat prep. Last week we found a dinghy and outboard on Craigslist. Not exactly our first choice of dinghy but we were thrilled to have found a 9.9 hp two stroke outboard. Anyway, it was nearly the whole package that we needed, dinghy, outboard, dinghy wheels, so we grabbed it.

Tom removed the watermaker so we could replace the membrane and have it serviced:

This is one of our most precious pieces of equipment and must be cared for!

He also cleaned the sightglass for the watermaker and serviced the condenser of our refrigeration system. Since every task takes exactly one entire day to complete I have threatened to nickname Tom "One-A-Day". He has been kind enough not to comment on how long it would have taken me to do all this work.

The hardest task has been to sort through all our spares and tools. What to take and what to leave behind? Meanwhile, my beloved galley has been turned into a tool bench due to its convenient location.

We were in Richmond during the recent King Tide (December 14). The counterpart to this extreme high tide is, you guessed it, an extreme low tide. Check out our depth meter during one of the extreme lows.

Yikes!! Stuck in the mud.

I'll tell you that our draft is 9.5 feet and let you do the math.

Other new additions to Cinnabar's inventory are two surfboards and one kayak. I just hope there is room for the sailors after we are done packing her up.