Browse Category: projects

Basil Kit

Basil in an Egg

It’s a new year so it’s time to plant some new seeds.  I found the coolest little seedling kit and couldn’t resist getting one.  It’s a ceramic egg complete with soil and seeds inside.  With a tap of a spoon, it cracked on top and I carefully opened it up to reveal its contents.  Isn’t it cute?!  I even found the perfect little medicine cup for watering it.  It says that the soil should last about 5 months before I have to break the whole thing open to transplant it to a real pot.  I hope it lasts that long.

Project 5: Super Duper Stripey Scarf

About a month ago I started knitting again.  Since I needed to practice the basics, I decided to make my first scarf.

Koa was the recipient of this super-duper stripey scarf and it makes him look so handsome.  Yes, I know he has fur and doesn’t actually need one but he’s the only model I have a the moment.

Certified

This afternoon, we had our make-up session to complete Basic Keelboat Sailing II.  There was more wind today that made it much easier to understand the maneuvers.  We also got a much nicer 27-foot boat with a genoa, which was pretty neato.

The focus of today’s lesson was going through the Man Overboard Drill that involved throwing over a life jacket (our man overboard), making a figure-8 and sailing past the “man” with just the right speed and angle to pick it up out of the water.  In addition to today, we had to demonstrate a bunch of maneuvers to get checked off by our instructor and then we went back to the office and took the certification test.  Jes and I both passed the written test so we are officially certified in Basic Keelboat Sailing and can take out 20-foot sail boats on our own.

The next step is Basic Coastal Cruising, which is another weekend of lessons and another test.  Jes is going to take this one without me (to save money) and we should soon be able to take a larger boat out on the water on our own.  Yay!

Here are the photos from all three days.

Dud Sailing

This weekend, we had our 2-day Basic Keelboat Sailing 2 course.  It’s a continuation from the first weekend but our instructor was an older gentleman who was big on safety and was BO-RING.  He went by the book on classroom instruction and we spent a lot of time going through checklists and sailed very conservatively.

On Saturday, the weather was warm and the skies were blue without a cloud in the sky.  Although it was a great day to be on the water with a cold beer, it wasn’t a great day for sailing.  There’s no fun in sailing without wind.  We made it out to the bay but the wind died by the first half hour. By the afternoon, the ebb  was very strong (pretty much sucking us out of the bay) so we turned on the motor and headed in early.  The last hour was spent our docking maneuvers.

This morning, the weather looked more promising but we were tricked.  The no-wind conditions were similar to yesterday and we ended up floating on the water and practiced reefing the sail.  We decided to call it a day by 1:00 pm and revved up the motor.  Unfortunately the motor died half-way back and I thought we were going to have to call the AAA of sailing for a tow.  Fortunately for us, we got the motor running intermittently and sailed VERY SLOWLY back to the harbor.

So, we are rescheduled to go back and finish the class another day.  We still have to learn the Man Overboard maneuver and practice jibing and tacking few more times.  Once we’ve gotten all that down, there’s a written test to get our first certification.  It would have been nice to get it all done today but I guess it’s just extra time for me to study the ASA book.   Pray for wind next time!!

Under the Bridge

Yesterday was our second day of Basic Keelboat Sailing 1 and I had a great time. Our instructor gave us the key to the dock in the morning and had the four of us set-up the boat and start the motor on our own while he grabbed a cup of coffee.  Once he joined us, I started at the helm and steered our way out of the slip and into McCovey Cove where we put up the sails. The wind was light at first so there was a lot of waiting, tacking, and jibing until we caught a decent breeze.

Unfortunately, we weren’t really getting anywhere so we started the motor and headed out to Central Bay, which is basically the water between the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge. The water was choppier and the air was colder and wetter but it was great for sailing.

It was so awesome to see the city from the water. It’s a perspective that I don’t get everyday. We sailed under the Bay Bridge and towards Treasure Island before we started tacking back up towards the shore. We also saw the Maltese Falcon, which was a gigantic sailboat that looked like a really big spaceship with plastic sails. (By the way, it’s for sale if you have a couple million dollars to throw away.)  We also spent some time riding the wakes of the tugboats and ferries that passed through the bay.

We had spent all day rotating through all the stations and had a good idea of how the wind was moving so we all took turns sailing solo. This involved holding and turning the tiller and fiddling with the two lines that controlled the jib. I gave it a try and it was pretty fun. I sailed a boat all by myself!! Woo hoo!!

Here are the photos from the weekend.  We’re signed up for Basic Keelboat Sailing 2 (next month), which will end with a written test.  If we pass, we’ll be able to take the 20-ft sailboats out on our own.  Sweet.

Anatomy of a Sailboat

For Jes’ birthday we signed up for the 2-day Beginning Keelboat Sailing course. The company we signed up with is conveniently located just across the street so it was cool to sail around our ‘hood.

The morning started out in the classroom for about an hour to learn how to tie some knots and the anatomy of a sailboat. I learned a figure 8, bowline, and cleat knot. Cool!

The rest of the day was spent on a Santana 22 sailboat and learned how to steer, tack, dock, start the motor, and cast off. On top of that, I finally know where the bow, stern, port side, and starboard side are! We sailed in South Beach Harbor (behind the ballpark) and just south of the Bay Bridge. The wind was gusty but the water was pretty calm.

The weather was really gloomy and sprinkled a little in the morning but the clouds quickly ran away and we were left with a sunny bluebird-sky day. Our instructor was a really cool guy who loves to sail, has raced sailboats, lived on a sailboat, and sailed down the coast from Canada to Mexico.

I am proud to say that I had a great time and survived another day on a boat thanks to trusty ol’ Dramamine!! Woo hoo!! Tomorrow will be another adventure out on the bay and we should be able to sail the boat solo by the end of the day. Oh we’ll see…