- Joined
- Apr 15, 2008
- Messages
- 13,738
- Location
- California Delta
- Vessel Name
- FlyWright
- Vessel Make
- 1977 Marshall Californian 34 LRC
[FONT="]We headed out Tues for a week to experience the Blue Angels flight demonstrations and the America’s Cup World Series races on the San Francisco Bay. We had never spent any time in Sausalito, so we planned to stay there for the week to learn the area. We loaded the bikes on board to allow us to ride the mile or so into town and get a little exercise.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Since I was off to a late start and the Admiral needed more time, we decided that I’d go ahead of her, buy fuel on the way and meet her at the Benecia Marina Wed morning. This also saved her about 4 hrs of enroute time each way and spared her one extra night stay on the boat. (She doesn’t sleep as well onboard as I do.)[/FONT]
[FONT="]I stopped along the way in Antioch to pick up some diesel. While enroute, I conducted an ER check and found a raw water leak from the shaft of my stbd RW pump at the rate of about 2 drips per second. All engine temps were the normal 180°. The leak concerned me and I watched it closely as I continued another 30 mins to my fuel stop. After refueling, I tightened a bolt (see arrow in pic) on the pump and the flow slowed significantly. I made some calls and found a shop in a Martinez that would rebuild the pump first thing the next morning, if needed, so I continued cautiously toward Benecia. After 20 minutes enroute, I checked the ER again and the leak had completely stopped! Numerous followup checks throughout the week confirmed the same. Rebuilding/replacing this pump has now moved to the top of my to-do list.[/FONT]
[FONT="]For the past 60 hrs of operation, I have been running at a more leisurely 2000 RPM for a 7.4 Kt speed. After 31 hours since my last fill up, I was pleased to find I only needed 86 gals, yielding less than 2.8 GPH total. This compares favorably with my last fill up after running for 30 hrs yielding 2.75 GPH. I have also found that my previously high oil consumption at 2300 RPM has vanished. We operated 22.4 hrs this week and did not burn any oil.[/FONT]
[FONT="]After a nice night in Benecia, the Admiral joined me and we continued toward Sausalito’s Clipper Yacht Harbor which would be our base of operations for the week.
[/FONT]
[FONT="]The only mishap we experienced enroute was getting waked by a high speed ferry (Yep, I was talking and not paying attention!) which caused enough roll action to spill my coffee on my laptop keyboard!! Fortunately, I had a spare laptop down below for backup navigation, so we didn’t lose nav redundancy with our Garmin unit. We arrived at 1500 on Wed and settled right in. Since we had some daylight, we unloaded the bikes and checked out the local area. Found some interesting shops and restaurants and familiarized ourselves with our new surroundings.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Thursday provided the time to explore the ‘floating homes’ of Richardson Bay by dinghy. They are a very eclectic cluster of alternative living modules, some floating, some resting on the mud at low tide, but all with an interesting character.[/FONT]
[FONT="]The Blue Angels were scheduled to arrive in the afternoon and put on a brief practice demo, so we headed out at 1400 for the show. In speaking with friends who have done this before, we were cautioned that many boats just drift and idle along to watch the show. The largest crowds were expected for the shows on Sat and Sun, so we figured we’d get the chance to learn the ropes on Thu and Fri.
[/FONT]
[FONT="]Since we had never experienced this before, we took our time and observed how the locals were situated before committing to drop anchor along with them. Traffic was light and we anchored at the 50 feet depth just west of Alcatraz and just north of the ‘restricted box’ designated for the airshow and AC races. We knew we wanted to be close to the airshow center point to get the best view of the cross overs and low altitude flybys. Once the show started, we knew we had found our mark![/FONT]
(click the image below to view the video)
[FONT="]Friday’s airshow practice was a more complete show including the RCAF F-18s, F22, United 777 and, of course, the Blue Angels. The entry maneuver of the Blue Angels took them directly above our boat at anchor. We experienced the thrill and bone shaking noise and vibration of numerous overflights at low altitude by the F18s and the F22.[/FONT]
(click the image below to view the video)
[FONT="]
[/FONT]
[FONT="]Since I was off to a late start and the Admiral needed more time, we decided that I’d go ahead of her, buy fuel on the way and meet her at the Benecia Marina Wed morning. This also saved her about 4 hrs of enroute time each way and spared her one extra night stay on the boat. (She doesn’t sleep as well onboard as I do.)[/FONT]
[FONT="]I stopped along the way in Antioch to pick up some diesel. While enroute, I conducted an ER check and found a raw water leak from the shaft of my stbd RW pump at the rate of about 2 drips per second. All engine temps were the normal 180°. The leak concerned me and I watched it closely as I continued another 30 mins to my fuel stop. After refueling, I tightened a bolt (see arrow in pic) on the pump and the flow slowed significantly. I made some calls and found a shop in a Martinez that would rebuild the pump first thing the next morning, if needed, so I continued cautiously toward Benecia. After 20 minutes enroute, I checked the ER again and the leak had completely stopped! Numerous followup checks throughout the week confirmed the same. Rebuilding/replacing this pump has now moved to the top of my to-do list.[/FONT]
[FONT="]For the past 60 hrs of operation, I have been running at a more leisurely 2000 RPM for a 7.4 Kt speed. After 31 hours since my last fill up, I was pleased to find I only needed 86 gals, yielding less than 2.8 GPH total. This compares favorably with my last fill up after running for 30 hrs yielding 2.75 GPH. I have also found that my previously high oil consumption at 2300 RPM has vanished. We operated 22.4 hrs this week and did not burn any oil.[/FONT]
[FONT="]After a nice night in Benecia, the Admiral joined me and we continued toward Sausalito’s Clipper Yacht Harbor which would be our base of operations for the week.
[/FONT]
[FONT="]The only mishap we experienced enroute was getting waked by a high speed ferry (Yep, I was talking and not paying attention!) which caused enough roll action to spill my coffee on my laptop keyboard!! Fortunately, I had a spare laptop down below for backup navigation, so we didn’t lose nav redundancy with our Garmin unit. We arrived at 1500 on Wed and settled right in. Since we had some daylight, we unloaded the bikes and checked out the local area. Found some interesting shops and restaurants and familiarized ourselves with our new surroundings.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Thursday provided the time to explore the ‘floating homes’ of Richardson Bay by dinghy. They are a very eclectic cluster of alternative living modules, some floating, some resting on the mud at low tide, but all with an interesting character.[/FONT]
[FONT="]The Blue Angels were scheduled to arrive in the afternoon and put on a brief practice demo, so we headed out at 1400 for the show. In speaking with friends who have done this before, we were cautioned that many boats just drift and idle along to watch the show. The largest crowds were expected for the shows on Sat and Sun, so we figured we’d get the chance to learn the ropes on Thu and Fri.
[/FONT]
[FONT="]Since we had never experienced this before, we took our time and observed how the locals were situated before committing to drop anchor along with them. Traffic was light and we anchored at the 50 feet depth just west of Alcatraz and just north of the ‘restricted box’ designated for the airshow and AC races. We knew we wanted to be close to the airshow center point to get the best view of the cross overs and low altitude flybys. Once the show started, we knew we had found our mark![/FONT]
(click the image below to view the video)
[FONT="]Friday’s airshow practice was a more complete show including the RCAF F-18s, F22, United 777 and, of course, the Blue Angels. The entry maneuver of the Blue Angels took them directly above our boat at anchor. We experienced the thrill and bone shaking noise and vibration of numerous overflights at low altitude by the F18s and the F22.[/FONT]
(click the image below to view the video)
[FONT="]
[/FONT]
