Wow it is 2014! Where did 2013 go? Just last year we sold our Caliber 28′ Tara and bought what we feel will be our “forever” boat ” Prism our Hans Christian 33t!!! WE LOVE THIS BOAT AND THE LIFE WE LIVE!
Photo Credit: Geoff Bryne
Bay Bridge at Sunrise
Coming back in under the Golden Gate just after sunset
On a sad note…. The kitty we had rescued back in November Gypsy decided that the boat life was not for her. She made her escape in the middle of the night, and I never saw it coming. That cat was terrified of the out side. She never got sea sick when we went out sailing, she just stayed up in her corner until she needed to eat, drink or use the potty. At night she was making the big jump up onto our bed, cuddling and sleeping at my feet. The night she “jumped ship” I fell asleep to her purring right next to me. We had left one port light open in the galley, and when we woke in the morning we could see the claw marks in the varnish as she must of done an inverted climb out the port light. We searched every dock and boat for the next 2 days, let the microchip people know that she was missing and even put her littler box out on the dock ( they say that if the cat is new to the area then they can pick up their sent from the box and find their way back).. we had no luck. 🙁 So we are holding off to rescue another kitty till we are done with the big projects we have planned coming up… all the sanding of the varnish, hauling out, sanding bottom, pulling engine, pulling head etc. all that noise would just be terrifying for a new kitty…. until then we are cat free. 🙁
She is missed 🙁
Mom and Tess came to visit and hang for a weekend, we had a complete girl day out in the city, We took the BART over in the morning, which was Debbie’s and Tess’s first time. We walked all around SF stopping to have lunch at amazing pizza place and then getting our nails down and even got our palms read for fun.
Mom and Tess enjoying Lunch
Girls Day
shopping and watching the veterans day parade
We are keeping busy in the bay. Between the raft-ups, crabbing, San Francisco trips, Holidays , Jon traveling for work and me back at work, I feel like we have had almost no time to work on Prism. but if I take a step back and look…. Jon has been working on her like crazy between jobs, alone, while I am at work. Bless his heart!
We got sick of scarping all the growth off our dinghy so we painted it with some ablative paint and it looks so cute now!
our Dinghy with new bottom paint
We had looked into getting our winches re-chrome platted, but when we found out how much it was going to cost us, (over $2000) we opted to just have them DE- Chromed. Jon said it was quite the adventure to find this place in downtown Oakland. But once he got there the gentlemen (Also Named Jon) who helped him was very nice. Johnson Plating Company took all 8 of our winches and put them into an acid eating boiling steaming hellish looking thing, Prim Jon then says to Chrome Jon ” They will just be bronze when it’s done right?” Chrome Jon then takes out one of the winches that are almost done with the first process and says “here, this is what they will look like” as he hands Prism Jon a bright pink rough winch. I wish I could have been there to see Prism Jon’s face as he stood there shocked thinking ” oh hell what have I done, I really don’t want pink winches on my boat!” I think the Chrome Jon saw the panic in Jon’s face and scrubbed the pink winch with a scotch bright pad to reveal a nice bronze color. The natural skin color soon then returned to Prism Jon’s face and all was right with the world again.
While the winches were off becoming all pretty again Jon serviced all the working parts of all 8 winches. Then it was on to the very large job of scraping all the brown CeTol off our beautiful teak. I don’t think we realized really how much bright work this boat had till we were aching and bitching about our back after 3 days of all day scraping, and we are STILL NOT DONE! We do however only have half of the port side cap rail left to do. It never ends. While all the varnish is off we are re-calking all the seams that needed to be done; which includes the seams in the cockpit, all hatches, and even around the hand rails ( which seem to be leaking… now we can’t have that!)
33feet has never looked so long!
Jon hard at work
my set up for scraping so we don’t have to turn the boat around, and the dinghy doubles as a catch all for the varnish scrapings
hand rails: check, caprail: check, hatches: check.. crap there is still the eyebrows!
no leaky hatches on this boat
sunrise view through the galley portlight
We have been to more raft-ups with Prism and I went to one by car. For that one Jon was out of town for work, and our friend Pete was back in town for another layover. So I picked him up and we went out for a day of sailing, crabbing, then watched the boat parade and fire works over in Sausalito, It was Pete’s first time sailing under the golden gate bridge. I think he had the best lay over out of the whole crew.
xmas lights and the bay bridge
Even the dinghies raft up
Dungies! Photo Credit: Geoff Byrne
Getting the traps ready Photo Credit: Geoff Byrne
Teaching the youngins how to crack crab without loosing a finger Photo Credit: Geoff Bryne
Photo Credit: Geoff Bryne
Looking down at the raft-up during sunrise as I leave for work
Petes First time Under the Golden Gate
The holidays were just wonderful for Jon and I. We did not do much for Halloween, but did make up our faces for the day of the dead which was a lot of fun! We went back to Jon’s home town of Shaver Lake to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas. There is NO snow up there, we are wishing that the east coast would send some of their wet cold weather this way! We did not even get to go Skiing over the holiday 🙁 On Christmas day we opened gifts at the Neely home then drove to Cambria to spend some time with my side of the family. It was so great to see everyone and spend a few days relaxing. The central coast of California did however have AMAZING weather it was 70 degrees and clear skies. We spent 4 days in shorts, having bonfires at night while playing huge games of liars dice. We all went for a walk along the ranch in Cambria and watched what seemed to be over 50 whales make their way south. Then it was back to the boat and spend New Years in the city with my best friend and her boyfriend. Just a simple night with dinner at home and a walk down to the water front to watch the fireworks with the bay bridge as a back drop.
My bestie and I on Dia De Los Muertos
Jon did his face too!
Mini Golf after the feast of Thanksgiving dinner
Leaving the boat, one load of just presents
Out caroling to the neighbors for the Neely Family Christmas Party
The Family Card
I think Jon and I should try next year to get a tree on Prism
Out to lunch in San Simeon
great game of Liars Dice
Out for NYE with Friends Katie and Xavi
Happy New Year! HELLO 2014!!!
Boat feet + High Heels = These shoes are coming off!
Now the holidays are over and it back to full time work. Jon flew off to Park City Utah today to do an episode of Motion… lucky guy gets to go skiing!! I’s here soaking up the sun in the bay, working 8-5 and I have some small projects to work on while Jon is gone. The down side to that is the sun sets at 5 ish so I don’t have any day light to work by and I do not like working in the dark, but I’ll have to get used to it…we are really missing the long days that the pacific north west was giving us last summer.
We hope to have Prism all put back together soon so we can go play some more, but with the haul out coming up, I have a feeling she will be “docked” for the next 2 months. 🙁
Amazing sunset view from Berkeley Marina, This picture was taken with my Iphone
