September 21, 2004
Half Moon Bay, CA (N 37o 29' W 122o 18')
We departed Redwood City this morning after a hectic week of projects and parties. Our good friend, Sharon, is making the trip to Santa Barbara with us. We were supposed to have an additional crew from Redwood City to Half Moon Bay, but she chose to watch the boat leave her on the dock rather then risk seeing a leatherback sea turtle and several whales with us. (Yes Darla, we saw whales!) We sailed a short time, the wind being light most of the day, and at one point diverted a few miles to investigate an airplane which was circling repeatedly. At first we thought they were looking at whales, then we fantasized that they were spotting tuna for a fishing boat in the area. When we arrived under the circling plane we still couldn't figure out what all the hubbub was about until finally Sharon noticed a small head poking out of the water a half mile away. It was a leatherback sea turtle.
Our time in Redwood City was made far more convenient thanks to Patrick Lawrence who was nice enough to loan us a car! Without it we wouldn't have been able to complete half of what we accomplished while in town. Thanks Patrick!
The project list included sealing the chain plates (which leaked during our Pt. Arena boat wash), fixing the whisker pole (which broke on the trip down the coast), and replacing all the hoses on the toilet. All this along with the normal chores of doing six loads of laundry and shopping. The toilet project turned out to be the most exciting. All of the hoses involved are made out of flexible plastic hose which has a stiff plastic rib embedded in it. The hose is easy to cut to length, easy that is except for the stiff plastic rib. The tool I chose for cutting the hose was a brand new razor knife. Knowing my history with knives I was sure to remind myself that the knife is very sharp and dangerous every time I used it. As a matter of fact, I was doing this very thing while I made the last of six cuts to complete the project. Unfortunately I must not have been listening because as the knife jumped through the stiff plastic rib it passed through the knuckle of my left index finger leaving a rather large cut. After a few preliminary phone calls to clinics in the area (we no longer have our Kaiser health insurance) we jumped in the car (with Linda driving and John applying direct pressure) to find someplace to stitch up the wound.
Our first try was a clinic in Palo Alto. One look at the bloody gauze pad and the woman behind the desk said they don't do that kind of sewing at the P.A. clinic. She suggested we go to Valley Medical Center in San Jose "because it's cheap." So we drove off down the road and after three hours in the waiting room I was stitched up good as new. The only problem being that I had to convince the doctor to put in five stitches. He was going to stop at three.
Finally we got down to the wire on Monday. We had returned Patrick's car and were putting away all the last minute items we had purchased when Linda noticed that her fanny pack was nowhere to be found. She had left it in Patrick's car. A quick call to Patrick and we arranged to have him drop it off before our departure. Patrick saves the day again!
Anyway, we're on our way toward Mexico. Linda and Sharon are sharing the watch duties and I'm on 24 hour standby. Tomorrow we're going to Morro Bay, which will involve being out overnight. We expect to be in late Thursday afternoon.
John, Linda and Sharon
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