Adventures

Makeup Party

We went over to Adam’s house for a makeup party. We decided that I would do Stephanie’s makeup and that she would do mine. I chose to make her look like an egyptian, she chose to make me a two face.

One side of the face has “normal” makeup and the other has “fancy” makeup.

We did this at Adam’s house with Andrew, Jeremy B, and a couple of people I hadn’t met before. I had a really nice alcohol free diet ginger beer, but I added a little bit of vodka. Adam also made a drink with lavender syrup. Adam also served really nice cheese, it was a goat cheese with garlic and herbs.

May 5, 2013 0

Shezan, Castro, and Shoreline Lake

After horseback riding Steph and I went straight to Shezan. Castro street at the time had an art fair going on. While we waited for our food at Shezan to be ready we went down the street and looked at some really amazing art. I got something for Nana, and possibly will get something there tomorrow for Dad. After about 20 min we went back to Shezan and got our food, which we took down to Shoreline lake to eat. The lake was really pretty, and I was hoping to see some goslings but no such luck.

May 4, 2013 0

Horseback Riding

We had an extra lesson of horseback riding today. The weather was a little warm for horseback riding, and my allergies have been giving me tons of problems. Once we got going and my adrenaline got up the allergies seemed to go away nicely, but they game back as soon as I stopped riding. Today I also got to ride Belle, a Belgian draft horse. She is really big, and I look kinda small on her.

Belle was really responsive to directions of where to go, but not so responsive on how quickly to go there. She also took really wide turns, and didn’t seemed bothered by me being there at all. It was kinda strange being on a horse as big as Belle, since I’m used to it mattering where I put my weight. With Belle, she didn’t really notice too much.

You can see how wide I have my legs splayed over Belle, she is incredibly wide.

Steph and I didn’t get to ride at the same time, but we still got to have a lot of fun. It was interesting to see her ride and watch Carla teach her. They do a lot more precision steering that I have been doing.

May 4, 2013 0

We were on a really nice ship today. It was the first time it had been taken out for a class. The ship was really nice to handle and had roller furling in the main sail in addition to the jib. the name of the boat was Cat’ 350 because it was a Catalina 350. Not very creative, but certainly clear. This is one of the ships that I’d like to take out cruising. We did some parking drills today, and Steph is certainly the best at it. I’m getting pretty good at points of sail, taking, and jibing. I really enjoy learning from Steve, but it is sad he won’t be able to teach us the last class and give us the test. Steph and I are going to try sailing around Shoreline Lake next weekend to practice the points of sail and parking. I wonder if the dock hands will be annoyed by us trying to practice parking. We did lots of man overboard drills. Steph lost her hat and we were able to do a man overboard drill to go pick it up, which was pretty impressive.

Also, we saw a baby sea otter!!!! it was sooooo cute!!!!

Class Link

The boat is not yet on the site.

April 28, 2013 0

Intermediate Coast Cruising Day 1

We got up at 8am to head over to Santa Cruz for the first half of a class on Intermediate Coastal Cruising from Pacific Yachting and Sailing aboard the Pacific Spirit. Our instructor was an old salty guy named Steve, and I really liked him. The instruction was very precise, he made sure everyone did every part of what was needed. He also gave us some really great pointers for a weekend trip from Santa Cruz to Monterey. He said that it is good to Monterey around 11, and that calling a week or so in advance to get a slip is a good plan. If you call in advance you can see where you are going to need to go in the harbor and not have to randomly sail around looking for the slip number. He had us plot a course for Monterey on one of the nautical charts they have as part of the class, which was rather nice. For coming back from Monterey it is good to get going by 10, and motor for the first hour out to where you can pick up the winds that are coming around the point. The winds there start picking up around 10:30 and it is good to have the whole morning to head back to Santa Cruz.

During the first half of the day we just talked about navigation and did some quick chart exercises. Afterwards we got lunch at the local minimart. After lunch we did one parking exercise each, and took the ship out onto the bay. Once we got underway it was a little much, and we did some heaving to exercises, during which we took in a reef of the main. We then did some precision sailing in figure 8’s around two ships at anchorage near the Santa Cruz Pier. We went out by the 1-mile buoy, did a “tactical jibe,” which is also known as the “chicken jibe.” This is a maneuver where you do a 270 degree tak, instead of trying a jibe in heavy winds. There was a ship that passed us near the 1-mile buoy that had a really pretty spinnaker out, as well as a kevlar main sail. I really enjoyed Steve as an instructor. We were joined by a woman named Ashley.

Class Site

Ship Images

April 27, 2013 0

Jullian’s Millbrae Manor Party

I had a good time at the party. Jullian invited us over, along with Nick, Brian, and Candice. We got in the hot tub there and had around 12 people in one of the smallest hot tubs i’ve seen. It was still fun. Nick got in with us, but not Candice or Brian.

We played a game called Contact where someone things of a word. Other people then try to guess the word. The thinker then gives the first letter of the word to the group. People as pointed questions so that others in the group besides the thinker will know of something that fits the letter that the thinker won’t get. The thinker just has to know an answer to the question, even if it isn’t the one that the other person is thinking of. a good example of this is if the letters are CA and someone asks, “Is it in bananas” the thinker can respond “It is not carbon” even if the other person was thinking of calcium. When the thinker can’t think of an answer he says “challenge” and the person must answer what the word he was thinking of was along with at least one other person in the group, who had previously said “contact” to indicate that they knew what the question poser was talking about.

April 27, 2013 0

After Diving

After diving 8 of us went to a restaurant called Hula’s (Yelp). They had something called ‘Mac ‘n’ Cheese ‘n’ Cheese’ which of course Stephanie and I had to get. We also shared a Tofu Taco. Since we had already eaten lots of bonali we didn’t need to get too much to eat at the restaurant. I think it is a good plan that I at least should continue, by eating beforehand on something healthier and tasty, then getting something small and healthy at the restaurant itself. To drink I got a Mai Tai, which was a little too sweet for me, but not bad.

After that we went to Otter Bay, a company that makes custom wetsuit parts. Stephanie decided to get a custom hood made that is thicker and a set of cat ears. The cat ears are red on the front and purple on the back.

We then went to a BBQ with some of the dive community from Diver Dan’s. I saw Jim, Tommy, Aaron, and some others that I should remember their names but don’t. Aaron was a great host and we had some really tasty things. There was something called a pink greyhond that was a tasty drink, and a lot of really nice foodstuffs.

April 21, 2013 0

Monterey Express Diving

Stephanie was nice enough to drive to Monterey at 6am to make it to the Monterey Express at 7:30. We made it there a little early and ran across a few really strong fog banks on the way.

When we got out on the boat we saw a pod of dolphins and went to follow them for a few minutes before making it out to the dive site. We decided to stay inside the bay since it was a little rough as soon as we got outside the bay. There was also a really intimidating fog bank that was at the edge of the bay. Our first dive was at Hopkins Deep. The visibility wasn’t very good, at about 8 feet, and the temperature was about 48F. The second site was much nicer at about 15 feet, but it was still not a good day. We saw a big blue rockfish at Nacho, a dive site just off outer McAbee that is a single pinacle that shoots up. There were a lot of sunstars and metridiums. At Nacho we saw a nice school of fish that was a dozen or so fish a foot and a half long.