Well Done!

From Merikay:

We had a good day as far as repairs go.  We stayed overnight at a small mobile home park Tuesday night. The place we were having our leveling jack replaced at, was quite near. That work was finished in a couple of hours and we went over to the Sacramento Truck Center for the replacement of our bell crank and the front brake drums, plus installation of SuperSteer motion control units which go in front of the air bags.  Big $$$.

STC has a comfortable driver's lounge with a nice TV and we were able to watch the last America's Cup race. Craig writes about that below.

They didn't finish the work on the Alfa this afternoon, so we're staying overnight in their parking lot.  It's OK because we  have an electrical hook up. We will be heading down to Zion as soon as they finish.  A good three day drive.

The rig is starting to smell wonderful because I'm baking a homemade chicken pot pie.   Looking forward to a yummy dinner!

From Craig:
Yes it was possible for a sports team to win a "first to 9" event after being down 8-1, and in fact Oracle Team USA did it! We watched the cup-presentation ceremony and everything, and the Kiwis were as gracious as runners-up as they have been throughout the regatta. Several speakers including the SF mayor murdered Spithill's name. We hope that both New Zealand and Oracle retain their interest in contending for the America's Cup in the future, and that future boats end up more like those used this year than like the smaller, slower, and less expensive AC45's.

We hope that Dean Barker recovers from this experience and continues to play a role in the international sailing community, as many AC guys have done as they've gotten older.

We would have been more neutral between Oracle and ETNZ if not for the sports-court decision to ban Oracle's sail-trimmer and penalize Oracle 2 races.  We heard both sides argued on public transit in our first weekend (SF is great for such things :-), and by our understanding the penalty exceeded the offense.

AC72s (while sailing) are among the most beautiful expressions of mankind's urge to engineer and design things. We sincerely hope that the reactionaries in the US, NZ, and elsewhere who call for "a return to proper single-hulled sailboats" will not prevail. They remind us of the Texas politicians who passed a bill/resolution to ban the teaching of critical thinking in their schools.

When we were young there was a saying that we've not heard much of recently: "American ingenuity". When was the last time you heard this phrase? Oracle's design team, who "worked all night every night" according to James Spithill, seem to embody these obsolete words. We assume the design team included a higher percentage of Americans than the sailing team.

We're drinking Skyy Vodka (one of ETNZ's sponsors) in tribute to both teams.

America's Cup: unbelievable

Tuesday September 24, 2013

[From Craig] We arrived in our favorite Sacramento Mobile home park, hooked up and settled down to watch the America's Cup racing today.  Oracle Team USA made its comeback complete with two victories over Emirates Team New Zealand.  "Comeback complete" means that the two teams are now equal in the scoring, including the two-race penalty that a sports court imposed on Oracle for something involving a small amount of weight added somewhere about two years ago.  We rode on a streetcar in SF two weeks ago with several Kiwis who were carrying on about how Russell Coutts (GM of Oracle) should be banned from all future sailing because of his role in this weight-shifting.  Which amazed us because Coutts is himself a Kiwi.

That's not important anymore.  However much weight was added where and when, and who should be banned from sailing, are for the moment blown away by the amazing comeback of Oracle USA.  We think they were down by 8-1 (8-3 in races) before they have gone on what may be the greatest comeback in sports history.  120 years of US baseball history can provide some comparable comebacks, but baseball has had 240 or so seasons to do it, compared to 34 America's Cups.

Please try to watch tomorrow's head-to-head race for the Cup.  It will happen about 1:15 PM Pacific Daylight Time, and will be broadcast live on NBC Sports (previously known as Versus), on youtube.com live outside the USA, and on youtube.com in the USA after an hour or two delay.

Try to watch!  Trust us, it's as good a sporting event as we may see in the rest of our lives.

From Merikay:   took this picture on Monday.  The distance between ORACLE and Fly Emirates as they passed by us was such that it was almost impossible to get them both into the same picture!  :`)

As someone who is not a sports fan, this series of races has been quite fun, and not just because it has been the USA that has come from behind.  Both teams have sailed spectacularly, and the boats are both things of beauty and engineering achievement.

May the best team win.  Whatever the outcome, it will be memorable.

FINAL Race for the cup is on Wednesday afternoon!  We will be watching.

America's Cup in SF

I am happy that from time to time Craig contributes to these pages. This is one of those times. His description of the America's Cup races is below.  I thought I'd write a bit about our days.

The weather in San Francisco can be very unpredictable. We experienced an absolutely perfect day on Saturday. Inland, the temperatures soared into triple digits, but in the city it was in the 70's with bright sunshine and a gentle onshore breeze. We have been here many times, and I don't think the weather has ever been this beautiful.

We were up early Saturday, I packed a lunch, and we were off on a 20 minute walk from our RV to the Larkspur Ferry dock. Neither of us had ever done this, but all went smoothly and we were delighted with the $4.75 senior fare rate. 

Senior Seating

On both days, the weekend crowd was large but very happy and friendly. I like to watch people, especially when they are having a good time.

Even the wake was neat

Ghandi reminded us we still had a way to go to get to the Race. 

The nice man at the RV Park desk had given me a map and advice about which trolley and bus to take. So although uncertain, we mingled with the huge crowds going many different places, and found our transportation just outside of the Ferry Building door.

Another bargain. Senior fare $0.75. 

The F line took us about half way, and then instead of boarding a bus, we decided to walk the remaining distance.  Some of our walk was along the tourist shop line street, and some was up a hill overlooking Fort Mason and the Bay.

As we made our way to the grandstand area, we saw many ships both out in the Bay and moored at the piers.

This was not an America's Cup competitor.

I was quite pleased with the seats we had. I expected bleachers, but these had backs and were reasonably comfortable.  A bit close, but comfortable.  We had an excellent view of the course, and we could see two large TV screens that broadcast the race in detail. 

We settled in, ate our lunch, enjoyed some warm-up smaller catamarans racing, and began watching for the Big Cats to appear.

Finally we saw them!

This is the New Zealand boat, far out, the gray rectangle in the corner is the Diamond Vision screen.

This how well we could see the  race from our seats. This image was taken with my little point and shoot camera, and only zoomed in and cropped a little. We think the big white boat in the background is one of Larry Ellison's personal yachts.

So now I'll turn over the story to Craig.

On Sept. 7-8 we went to see the America's Cup races in San Francisco Bay, and even spent money for grandstand seats. These give you a higher point of view for a cost of $2 per foot of elevation for the least expensive seats, the ones we bought. But the tickets cost less than those for the Rose Bowl parade or a World Series game, and way less than for a Super Bowl.

There were 2 races each day. From the USA point of view, they could be described as "3 learning experiences and then a victory". 

It was clear from the start that the two boats were pretty equal. In the first race each day, Oracle Team USA was ahead at one point, but better sailing by Emirates Team New Zealand allowed them to come back and win the race.  In Saturday's second race, Team USA's boat may have had a small problem with the mainsail (more properly "main wing") but the team may have let it get to be a bigger problem in their heads, and they weren't very competitive.

The way the competition was set up, Emirates Team NZ has raced against challengers from other countries, while Oracle Team USA only got to race their two boats against each other. Probably Team NZ was better prepared, but experience is now more even.

Sunday Team USA was competitive all day. They won both starts, which is very important in races that only take half an hour. The last race Sunday they led from start to finish, but at times by only a few feet. It was the closest race we've seen in 20+ years of watching America's Cup racing. About the time I was about to faint, the US boat won by a boat length or 4.  Wow!

Fog caused some problems for the network helicopters Sunday, and may be even thicker on Tuesday. This pic is courtesy of the SJ Mercury News:

We keep Checking things off!

Although throughout this process of getting the house ready for the market, Craig has been resistant to having a "to do" list, we finally have a working one that we have been listing things and checking things off. We wrote it together one day, and have been adding to it as we think of things that need to be done. I must admit the additions seem to outstrip the check offs at this point, but I feel the tide will turn soon.

In addition to a bit of repair work, Craig checked off "box and ship his books" and "pennies." Pennies? For forty-six years Craig has tossed his pennies into a cup on top of his dresser each day. When the cup got full they were transferred to a large container in the back of our closet. One container, two containers, five containers have moved with us and gathered dust over the years. Since they are a bit heavy, they can't go with us in the Alfa. I hauled out the containers several weeks ago and we both rolled pennies. I know we could have taken them to a coin sorting machine, but Craig wanted to roll them.

He took them to the bank on Friday. All 231 rolls. Grand total $115.50. I'm sure glad we have other retirement savings!





The books? It took him most of Thursday to pack them into nineteen 1.5 cubic foot boxes. Each weighed slightly less than 40 pounds. 

He sent them via Media mail so the postage cost wasn't too bad. It was a little less than $350 for all. Craig is happy they are going to someone who wants them. I'm wondering what his nephew's wife is going to say when those all those boxes are delivered.

This week is going to be very busy. We met with the realtor again this afternoon, are having the carpeting put in tomorrow, having a septic system inspection on Wednesday, and a termite inspection on Friday. Plus we will be doing as many smaller jobs as we can. 

If all goes well, we plan on taking a day off Thursday and going up to San Francisco to see an America's cup race. Sweden, New Zealand, and Italy are vying for the challenger position. The boats this time around are huge catamarans. I hope we can get a good view of them from the land. We are not sailors, but we have always had an interest in the America's Cup. We have seen the boats in San Diego and Auckland, and are looking forward to seeing them in San Francisco.

UPDATE: Thursday's race has only 1 boat in it! We don't know when we'll go!

A day away from all this work will be very welcome!

Although the house is not yet "on the market" we did sign a listing agreement today. A very important part of the marketing strategy is getting photographs done and doing a virtual tour for the web listing. By signing the listing agreement we are getting the ball rolling in that direction. Our goal is to have the house ready before we leave on our trip August 10th. If it is not, we may delay, but I think we can do it!