San Francisco

Last weekend Jan & I hired a car and drove up to San Francisco for a short break away from Long Beach. We drove Highway 1 up thru Malibu and Big Sur then Highway 101 to Frisco staying in the Radisson Hotel 4 Miles North of the International Airport. Parking in the city is between $25-$28 a day even if you stay at a Hotel, so that is why we stayed outside the city as parking was free there. Being winter the sea fog was everywhere so the Golden Gate Bridge was hidden except for the day we drove over it, how lucky was that?. We walked up Lombard Street and drove down it (That’s the very steep twisty street!), went on a cable car, went to Haight Ashbury (Home of the Hippies of the 60’s and got the T shirt!) saw Alcatraz and San Quentin prison. We had a fantastic time driving 1161 Miles or 1861 Kilometres in the 5 days we had the car.

                                           Here is Jan at "Home" in Haight Ashbury

Tall Ship in the docks.

This is the famous Lombard Street we walked up!!

The cable car we went on.

We have managed to get a few jobs done on FiFi. We have bought the 130 Watt Solar panel and will install that soon.  The rear head hand pump was replaced with the spare one as there was a slight leak from the pump handle seal. The other night the fresh water decided to stop working, the pump pressure switch was diagnosed at fault and a new one soon got things back to normal. We have replaced the stern running light with a new LED one as suggested on the survey we had done, replaced the forward Red/Green globe with an LED one, replaced the saloon light globes with LED’s but kept normal globes on the side reading lights. Raymarine AIS type B has been installed and the mast rigging wire tensions adjusted.   

We are flying up to Canada on the 21^st returning on the 28^th, then we will stock up with supplies and head down South to San Diego so the next report will at last have details of how she sails !!

                May we wish all our readers a very Merry Christmas and all the best for 2011  

En route

So we are having a week off in San Francisco, to chill out
and have a look at somwhere other than Long Beach.
We were on highway 101 and the temptation to stop at Buellton was almost
too strong to resist. You might like to know that Buellton proudly
proclaims itself as "Home of Split-Pea soup". Tempting, huh?

Mike & Jans photos

Here's a link to some photos Mike took in Hollywood and Long Beach
And some that Jan took!
You will see one of the Queen Mary disappearing in sea fog - it was so bizarre and absolutely freezing, we'd gone for a bike ride, when we left it was bright sunshine then within seconds *whammo* sea fog rolls in, engulfing everything - visibility literally down to about 10 feet....but the QM looked great in a spooky way!

To see yourself as others see you

So, dear reader, here's what happened.
I'm on a laundry run, basket full of dirty clothes perched nicely on the little trolley Mike bought us from Costco.  I am halfway there when I realise I don't have enough quarters (like my American accent???) for the machines, so with a handful of coins adding up to 2 quarters (that's fifty cents to you) I start asking passers by if they could change them for me....I was a little upset and a lot offended when three people in a row completely ignored my polite request and was thinking "how rude", it meant I had to walk all the way back to the boat to see if Mike had any change (funny how he never wants to join in the laundry fun).
Anyway, when I eventually got back and told him what had happened, he suggested I go look in the mirror with my hand outstretched and trailing a cart behind me....ok, I suppose I did look a bit like a bag lady.....guess I've gone a little ferral :-)