:: Trying to keep track of it all... ::

:: 11.27.2002 ::

Ventura Public Library Part II

Well we're off to Hawaii in a couple of days.
We bought almost a thousand dollars worth of food and provisions yesterday, the life rafts have been inspected, the rigger came by to give us an A-OK, and the sailmaker should be by today or tomorrow to drop off our new storm sails.
The weather looks good for this weekend, so we'll probably head out on Friday or Saturday.
If all goes well (of course it will) we should arrive in Hawaii in about 12 - 16 days. Its approx 2000 nautical miles, which is about 2600 land miles. So look for another update about mid-december. Or if the Satellite phone on the boat cooperates then we might also be able to send out an update mid crossing.

We went out sailing, here off the coast of California and let me tell you Aliza is one big heavy boat. She's 55 feet long, 15 feet wide and all steel with a 14000 lb. keel. The total weight of the whole boat is about 65000 pounds. Thats more than thirty tons!
The boats that Tabitha and I are used to sailing around Boston are 25 feet long and weigh 4000 pounds. Needless to say it will take a little more practice to figure out the handling on this beast. The boat is engineered like an icebreaker or something. You could easily sail this thing to Antarctica and back! Its a bit warmer in Hawaii though so I think we'll give Antarctica a pass this time around. :-) She's not pretty, but she is solid. Its kind of funny to see the contrast of Aliza to the other boats in the Marina. All the pretty shiny fiberglass show boats and daysailers that are washed and waxed daily by their owners, and then this giant steel hulk. Its kind-a funny. We're definitely bringing down their property values.
What all the over-engineering and weight is good for is that she's really stable in a heavy rolling sea, and it would take a storm of catastrophic proportions to knock her down. She's a little careworn, having already traversed half of the planet, but she certainly is solid. And she's pretty comfy down below. Although we're still getting used to the fully gimballed stove and the pump flush toilets.

OK, thats enough for now, If I get the chance I'll post some pictures in a few weeks. Had an absolutely gorgeous sunset last night.

Wish us luck!

:: Zachary 1:12:45 PM [+] ::
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Greetings from the Ventura Public Library

Well here we are in loverly California.
I gotta say we are really grooving on this weather. 75-80 and sunny during the day and low 50's at night.
And every day is a peach!

We got to L.A. on Wednesday and spent some time doing all that tourist crap. Hollywood, Venice Beach, etc. etc. etc. We stayed in Santa Monica which was nice, and we had a rental truck to toodle around in, which we quickly figured out, is exactly how the Los Angelino's get around. So when in Rome blah blah blah. The driving was easy and the roads are very well marked. Those of you in the Boston area will appreciate this. :-)
We drove up to Ventura on Friday and stayed at a (don't laugh) Vagabond Inn with the other hobo's. Just kidding, there weren't really any hobo's but there was a freight train. Right behind the Inn. All night...
Anyway... we got to the boat, and are nestled in our little cabin now, so all is well. The boat looks like it dropped into the marina from outer space.
Remember in the movie Apollo 13, at the end when they fish the guys out of the capsule in the ocean? The boat looks kinda like that capsule.
It's mostly cosmetic though. It *has* been sitting in the marina here for over a year, so we gotta cut it a little slack. We're going to spend a week or so cleaning off the bird poop, and washing the windows and then we'll be ready for a test sail. The marina is nice, although we are close to a bunch of strawberry and lemon farms (I guess this is where they come from, who knew!!) and at night they spray some kind of liquified cow manure or something, and if you happen to be downwind youre in big trouble. Olfactorily I mean...

O.K. anyway enuff for now. We gotta go check the times for Harry Potter, and Tabitha wants to say howdy.

Cheers!
Zachary


Howdy all,
For those of you who have never been to southern California, like myself, it is truly an alien landscape -- dry and dusty with huge desert mountains right on the ocean. If they didn't water everything it would definitely be a barren wasteland. People put houses in the most precarious places, no wonder they worry about earthquakes! Anyway I think I'm finally getting used to the strange-ness of it! The marina in Ventura is really cool. There are a lot of people who live on their boats year- round with their kids, dogs, cats, etc.-- a life I could get used to.
Will write more soon.

Ciao for now,
Tabitha

:: Zachary 12:16:08 PM [+] ::
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Welcome packet

This was the email that I sent out to the people I manually subscribed to our email journal.
Since those emails are going to be posted here as well as sent out, I figured I'd out this here as well.

Dear family and friends,
Welcome to Zachary and Tabitha's big adventure!

You've been subscribed by us (Z. and T.) to our trip email-update mailing list.
We hope to be able to send out the occasional email to let everybody know where on this planet we happen to be and how we're doing.

To unsubscribe from this list (why would you want to do that?!) just send a blank email to:
ahoy-unsubscribe@dieselmachine.com

If you regret your decision to unsubscribe (of course you do) you can re-subscribe by sending a blank email to:
ahoy-subscribe@dieselmachine.com

This journal is also available on the web if you cant handle reading email.
You can get to it here: http://www.bigblackvan.com
This web journal is a little flakey though, and some of the email updates might not get posted.

If you want to get in touch with Zachary or Tabitha you can send them a message at: tabandzach@dieselmachine.com
No guarantee on response time as we are out in the middle of the Pacific somewhere.
And please send text only. No graphics, no HTML and leave out anything not necessary to the email i.e. signature files, etc. etc. We'll be connecting via a satellite uplink which is *very* slow and *very* expensive.

Thanks and happy sailing!

:: Zachary 8:16:43 PM [+] ::
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Uh... Cat not sick

Vet did a raft of tests on Mr. K (the K is for Kat. No laughing..). But came up with nothing. Well they came up with $250 bucks of our poor earned cash, but other than that I guess he's alright.
He's probably losing weight just from being more active or something.
Whatever...
Now the tricky part is trying to get reimbursed by the little fleabag and not ending up with a handful of half eviscerated voles.
ick...

:: Zachary 7:18:53 PM [+] ::
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catsick

A week before we leave.
Cat looks like he's losing weight.
Cat to vet, vet say maybe sick. Must do test. Wont know 'till Friday.
Great...
So now what the hell do we do? Where do we leave the cat for 6 months if he's potentially sick?
Mom's in Boston? Leave him here on the Cape?
Dammit. Perfect timing too. We're leaving next Wednesday, (Nov 13th.) and wont be back for a long, long while.
Nothing like a little extra last minute stress. Whee...

:: Zachary 7:58:38 PM [+] ::
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Sleeping late

Been sleeping 'till like 9 or 10 o'clock lately.
Really screw up your day. Especially with daylight savings time.
By the time I'm up the day is already half over, and then by 3:30 PM its friggin' dark!
I suppose I could get up earlier, but I'd rather just complain about stupid daylight savings time.
What a dumb antiquated idea. We'll just chalk that one up there right next to the stupid Massachusetts law that says you cant buy alcohol on Sundays. Unless of course you live near NH. All the Mass. liquor stores up there are allowed to be open so they can compete with the NH State Liquor store. Albeit with limited hours. Everybody else in the state is screwed. Massachusetts has some dumb laws.

:: Zachary 6:58:15 AM [+] ::
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Getting our crap together

For this trip we basically need to put our lives on hold for 6 months.
That means paying up health insurance, student loans, etc. etc. etc.
You dont realize how much crap you take care of on a week to week basis. When you try to project ahead you end up with a huge list of crap.
So, we made a list and we've just been knocking them off one by one.

Here's some info on just what the hell we're doing.
Well the abridged version anyway. This only covers the trip up till leaving for Hawaii.

First we're flying to California. We're going to hang out in Santa Monica/LA for a couple of days and play tourist.
Then we're gonna go to the Marina in Ventura where the boat (S/V Aliza) is.
Here are some pics of the boat
We'll get our stuff onboard, get situated, meet the other crew and hopefully make ourselves comfortable.
We'll spend a couple of days getting the boat outfitted, and then we'll see how we function as a group by sailing around the Channel islands for a week or so. This will also give us a chance to see how the boats systems work, and get comfortable with the ship.

We'll probably spend another couple of days back at the Marina, checking the systems and watching for a weather window. When we have a nice couple of days coming up, we'll saddle up and head for Hawaii.

2000 nautical miles...
Thats about 2600 regular miles.
Its gonna be interesting.

:: Zachary 7:39:45 AM [+] ::
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