Summer into Fall

Hey all.  We're still alive!  Living and working in Santa Cruz, CA.  Here's a quick summary:  When Bhodi came back from Lynx, he jumped into the season with the SRV Derek M. Baylis in Monterey, as relief captain.  My summer was spent trying to do research with equipment that always seemed to be breaking down.  But little by little, things got accomplished.  On days when I wasn't gnashing my teeth on campus and Bhodi was not sailing in Monterey, we both taught sailing at Pacific Yachting here in Santa Cruz and at Modern Sailing Academy in Sausalito.  During this time we also brought a new member to the family, a little white furball we named "Aloha."  This was one of the first shots managed to get of her, back when she couldn't even fit in her collar.  These days she's bigger than Foxy, and been busy keeping her older sister company when we are out of the house.

Another fun activity that occupied our summer was Geocaching, a type of GPS treasure hunt.  The second and third shots on this post are of one long day when we found eleven caches hidden on the coast between our apartment and Wilder Ranch State Park.  Our day cumulated in the finding of the Holy Grail cache, which Bhodi spent 15 minutes searching for amidst the fallen limestone ceiling blocks in this sea cave.  Our good friend and sailing buddy, Anthony, had also joined us in the hunt, and on several occasions came up with cache when it alluded both Bhodi and myself.  

A view from the coastal highway (Hwy 1), on another day of geocaching between Waddell Beach and Davenport.  We live in such as beautiful place... 

For my birthday, we went to Great America theme park in San Jose.  With school just

 starting back up, the park was pretty empty and we just coasted through the lines.  It had been a while since I had to a theme park and there was some pretty good rides for how small the park was..  One of the memorable moments was on the Spongebob show/ride.  It was a combination 3D show and moving car ride.  Well, it was pretty obvious as soon as the ride started that our car should have been labelled as out of order.  Only one hydraulic was working, which meant that we spent the majority of the time hanging on at a 60 degree angle, trying to not be pitched off!  I was laughing most of the time. 

Also in August, our long time traveling companion, Campbell the little white pickup, finally bit it.  That truck had taken me across the country 5 times, so I was sad to see it go.  We ended up donating it, so hopefully it will see some more use.  We ended up getting an Isuzu Rodeo to replace it.  Its a great car, though not very friendly on the wallet with the gas milage, but its very convenient in hauling around all our new windsurfing equipment.  Yep, windsurfing....

A friend of ours very generously asked if we wanted to empty his garage of all his old equipment and we jumped on the opportunity.

  As of today, we have been out three times.  The winter is not the best time to pick up the sport, since the wind is pretty inconsistent this time of year, and the first couple of times there was barely enough wind to hold us out of the water.  But the third time we went out was on the tail of a strong storm system and there was more than enough wind to be had.  We chose a spot a little away from the kitesurfers and struggled for over three hours with wind and sail and water to try to move.  At long last, I was able to stand up with a water start and sail for fifty yards or so before falling off.  Not long after, Bhodi also sailed a small distance.  We left the water utterly

 exhausted, but satisfied that we made progress.  I've been watching the forecasts for another storm system, but its been quiet for more than a week now.  

Since the winter season has slowed down sailing instruction, I have been back up at school.  Bhodi spent October on the Baylis as mate during their great white shark tagging season at the Farallones and November on the Seaward, preparing the ship for her three month long Mexico voyage, which he will be joining them on as mate/relief captain.  When the ship returns to San Francisco next year, he will be their full-

time captain through the tall ships challenge and into the spring season.   If I can get my work done, I'm scheduled to graduate in June, after which we'll move our little family to Sausalito.  And then, if all goes to plan, we will be married on the Seaward during the San Francisco Festival of Sail in late July.   Its a lot to happen in the next eight months, Ill try to keep the updates coming on how its shaping up.  Hope happiness is where you are! 

Windows

On Lynx:
Sailing to Catalina Island from San Pedro for an overnight anchor out. (February 10 &11).































Transiting from Morro Bay to Monterey (March 28, 29, &30).















Gaff walking to free the wrapped ensign



































In Monterey (March 31 - April 9):

Most welcome visitors:

Anthony furling the fore topsail

Dad at the helm and firing the carronades

On Rendezvous:

Delivery from Santa Cruz to Oxnard (March 20, 21 &22).

Kim on dolphin watch






































Once again in Morro Bay - Justin and Kim

Rendezvous at the fuel dock

A 3 month post

Since my last post, three months have passed and the winter quarter at UCSC has come and gone. Bhodi has been continuing to sail on Lynx up and down the California coast and with the Lynx in Monterey Bay, has taken three days off to come home. Looking back I have only taken around 12 pictures covering this time. So, in so many words and not so many pictures, here's been the last 3 months of life on land...

I came back to Santa Cruz from dropping Bhodi off on the Lynx just before New Years. I wasn't feeling too sociable with my squeeze gone, so I just walked downtown and here and there, celebrating the change of year with a beer at the local dive bar, Brady's Yacht Club, just down the street. Winter quarter started up a couple of days later. I only had one class, Great Papers in Earth Science. The rest of the time was given over to TAing the Natural History of Dinosaurs and a little research. Being a teaching assistant was great, my first experience teaching academia. I had about 90 students in three, hour and a half long classes. Being there and interacting was the fun part, the grading was not, especially since most of the students were non science majors. But, very enlightening all together. Still waiting to get my teaching evaluations back to hear what the students really thought of me. I also prepped for research, deciding on the composition I wanted to depict a early solar system planet mantle, then grinding the rock and doing XRF analysis to determine extact composition. Starting to get down to crunch time on research. I need to get rolling this spring so I can finish by the end of summer. Everything which seems so simple takes so long when so many parties are involved and the coordinator (me) is not quite sure.. well, about anything. :) Ce la vie.
In a semi related school subject, I also took up recreational leading again, in the REC department of UCSC. It was nice tap dancing to go through the paperwork that would have me approved to hold two jobs for the university. But I'm glad it worked out. So far, I've lead a weekend trip to Mercey Hot Springs, a night time wine tasting, and a day trip to Monterey Bay Aquarium. The pictures on this post are from the Mercey trip (where the hot water is piped to outdoor clawfoot tubs!). The rec departments are quite different between Boone and Santa Cruz, but I appreciate being apart of that type of community again, of outdoor leaders.
Outdoor pursuits this quarter were some cold water surfing, continual sailing on Surge III, and climbing. Oh yeah, I just remembered I took up a position at the climbing gym as a kid belayer... don't know if I mentioned that in the last post or not, since I started in December. Mostly on weekends, it hooked me up with the very rad staff of Pacific Edge and I started getting up early on Tuesdays to climb in the gym when it was empty except for the crew. In early Feb., I took a trip down to visit Bhodi and the Lynx gang, for Christopher's 40th b-day and a nice sail to Catalina and back. Some great shots from that which may appear in Bhodi's blog eventually.
I received word from the Coast Guard in late Feb that I was finally approved to test for my Captain's license!!! Books were cracked, plots were laid and on March 19th and 20th, I came, I sat, and I kicked its ass! As soon as the damn license gets here, I'll be Captain Erin Doak, 100 ton inland master, 200 ton near coastal mate, sail endorsed, at your service. Whew. All smiles.
At the end of the quarter, I caught the bus to the Lynx in Morro Bay to get my fix of Bhodi and wooden ships. We were delayed in departing for Monterey due to a really nice gale, but when we did get out there we had some decent sailing in 15 kt winds. I also got to lead my first official watch, which ran very smoothly. Thanks C watch!
What else.... not much. School, sailing, and lovin'. Oh yeah!!! Speaking of lovin', I know we have been leaving everyone in the dark about our wedding plans. Sorry about that. We decided to postpone a year, until I get out of school and we are a little more solid financially. So, wait until next April or so for a summer wedding in '08.

Cheers,
Erin

The time in between - Part 2 (Activities and Kitties)

Besides all the main events, there was also recreation. In Fall I didn't get much chance to go surfing, as the swells were absent most of the time and when they were up, the crowds were too. So, computer games and netflix were nice refuges. The cat provided endless hours of entertainment as well, though not always pleasant. Despite our best attempts to train her, she keeps jumping up on the counters, desks, window ledges, etc. I have lost four glasses to her game of "knock everything off the counter." She is also learning to open cabinets to paw at her food containers... its a match of patience and I think she is winning. Good thing she is cute or she would have been eaten back in July.

But I did get out surfing some in December. Yes, its very cold, but the water is cold all year round so it doesn't make much difference. I finally convinced Bhodi one day to come down and take a few shots of me on a wave. You might look at that and say that's pretty small, but that's ok, I'm still a beginner.
















Besides surfing, a favorite past time is climbing. Bhodi and Iboth have memberships for the gym that is two blocks from our apartment, and tried to go as often as we could encourage ourselves to. We also worked there alot during the last month, pulling small kids up the walls, when I was out of school for break and the sailing season was slow for Bhodi.
















To bring it up to date, as of today, Jan 3, Bhodi is on the Schooner Lynx as Chief Mate under Christopher Trandell as captain. He is very excited about it, the sailing, the boat, the position, and working with Christopher again. We drove down together (hoping to take the 1 but turned inland due to gale force winds) just after Christmas and I stayed a few days but left before New Years. They are in San Pedro now and after doing several loops to ports in the San Diego/LA area, they will transit up to Morro Bay, Monterey, Half Moon Bay, and then SF before the end of April. Personally I'm really happy and excited for him, but of course will miss my bedwarmer... he's in the same state though... and overall, I miss sailing with him. In the future however, there's a lot to look forward to.








For Christmas, we had a quiet one at home. And since we didn't want to get a tree, we used one of the cat's neglected toys to light up and put presents under. Of course, this means she was suddenly interested in it again... But we lit candles and listened to songs, Bhodi cooked dinner and all the good stuff of our first personal Christmas together. Hope you all had a good one and that I bump into you in the near future.

Cheers, Erin

The time in between (the Bay and beyond)

Good evening and happy new years!

Lagging time between posts seems to be a trend and this time instead if excuses, I'm just going to ask for acceptance since it won't likely change in the future.

We last left off with starting school and Bhodi working for Pacific Yachting and Sailing with both of us moving into a new apartment. What happened in the months of October, November, and December were lots of reading of scientific papers at school and Bhodi alternating between Santa Cruz and San Francisco, where he acted as relief Captain and Mate on the schooner Seaward. The shots on the left are from one of the Seaward's overnight trips to the Farallones.


As for my schooling, like I said, it was a lot of reading and discussing tactics with my advisor on how to approach the problem set before us. In a quick summary, what we are working on is the physical and chemical effect of tidal unloading (not ocean tides, but planet sized gravity tides) on hot compressed rock deep in the interior when planets pass each other in a near miss "collision." The effects of this can be tremendous, as the pressure is released the world could turn into an explosive volcano, or not, thats what we are testing. This isn't related to today, but to answer questions of how planets and metorites were formed long ago. Starting this winter is when the experiments will begin...


Bhodi and I celebrated Halloween by sitting out on the sidewalk in front of our apartment, watching Lost Boys and handing out candy.

For Thanksgiving, Mom and two of my aunts came for a week long visit. During which we all went into the city and to my first visit to Alcatraz. Very cool, highly recommend spending a lot of time there to see all the exhibits. As it was, we only got to do the main tour before catching the ferry back. Thanksgiving is definately one of my most favorite holidays, and I won;t kid ya, its for the food. My mom cooks a mean Thanksgiving meal and it was a very welcome change from the sailor's/grad student's diet of spagetti and pizza. Thanks Mom and Aunts!



















































Some more beautiful shots of San Francisco from the Seaward.

711 Seabright

So while Erin was away on her "Field Trip" to Yosemite...

















I got us all moved into our new apartment on Seabright Avenue.


















I can't say enought about how much we love this new place.











A nice roomy Living room for enjoying movies on a quiet evening, or for entertaining houseguests.



















Kitchen large enough for the two of us to cook in together.

















Our new King-Sized Bed..

Immagine me moving this into our up-stairs apartment alone..









Scary Huh?

Domestic Life on Land.

Yikes!

That's okay.. Living in Santa Cruz allows us a nice base for Erin to continue walking the path of Geology, for both of us to get lots of great sailing in on Monterrey Bay and SF Bay, and for both of us to get lots of time in at Pacific Edge, (one of the finest Climbing Gyms in the country), right down the street.





On that note... I'm going to get some climbing in right now.. So.. Untill next time:

Fair Winds, Following Seas, and many rum-filled evenings of Sea Stories.