Monday, April 11, 2011

The Little Engine that Did!

April 9th, 2011


The little engine that could, that couldn’t, that finally DID!!!


Or: “How to splash a boat – Mexican style!!!”

Executive Officer Tom writes:

“First let me set the scene. When Caprice was moved onto the hard last January she was pulled out of the water on an ancient rail system using a very old engine to turn the gears which moved the boat up to the dry land. As soon as Caprice was in the correct position, the engine, which had seen its best days years ago, died a tortured death in a burst of sparks and blue smoke!!!

Before we left Caprice in that dusty old Mexican boat yard, junk yard dogs and all, to come home in February, we watched the poor little dead engine be pulled from its home and placed in the back of pickup to be carted off to the place that little dead engines go to.

Now let us spring forward to the present and yes there is a shiny new engine or what appears to be a shiny new engine, or the same old engine with a fresh coat of paint… we think, all of the above are possible! Whichever it is, the little engine is ready to lower us into the water. “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can” she is heard sputtering, but something seems amiss as the engine is started and then shut off only to be started yet again and then turned off again. Again and again, we hear: “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can” followed by “I just can’t!”

Feeling disconcerted and sorry for the little engine that can’t, we see a man with a big wrench approach the scene of the crime so to speak. Alas, beating it doesn’t work, so out comes the blow torch… but still the little engine sputters and stops.

The engine is started again when all of a sudden a cable snaps and Caprice lurches at least a foot towards the water! We snap to attention, forgetting how sorry we are feeling for the little engine and throw our support towards Caprice! It seems that the boat was kept from rolling back into the water by a cable that was attached to a large cement foundation and that very cable has just snapped! Fortunately, a chain is the back up for the cable, so it grabs and Caprice halts her backward motion!

It is becoming clear that perhaps after all the effort that Dan has put into getting Caprice into the water today, our dear Caprice is still going to be “on the hard” when the sun sets! And this is Saturday when Abel and his team only work half a day and the time is now 1:00pm! But hooray, some workers are still around and new cables are threaded into the innards of the rail system and at 3:00pm Caprice starts to inch her down to the water, finely floating free a short time later! And the cheer went out: Hallelujah!”

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About Me

1291 Sanderling Island, Pt. Richmond, CA 94801, United States
Dan and Carol Seifers

Crazy

Crazy Caprice, or what

Like is so good to us. At 65, after 15 years of retirement, my wife, Carol and I have everything one could want Good health (for old folks), loving children ( one son and his wife Jenny is marvelous), wonderful grandchildren (one age 6 and one age 4, who have a remarkable ability to totally exhaust us in about 4 - 6 hours), a good home. Wonderful friends. What more could one want?

Then we were casually cruising in the Delta ( area between Sacramento and San Francisco) last summer with the Richmond Yacht Club Cruising Group. Life was serene, life was comfortable, and then it happened - WHAM - we saw a cruising catamaran tied up at the Rio Vista marina with a sign in the window which listed its adventures. Starting in Australia, across to New Zealand, up to Tahiti, over to Hawaii and on the the West Coast. What an adventure!!! That’s when Carol started thinking about the possibility of buying a new boat (we already had a Gemini 34’ cruising catamaran - life was good). Then sailing in Sydney basin for a few months, then either shipping it to California or sailing it across the South Pacific to California. Is she CRAZY?

That started our CRAZY file.

Over the next few months, she started feeding me articles about Australia, New Zealand, and multihulls. She even subscribed to Multihull magazine and would place various articles about sailing in the South Pacific under my nose while I was reading the morning paper.
She became obcessed. A devil (Tasmanian?) had her. Then around Christmas time, the bug really bit me. We were perfectly happy with our boat, but the idea of getting a new one (with all the new toys) and visiting “down under” seemed very appealling. A friend loaned me all his books on New Zealand and Australia, and the more read, the more I becaume enthralled with the idea