September 24, 2010

Carol and I spent most of the week taking a short holiday in and around Elk on the the Northern California coast. It was a beautiful trip, but didn't do much to move Circadian along. On our way back through San Francisco, we did manage to visit Clark Beek of the Salar 40 Condesa. Condesa is the only other Salar 40 I know of on the west coast of the U.S. I believe there is one other in British Columbia, but that's it for the west coast of North America. Clark sailed Condesa around the world between 1999 and 2008, so it was a privilege to be able to get to know and learn from someone with a sister ship who's "done it." He's written some 10 articles for Sail magazine about his adventures (including being run down by a container ship), and has a great Web site about his circumnavigation (http://www.condesa.org/). Thanks, Clark! On our way back to Sacramento, we stopped to check on Circadian and have lunch. While there, I removed the saloon table so I could bring it back to the shop to remove and refurbish the unique two-way hidden hinges that let it fold up neatly. After 35 years, they had corroded and gummed up with varnish to the point where attempting to fold up the table resulted only in damage. Even in the shop I had to use my whole bag of tricks to remove the screws and get the hinges out of their recesses. I'll be soaking them in paint remover, vinegar and all sorts of caustic nasty stuff to try to get things freed up. Then, lubricants and rust-preventatives. Of course I will also need to repair the table edges and refinish the surfaces where my earlier ham-handed attempts to fold the table gouged out chunks of teak. In the meantime, here are few photos from our holiday....