Building Excitement for the "Bon Voyage"!

(Dazed and hungry, I'm taking a break  to post some photos and notes of the last week!

https://picasaweb.google.com/103461058936929561161/BuildingExcitementForBonVoyage#

Contents!

Big fun at big party! 

Final projects

Voyage possibilities

Final Friday Get Together at Berkeley Marina!

We're getting ready for the upcoming departure from our Berkeley home-away-from-home, on our way to LA, Mexico and Beyond! Everyone is excited, trying to take time to finish our work here on the Libertatia, as well as enjoy the brilliant spring and our kind friends in the Bay Area! The weather has been perfect and we are all in good spirits for our upcoming trip to Los Angeles.

Big Fun at Big Party!

Thanks to everyone who came out to our big Party at Berkeley Marina! We could not believe the amazing people and great food who all came out. One big moment was at sunset where we had an estimated 80 people on board the libertatia! I was amazed. Special thanks to Cree Partridge for making the special arrangements possible for this special event. Also, thanks to everyone who rafted up and espeically 'Bama (Kurt) for holding down the party and making lunch starting at 10:30 am (!yeah!). 

Cree cooks out on the docks.

Emmett is excited!

Final Projects to get ready!

The Mackies take over the Libertatia

Crystal splicing new double braid halyards in the sun; a tough puzzle. 

We are all working hard to knock out the critical projects left and make final arrangements for food and other necessities. Joining us to sail for a while is Alden Mackie, a childhood friend of Emmett's and good sailor. We were lucky enough to party with the Mackie Clan and Grandma Jean recently as well as have Kimo Mackie accompany us on a sail to consider new suggestions for optimizing sail trim.

Among other projects, this week we installed new batteries, installed the rebuilt windlass, improved the running rigging and are installing a new compass.

James repaints the name on the Bow with awesome style!

Mary helps us out again!

Alden and Lowell install the rebuilt windlass

Anthony simulates temporary sea madness in
the rigging after helping us for just a single afternoon.  

We are parceling and serving our rigging with a traditional
serving mallet. The idea is to protect the metal wire rope
from rusting with oil. It's pretty crazy; you whip a roll of string around the
 rope and it creates a tight protective covering that soaks up oil
and resists the salty ocean. 

Voyage Possibilities

We're going to be taking off for the Channel Islands and will likely stay in LA for a week or so. Weather permitting we'll be on our way to San Diego and then Baja to enjoy summer and wait for a window in the hurricane season to move on to Central America. Our larger plans seek to put us in South America early next year, but we want to go where the opportunities for fun group projects and unique connections or opportunities to help people out! Stay in touch with us if you have unique ideas for connections or cool places to go!

Final Friday Fun at BMC

We're shoving off this weekend and throwing a last get together on Friday at 7. Please stop by! We'd love to see you one last time. I love california and we're all sad to go but excited to see the world!

check the photos from this week!
https://picasaweb.google.com/103461058936929561161/BuildingExcitementForBonVoyage#