It Is My Monkey and It Is My Circus Now

Bazinga packed and ready to go at San Diego Yacth Club

I am a now a proud boat owner but not quite the owner of a California road legal trailer. Been quite the last 2 days here and phase 1 of project Hawaii is definitely accomplished. I own an Hawaii boat!

The title of this post comes from a colleague of mine at work. She works in the regulatory department and I work in quality assurance and so we often get calls from our colleagues in operations groups to help them sort out some sort of mess. My colleague in regulatory often say it is not her monkey and not her circus. As I was packing the boat up to drive it back to the bay area that saying came to my mind and I had to change it because it is most definitely my monkey and my circus now. Phase 1 of acquiring a boat is completed. Now I move on to phase 2 which is to figure out how to sail the boat proficiently enough to get myself and any crew who join me safely to Hawaii on her.

After my last post I got a decent night’s sleep. Since we didn’t have to be at the bank until 9am and the bank was a 2 min drive from our hotel I had a very leisurely morning. We checked out of the hotel and headed over to the bank a few minutes before 9am and met the sellers. We exchanged some pleasantries and went on it to notarize the sales documents. I handed them the check and headed to the DMV with an agreement that I would meet them at the Yacht Club when I was done. A big “when” there because I had no idea how it would go.

Registering a Boat in California

After messing up the navigation and then circling the parking lot a couple times I got into the line at the DMV. It wasn’t too bad a line but it also wasn’t moving very fast either. Apparently the receptionist also double as the person who manages and administers all the testing and was the general front desk person for the whole place. Not only that there was a priority line for people with appointments. Eventually I go to the front of that line and was handed a bunch of forms to complete and a number. I proceeded to fill in the forms while trying to balance it all on my knee in a very crowded noisy waiting area. Had to make a couple phone calls to get some details on the boat that the forms required and managed to more or less somewhat but mostly not complete the forms before my number was called.

Luckily the guy at the booth humored me while I explained my situation as best I could and impatiently but understandingly explained how to complete the forms. After much going back and forth and consulting with his colleagues about what to put in various fields in his computer we made progress. The boat part of the transactions was relatively simple and he presented me a bill for state sales tax that was due. It was not a small number and was a bit unexpected. Luckily, I had anticipated some unexpected and had my checkbook ready to write a check to the CA DMV. I was handed tags for the boat and a registration certificate.

Now on to the trailer. Since the trailer had not ever been registered in California they wanted to do a VIN verification on it. That involved bringing the trailer to the DMV for them to look at it. It also involved more lines as well in addition to the complication of getting the boat there. I explained my situation and apparently the DMV has a contingency plan for dealing with my situation. I could bring it to a DMV at a later date for the inspection and would have to do that before I could get a license plate and tags for the trailer. And I need those in order to operate the trailer on public roads. Great I thought, but there had to be a catch and sure enough there was. I was given a one day permit to move the boat from point A to point B. I agreed to this immediately because it got me out of the DMV on a Friday morning and made it legal for me to drive the trailer back to San Francisco. I figured I would deal with the ramifications of this later since it got me moving the right direction because the alternative would not have been good. So, I was given a piece of paper and instructed to sign and complete it on the day I moved the trailer from point A to point B. I didn’t bother getting into the point that this move may take place over more than one day - again things were moving in the right direction and I wasn’t going to mess that up. So I was handed a form that gave me permission to move the trailer.

Once I get the mental energy back up to deal with the DMV some more I will figure out my next step. I feel like I probably want to take care of this sooner rather than later but the fact that the trailer is now stored in a private marina I don’t actually need registration for it until I go back on public roads. On the trip up here I “forgot” to sign the form too so there is that. Done (both literally and figuratively) with the DMV I headed back to the marina. It was just before noon at this point.

“Dropping” the Mast and Packing the Boat

I got back to the marina as the sellers were finishing up re-wiring some new lights for the trailer. After a bit of futzing around and checking connections we got them working. The Sylvinator didn’t get anything for breakfast and was grousing about being hungry. They were also stressing out about meeting people and what they were going to do all day. We saw what looked like a promising Chinese food place so almost as soon as we arrived at the boat I sent her to go get some lunch for us all. The seller’s friend who helped with the survey the day before was also there helping out. So as we finished up the wiring and going through all the bins of stuff for the boat lunch arrived and we all had a good break because the next step was to go up on the boat and “drop” the mast. Te seller’s friend, Mark Butler, who is a professional rigger kept correcting us that we don’t drop the mast, we lower it. I think that correction made certain that for the rest of the day whenever he was around we talked particularly louder for him to hear about “dropping” the mast. It was a hot sunny day with no shade on top of the boat so a bit of humor was helpful.

The Sylvinator came up on the boat for a while to help out and after a while asked if they could go down. I agreed since it was a job that only infrequently required a third set of hands. So Steve and I, mostly Steve worked slowly and methodically through the afternoon de-rigging the boat and lowering the mast. As this is something that is not frequently done it was a relearning for Steve and a learning for me. It was slow and methodical going with several fits and starts. Steve is used to doing this by himself so I had to gently nudge him to let me be more involved but also wanted to get it done so somewhat let him do his thing while paying rapt attention to the while process. It was at this point that I came up with the title for this post as at some point (I want to do it as soon as possible) I have to figure out how to re-rig the boat and get everything up and in place. I fully expect it is going to take several tries for me to get it right. In the meantime, I am thinking about all the things I should do while the mast is down before putting it back up.

As we got to the final steps we were both quite tired but managed to power through and get it done. Finally we got the mast lashed down, lifted a couple bins up to put in the cabin, loaded up a couple sails that wouldn’t fit in the truck, tidied up, locked the cabin and came down the ladder for the final time. I finally came down and made a beeline for the restrooms as 5 hours on top of a boat in the sun had caught up with my bladder. We used the tug (John Deere garden tractor) to move the boat into the roadway and hooked up the truck to it. I got the Sylvinator to do the directing and they did a great job of getting me lined up. Hitch on and ready to go, ooops, except for one thing - the hatch on the back of the truck wouldn’t close as the ladder at the front of the trailer was too close. Unhitch, pull forward, close hatch, back-up to the hitch and re-hitch. As I slowly made my way out of the yard things were going okay. I then stopped and there was a loud noise and a second later a pronounced shove from the trailer. Yes, Steve had mentioned that the trailer brakes were take off the hubs so that was the surge part of the hitch engaging but since there were no brakes it just moved forward until it couldn’t anymore and then because of momentum gave the truck a good shove. Okay, that was really uncomfortable but we were going to have just deal with it.

After the day’s activity I desperately wanted to relax and have dinner and a drink with the sellers but the concerns of getting the boat “home” and being still in an OCD level of focus on that I was anxious to get on the road. It was well after 5pm when we finally pulled out.

Driving a 33ft boat that stands 11ft high on a trailer

Bazinga on its trailer behind the truck.

I pulled out the yacht club and onto public streetslike a boss. I mean literally, like I owned the road. I was straddling lanes, driving down the wrong side of the street, blocking traffic, you name it. The small streets around the yacht club somewhat required it. The truck bucked and heaved going over bumps and the brake shove was menacing. I wanted to stop and check everything out before I got on the freeway but the momentum of it all got away from me and before I knew it I was hurtling North on I-5. It felt like hurtling but everything on the freeway was passing me. I was doing 45 in the right lane for the first 10 minutes before I got the nerve to bring my speed up to 55. The truck was doing well. Despite my exhaustion I was a set of nerves very much alert and on a knife edge of alertness. After about 30 minutes it started to feel okay-ish as we edged Northward out through the suburbs of San Diego. After the first hour I noticed that the miles weren’t clicking by quite like they usually do when I drive. I also noticed that my navigation app on my phone was recalculating my arrival time and extending it exponentially each time as it readjusted and calibrated to this slower pace.

My McGyvered dust cap made from a coffee cup and zip ties.

I decided to stop in Irvine to fuel up and check things out. The Jellobear came to meet us at the gas station and check out the boat. While we fuelled up the truck I scarfed down some leftover Chinese food from lunch and checked the trailer and boat. Everything looked good except for a missing dust cap on the bearing of one of the wheels. Oh no, panic - what do I do now at 8pm on a Friday evening! A bit of thinking about it and I concluded that the name of the missing bit was indicative of its criticality and I was pretty sure that disaster would not ensue due to a missing dust cap. I then proceeded to think about how to replace its function and after scrounging in the garbage bin nearby had a coffee cup that was approximately the same diameter as the hub. I got a knife out and cut it to size. It fit perfectly if a little loose. I sent the Sylvinator up on the boat to get some duct tape and some zip-ties that I knew were somewhere in the cock pit. They found them and I proceeded to zip tie my coffee cup on as snug as I could onto the hub. I was pretty sure that this repair would not work but I figured why not and we headed out.

The boat sits on its keel and so in my rear-view mirror all I see is the keel and the supports of the trailer. It is a bit strange as my rear vision is only slightly impaired but it is strange to think that above what I am seeing is the hull of the boat. I soon got used to this sensation and regularly peered up on my side mirrors to somehow reassure myself that the boat was still there. We made our way through LA and decided to avoid the Central Valley and in particular the mountain pass that is the Grapevine and instead to take 101. It is a bit further but involves less traffic and less climbing of steep long hills. So as we went through LA we made a left and headed out on 101 to Santa Barbara. I was getting used to the feeling of the boat behind the truck and the sensation of it being there. I kept my eyes peeled for what was going on in traffic knowing that I wanted to avoid any and all sudden maneuvers. I cursed people who had no idea what a merge was as they lazily pulled beside me on a merge lane expecting me to do something and then at the last minute panicking as they realized that there was 33ft of boat behind me and I was not going to do anything to get them out of the situation they had put themselves in. They figured it out and I continued on my way unwavering doing 55 in the right lane.

At about 1am I got tired and pulled over for about 2 hours. I then drove for a couple more hours before pulling over again for a nap, we stopped for fuel somewhere in there as well. To be honest, the night was a bit of a blur. I was glad we made the choice to drive 101 as there was very little traffic and only a couple short hills to climb. The Sylvinator fitfully slept most of the night while I drove on. A final fuel and bathroom stop in Gilroy after the sun came up and we rolled into the Bay Area.

Traffic was light as we drove up the East Bay and made our way to Richmond where the boat is going to be stored. By this time I was in the groove of the boat and the truck dancing down the freeway and had edged my speed up to about 60 when the conditions were good. As we approached the marina I stopped at a hardware store to get a lock for ladder which was lashed on to the trailer and made our way to the marina.

Luckily there was no one in the parking spots in front of my designated spot for the trailer so I was able to use lots of space to maneuver the trailer into its spot. Again, the Sylvinator was a great help getting me into the spot. It took a bunch of cuts and a lot of thinking on my part about how to maneuver a trailer in reverse. We got it all set and disconnected from the hitch. I took one look around the boat and decided I did not want the stern as close to the fence as it was and wanted to pull the whole thing forward about 5 inches. After fiddling with the jockey wheel for a bit I decided that reconnecting and just moving it would be easier so we reconnected, I moved it forward 5 inches and we re-disconnected. A final look around the boat to check everything looked good and a picture of it in its spot and we headed out. I would have loved to start working on things but the exhaustion of the previous 24 hours was fast catching up with me.

Bazinga parked in her new home

I dropped the Sylvinator off in Berkeley. They were not interested in doing anything so I just took off. I was hungry and noticed a burger place nearby. It was a Nations Giant Hamburger and I recalled a colleague at work recommending them. I had a really good burger there before heading home. Unfortunately, traffic in the early afternoon was a bit worse than in the morning when we had come up but I got home fine. It was nice to have the truck without the trailer and able to move through traffic as I am used to doing. I got home and managed to unload all the bins from the truck making several loads. I now have a pile of bins of sailing stuff in my entrance way. I will have to make my way through them and mentally catalogue their contents. I managed to have a drink, relax, grab a shower and then collapse for a sleep for a couple hours.

End of phase 1 of this adventure.