Wednesday, October 06, 2004

RTT on the move!

October 22, Rikki-tikki-tavi will be on his way to San Francisco via the waterways instead of the roadways (as per the launch)! We¹ve scheduled a haulout for the week starting October 25 at Napa Marina, a facility that specializes in multihulls. We will be applying more CopperPoxy to Rikki¹s bottom and removing an unnecessary throughhull, moving another up a few inches, and whatever other tasks we are able to squeeze into Rikki¹s first time spent ³on the hard². We have reserved an end-tie on F Dock at Ballena Isle in Alameda for the month of November, and possibly December too. We ordered our sails from Jocelyn Nash at Quantum and they should arrive by the end of October. Rikki-tikki is crossing his claws in hopes that he¹ll be able to sail across San Francisco Bay after leaving Napa. Rikki-tikki-tavi is being very docile at his berth on the river (despite the wakes of powerboats), but we expect him to get his bottle-brushy tail in full splender out on The Bay. New MSD! We are going to replace our Lavac toilet with an Airhead composting unit. The idea of designing an itinerary based on the location of pumpout stations and of carrying 30 gallons of effluent in our bow (the weight!) spurred us to investigate the Airhead further. We¹d seen it at Sail Expo years ago when it was first introduced and liked the concept. Friends of Juniata, the sailboat Sarana, has had one for two years and the owners like it. We drove down to visit them in Sausalito when they arrived from Seattle and they explained the ins and outs of living with an Airhead. We promised Geoff Trott, the developer, we¹d replace the photo of our Lavac that is displayed on svrkki.net with one of the new Airhead. Reports of its success to follow. Progress! Our living space in the ³studio² at Mom¹s house is getting less cluttered- we may even find the bed soon! It is a very good thing that we spend each night aboard Rikki-tikki. Mom is being very accommodating and encouraging, ³Just put it up in my attic!² We are managing to discard major portions of our life histories. That part is quite difficult. Several large boxes of books have been donated to the Sacramento Public Library. Truckloads of items have been given to WEAVE and we held a garage sale too. Clark has made room in Mom¹s garage for his tools and shop, so he will be able to complete some projects over the next few months. We are designing the pulpit, pushpit, and hardtop support now. While we are in Alameda, we¹ll have the dodger canvas and sail cover built. The list is quite long, but we are making progress! Last Chance to Visit! We spend every evening aboard, so if you are looking for an enjoyable way to fritter away some time, do come by and see Rikki-tikki-tavi before he leaves the area! Our little dock is at 1977 Garden Highway. Please call first and don¹t come on a Monday night-- the house next door has big football parties and there is no parking! Looking Forward...We hope to see you aboard Rikki-tikki soon. Your friendship and support have been very welcome and greatly appreciated. Thank you! Happy trails, Clark and Nina s/v Rikki-tikki-tavi CC40 Trimaran

Thursday, August 12, 2004

RTT to Become Official Home

Sacramento River, CA This month it's official: Rikki-tikki-tavi will become Clark and Nina¹s true home. After selling their land home of twenty years within mere days of advertising its availability, they will hand over the keys to U Street¹s new owner on August 17. Rikki-tikki has been very patiently floating at his dock on the Sacramento River awaiting the day when he would be called into action. Still without the passive propulsion system known as "sails", Rikki-tikki-tavi remains a motor vessel. The Captain and First Mate have been communicating with numerous sailmakers in a quest to determine the best assortment and builder of said large expanses of Dacron. The final decision is yet to be made. We will remain in the Sacramento area for at least another month, setting up a living space in the ³studio² at the Rutgers Way location. Rikki-tikki also requires a few more installations to be ready for departure (like those aforementioned sails). August 18th is Clark¹s birthday, coincidentally, so we have a bit of celebrating to do­ two milestones! We hope everyone¹s summer has been enjoyable. Ours has certainly been eventful, if not downright hectic, and we look forward to years of more leisurely times ahead. The cruising life beckons. Plans are indefinite but we are working toward moving Rikki-tikki-tavi to the Bay Area sometime in September. We¹ll keep you posted. Please contact us via email at this address until we determine how to best handle Rikki-tikki's communications. Happy trails, Clark and Nina s/v Rikki-tikki-taviCC40 Trimaran

Friday, May 14, 2004

Update on launch

Hello from latitude 38 degrees 36.154 minutes north, longitude 121 degrees32.361 minutes west, Or... that the hint for the geocache saying Rikki rests north of Crawdad'sis in error? The section I am on runs west/east, which is why we all haveshade in the afternoon, so we are actually west of Crawdad's. (As far as I'mconcerned, the river runs to San Francisco Bay and that's all I care about.) Lots of commissioning left to do- mom and dad are hard at it. The nights onthe river are very peaceful and quiet so they are getting some rest. They goto the house every day to do more work there- the barn looks like a tornadotore through! And, wow, the grass is long, the yard dry- at least that'swhat they tell me. I am getting anxious to get going to the Bay. I hear the sailing is greatthere. I thought I was on my way (see photo) but here I am just bobbing inthe wakes of water skiers and sea-doos on the river. Clark and Nina assure me that I'll be getting sails soon and then I'll beready to fly. Did anyone get some cool photos of me last weekend and Monday that they canshare? Signed, s/v Rikki-tikki-tavi Marples CC40 Trimaran USCG No. 1155217

Wednesday, May 12, 2004

He is wet!

Dear RTT Stalwart Supporters, ... as Rikki slipped into the water a hush came over the stalwart onlookers,who had waited hours just for this moment. Everyone held a collective breathas his hulls slipped off the trailer into the green water of the river. Wasthe hush because Rikki-tikki had taken such a long time to get to thismoment, or was it because everyone was stunned into silence as hiswaterlines disappeared underwater?? That is the question. The answer is: Looks like we need more CopperPoxy!! Rest assured Rikki-tikki is fine and is floating where he should. Theintrepid builder, who having learned the hard lesson of "measure twice, cutonce" and "always double check everything three times", painted the lineusing the wrong reference point, which he should have double checked butdidn't - he took the waterline placement right off the line drawings insteadadding the required six more inches! The underwing-to-water clearance is right where it's supposed to be. Thistime I double checked. Besides embarassing myself sorely, I'm sorry if thiscaused you all such concern and perhaps made RTT's big event a little lessjovial at the moment of the splashdown. All is well with Rikki-tikki-tavi. Nina and I deeply appreciate your show ofsupport by being there with us. We hope to share more adventures with youall (hopefully less embarassing ones but we will be new trimariners so keepyour eyes open!). Rikki-tikki is resting quietly at this location, which is the first geocacheof our new life together: lat 38š 36.154"long 121š 32.361 (Hint: It is on the Sacramento River north of Crawdad's.) We have spent two nights on RTT and are extremely pleased with him. We havea mobile phone that we will plug in while at the dock, so if you want to gohunt for a geocache, please call to see if we are ready for visitors. We are real boat people now. Thanks again, Clark and Nina

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