Freak Show/Venice

Two headed turtle

two headed snake

This guy swallowed the whole balloon

Venice Canal

Venice houses

Strange man on strange roller skates selling strange things

Windmill

Pasadena "Dinner in the Park"

Happy Thanksgiving every one!!!

The serving hands.

I was greeted in my car like I had just finished a triathlon by a huge

 group of people when I dropped off a few donations.  It was great.

 Goody bags for after the Dinner

 There was a table for each type of food such as desserts, warm food,

beverages, plates and stuff, breads, and meats.  Very well organized and plenty of help, 

the volunteer registration was "full."

 The guests trickling in.

 Face painting for the kids.

 Waiting for it all to begin.

 Family Volunteers were abundant.

 The guests waiting in line.

 Finally...dinner is served.

 Some with family, 

 some alone,

and some with their pets. 

They have done this for the last 30 years.  They plan for 5,000 homeless to come. 

 There was a lot of food.  Wonder if this was comparable to feeding the 5,000 

back in the day.

Happy Thanksgiving.

New Sails here at last.

New Main

So a few posts ago I mentioned new sails were being made.  For the non sailor readers there is going to be a bunch of boat jargon.  The main point is a bunch of work was done, a few problems solved and a few more that need to be addressed.

 Rolland working on rigging.

Well a month ago Rolland came into town with the sails and we went to work doing a bunch of stuff on the boat.  Rolland worked on standing rigging (the part that holds the mast up) and I redid the running rigging (the part that holds the sails up), even got new life lines.  That stuff took most of our time.  Also had the yard redo the bottom, we put a new zinc on too.  The sails were not quite all the way finished so did most of the finishing touches....enough to get it on and see what else needed adjusting.  Turns out this main sail is a tiny bit longer than the other one, so later I cut some of the top off but not enough to make it fit.  Turns out that over the  last few years running rigging inside the mast has been a bit tangled but have managed just having a little friction when raising the main.  But now it can't go ignored any longer.  Just too much slack.  Its one of the deals that could take one try to fix or days of putting the halyards in and out until it works right with potential to hire some one with tricks to get it right.

Chanty with new bottom paint.
(Had the water line removed since it always had growth on it.
 It was easier to fill it in that to move the water line up...cheaper too.)

I cut the top head sail off and put a larger one one under it .
(this was to shorten it a little)

Other boat stuff I have been doing is working on the motor.  I found that when you don't run the motor often, it gets plugged and overheats.  So, with a lot of phone calls to Rolland, I managed to find the blockage by taking one hose off at a time.  Also discovered how to do other things like change the zinc on the motor and the temperature sensor and a review on how to change the impeller.

New impeller 

Old motor zinc

This was where the blockage was (hoses are off)

Aside from that have just been finishing the sails, splicing and whipping few lines.  Also did a sand down and re-varnish job on the rudder and still working on the companionway.  Still have to do finishing touches on the storm sails.  The next big project is a sail pack, (a device that collects the main sail without the sail going all over the place, nice for in rough weather when you have to get it down quick.) 

My first splice

You can sort of see the blue tape on the areas being varnished.

Topanga State Park

Early  morning drive to Topanga Park doing some geocaching

Hardly on the trail and there was a deer.

Fire Ants

Eagle Rock (there was a geocache here)

View from Eagle Rock Ocean in the back

 Eagle Rock

Eagle Rock Sign

These pictures are from a few months ago.  I took the day and did some hiking and geocaching.  It was one of those hikes that you say I will just go on this trail and come back, but I just kept going and going and going, finding more and more caches.  I had no water left, was really thirsty and dehydrated and was getting really sunburn.  I came to an end of a trail to look for a geocache.  I passed by a house and there was a kid there about 9yr olds asked if I had a GPS in my hand I said yes and went on to my cache.  I found it came back toward the trail and the kid was still there with his younger siblings as if he was waiting for me.  He asked if I found what I was looking for.  I said I did.  Then he asked if I was a geocacher.  From there I ended up meeting his mom, getting a map of the trails around there, getting a nice long drink from the garden hose and then ventured with the kid to another nearby cache that I couldn't find...he had found it before. He was so happy that he could help and was chattering away about all the caches that they had found in the park.  I was happy for this encounter.  It was a good day. 

Don't Even Try It

I had to laugh when I saw these signs.  First because I am in shorts and my legs are unprotected from the rattle snakes.  Second because the next two signs add on an older sibling threat.  "Don't Even think about it."

dun dun dun...or else~

Wayfarer's Chapel

Happened to see this Chapel along my route to the sunken city.  I had read about this chapel before and was happily surprised to actually see this place.  Lots of weddings here. http://www.wayfarerschapel.org/

The Sunken City, San Pedro, CA.

http://www.uer.ca/locations/show.asp?locid=24548

Came here very early a few months ago to find a geocache  (I found it) Lots of very colorful graffiti but maybe not so appropriate for this blog.  Very cool place and lots of places to see in the area too.