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January 16-17, 2010: The varnish project is now underway! The first coat of Epifanes high gloss varnish has been applied to the teak paneling around the large windows in the saloon. After much discussion and sole searching I have decided on the following buildup: 2 coats of high gloss traditional varnish then 2 coats of rubbed effect traditional varnish. Any areas which sand to the bare wood get one coat of high gloss traditional varnish thinned 50/50 prior to building up the remainder of the layers. 

September ??-??, 2009: The Cat Harbor cruise with Corsair YC was an eventful voyage to the backside of Catalina. This cruise is traditionally the same weekend as the "Pirate Festival" at Two Harbors and is always fun! The sail over on Friday evening was uneventful getting in just after dark and a wonderful lazy saturday was had by all. Sunday was a bit boisterous for the run home which took 9 hours from the mooring to anchored inside of the breakwater at King Harbor (we waited a couple of hours for the wind to die down prior to trying to get back into the slip). The maximum true wind was about 38knts near westend with 8 - 12 ft seas and 5 second period! The close reach home saw average true winds of 35knts and continued to have large seas on the beam. Other than a couple of significant deck leaks and a few leaking hatches the boat did very well. Not that I would go out of my way to find those conditions again!

September ??-??, 2009: Botany Bay visits the Long Beach YC with the West Coast YC for my first attempt at "Med Mooring" a 55' sailboat which does not like to back up in a straight line. We dropped the hook and backed in very nicely. Tom and I sailed down from King Harbor on Friday afternoon and we had a wonderful weekend enjoying the hospitality of the Long Beach YC. For the return voyage Tom, Emily, Chris, Dianne, and Cameron sailed back to King Harbor after a quick stop to pick up 140 gallons of diesel fuel (the single tank was down to about 10" of fuel, we measured the amount of fuel for each inch of fuel added and found that after getting away from the bottom of the tank, each inch of fuel is about 10 gallons, close to full tanks is about 28" of fuel). 

September ??-??, 2009: Another fun filled weekend at Emerald Bay with the Corsair YC for the "Commodore's Cruise".

May ??-??, 2009:  My first trip to Emerald Bay with the Oyster, getting onto a mooring is going to take a bit of time to get comfortable but with reasonable winds and current and the help of my fellow Corsair's we got onto the mooring without issue. In fact on Saturday we had an "open boat" party and something like 30 corsairs came to visit during the day. At about 3pm 14 of us went "day sailing" off the mooring and had a great time, Botany Bay did take a nibble out of Jauque when he pinched a finger in one of the rope stoppers but a good time was had by all. When we got back to the mooring it was blowing with a 12 knot cross wind and so many fenders went out an as we went by "Bandwagon" we discovered they had setup a used dingy lot complete with a "no reasonable offer refused sign"! Our trip home was uneventful. Roger of "S/V Jolly Rodger" which significantly improved getting the in mast furling mainsail in and out. 

April 15, 2009: Today I took possession of Oyster 55 #19 in San Diego, California. So ends the search over large portions of the planet looking for a somewhat larger vessel to call home. Since October of 2005 when I started actively searching for a new vessel I have visited many places, met many interesting people, and crawled through the bilges of many beautiful vessels all over the world. Now, the search is over and it is time to focus on getting her home. 

 April ??, 2009: Sea Trials for the Oyster! Bill and Emily were along for moral support. We had both very light winds and very heavy winds. I was pleasantly surprised with the light air performance and that the in mast furling system seems to work reasonably well in light air. The only unfortunate surprise was the gally sink drain will overflow when the vessel is healed significantly and the seacocks are frozen. Emily and the brokers were both trying to find a way to stop up the galley sinks. The engine seems to run well, the autopilot was definitely intermittent and will need some attention along with the rest of the electronics.

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Botany Bay's first time comming home to King Harbor!

Wow, she is a very beamy girl!