Paradise Cove

This turned out to be a great little spot for an overnight on the backside of the Tiburon peninsula in Marin County. Left Sausalito in patchy fog at about 10AM on Friday morning and were settled in at Paradise Cove within an hour. We anchored in about 20 feet of water just to the North of the fishing pier at Paradise Park. Went for a row along the shore, with lots of harbor seals keeping me company.
As expected, there are some amazing homes along the shore here- most looking unoccupied. Saw a few boats fishing the area in the afternoon, but otherwise had the anchorage to ourselves. The bottom is mud/clay (with a robust population of tubeworms). Our Rocna anchor hooked up quickly and stayed that way through a few tidal cycles. Like China Camp the current can run pretty quick through here so you have to use a little horsepower to set your anchor well. Also like China Camp, you have to allow some time to wash all the muck off your chain and anchor when leaving. I did find that the mud here seemed to be less "sticky" and a little easier to wash off than the stuff further north along the Marin shore. Seems well protected from the West to South West. I think anything from the North or East would blow it out here, and make for a very uncomfortable stay. Conditions for our overnight stay were very nice, with light winds, mild temps, and moderate currents. Super relaxing spot and very close to home. Definitely plan on going back again.

One significant issue as far as comfort at this anchorage is the fact that the North bay Ferry traffic lanes running to SF run parallel to the shore here, and not very far off the anchorage. The big rollers that come in are as predictable as the ferry schedule, but if you aren't watching for them, they could reassemble the interior furnishings of your boat. We knew this going in, and chose this spot intentionally to test out our stabilizing rig. We have large commercial style downriggers that can rigged with Paravanes for stabilization when underway (more on this setup later), or with "flopper stoppers" at anchor.  I built the flopper stoppers from scratch using some old aluminum frames and semi truck mud flaps:

The flaps basically act as one-way valves when the boat rolls. When the boat rolls "down" they open and sink. When the boat rolls "up" they close and resist the upward motion. When they are hung on both sides of the boat they work in tandem, providing a strong opposing force to the roll of the boat. The long outriggers that they are rigged from provide a big "lever" and increase their effectiveness. The result is a big dampening effect that transforms the roll from waves or swells into a relatively gentle up and down motion. Here's a video from our trip (big wakes compliments of the Vallejo and Larkspur ferries):

Under the Bridge

Another beautiful Winter weekend here, so we decided to go check out the local landmark around the corner from our home berth in Sausalito. While not technically offshore , we did get out into some open water outside the Golden Gate to get a feel for how the boat behaves in a swell. Pretty mild day out there, but a good first look at the Pacific for Kama Hele. Did some Man Overboard Drills on the way back in (throw something overboard, turn the boat around, manuever alongside to pick it up). Sue is just learning to drive this boat and did very well.

From Building to Cruising

Welcome to our new cruising blog. This will be the story of our adventures aboard Kama Hele, our custom, home-built steel cruising boat. We began construction in July of 2009 with the delivery of about 50,000 lbs of steel to a small outdoor build site at the old Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, CA. Romeros Welding built the bare hull, with my wife and I doing a lot of fabrication to provide Romero's with a steady supply of parts for this first phase of construction. Many of the parts for the boat were sourced from shipyards and the marine surplus market. My wife and I did just about everything else, from propulsion to plumbing to electrical. We launched Kama Hele in September of 2012 with most mechanical systems operational, and a few years of interior fit-out ahead of us. We moved aboard about one month after launch and did the remaining fit-out work while living aboard full time. The whole story of the build from vessel design to where we are now can be found here:

buildingkoloa.blogspot.com

Our original name for the boat was to be Koloa (which is a type of hawaiian duck) and when we decided on Kama Hele instead (Hawaiian for "Traveller") it didnt make much sense to change the blog name that we had already established.

Last year we reached the point where the interior was mostly done, and we have recently started cruising around locally and anchoring out around the SF bay Area in order to shake things out a bit and see what needs tweaking. At this point Kama Hele is fully functional as a coastal cruising boat and we are working towards getting her outfitted for blue water cruising. As we shift from boat builders back to boat cruisers, this seems like a good time to start a cruising blog, so here it is.

We'll be posting pics of our shake down cruises, experience with on-board equipment and gear, and anything else that seems relevant to cruising on this blog. I'll continue to post the more technical boat building stuff at buildingkoloa.blogspot.com.