Aboard Astraea

The happy Astraea family in the cockpit

I’ll continue the story as we’re sailing back to Pier 32 Marina. I saw a very familiar destroyer heading out the channel, USS Momsen, my last ship. I called them on the VHF radio to wish them a safe voyage home after deployment.

See you later Momsen!

When Mom and Dad came to visit they wanted to hang out with us and help with boat projects. Free labor is not a problem with me, so I gladly put them to work putting plugs in the window trim and stripping varnish.

Mom and Koku supervising Dad at work. Kind of like PennDOT.

They got all the plugs installed in the window trim, sanded down and stripped all the varnish from the entire cockpit. It’s amazing how good Astraea looks with those projects completed. Now all I need to do is bleach the stripped wood and put down fresh varnish.

Don’t think that all we did was work on boat projects! There was still plenty of time for baby cuddling and Grandson loving!

Sullivan helped me with my wiring projects by keeping track of my tools

Three generations in the cockpit

Sullivan showed us how tall he’s getting

And took some really good naps

While Pappy was getting a backache working on the boat

And the best medicine for that is Sullivan time with Pappy and Nana Kraft

Natalie and Sullivan relaxing in the salon

My parents, Mary and Lynn, came to visit us in San Diego. Since they arrived around lunch time, we headed out to our favorite local Mexican food place, Los Panchos, in National City for some carne asada burritos. That afternoon we got Astraea secured for sea and underway, bound for Point Loma Marina. Mom and Dad got to do plenty of spoiling Sullivan all day.

Sailing in company with Coconutz to Point Loma Marina

Quality Father/Son time is spent in the cockpit Aboard Astraea

Sullivan and Nana Kraft

We arrived that evening and I found out that the engine driven compressor wasn’t working anymore. I need to troubleshoot the system to find the problem. I hope all I need to do is replace the refrigerant.

Koku and Mom in the cockpit

On the 4th Dad and I put up the dress ship flags. We also hooked up to shore power to keep our food cold because the engine compressor wasn’t working. That afternoon we hosted a 4th of July BBQ and had friends from Coconutz, Una Vida and Wind Watcher aboard. I also had a few Navy friends, Chris and Clay, over too.

Dressed up for the 4th of July next to our megayacht neigbors in a 100 foot slip

We ended up with 15 people aboard the boat, so I had to get a picture.

The fireworks were anticlimactic. We saw the entire show that was scheduled to shoot from the Shelter Island barge go off in 20 seconds. The show was splendid and I thought, “Wow they really do fireworks right in San Diego.” What I didn’t know was that there was a computer malfunction that caused all the fireworks to go off at once.