CRUISING TO VICTORY!
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Campaigning can be just plain/pure fun…and risky as hell! Yesterday was a case in point when we took the campaign onto the San Francisco Bay itself. We have been planning this cruise for months with Rich Kerbavaz, my ear doctor for over 25 years...and one of my favorite people to be with. We were concerned it would be freezing…especially when the weather reports earlier in the week were predicting cold weather. Well, I have this thing we call WEATHER KARMA that shifts the weather whenever I go out. But this time I over did it and we had record heat of 99 degrees! Da Boyz saved my life by body blocking the sun all afternoon.
When I got there, there appeared to be no way for me to get on the Mood Indigo….except by being hoisted in a little canvas sling…which I thought I couldn’t sit in. but I said FUCK IT! And up I went high…and across…and forward…and down! And so started the amazing cruise of the 6 of us and Rich…and I hope there will be CRUISE 2!
DA BOYZ:
The morning of the boat trip! We were up at around 8 or so, got things started up, and wrote the day and had eggs and toast ... Soon Corey headed down with jackets and the shirt for Frank, and then went on to BNG for those last important snacks!
Alexi was already starting on the sandwiches, starting with frying up Linda's bbq tempeh in onions and garlic and bbq sauce! Slicing bread ... When Corey got back, he wrote up tags for all the sandwiches, made the carrot sticks, washed lettuce, cut tomatoes ... it was a sandwich factory! Yummm ... As much time as we had, we were still getting ready up to the last minute, gathering supplies, getting the press materials together for our Frank Moore for President paper airplane deliveries from the side of the boat!
Erika was back here and ready to go ... the last task was filling the water jugs with ice, which we had to crush first before they would even fit through the spout! It was hot!! The ice did not last very long ... And soon we were on our way, and were there in no time ...
What a beautiful day for a sailing adventure ... but hot!! So much fun to cart our stuff out through the boats all the way down to Rich's great catamaran, Mood Indigo. Erika had put on her sunblock on the car ride over, and once we had reached the boat, we did the same ... about 5 minutes later the sunblock was already dripping down into our eyes! It was so hot! Lots of fun decorating the boat ... just so much fun being out on a boat on the water on such a beautiful day ... if the water were cleaner, we would have been diving in!
And then we saw you guys rolling in with Rich, Corey grabbed the camera to record the approach of the Frank Moore for President entourage, approaching the official campaign boat tour of the bay! fun fun fun! What an experience getting Frank onto the boat in the canvas sling, Rich winching him up over the side, and basically swinging him down into the boat, Corey holding him from falling backwards, and Linda, Mikee and Erika getting the chair into the boat meanwhile, and Alexi holding the end of the rope as backup for Rich! The adventure had begun!
Soon Rich and Mikee were untying the boat from the dock, and we were motoring away, out through all the docked boats there in the Alameda Marina ... a guy working on his boat called out, "He's got my vote!"
What a totally fun and wonderful day ... every part of it ... motoring out through the estuary watching the huge freight ships being loaded by the Empire Strikes Back monster machines ... Rich put Alexi at the wheel, and was giving us interesting bits of trivia and info about what we were passing ... We went past Jack London Square, a lot of folks in other boats saw the Frank Moore for President banner as we passed by, lots of waving! We all checked out what it was like out on the front of the boat ... so much fun! Cool, relaxing, beautiful ... a whole different space ... time evaporating ...
We went under the bay bridge, saw the unfinished section of the new bridge ... amazing to see these things from underneath! And then there was enough wind to really sail, and Rich set everything up, turned the engine off, and soon we were flying!! It was really something to lie down on the front deck of the boat while we sailed, looking up at the sail and the sky, feeling the movement of the boat, feeling the water splash up ...
We did a big circle around Treasure Island/Yerba Buena Island ... Rich showing us all the sights ... bay bridge, alcatraz, the golden gate, Sausalito, Tiburon in the distance ... then our main view was the city of San Francisco for a while ... such a trip to see everything from a sailboat ... so free, relaxed, outside of the normal course of modern life!! Yes, the Frank Moore campaign is coming to your town, by sailboat! Soft pirates!
Soon we broke out the amazing sandwiches Alexi had made, chips, carrot sticks ... it was just the perfect thing. We ate and sailed gently back under the bay bridge, eating ... the late afternoon sun was intense, and we all took turns being human sunblocks for Frank while he finished eating ... and took turns up on the front of the boat where it was cooler ... picture-postcard views of the sun sinking in the west behind the golden gate bridge ... cookies!
Then we were slowly making our way back through the estuary ... Alexi saw some rabbits in the naval airbase fields! We saw pelicans, and all sorts of seabirds ... Rich pointed out the Friday evening boat races that were starting up ... and soon we were docking again, and the adventure of getting Frank up and out of the boat and plunk down into his chair! Not bad! It was still hot! We unloaded the boat, and Rich packed things away, and soon we were making our way out of the docks, passing a guy on his boat, the SS Jerryatric, playing solitaire on a laptop ... what a life! And then we were packing up the cars, saying goodbye to Rich. Boy it would be fun to do that again!
ERIKA:
A few final things and then Corey and Alexi and I were off to the boat. We made it there in good time and unloaded all the stuff to the gate and then once in the gate found these great little carts we could use to take our stuff out to the boat, good thing cause we had a lot of stuff. We ventured out onto the docks, what an adventure, so many boats, making our way to the end of a row and there was the boat!!! Wow!! We climbed aboard and opened it up and checked it all out, an area to sit in, three little bedroom areas and a little bathroom! Wow!!! How would we ever get Frank up onto the boat the sides were pretty high, well we weren't going to think about it and hoped that Kerbavaz had a plan. We got started on the decorating!! We put up the Frank Moore for Pres banner on one side of the boat and the peace flag on the other and then red, white and blue triangle garlands all down the two sides of the boat. We put up a little bit of bunting and then wrapped the poles with red, white and blue striped crape paper garlands. It looked like a presidential boat!!!! We were just finishing up the decorating and could see you arriving with Kerbavaz on land headed to the boat!! How were we going to get Frank on the boat. Kerbavaz had ideas, had talked to people about how to do it and we decided on a hoist and pulley method and we held onto Frank and swept him up into the air and then down the side of the boat into the back cabin, and then lifted Frank's wheelchair over the side of the boat, wow, we did it!!! It didn't look like we could but we did it!! It was a good thing we did not know how we were going to do it beforehand!!! We got settled on the boat in the shade and soon we were off. As we left the docks a guy on his boat said that Frank had his vote!! first with the motor on coasting slowly down the channel with Alameda on one side and Jack London Square on the other side checking out all the sights. There was a woman who went by on a boat and gave us the thumbs up. We checked out the front of the boat where you could sit right by the water as it splashed up at you. Alexi took the steering wheel for quite a while and Mikee took pictures. It was so fun to be out on the water in a boat hearing the water lapping up against the side of the boat and experiencing the wakes from other boats, splashing up and down. We made our way out further into the bay and then under the bay bridge, wow, experiencing the bay in a whole new way. Seeing San Francisco from the water in a boat. Once we passed under the bay bridge and were out a ways it was time to put up the sails and cut the motor, so it got quietier but in the wind and with the sails the ride got exciting as we splashed around in the water and holding onto Frank's wheel chair as it would jump up in the front when we hit a wave!!! Super fun! We circled around and then got in a calmer area still with the sails up, now just floating along. Throughout the day Kerbavaz told us about some of his sailing trips and how he goes out with his family for the weekend and sometimes they sleep at the docks in the boat. He sailed to Mexico once and also up through the Panama canal and he told us about sailing at night under the stars. In the calmer waters we decided to have our sandwiches which Alexi had made which were delicious with carrot sticks and potato chips followed by cookies!!! It was really fun to eat on the boat. Then we headed back slowly Mikee, Corey and Alexi taking turns standing up to block Frank from the sun, and we all checked out the front of the boat again where it was so fun to sit right up by the water! When we got back it was time to hoist Frank back out of the boat and it went a little smoother the 2nd time knowing that we had already done it and thinking of ways we could make it easier next time. We unloaded all of our stuff and headed to our cars. What a fun day it had been out on the boat and we were already talking about our next trip and seeing if Carl and Tammy would like to come!!! When we got home it was super hot in the house and the cats were so hot, the house was like an oven. Turned out it was the hottest day in 35 years!!
Campaigning can be just plain/pure fun…and risky as hell! Yesterday was a case in point when we took the campaign onto the San Francisco Bay itself. We have been planning this cruise for months with Rich Kerbavaz, my ear doctor for over 25 years...and one of my favorite people to be with. We were concerned it would be freezing…especially when the weather reports earlier in the week were predicting cold weather. Well, I have this thing we call WEATHER KARMA that shifts the weather whenever I go out. But this time I over did it and we had record heat of 99 degrees! Da Boyz saved my life by body blocking the sun all afternoon.
When I got there, there appeared to be no way for me to get on the Mood Indigo….except by being hoisted in a little canvas sling…which I thought I couldn’t sit in. but I said FUCK IT! And up I went high…and across…and forward…and down! And so started the amazing cruise of the 6 of us and Rich…and I hope there will be CRUISE 2!
DA BOYZ:
The morning of the boat trip! We were up at around 8 or so, got things started up, and wrote the day and had eggs and toast ... Soon Corey headed down with jackets and the shirt for Frank, and then went on to BNG for those last important snacks!
Alexi was already starting on the sandwiches, starting with frying up Linda's bbq tempeh in onions and garlic and bbq sauce! Slicing bread ... When Corey got back, he wrote up tags for all the sandwiches, made the carrot sticks, washed lettuce, cut tomatoes ... it was a sandwich factory! Yummm ... As much time as we had, we were still getting ready up to the last minute, gathering supplies, getting the press materials together for our Frank Moore for President paper airplane deliveries from the side of the boat!
Erika was back here and ready to go ... the last task was filling the water jugs with ice, which we had to crush first before they would even fit through the spout! It was hot!! The ice did not last very long ... And soon we were on our way, and were there in no time ...
What a beautiful day for a sailing adventure ... but hot!! So much fun to cart our stuff out through the boats all the way down to Rich's great catamaran, Mood Indigo. Erika had put on her sunblock on the car ride over, and once we had reached the boat, we did the same ... about 5 minutes later the sunblock was already dripping down into our eyes! It was so hot! Lots of fun decorating the boat ... just so much fun being out on a boat on the water on such a beautiful day ... if the water were cleaner, we would have been diving in!
And then we saw you guys rolling in with Rich, Corey grabbed the camera to record the approach of the Frank Moore for President entourage, approaching the official campaign boat tour of the bay! fun fun fun! What an experience getting Frank onto the boat in the canvas sling, Rich winching him up over the side, and basically swinging him down into the boat, Corey holding him from falling backwards, and Linda, Mikee and Erika getting the chair into the boat meanwhile, and Alexi holding the end of the rope as backup for Rich! The adventure had begun!
Soon Rich and Mikee were untying the boat from the dock, and we were motoring away, out through all the docked boats there in the Alameda Marina ... a guy working on his boat called out, "He's got my vote!"
What a totally fun and wonderful day ... every part of it ... motoring out through the estuary watching the huge freight ships being loaded by the Empire Strikes Back monster machines ... Rich put Alexi at the wheel, and was giving us interesting bits of trivia and info about what we were passing ... We went past Jack London Square, a lot of folks in other boats saw the Frank Moore for President banner as we passed by, lots of waving! We all checked out what it was like out on the front of the boat ... so much fun! Cool, relaxing, beautiful ... a whole different space ... time evaporating ...
We went under the bay bridge, saw the unfinished section of the new bridge ... amazing to see these things from underneath! And then there was enough wind to really sail, and Rich set everything up, turned the engine off, and soon we were flying!! It was really something to lie down on the front deck of the boat while we sailed, looking up at the sail and the sky, feeling the movement of the boat, feeling the water splash up ...
We did a big circle around Treasure Island/Yerba Buena Island ... Rich showing us all the sights ... bay bridge, alcatraz, the golden gate, Sausalito, Tiburon in the distance ... then our main view was the city of San Francisco for a while ... such a trip to see everything from a sailboat ... so free, relaxed, outside of the normal course of modern life!! Yes, the Frank Moore campaign is coming to your town, by sailboat! Soft pirates!
Soon we broke out the amazing sandwiches Alexi had made, chips, carrot sticks ... it was just the perfect thing. We ate and sailed gently back under the bay bridge, eating ... the late afternoon sun was intense, and we all took turns being human sunblocks for Frank while he finished eating ... and took turns up on the front of the boat where it was cooler ... picture-postcard views of the sun sinking in the west behind the golden gate bridge ... cookies!
Then we were slowly making our way back through the estuary ... Alexi saw some rabbits in the naval airbase fields! We saw pelicans, and all sorts of seabirds ... Rich pointed out the Friday evening boat races that were starting up ... and soon we were docking again, and the adventure of getting Frank up and out of the boat and plunk down into his chair! Not bad! It was still hot! We unloaded the boat, and Rich packed things away, and soon we were making our way out of the docks, passing a guy on his boat, the SS Jerryatric, playing solitaire on a laptop ... what a life! And then we were packing up the cars, saying goodbye to Rich. Boy it would be fun to do that again!
ERIKA:
A few final things and then Corey and Alexi and I were off to the boat. We made it there in good time and unloaded all the stuff to the gate and then once in the gate found these great little carts we could use to take our stuff out to the boat, good thing cause we had a lot of stuff. We ventured out onto the docks, what an adventure, so many boats, making our way to the end of a row and there was the boat!!! Wow!! We climbed aboard and opened it up and checked it all out, an area to sit in, three little bedroom areas and a little bathroom! Wow!!! How would we ever get Frank up onto the boat the sides were pretty high, well we weren't going to think about it and hoped that Kerbavaz had a plan. We got started on the decorating!! We put up the Frank Moore for Pres banner on one side of the boat and the peace flag on the other and then red, white and blue triangle garlands all down the two sides of the boat. We put up a little bit of bunting and then wrapped the poles with red, white and blue striped crape paper garlands. It looked like a presidential boat!!!! We were just finishing up the decorating and could see you arriving with Kerbavaz on land headed to the boat!! How were we going to get Frank on the boat. Kerbavaz had ideas, had talked to people about how to do it and we decided on a hoist and pulley method and we held onto Frank and swept him up into the air and then down the side of the boat into the back cabin, and then lifted Frank's wheelchair over the side of the boat, wow, we did it!!! It didn't look like we could but we did it!! It was a good thing we did not know how we were going to do it beforehand!!! We got settled on the boat in the shade and soon we were off. As we left the docks a guy on his boat said that Frank had his vote!! first with the motor on coasting slowly down the channel with Alameda on one side and Jack London Square on the other side checking out all the sights. There was a woman who went by on a boat and gave us the thumbs up. We checked out the front of the boat where you could sit right by the water as it splashed up at you. Alexi took the steering wheel for quite a while and Mikee took pictures. It was so fun to be out on the water in a boat hearing the water lapping up against the side of the boat and experiencing the wakes from other boats, splashing up and down. We made our way out further into the bay and then under the bay bridge, wow, experiencing the bay in a whole new way. Seeing San Francisco from the water in a boat. Once we passed under the bay bridge and were out a ways it was time to put up the sails and cut the motor, so it got quietier but in the wind and with the sails the ride got exciting as we splashed around in the water and holding onto Frank's wheel chair as it would jump up in the front when we hit a wave!!! Super fun! We circled around and then got in a calmer area still with the sails up, now just floating along. Throughout the day Kerbavaz told us about some of his sailing trips and how he goes out with his family for the weekend and sometimes they sleep at the docks in the boat. He sailed to Mexico once and also up through the Panama canal and he told us about sailing at night under the stars. In the calmer waters we decided to have our sandwiches which Alexi had made which were delicious with carrot sticks and potato chips followed by cookies!!! It was really fun to eat on the boat. Then we headed back slowly Mikee, Corey and Alexi taking turns standing up to block Frank from the sun, and we all checked out the front of the boat again where it was so fun to sit right up by the water! When we got back it was time to hoist Frank back out of the boat and it went a little smoother the 2nd time knowing that we had already done it and thinking of ways we could make it easier next time. We unloaded all of our stuff and headed to our cars. What a fun day it had been out on the boat and we were already talking about our next trip and seeing if Carl and Tammy would like to come!!! When we got home it was super hot in the house and the cats were so hot, the house was like an oven. Turned out it was the hottest day in 35 years!!
posted by Lavapen | 12:36 AM
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