Our Journey to the shipyard.

The motor vessel, Amazing Grace, safely arrived at the Sausalito marina on Sunday June 26, 2016.  The 8 hour journey from Bethel Island to Sausalito marina was a beautiful one.  The winds were calm in the morning and sunny at Bethel Island.  As we traveled west through the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers, Captain Ed Payne navigated through some narrow waterways.  Our Chief Engineer, Rob Hadley, kept a close watch on the engines and generator during the trip.  Rob and Zeus spent over 3 months preparing the systems for this very moment.  After a few hours of cruising the calm river, Noah and Ian, Rob’s son, enjoyed the scenery on the back deck.  As we passed under the Vallejo Bridge and entered San Pablo Bay, the winds picked-up considerably as waves began to splash the side of the ship.  Charlotte steered the ship half the time while Zeus assisted Rob in engineering with maintaining and monitoring the systems.  Approaching the San Francisco Bay, Charlotte and Captain Ed navigated through hundreds of sailboats enjoying the warm windy day between Angel Island and Tiberon, known as the Raccoon Straights.  Navigating through the shallow channel of Sausalito, while the depth sounder alarms rang when it was shallower than 6 feet, we landed on the guest dock at Clipper Marina at about 3:30pm.  The crew enjoyed a relaxing dinner on the back deck, watching the sun set over the green hills.
On Tuesday, as the shipyard prepared the ways for our ship, an old timber rose from underground and blocked the rails, cancelling our scheduled drydocking.  The yard rescheduled for 7pm the next day at high tide.  The shipyard's pilot skillfully moved our boat from the marina and into the shipyard.  Our film crew, John and Julie Zych caught the whole event on camera.  While the ship entered the narrow opening, a dock finger floated loose and became tangled in the cradle.  The shipyard crew took some time to clear it away.  As we approached the cradle, the shipyard crew cautiously positioned the ship into the ways as the cradle slowly pulled the ship out of the water.  Then all of a sudden the port side timber broke and the stern of the ship splashes back into the water.  At this point, the shipyard owner said that they won’t be able to haul out the boat after all.  So, we fired up the engines, backed out of the ways and side tied the ship at their dock until we regroup.  After three physical signs of trying to stop us from going into dry dock, it became apparent that this shipyard is not where God wants us to be.  With much prayer and thought, we will move Amazing Grace to Marina Bay Marina in Richmond where she arrived 15 years ago and wait for the Alameda Bay Ship & Yacht to schedule us for dry dock.

As we move on to a shipyard which is better equipped for our vessel, we ask for your increased help. We need to be uplifted and surrounded with prayer as well as needing an additional $15,000 in donations.

Thank you for your continued support and prayers!  Happy Independence Day!

Zeus & Charlotte