Avalon

10-8-06 We sailed back to Catalina. We left late after spending much of the day happily socializing. But our destination was Long Point which has a good navigation light, so we had no trouble finding it and anchoring in the lee of the point. We spent a couple of night there reading and visiting with other cruisers who are also headed for Mexico. They had been having good success with their fishing and made me want to start catching fish.
So on the way down to Avalon, I tried trolling and caught nothing more than seaweed. We took a mooring in Avalon Harbor and went a shore to be tourists along with the hoards disgorged from a huge cruise ship. The cruise ships have been good business for the Avalon merchants and the town was obviously booming. We had lunch, did some shopping, and noticed how the town returned to normal as soon as the ship left. Obviously I liked it better less crowded. We had sundowners with some more new friends headed for Mexico and went to bed early in order to leave for San Diego in the dark. We didn't want to be getting to SD after sundown and have to figure out that large and confusing harbor in the dark. It is 70 miles to SD and at 6.5 knots, that would be almost 10 hours.

Visiting Los Angeles Harbor after 30 years

10/6/06 Today we sailed to LA harbor. It is certainly nice to be back in the land of mellow sailing. We had a pleasant crossing and got to sail for the first 2 hours. Then the wind dropped and we motored the rest of the way. Every time we use the motor, we take the opportunity to run our watermaker. We have used it exclusively since leaving Santa Barbara and are getting the bad taste out of our water. It is amazing how soft the water is when we shower. When we were in LA at the fuel dock, I asked the attendant how the water tasted. He said that he wouldn't give it to his kids and would boil it if he had to. That turned me off and I decided that we would reject the easy hose method and continue making our own.

As you can see, we tied up at a free dock(!) along the LA Main Ship Channel and got to see all kinds of big ships going by. We visited with old friends and former co-workers and had a fabulous time remembering days now long gone. Andrea got to hear war stories from a much earlier time of my life. She's still here, so I guess it wasn't too bad. Now we're heading back to Catalina.

A classic square-rigger

The morning we left Catalina for LA, this square-rigged sailing ship anchored out in front of our cove. I saw the French name on her and thought that she might be a French training ship, but when I took the dinghy out to have a closer look I found that she was a charter boat loaded with divers based in Avalon. Oh well, cool ship, huh? There appear to be lots of classic ships in this area. After we got to LA, we could see 4 square-riggers from where we were tied up, some much bigger than this one.

We went hiking and saw some deer

After taking the picture of the boat, we went hiking. There have been changes. All the wild goats and pigs that roamed the island have been hunted out because of the damage they did to the plant life. When my kids were little, we always loved watching the families of goats that came right down to the water, but times change. Now the brush is much more dense and harder to hike through. Since the pigs are no longer controlling the snake population, we paid good attention to where we placed our feet.
We were hiking under some wild cherries when we happened upon a herd of deer who were enjoying the shade. Some of them spooked, but one doe stood up, but when we stopped walking, she lay back down. See if you can spot her in the middle of the picture.

On to my favorite coves..

I have always wanted to show Catalina Island to Andrea since I had spent so much time sailing here when I lived in the South. We anchored in some beautiful little coves for a few nights and here is the boat as seen from the cliff above the anchorage.

In a waterfront bar at Catalina....

  

On to Catalina Island

10-1-06 Sailed from Ventura to Catalina Harbor on the back of Catalina Island. If a beautiful island isn't cruising, then I want my money back. It was a 70 mile run, which is quite a few miles to pack into the daylight hours. We had just about every possible wind condition, but mostly from astern. We practiced using our rebuilt spinnaker pole to hold out the jib. Worked great. Wind speed was up and down - so was the pole up and down and the engine on and off. By the afternoon the wind was steadier and held until the west end of Catalina. After that it was a motorboat ride. After a reception from the dolphin greeting committee, we got into Cat Harbor around 7:30PM. A long day, but a very typical passage. It was overcast the whole time and even rained on us a little.

Andrea is getting very good at this sailing stuff. She has good judgement and is always willing to take on something new. As a sailing husband, I count myself super-fortunate. Of course, you already knew that... Here's a picture she took of me...

Let the cruising begin!

After a great party (4AM) we realized that if we didn't escape from Santa Barbara, we might never leave. Although not in the best of form, we set sail for Ventura mid-morning. Winds were light and astern, a perfect situation to practice with our spinnaker - so up it went. OK, so we screwed up the leads for the lines the first time, but in 5 minutes, it looked pretty good. We used it until about 5:30 when the wind got up to 15 knots. We arrived at Ventura at 7PM (getting dark earlier).
For the next day, we visited with old friends and even had another(!) flamenco party. Well OK, maybe we aren't cruising yet, but at least we're moving along.

Still stuck in Santa Barbara

9-26-06 Tuesday
Yep, we got stuck in Santa Barbara. But, that isn't necessarily a bad thing. When we left Santa Cruz, there was a huge project list in my head, mostly things involving the deck and sailing gear that just didn't get attended to in the last year while I was still working. We focused on updating electronics and other ships systems. But I was always a bit dissatisfied with the state of the rigging on deck. Sailing the boat just never had the feel that I was used to on other boats that I had owned. Everything was too stiff, too much friction, or just worked when it felt like it.

After 2 weeks in SB, the deck gear is starting to feel like a Ferrari. Much more satisfying! It wasn't that it didn't work - it just didn't work like it should have. With the occasional consult with super-rigger Jon Payne and plenty of my own work, this boat is feeling much more ready. The boat used to have a spinnaker pole that extended to almost twice it's own length. This was a thousand-dollar-plus pole and was a bitch to use. As a result, I never used it. We looked hard at the pole and decided that there was only one length that we really needed anyway - so we cut about 14 feet of extending tubing out of it plus all the control lines and hardware. We made the pole about 20 pounds lighter. Then we just put some bolts through it to pin it and voila - a well-balanced pole that we can actually use.

Then the watermaker had a leak in the high pressure lines. Turns out that an O-ring got pinched in a fitting during assembly and wasn't sealing properly. The folks at HRO watermakers sent us a new O-ring seal and voila - as I write we are filling the tanks from the ocean - no leaks.

While we have been here, we discovered how hard it is to be trapped on the boat with no wheels. We got to borrow a car from the family at last, but for a few days we couldn't go shopping and I couldn't get parts. So we decided to buy some bicycles. We got some folding bikes on Ebay that fold up really small. They arrive tomorrow. And that will be the last thing keeping us in SB except for a flamenco party tomorrow night. The next report should come to you from Ventura.

A ship found with AIS

9-17-06 Santa Cruz Island and back...
We decided to visit Santa Cruz Island with son-in-law Isaac and the grandchildren. So on Friday morning we started out with a light NW breeze. We were soon sailing along comfortably with relatively small waves and gentle breeze. I commented how glad I was to get back into mellow southern California sailing. We set up the autopilot to follow the wind and sat back to relax. About mid channel, the wind got lighter and the swells a little bigger. Soon the passengers were starting to feel seasick. (Nobody took Dramamine). About 10 miles from the island, the wind build rapidly. There is usually a "windylane" off the island, but this one started farther out and got worse than usual. The seas got bigger and the wind built into the 30 knot range. We furled the big jib and set the little staysail. Soon we had to reef the main as well. For the sailors aboard that would have just been a nuisance and a bit uncomforable. However, for the passengers, it was truly horrible. But we were going really fast so in and hour and a half we arrived at Fry's Harbor, a small cove at mid-island. I had never been to Fry's before, but had expected a bit more shelter than we got. It was true that we got out of the waves, but the wind only dropped into the high teens and twenties. It was blowing directly off the beach so the two other boats there were anchored bow-to-beach. That was different, but when in Rome...

Because of the wind, we didn't go to shore that day. Boring for the kids, I'm sure. Fortunately, in the wee hours of the morning the wind finally quit howling through the rigging and we awoke to a beautiful morning - just what I had remembered from previous trips. We got to go ashore and go hiking. We climbed up a little stream and the boys had 'stick races' to see who's stick would go downstream fastest. After we got back to the boat, I put the outboard motor on the dinghy and we roared off to see some of the other coves. I think the kids liked going fast.
Later that evening, we hosted a little gathering aboard and found that 15 people is a bit much for our cabin. We played a little flamenco for them and then everyone went to the beach for snacks. On another boat was a couple who played bluegrass very well, him on guitar and her on banjo. They gave a concert on the beach and I got to join in on some of the vocals. Andi showed the boys how to skip rocks and we built a campfire. A terrific day that may have partially made up for yesterday - otherwise, I would have rather gone to the zoo.

Sunday dawned very calm and the radio told us that Los Angeles was having Santana conditions, so where we were the NE and NW winds were cancelling each other. So we motored all the way back to Santa Barbara. At least we got to really test the accuracy of the autopilot and found that we had it right on the money. Check off that problem! We also got to test the AIS system when we crossed the shipping lanes. AIS is a new way for big ships to identify themselves. Anything over 300 tons must use it and transmit vital information about themselves - most important being their actual speed and course. That eliminates having to guess which way they are going when a blip shows up on the radar. The ship above showed up on AIS when they were 25 miles away, but I didn't notice them until they were 13 miles away. I told Andi to watch in the direction that the ship would be coming from. I also learned the she was the R. J. Pfeiffer, a Matson cargo ship bound for Long Beach. Our closest point of approach would be 1.4 miles and would happen in 35 minutes. I gave the engine another 100 rpms and soon the AIS told us that the closest approach would be 1.8 miles. That was far enough for me. At 12 miles, the ship showed up as a blip on the radar and I set the radar to track it. At about 6 miles, we could see it through the haze and the photo shows it as it passed safely astern.

Now we are back in the harbor resting up. We still have a long list of projects, but nothing that will keep us from using the boat in any way.

Not quite laying around in Santa Barbara

9-14-06 Thursday - The past week has found us working harder in retirement than we worked when we were working. When we left Santa Cruz, the project list was by no means completed and since sailing a bit, we realized that we have devoted too much time to the ship's systems and not enough to the basic sailing systems. So we have been rebuilding the spinnaker pole system and refining preventers, pole controls, etc. (non-sailers, please endure). We also relocated the autopilot compass so that charging the batteries does not throw us 60 degrees off course. I can report a success in that department and as soon as Andrea gets back from the store, we are going to go out and recalibrate the compass in it's new location.

We have also been working on our communications. Normally, we have used Wi-fi subscriptions in whatever harbor we visited, but you are reading this courtesy of our cell phone. Since it has unlimited internet connections, I got a little program called PDAnet that allows me to use the cell phone connected to our laptop to write this stuff. Also, we got our connection to Sailmail working. That is an email connection using our High Seas radio so that we can write to you from the middle of oceans (assuming that we don't have other things to do).

We are well and happy - hope you are the same. After we get done taking Isaac and the grandkids to Santa Cruz Island this weekend we will spend maybe another week here in Santa Barbara and then start migrating down the coast to Ventura, Catalina, LA, Catalina, Newport Beach and finally San Diego. We have a slip for the month of October in SD so that we can fly back to Carolina for our son's wedding. Hugs to all.

Santa Barbara

9-8-06 Friday - Actually this picture was taken at our departure from Santa Cruz showing us and daughter Elinore. But we have been in SB for a few days now and have sorted out all our rigging snafus. We now have all new halyards and spares for each. We met a fabulous rigger named Jon Payne that I can't recommend highly enough. Almost all of our currently identified teething problems are now sorted out. But I still have to get the autopilot wires rerouted. They were installed running right next to the battery cables that carry 45 amps when the alternator is charging. Naturally that interacts with the very weak signal coming from the electronic compass and running back to the autopilot computer. So the autopilot gets bogus data and steers 60 degrees off course when the batteries are being charged. The rest of the time it is fine. We can adjust for it, but once I move the wires, we should be where we should have been from the start. We are having a good time here, but are working hard on the boat and getting ready for the big party tomorrow. Hope all is well with y'all. 

Around Point Conception

9-3-06 Sunday - We got up at 3:30 and left on the leg that we most dreaded - rounding points Arguello and Conception (the Cape Horn of the Pacific). We motored out of San Luis and before long were sailing on a light broad reach. We sailed all the way to Pt. Sal before the winds got lighter and dead aft. In my youth, I would have sat there and sailed at 3K, but we needed to get by Conception before the afternoon winds really got honking, so on with the engine and back to 6.5K. At 8:30 in the morning, things got busy. The mainsail came down with a bang. It turns out that the main halyard (the line that raises the mainsail) had chafed right through on the end cap of our new sailtrack. There was a sharp place there that had not been noticed, but that didn't keep it from cutting the halyard. So there we were without a mainsail. Not to worry, when you are going downwind it is a good thing to have all the sail on the downwind end of the boat. That makes the boat want to go downwind and eases things for the autopilot. The picture shows us sailing along on just the jib. If you look close, you can see a little piece of halyard still attached to the top of the mainsail. The wind at this point was blowing 17K and as we approached Pt. Arguello it climbed into the 20's. So we were moving along very quickly. Between Arguello and Conception (about 10 miles) the wind climbed into the 30's and I saw 40k once. That is a gale! But we were moving briskly. However, we needed to hold a course dead downwind if we wanted to avoid a jibe (and who wants to jibe a jib in 30K?)(landlubbers, sorry!) So, I had to give the autopilot an hour off. In those seas, it couldn't anticipate well enough and I could do a better job. There had to be some reason why the boat brought me along and this was it. For the next hour, I hand-steered from the inside helm station. The boat was a kitten to handle, even in those big, confused seas. We surfed a few times and the max speed shown as 11.9K. Not bad for a heavy boat, loaded with groceries. The small steering wheel inside actually gave me a quicker response than the big one in the cockpit. It was remarkable how calm it was inside. We were talking in a quiet voice. Andi was sitting at the dinette, watching the waves. But, when we went out to the 'back porch', all hell was breaking loose out there. The wind was howling and the stern wave was roaring. Much nicer inside. In this hour, I really got it why we picked this boat and how happy I am with her. Once we got around Conception, the autopilot went back to work and it got steadily lighter/smoother the closer we got to Santa Barbara. Just at dusk we came into SB harbor and tied up on the end tie of Marina 3, B dock.
Our first gale and a trial by fire came out well. The problem with the halyard was not related to the weather and we have fixed it here. In fact, I have added another main halyard as a backup. I had 600 feet of new halyard line stored, so we put it to work.

Port San Luis

9-2-06 Saturday - Finally we got to sail. The wind came up good and strong in the morning and at 11:30AM we set off, roaring along on a tw0-headsail beam reach (that's for those of you who speak 'sailor'). We were doing 7.5K to 8K (K=knots) and that is the kind of sailing that makes sailors very happy. Since we were sailing, we decided to use the new genset to recharge the batteries. It only had 2 hours on the engine and so we gave it another hour's breakin. A nice 40 mile sail and we arrived at Port San Luis, anchored off Avila Pier, and rowed ashore for a meal and some groceries.

San Simeon Cove

8-31-06 Thursday - We got up early and left Monterey right after breakfast. It was really foggy and stayed that way all day. Visibility ranged between 1 to 3 miles. Gray skies, gray water, and a little sliver of brown California under the overcast. There was little wind so we motorsailed all day. This was the longest section of coast to be covered and it has a well-earned reputation for gnarly weather with few anchorages to take refuge. So we were highly motivated to put it behind us. The motor motored, the autopilot steered and we were pretty bored.

Finally we turned the corner at Point Piedras Blancas and then the fog got even thicker. Thanks to electronic navigation, the green buoy outside San Simeon Cove showed up right in front of us where it was supposed to be. Then we had to find our way into the cove without running onto some beach. The GPS puts a little red boat on our electronic charts that shows where we are. We drove the little red boat into the middle of the cove on the chart and dropped the anchor. Whew!
The next morning, we went over and re-anchored under the lee of the wooded peninsula that you can see in the photo. There were seals playing everywhere and they were very curious about us. We liked it so well here that we declared a rest day and stayed over. So that gave us a chance to visit. We invited local residents Bud and Linda, my husband-in-law and ex-wife for dinner (they brought Mexican food - how easy?). We had fun and they were good sports about getting wet butts and we rowed the dinghy out through the surf. The next morning, we had a pleasant coffee with celebrity circumnavigators, Beth Leonard and Evans Starzinger. Also sharing the anchorage with us was a one-armed Japanese single-hander who sailed over from Japan and was not migrating down the coast with a goal to reach Chile and Cape Horn. Tough dude! When the wind came up, we set sail for Port San Luis

First Adventure

8-30-06, 15 minutes later.. Before leaving the harbor, we stopped to fill the fuel tanks. Due a miscommunication, the attendant put 6 gallons of gasoline into our diesel tanks before we stopped him. Oh, no! So we had to pump the port tank dry to get rid of the gas. This picture shows the fuel dock owner, Leo, with a world-class Rube Goldberg fuel pumping system. He put a large shop vacuum applying suction on the back of a 5 gallon jerry jug which was in turn attached to the fuel line. Darned if it didn't work. Fortunately there wasn't much fuel in the tank when we started so the whole process only set us back --- 3 hours! Once we were done filling up, we actually left on the adventure. But now we were so late leaving that we couldn't just sail to Monterey as planned. It was getting dark and we had a dinner reservation at the Charthouse with our friend Jeff Martin. So we motored. The dinner was worth it. Monterey was terrific even though we left early in the morning. We regretted not having spent more weekends visiting Monterey. 

Bon Voyage from Santa Cruz friends

Wednesday, 8-30-06 Noon- We finally make our getaway, mixed with sadness at leaving our dear friends of so many years. We have worked so hard for so long that there is a definite sense of escape in spite of the sadness. So the docklines were cast off and we motored toward the harbor mouth in search of adventure.

Saeta just before relaunch

It had been two years since her bottom was done - there were green growing things in abundance. We painted, scraped, buffed and waxed. It's like painting half a whale and then waxing the other half. We were sore and exhausted, but it felt good to have her in top condition for her big sail. 

The bottom is painted and the crew is happy..

 

Out of the boatyard and ready to sail!

Can you believe that we have been too busy to write anything for lo these many months - but that does not indicate sloth. No, we've been working day and night to get the boat ready for her big voyage. We went into the boatyard for a much needed coat of bottom paint and all the usual underwater tuneups. Then we had to finish installing all the toys. Her final addition was a set of davits that allow us to hoist the dinghy out of the water without having to deflate it each time. If the weather is good, we just carry the dinghy on the davits. If a major storm was threatening, then we would deflate the dinghy, but most of the time it will be ready to go. Getting it out of the water keeps things from growing on its bottom and makes it hard for anyone to make off with it without making a lot of noise.

Andrea has been busy shopping for supplies, organizing our mobile life, and mastering the art of stowing. You can't believe how many bags and boxes of food and supplies have disappearing into the boats lockers. She is now in total control because she is the only one who knows where anything is. Well, even she can't find the fuel filters.

Then it was time for retirement. Last friday, the office had a nice luncheon for us and a warm send off. So now I have been retired for 4 days and since departure is tomorrow, lots of folks have dropped by to offer wishes for a happy voyage. We've been invited to dinner and tonight a lot of my office friends came by. We are exhausted but I felt that I had better rediscover how to send a blog since this is how we will be documenting our adventures. Tomorrow at noon a group of amigos will be on hand to help us cast off the docklines and sail away from Santa Cruz. It will be sad, but also exciting. Stay tuned for the beginning of the sailing chronicles.