San Diego At Last

I have been so busy these past 2 days that I forgot to post again. Ted wrote me an email and said I should let everyone know we made it here safely. When I last posted, we were crossing Monterey Bay. The conditions from then until arrival varied from 15 foot following seas to being able to see the reflection of the shore because it was so calm. It was mostly the former, not the latter, however.

Thursday afternoon we passed Pt. Sur.....or Big Sur as the town is known there.
You can see here that the seas were not that bad. It was a shame that there was haze in the air so the view was not as clear as it could have been. No, it wasn't smoke, just haze. The only fire we saw during the entire trip was up near the California, Oregon border.
This is what we did mostly when off watch and awake. Steve read several books during the trip. I didn't get to read much. When not sleeping, I was keeping track of our progress and answering emails and phone calls when we had good wireless service. We used Verizon and the coverage was not too bad. I was surprised that we got better cell/wireless coverage off the Washington and Oregon coast (up to 15 miles offshore) than we could get in Southern California. I could not connect or make a cell call until a mile off the outer buoy in San Diego. It is beyond me.
This is the moon rise. We were north of San Luis Obispo when this was taken. The full moon was awesome to see, especially when the high swells would pass beneath us. The peaks and valleys of the water with the white caps glistening were beautiful.

Thursday night the wind howled and the waves were large. It was dark so I don't know how large they were, but we were surfing again and Steve reported a 15.5 knot highest speed. Again, this was with the boat set to run at about 8 knots. I never felt like the boat was out of control and none of us were ever afraid or apprehensive about our safety. We did talk about the fact that we were the only vessel out there and if anything were to happen, we would be on our own. Fortunately we did not have to use the immersion suits, EPIRBS, or life raft.

Friday morning found us rounding Point Conception. Immediately, the seas quieted and the winds died. We motored on in foggy, but calm conditions. Some time in the early afternoon, we crossed the shipping lanes and passed by Anacapa Island.
This was a bit of deja vu for me. My first experience cruising was aboard a friend's 21' Venture sailboat on a cruise to the Channel Island in 1970. The bug for cruising bit then and it still is infecting me some 37 years later.

Our track took us very close to Catalina Island and there were numerous tugs, sailboats, and motor yachts coming and going almost all night. It was the busiest any of us were during the whole trip. It amazes me how some people will sail along at night without any lights on. We saw no less than 3 radar targets that we finally saw in the moonlight that were out there with no lights. Two were sailboats and one was a small fishing boat, maybe 25 feet long. We managed to avoid running them down.

We entered San Diego harbor at about 8AM on Saturday morning. My good friend and fellow yacht broker, Dan Peter of Cabrillo Yachts had arranged a slip for us at Sun Harbor Marina at Harbor Island . We first pulled in to the pump-out dock and Dan soon came down and guided us to the slip we will occupy until we leave on FUBAR next Wednesday, November 7th.

A shower, clean clothes, a hearty breakfast at a local cafe and we were soon feeling human again. Tom had a flight home Saturday afternoon and Steve went of to visit old Southern California friends so I was left tidy up and prepare for Jan's arrival on Tuesday.

On Sunday morning, I snapped this picture taken from up on the flybridge. The redness of the sky is due to the fires, no doubt.
It was sure pretty, but a huge price to pay for beautiful sunrises. I would rather have gray skies I think and leave the pretty sunrises for Hawaii.

All in all, the trip has been a tremendous success (so far). The boat has performed far beyond our expectations. We only had one major equipment failure that threatened the continuation of the trip. Fortunately a jury rig solution was found and we escaped a fate worse than abandoning ship or encountering pirates, or even death for that matter.
About the 3rd day out, the new Mr. Coffee coffee grinder gave up the ghost. No amount of coaxing, tapping, jarring, or talking sweetly to it would make it grind our beans. Fortunately, we had some very talented people aboard and after much discussion, an alternative solution was found. A Ziploc baggie and a plastic mallet. We just put the required number of beans in the Ziploc bag and take it into the engine room where I could tap the beans lightly until they were the right "grind" and we soon had our requisite morning coffee.

Thanks to all of you who have been encouraging my rambling musings. I am going to take a break until the FUBAR begins next week. I am not sure how good the internet connections will be in Mexico, but I will journal the happenings and get them up here on the blog when I can.

Hasta luego!!!

Surf's Up....Dude!!!

Everybody’s gone surfin’ down Californ-i-a….. This was taken out the back door earlier today. We estimate the swells to be running about 12 - 15 feet.
It’s Thursday afternoon and we are crossing Monterey Bay, south of San Francisco. Conditions for the past 2 days have been 10-30knots of wind out of the north with 6-15 foot following seas. We have been averaging over 10 knots for most of the time with bursts to 15+ and this is with the engine set at an rpm that should deliver 9 knots. Surfing down the waves is exhilarating. You can feel the boat accelerate down the wave much like the feeling you get when you catch a wave body surfing. I know…..not really a fair comparison.

I spoke with Bruce Kessler (Spirit of Zopolite) earlier today by cell phone and we both agreed that the articulating rudder makes all the difference in the world in following seas. He put one on several years ago on Spirit of Zopolite. The rudder angle indicator shows the autopilot is hardly working, maybe 2 or 3 degrees of rudder required to handle the largest waves. The long keel also helps with tracking.

At present speeds, we expect to be in San Diego on Saturday morning, hopefully not too early. All systems are working well. Today I fired up the Village Marine watermaker for the first time (other than tests) and we are filling the water tanks at a rate of about 24 gallons per hour.

We have seen several whales migrating south. Some go to Mexico while others go to Hawaii. Researchers have determined that some whales will go to Mexico some years and then to Hawaii on other years. They don’t really understand why. One year, a tagged whale was observed in both Mexico and Hawaii in the same season.

We keep pushing south, making the best time that we can. We had planned to average 8 knots but our weather forecaster (Bob Jones of Ocean Marine Nav) has told us that the bad weather is following us south and we should stay ahead of it. We have been running 9-10 knots and so far have out run the gales.

With our delays in Westport, I now will stay with the boat rather than fly home. Jan will join memore on Tuesday and we will provision and prepare for FUBAR.

Tom watching a ship go by....

Underway again…..at last. We spent 6 days in Gray’s Harbor waiting for decent weather so we could cross the bar and resume the trip to San Diego. The weather didn’t seem all that awful, especially these past 3 days, but the Coast Guard cautioned us against leaving as the bar was treacherous.

Speaking of treacherous bars, we found the Islander, a neat place in Westport that had a big screen TV so we watched the ALCS and the Boston Miracle. The food was pretty good as well. Another great spot is Tachahachi, a seafood restaurant right across from float 6 where we were docked.

But back to the trip…… We crossed the bar this morning at about 9AM, an hour and a half before high slack water. On the way out, the Coast Guard called us and asked how long we were as the bar was closed to traffic under 40 feet. The swells were running about 10-12 feet. Nor’wester handled them with ease, gently climbing up one and down the other side. The run out to the outer buoy took about 45 minutes and then we turned south.

Seas have been quite lumpy all day and I have more or less stayed put here in the pilothouse. Wireless (Verizon) coverage is good using my Blackberry as a modem. We have been able to keep up on the buoy reports as well as business email.

As I write this, it is about 7PM and I am going on watch soon. I will stand the 8 to midnight watch. We will dog the mid-watch so that Tom and Steve will only have 2 hours each and that breaks it up except that I only get 4 hours sleep before going back on watch. Dogging the watch changes the schedule so that you don’t end up with the same watch each day.

So here is the sunset from tonight……More tomorrow.

Stuck in Westport

The weather since we arrived on Tuesday has been horrible. Above is a picture taken this morning of the bar that we would have to cross to leave here. This picture was taken at slack water, high tide. You can see the breaking waves that are right in the channel that we would have to take to depart.

Westhaven, the marina part of Westport is pretty much a ghost town this time of the year. The fishing fleet is in and no one seems to be doing much fishing, or anything else for that matter. We spent Tuesday and Wednesday doing small chores on the boat. I calibrated the tank monitoring system and we mounted smoke detectors, the 406 EPIRB, boat hook brackets and a few other miscellaneous items.

Yesterday we went to Westport Shipyard and had a tour of the portion of the factory that builds the Westport 130. An amazing place. They have 700 workers there in 2 shifts and they are extremely well organized. We saw 5 130's in various stages of construction. Tom Gilbert (crewmember and our electronics engineer) has done work for Westport before so he was able to get us this insider's tour with a friend of his that is the head of the electronics department there.

Yesterday we also discovered "Junky's", a marine hardware store that had more "stuff" than I think I have ever seen before. Virgil, Junky's owner, is a real character. His first love (other than his wife who is 25 years his junior) is Packard automobiles. He owns 15 of them. In addition, he had a DeLorean there that only had 1000 miles on it. The DeLorean was on a lift and covered by a canvas tarp but we got a sneak look at it when Virgil was looking the other way. Upstairs we found antique gas pumps in mint condition as well as shelves and shelves of automobile parts that likely were not for any automobile built after 1960. I asked Virgil about taking inventory and he said "That's something we don't talk about around here". It seems that the last time he took inventory it took 7 people over 6 weeks. (no way they counted everything)

Today we were a bit bored so Steve and I took the local bus for it's loop around Westport. The best 50 cent ride I have had in years. Mid way through the loop, I spied a barber shop and asked the driver if I could get off and catch her on the next trip around. Steve stayed on the bus and 30 minutes and an inch off the top later, they came back by and picked me up.

Well, that's all there is to report from here in Wobegone......er Westport except to say you know you've been here too long when Bill at the fuel dock waves and says "good morning, Peter". (how'd he remember my name?)

Gray's Harbor (Westport)

Cape Flattery

I should have never said that things were benign yesterday......wow!!! what a night we had. Confused seas of maybe 8' with a very close interval kept us on our toes.... The boat handled everything exceptionally well. Tom Gilbert had made a long passage on an expedition yacht of a manufacturer who will remain nameless and he said that Nor'wester handled the seas better than the expedition yacht and we are only 1/2 the size.

Tatoosh Island

We spent the night heading into strong swell, whipped by winds that we recorded at a high of 41 knots (true wind speed) and with our 8 knots of speed, made the wind show 49 knots apparent wind. We hardly knew it except for the spray being thrown up and then back over the pilothouse.

We approached Gray's Harbor entrance at 5AM, right at slack water and high tide. This was planned as Gray's Harbor is notorious for it's bar, with breaking seas that can reach 15' or more when there is a strong ebb with onshore winds. We were fortunate and we felt only a gentle swell. Picking our way in was interesting, but with the Simrad radar and Nobeltec chart plotter, it was a peace of cake.

Gray's Harbor

We will be here for several days to wait out the current weather that is hammering the Pacific Northwest. You see some of the clouds in the picture above. Waves are expected to be at 19 feet with high winds. Our weather guru (Bob Jones) advises that we stay put. So.....what to do? We have plenty of food a few good books, crossword puzzles, and satellite TV. I guess we won't get too bored.
Here is Nor'wester at the fuel dock. Accross the dock is a Canadian fishing vessel. It is hard to see, but she is very "bow down" with a full hold of Hake.
Just another picture because we think she is soooooo pretty.

Can we get some respect here? Can you believe that this guy sat up there and would not move in spite of my efforts to shoo him away. He even left a poop spot behind......

We will be here a couple of days. If anything of note happens, I will post.

Underway

We are underway to San Diego!!! These past 2 weeks have been a blur. Non stop details to make ready to leave for San Diego and then we decided to display Nor’wester in the Anacortes Boat Show.

The show was a great success with our getting another order for a Northwest 42 and several strong prospects. The weather was snotty but the people who turned out were in good spirits and there were plenty of trawler enthusiasts there.

At the show, Chuck Gould of Nor’westing Magazine came aboard and we gave him a short seatrial. He was quite excited about the performance of the boat, especially the maneuverability with the articulating rudder. Bob Lane, from Passagemaker Magazine also spent quite a bit of time on the boat and then on Monday following the show, he came and did a seatrial and photo shoot. I think he will have an article in PMM early next year.

To top things off, Neil Rabinowitz, the famous yacht photographer did a full day interior shoot on the Wednesday before the show started and then we left the show early (4pm) and he did a helicopter shoot of the boat underway. When I say he did a full day on the interior, that is an understatement. Neal boarded the boat at 7AM and was finished at 10:15PM that night. He is very meticulous, but is the best and the results will show that. I will post some of the pics here when we receive them.

With all of that activity and then the last minute stuff, I haven’t had much sleep in the past week. We got underway at 6AM this morning and by 8, I was ready for a nap. I told the crew (Steve Luther of our office, and Tom Gilbert of Topcat Engineering, our electronics engineers) that I felt like a cat. All I do is eat and sleep.

Conditions are pretty benign right now. The seas are only a foot or two and the boat is just purring along. We recorded the sound readings this morning in the pilothouse at 8 knots. 58db. The crew said my snoring was louder than the rest of the boat.

Our plan is to cruise all night and arrive in Gray’s Harbor at 5AM tomorrow morning. There is a strong, nasty front coming this way and our weather guru, Bob Jones of Ocean Nav suggests that we get in there and sit tight for a day or two. Not being one to tempt Mother Nature, especially this time of the year, I think we shall heed his advice.

More when I can……..