fetchinketch

While week I was whining about being wet and uncomfortable in the winds and waves, a more significant drama was going on not that far away…

http://www.latitude38.com/lectronic/lectronicday.lasso?date=2016-04-27#.VyzbWD-twYA

We arrived!  Safe and sound.  We hit the dock at about 3AM.

We were all the very cliche’ of sailors fresh on land.  As we walked down the dock we were weaving from side to side. I found out I had to learn to pick my feet up when I walked!  I was dragging my heels!  But it was a delight to have warm dry stable places to sit, stand and sleep!

The crew has diverted to their next adventures.  I can’t say enough about them.  Even when things were not going well, they never complained (or at least not so I could hear!)  Thanks Steve and Tom, you two make the trip not just easier, but possible.

I spent most of yesterday drying out the boat, and doing laundry, trying to get things put back in good order.

Thanks everybody for the comments.  I can’t read them while I am underway, but I went through them all after I landed.

It will take me a week or two to get things settled here, and then it is back to Florida to the new boat.  Posting will resume when I get there and I’ll introduce you all our new home…

Time: 08:500 local
Lat: 37 49
Log: 124 21
Distance from Hawaii: 1995
Distance to Golden Gate: 89
24 hour distance made good: 130.1 nautical miles

Hopefully this will be my last morning report from sea. After 4 days of gale and near gale conditions, we are are tired, wet, and cold. I have to give it to Tom and Steve, they have been game for everything. I haven’t once heard a whine or complaint.

The exciting thing right now are the boarding waves. About every 15 minutes, a bigger, meaner wave comes along and smacks the side of the boat sending a column of water in to the air. The biggest of these left six inches of water in the cockpit in about 2 seconds. Since we are stuck hand steering, there is no getting out of the way, you have to sit there and take it. A good way to find every tiny leak in your foul weather gear!

As we come in to the coast, the reported conditions on the weather radio this morning are milder than we have seen for some time. Unfortunately, the forecast is for nearshore conditions to worsen over the day, so we might not get to enjoy them!

Our target continues to be the early morning flood tide, passing under the Golden Gate Bridge sometime in the hours just after midnight.

Time: 08:30 local
Lat: 37 44
Log: 127 06
Distance from Hawaii: 1872
Distance to Golden Gate: 219
24 hour distance made good: 137.3 nautical miles

The Northern California coast is living up to its reputation of being a rough and tumble place to sail. We are in the final weather pattern for our voyage, and it is not a fun one. Winds are between 30 and 40 knots, and the waves are large, and very wet on the frequent occasion when they break into the cockpit. The real annoyance is not the water, but that they slow our progress quite a bit. With these winds we should be doing 6.5 or even 7 knots, but the waves smack us down to just above 5. These conditions are forecast to last out through at least the weekend. In fact Saturday is supposed to be worse.

Right now from here I have three alternatives. Plan A is sail directly into San Francisco Bay. Obviously the most desired, and our current tactic. Plan B comes into play If we can’t make a flood tide. Then we have the option to detour to Drakes Bay and anchor there. That decision needs to happen by the end of the day today. Finally, if our course into SF becomes too rough in a beam sea, we can divert downwind to Santa Cruz.

Time: 08:10 local (We set the clocks ahead again yesterday, to San Francisco time!) Lat: 37 36
Log: 129 59
Distance from Hawaii: 1754
Distance to Golden Gate: 356
23 hour distance made good: 69.8 nautical miles

As you might see by the numbers above, yesterday was our slowest day of the trip. Most of the day was spent struggling to keep the boat moving in light and fickle winds.

That looks to be ending now, as the wind is picking up as the sun rises. The forecast is for it to continue to pick up as we approach the coast. The inshore waters are forecast to have winds of 25 to 35 knots and seas to 17 feet. The key for us is to catch the afternoon flood tide at the Golden Gate. It ends at about 4pm. If we are going to be later than that, my plan is to anchor in Drakes Bay for the night, and catch the next day’s tide.

For the last week or so we have been around and through the Northeast Pacific Gyre, better known recently in the popular press as the “Garbage Patch”. A great name, sure to invoke feeling of disgust and horror.

What does it look like? Well, ocean mostly. No huge rafts of trash floating out here. No Japanese towns washed out the sea by the tsunami. No great nets of plastic grocery bags straggling everything that swims. Nothing like the rabid descriptions I have read, and occasional, totally fake, picture. All you see is empty ocean. We do spot more bits of trash here than in other places on the ocean, but that is relative. While sailing I would estimate we notice one visible piece of trash about every 30 minutes or so. That’s a patch of ocean about 3 miles wide and 100 feet wide. A not entirely scientific sample, but should give you a feel for what’s actually here.

Interestingly, almost all of the trash is “new”. Very few pieces are encrusted with gooseneck barnacles and other critters and have obviously been in the water a long time, but they are the exception. Most things you see look fresh. Not sure what to make of this. Where does all the “old” trash go?

Time: 08:05 local
Lat: 37 04
Log: 131 17
Distance from Hawaii: 1674
Distance to Golden Gate: 421.7
24 hour distance made good: 115 nautical miles

As the end of our voyage is in sight (well, not literally) the wind gods have decided to be fickle with us. We had a good afternoon, but the over night sail was frustrating and hard work. Wind was highly variable in strength and direction requiring constant adjustment of sail trim and course.

Hopefully the winds will pick up during the day and get us moving quickly again.

On the annoying side, we did manage to suck our water tanks dry, so now we are on our back up jugs. Enough to get us home, unless we are becalmed for a week!

I have tried getting the watermaker going, but am frustrated by air being carried into the feed line while we are moving. If air is going into the pump, it can not generate the pressure needed to desalinate water. I have a short term solution in mind, but it’s not easy or pretty. Hmmm… Have to think about this one…

Time: 08:20 local
Lat: 36 51
Log: 133 40
Distance from Hawaii: 1567
Distance to Golden Gate: 536.8
24 hour distance made good: 126 nautical miles

Sometimes it seems like the blog must read like the “Perils of Pauline”. A listing of this broke, then that went wrong, then something else went haywire. While it is true that stuff happens, most of the time it is just pretty fantastic out here. For example:

For the last 36 hours the wind has been between 17 and 25 knots almost all the time, and steady from the NNW. That has allowed me to get the boat set so she’ll steer herself on a beam reach toward San Francisco by fiddling with the three sails and rudder angle. Except for a couple minor course corrections, nobody has touched the wheel in over a day. If you aren’t a sailor, you might not appreciate how special that is.

Many, maybe most, sailboats can hold a more or less steady course themselves when sail into the wind. Very few are well balanced enough to do that sailing across the wind through changing winds and waves while keeping a good turn of speed up.

She IS an awesome boat!

Time: 08:20 local
Lat: 36 51
Log: 133 40
Distance from Hawaii: 1567
Distance to Golden Gate: 536.8
24 hour distance made good: 126 nautical miles

Sometimes it seems like the blog must read like the “Perils of Pauline”. A listing of this broke, then that went wrong, then something else went haywire. While it is true that stuff happens, most of the time it is just pretty fantastic out here. For example:

For the last 36 hours the wind has been between 17 and 25 knots almost all the time, and steady from the NNW. That has allowed me to get the boat set so she’ll steer herself on a beam reach toward San Francisco by fiddling with the three sails and rudder angle. Except for a couple minor course corrections, nobody has touched the wheel in over a day. If you aren’t a sailor, you might not appreciate how special that is.

Many, maybe most, sailboats can hold a more or less steady course themselves when sail into the wind. Very few are well balanced enough to do that sailing across the wind through changing winds and waves while keeping a good turn of speed up.

She IS an awesome boat!

Time: 08:20 local
Lat: 36 30
Log: 136 15
Distance from Hawaii: 1450
Distance to Golden Gate: 663.0
27 hour distance made good: 125.2 nautical miles

I am now officially listed as the autopilot jinx. No question.

Today’s report was supposed to be about how we made the transition from electronic autopilot to wind vane without a hitch, how after a couple hours tuning and tweaking I had “Wendy” doing a bang-up job. It was supposed to be about how we now have a straight run in to the Golden Gate, with steady winds forecast.

All that is true.

The only catch is that after about 18 hours of steering along happily, Wendy spontaneously disassembled herself and dropped her paddle into the deep. To prevent this being a disaster, I keep a safety line attached to the paddle. It came apart BELOW the attachment point for the safety line. Sigh. No paddle, no self steering.

So we are now treated to the Adventure of continuous hand steering into San Francisco. Most of the way we expect to be on a beam reach or broad reach, so more or less constant attention to the wheel will be needed. Fortunately a good attitude will prevent this from being too much of an ordeal!

Time: 6:35 local (we changed time zones again yesterday, this is a 23 hour day) Lat: 35 48
Log: 138 41
Distance from Hawaii: 1329
Distance to Golden Gate: 787
23 hour distance made good: 112.6 nautical miles

Moments after I sent yesterday’s report about all being well we had the most significant mechanical failure of the trip. The pump shaft seal failed in the hydraulic autopilot drive. Have to check on its warranty status, it’s only 6 months old!

Of course it took an hour or so to figure out what had gone wrong, and another two hours to fully rig up “Wendy” the wind vane. All the while Tom is getting some undesired experience in hand steering a big boat downwind in big waves. He did a great job, and now Wendy has taken over. We can’t push quite as fast, or run as straight a line with Wendy, but she did fine all day in difficult conditions.

We as now on a beam reach in 17 to 20 knot winds making good time. Wind and waves are settling down, and it is a much more comfortable ride now. Hope to have seen the last of 30+ knot winds for at least a few hours, I put up some more sail to keep our speed up.

Still looks like the 28th or 29th will find us under the Golden Gate Bridge.