fetchinketch

I doubt is is possible for a shorthanded crew to hand steer a yacht 24 hours a day, for 2 weeks. Even if possible, it is certainly not my idea of fun. Fortunately, we have three ways to steer our yacht without standing at the wheel constantly.

First, is to let the boat steer herself. With careful sail trim, and reasonably steady winds, the Fetchin’ Ketch will drive herself in a very straight line. This has the the advantage of simplicity, no moving parts, and in the right conditions the boat holds a very good steady course. On the other hand, if the wind strength or direction is shifting, the boat has a hard time settling in a groove. Also, this really only works well when sailing upwind. In these conditions, other options are available.

Our electronic autopilot is affectionately (usually) known as “Otto”. A computer controls an electric motor that turns the steering wheel. Otto in various iterations has been a loyal crew member for about 10 years. He uses an electronic compass and the boat’s electronic wind sensor to decide where to point the boat. He works in most all conditions, is easy to set up and change course. He’s a great friend to a short handed crew. You can tell Otto to “Point the boat that way” and he’ll do it while the human crew runs around setting sails, or doing other tasks. He can steer if the boat is under sail or power.

On the down side, Otto is quite hungry for electricity. While out in the ocean we would struggle with our solar panels to keep him fed 24/7. He is also a complex electro-mechanical device with lots of moving parts. Although he has been reliable, if he has a major breakdown repair is not likely to be possible at sea.

This brings us to our newest crew member, Wendy. Wendy is a Sailomat windvane. She uses the wind to decide which way to turn the boat, and uses the water moving past the boat to generate the force needed to turn the rudder. A very clever system of strictly mechanical parts. We gave her a good workout today after making some modifications to her rigging, and she performed like a champ in 15 to 20 knots of wind she steered the boat to an accurate course both upwind and down. Not to mention, but she is also kind of hypnotically fascinating to watch.

Using no electricity the basic mechanism being pushrods, pulleys and lines, she is simple to repair. These reasons make windvanes pretty standard on long distance cruising boats. Of course, they aren’t perfect. They can be fussy, taking time to learn all of the adjustments needed to get good performance. Windvanes are not usable while under power, and they take a fair amount of time to get rigged and working. Finally, they do steer to a constant angle to the wind. If the wind changes, the boat follows.

Our expectation is that Wendy will be doing almost all the steering as we cross the ocean.

The storm forecast I was worried about is now known as Hurricane Jimena.  The forecast hasn’t changed, it is supposed to become a major storm in the next few days.  So I am feeling quite smart about my decision to hang out on the California coast for a few more days. It is a storm you might not hear anything about on the news since it looks like it will have nothing to do with inhabited landmasses.

Still here in Monterey, we are enjoying good weather, local sailing and local exploring. And sea otters!

What good is a weather forecast more than a week out?  Not much…  but that is a bit different than worth nothing at all.

The National Weather Service computer models run out for 14 days.  Anything past 5 days is considered “highly speculative”. With that said, here is a little picture of the computer model’s wind output plotted with out planned route and our expected position 10 days from now…

Wind Forecast for Sunday, September 6

My thinking today is we hang out along the coast for a few days until the forecast changes and the nastiness goes away, or it blows by.  If they have space for us here in Monterey we’ll hang here for a few days, if not we’ll make our way further south along the coast.

A beautiful sail down the coast.  Winds from behind almost all the way, and except for a short calm coming into Santa Cruz, between 8 and 20 knots the whole time.

Easy, fast downwind sailing…

The Breakwater Cove marina in Monterey is a great place to stop.  They are friendly and helpful.  The docks are near the downtown area, but not TOO near.  Sea otters play around the docks and sealions are everywhere.

Our plan is to spend two nights in Monterey and then take off…  But… now the question is take off for where?  After a relatively quiet time, the long range forecast for the eastern Pacific has a large nasty storm crossing the path between here and Hawaii.  We might hang out on the west coast for a few days until the forecast track is more clear.  Decision tomorrow.

Almost like they didn’t want us to leave…

San Francisco is a busy port, not busy like New York, or Los Angeles, but busy.  Despite that, you can sail most of a day in San Francisco Bay and not see a large ship moving around.  Of course the law of averages says that at other times it gets REALLY busy. Like when we were leaving…

Stay out of his way!

Between the time we when under the Golden Gate bridge and the time we cleared Point Bonita and were well and truly out in the ocean, a distance of maybe 2 miles, we had to dodge a tanker, three tugs with towed barges, a container ship and a bulk carrier.  The analogy with the squirrel and the car isn’t too far out of whack.  If a fat and happy squirrel weighs about a pound, and a car weighs 2000 lbs:  a 2000 to one ratio.  We weight 13 tons, some of these large ships outweigh us by a factor of more than 20,000.  We’d do less damage to them in a collision than that squirrel did to your car…

But we made it safe and sound, and finally see the west side of the Golden Gate Bridge, for the last time for a long while!

I am not a big fan of the “selfie” but sometimes there just isn’t any other way!

In line with the old proverb that the longest journey begins with a single step, we have taken our first step across the bay from Richmond, to Clipper Cove at the base of the new span of the Bay Bridge.  Quite the pretty bridge $6billion dollars buys!

The Oakland Bay Bridge at Dusk

Tomorrow’s plan is to get moving fairly early to top up the fuel tanks and head out into the ocean.  We’ll be heading down the coast to Monterey where we will dock, see the aquarium, and pick up a last minute part for the dinghy’s outboard.

A day or two there, and off we go… next stop Hawai’i!

5pm, we are off the dock for the last time!  Just a short hop this evening…

Last day at the dock…  our last real hot showers for a while…

Tomorrow morning the car goes into the garage, not to be seen until we get back.

For the next several weeks weather will be more of a concern to us than to most people in the modern world.  Today’s weather here was not too unusual for the summer in San Francisco Bay.  Here at the boat, the afternoon winds were screaming, at 5PM it was blowing a steady 30 knots, gusting to 35.  Just getting stuff done on the deck of the boat was a challenge. Out in the ocean, on the other hand, wind was virtually nonexistent.  The weather stanion that is 8 miles offshore was reporting 2 knots…  Just as well we didnt get out there today!  We would have sat and bobbed.

Things are running down to the wire now, even if it feels like we are running in place sometimes.

Today we did our last provisioning run and trip to the chandlery. The boat is down in the water by at least an inch with all the stuff we have brought onboard!  The dinghy’s outboard is back together and ready to run.  We have almost everything stowed away.  One last run to storage and some logistical stuff in the morning and everything will be ready enough.

So, we will likely be away from the dock tomorrow afternoon.  We’ll  stop to fill fuel and water tanks, and spend the night anchored in the bay, then catch Sunday mornings ebb tide out the gate.

Depending on the weather and our last minute decision making we might head down to Monterey, or head straight out to the open ocean…