After a very frustrating start yesterday where we struggled to find enough wind to get the boat moving away from the coast, an pick up in the breeze overnight got the boat running like a dog with a bone in her teeth. We ended up making a noon to noon run of 122 miles.
During the day today we have had variable conditions, but mostly we are making respectable progress in the right direction. Although that legendary downwind run to Hawai’i remains elusive as we continue close on the wind.
Karen has seemingly completely recovered from her initial queasiness and is having a great time. She did comment that she was glad the wind was up overnight when she couldn’t really see how big the waves were.
Today’s wildlife count, one distant whale spout, one ocean sunfish, a school of white sided dolphin, and an albatross. By the way if you aren’t familiar with an ocean sunfish (Scientific name: Mola mola) it is well worth looking up. The are the largest bony fish, and certain one of the most surreal looking critters.
Update to that last paragraph, moments after I wrote it, more whales, dolphins, and several very large, very fast fish buzzed around the boat.
Going has been really slow. The wind has been light and variable, and mostly from the south. There is a long swell coming in from the West, which has made going kind of sloppy. Karen is “getting her sea legs”, but feeling a little better.
A pod of large dolphins, a minke whale and a couple of albatross were today’s entertainment.
The wind is just now picking up and clocking around to the “right” direction. We’re finally moving faster and in a direction vaguely toward Hawai’i!
The weather between the mainland and Hawai’i is stabilizing, Jimena is still a major hurricane, but is heading away from waters where we will be, and he has no friends close on his heels. So…tomorrow is our departure day. We celebrated with a feast for dinner out tonight.
The boat is ready, we will take on fuel and water in the morning, and then be on our way before noon.
Today was busy with some last minute projects, and provisioning. The whale was back in the marina again today for a few minutes for our daily entertainment.
Overall, I think coming to Monterey was a great call. Besides avoiding weather we really didn’t want to be in, the chance to make a few last minute adjustments was very helpful.
You’ll see more of our posts, more or less daily, as we cross the ocean. Here’s hoping for an uneventful trip!
Despite the major die off of anchovies in the marina here yesterday, there are still large number of them swimming around the marina. There are still lots and lots of things eating them. The birds are busy eating dead stinky anchovies and converting them to stinky bird poop. The humpback whale is back again this morning eating thousands of them at a time. The mackerel are doing their part to reduce the numbers of anchovies, with help from the seals and sealions, and a large number of terns.
Said the anchovy, “Run away! Run away! Here comes the sealion!”
This post was going to be about the sail we took out of the harbor yesterday to catch some fish. So I could brag about catching right where and when I expected. Which I did.
A black rockfish accepts a dinner invitation.
Cute, eh? But more interesting pictures further down the story….
But the better story was after we got back to the dock. The start goes back a few days, when a huge school of anchovies swam into the harbor and got stuck. They aren’t very bright, anchovies. Millions, and millions of 3 to 4 inch fish were swarming around in huge schools with their mouths open straining plankton from the water.
Yesterday morning the behavior of the tiny fish started to change. The schools were moving slower, they weren’t feeding, and individual fish were occasionally splashing up to the surface. My prediction was that they were running out of oxygen in the confined water of the harbor, and we were going to see a mass die off before long. It had happened a couple of weeks ago, and the city scooped 15 TONS of dead fish out of the harbor.
When we got back from our fishing trip (did I mention we were successful?) I was getting ready to start cooking some fresh rockfish for dinner, when a large number of splashes attracted our attention out of the boat. A large school of 12 to 18 inch long Pacific Mackerel have swarmed into the marina, and they are feasting on the anchovies. I rigged up a light rod and quickly caught a couple of the shiny green and silver torpedos for fun, but I started to worry about tangling with the sealions and otters. At this point the anchovies are dying in large numbers. Seals, sealions, and mackerel are feasting on the now sluggish schools making quite a show in the small harbor. Unknown to us, they were just the warm-up act. Cue the next critter…
A woman’s startled cry, rushing water, and a loud roar of air announce the presence of a large humpback whale, his head rising feet from the dock, mouth full of anchovies. Now,
Hardly room to turn around between the docks.
when I say “feet from the dock” I don’t mean 100 or 50 feet. I don’t mean 10 feet. I mean like five–reach out and touch him kinds of–feet. For the next hour the whale swam around in this very confined corner of the harbor vacuuming up anchovies to the delight of a gathering crowd of tourists.
It was actually pretty amazing that an animal of this size (BIG!) and used to the open ocean was able to maneuver in such a confined space and never touch a dock or moored boat.
As it got dark, the whale left, and the the last of the anchovies were dying. Kind of beyond awesome an awesome kind of day. Oh, yes, the rockfish was very tasty, when I finally got around to cooking it.
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.
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!
fetchinketch 