Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Now that we've spent a few days in Monterey, we've finally mustered the energy to re-live our exhausting 46-hour sail to share with our followers.
After spending a week inland in Davis, CA, Anna decided to come back for more adventures, and arrived in Bodega Bay on Tuesday afternoon. We got the boat ready to go, grabbed a short night’s sleep, and left Bodega Bay on Wednesday morning around 4:00. Dinghy in tow, the wind was calm, which gave us a chance to try out the new outboard. The verdict: it was mounted too high, which meant that it bounced in and out of the water, not giving us much forward propulsion. Ten minutes off the dock and the list of projects to do at the next port stop had already began. We were forced to become traditional sailors, only moving when the wind was blowing.
That afternoon the winds filled in out of the NNW, which meant we’d be sailing down-wind for this leg. We rounded Point Reyes again, knowing we were still within range of the Bodega Bay Coast Guard if anything were to go wrong. Fortunately it didn’t, and that night we passed by the Farralon Islands and crossed 3 shipping lanes outside of San Francisco, successfully avoiding all traffic.
Early the next morning the auto-pilot, who had been our most valuable watch-member, became disabled when part of the bracket fell off. With Gilbert alone on watch (and Eliah and Anna comfortably asleep below), he found himself tied to the tiller, and not able to do anything else on deck. He watched, not able to prevent it from happening, as the whisker-pull broke and fell overboard, and as our Genoa jib became tangled in itself, its sheets, and the spinnaker halyard .
The swell built throughout the day, and outside of Monterey Bay we were in steady 15+ foot seas. This time no one got sea-sick, but no one was too interested in cooking or eating either. One 18-foot wave pooped our cockpit (crashed into the cockpit, for our non-sailor followers) and filled it up. Fortunately our hatch-covers proved to be water-tight, as no water leaked below deck. Another wave flipped our dinghy, which essentially turned it into a sea-anchor. Eliah re-led the tow line and hauled it in on one of our winches, and we made it off to our Starboard side, where it would sit for the remainder of the journey.
At about 10:00 Thursday night, we were 4 miles off of Monterey when the wind died. Not wanting to be traditional-style sailors in an area of traffic, we started the outboard and motored in for those last 4 miles, a journey which took us 4 hours. We came into the marina about 2:30 AM Friday morning, gorged ourselves on fast-food, and went to sleep.
Now we’re in Monterey Bay, and we’re excited that we finally made it to an intended destination. Monterey is famous for its marine life, and we’ve seen seals, sea lions and sea otters since arriving.
-Written by Anna Peters
After spending a week inland in Davis, CA, Anna decided to come back for more adventures, and arrived in Bodega Bay on Tuesday afternoon. We got the boat ready to go, grabbed a short night’s sleep, and left Bodega Bay on Wednesday morning around 4:00. Dinghy in tow, the wind was calm, which gave us a chance to try out the new outboard. The verdict: it was mounted too high, which meant that it bounced in and out of the water, not giving us much forward propulsion. Ten minutes off the dock and the list of projects to do at the next port stop had already began. We were forced to become traditional sailors, only moving when the wind was blowing.
That afternoon the winds filled in out of the NNW, which meant we’d be sailing down-wind for this leg. We rounded Point Reyes again, knowing we were still within range of the Bodega Bay Coast Guard if anything were to go wrong. Fortunately it didn’t, and that night we passed by the Farralon Islands and crossed 3 shipping lanes outside of San Francisco, successfully avoiding all traffic.
Early the next morning the auto-pilot, who had been our most valuable watch-member, became disabled when part of the bracket fell off. With Gilbert alone on watch (and Eliah and Anna comfortably asleep below), he found himself tied to the tiller, and not able to do anything else on deck. He watched, not able to prevent it from happening, as the whisker-pull broke and fell overboard, and as our Genoa jib became tangled in itself, its sheets, and the spinnaker halyard .
The swell built throughout the day, and outside of Monterey Bay we were in steady 15+ foot seas. This time no one got sea-sick, but no one was too interested in cooking or eating either. One 18-foot wave pooped our cockpit (crashed into the cockpit, for our non-sailor followers) and filled it up. Fortunately our hatch-covers proved to be water-tight, as no water leaked below deck. Another wave flipped our dinghy, which essentially turned it into a sea-anchor. Eliah re-led the tow line and hauled it in on one of our winches, and we made it off to our Starboard side, where it would sit for the remainder of the journey.
At about 10:00 Thursday night, we were 4 miles off of Monterey when the wind died. Not wanting to be traditional-style sailors in an area of traffic, we started the outboard and motored in for those last 4 miles, a journey which took us 4 hours. We came into the marina about 2:30 AM Friday morning, gorged ourselves on fast-food, and went to sleep.
Now we’re in Monterey Bay, and we’re excited that we finally made it to an intended destination. Monterey is famous for its marine life, and we’ve seen seals, sea lions and sea otters since arriving.
-Written by Anna Peters
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
We've decided, at least for the time being, not to try to repair our main engine, as nothing we've tried so far keeps her happy for very long. Instead, we picked up a new outboard in San Francisco, and will be betting our lives, or at least our pride, on it working for us. Anna, our third crew member for the California section of our sailing, went home from Bodega Bay, but is coming back today, and our plan is to get under way and see how far South we can get. Stay posted!
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
On October 9th at about 0700, Gilbert was on watch and Eliah and Anna were asleep below, recovering after a rough rounding of Cape Mendocino, which involved 30+knots of wind, and 10-12 foot seas. We were about 6 miles WSW of Point Reyes, about 30 miles off of San Francisco, when our engine sucked a valve into the cylinder and died. Again. Gilbert wasted no time shutting down the engine, and Eliah hailed the San Francisco Coast Guard to see if they could get us in touch with a tow company. The Bodega Bay (about 50 miles N of SF) Coast Guard picked up on our call, and sent a vessel out to check on us. When they got there they asked if we wanted a tow back to Bodega Bay. While not our intended destination, a free tow is a free tow so we accepted. Now we’re in Bodega Bay, which was where Hitchcock’s The Birds was filmed in 1963, and it appears as if the guano has been accumulating on the docks ever since. Stay posted for some pictures of this last voyage, and some videos of our broken engine.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
I can safely say that it was the largest and worst tsunami I have ever been through. Although, i'm not exactly the most qualified to speak on the subject. At 9:20 it tore into the harbor - all 6 inches of it. We sat in the restaurant looking down at the marina - where to our horror - nothing happened. - Gib
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