Destination is Bodega Bay, CA which is approximately 190 miles.
My Humboldt Bay Rasta Sailor
THURSDAY, 10/13/2011:
6:46am PST, outside Mendocino, CA.
The boys made great progress in the past 24 hours! They travelled approximately 91.374 nm.
Paul texted me at 2:45am HST this morning saying that they were "flying just under the cape. Trying to tuck in from strong north that came up in the afternoon. 10.2 kt, sailing downwind! So, wind got stronger, put away jib. Were still sailing at 7.7 kt on reefed main alone as we sailed east to tuck in under the cape. Ten miles off shore we found protection and wind mellowed."
via paul's email.
was heavy off the cape- we hit 35 knot steady winds from the south (hey, I need to go south!) and 14' seas that boiled up off Cape Mendocino, CA in the middle of the night. The wind built and built as we were 35 miles offshore to round the cape. Up one wave and down the other. Auto pilot would not hold the course so we hand-steered, 2-hr shifts. I was below when "BANG," a very different wave hit us from the starboard side and tipped us way over. Not a knock down, but 30-40 degrees. Everything went flying off the shelves, cabinet doors opened and things flew across the cabin. Water broke into the cockpit (some, not that bad as Trim is really good in rough water). I rushed up to cockpit. "Nick, what was that?" He said "I never saw it." And its true, the rain was pelting down sideways and the tops of the waves were blowing off and adding sideways spray.
About then, the motor quit. Oh sheet. The boat starting getting sideways in the waves, as they will do in a hurry. Nick had the wheel. I said, "I'll give us some jib so we can get head way. I turned on the spreader lights and said "you look forward and tell me when we have a 3' triangle of jib," as I let out the roller furl oh so carefully. If I let out too much we would be so overpowered, and never be able to crank it back in. It worked, Nick got the boat moving on a starboard reach towards shore, 35 miles east. Nick says "GPS says 35 miles, we can make Eureka this tack." "OK, lets go," I said, "I'll fix the motor when its calm". So we headed off into the darkness at 2:30 AM towards shore.
As we started making better headway and it was manageable to steer ( still solid steady 35 knots), I added more jib till it was about 8 ft deployed, a storm jib for sure. "Trim" liked it, and we jumped to 7-9 knots with a top speed of ten under hardly any sail. Once we made ten miles or so, we were in the lee of the cape so to the wind from the south and all of a sudden we were protected by the cape. Amazing! It went from 35 knots and boiling water to say, 20 knots and no blowing waves in like ten minutes. Then the sea continued to settle as we got closer to shore. I took a breather, then got into the engine and found we had lost our fuel prime from the knock down. No fuel to diesel engine, she stops, and then no start again till you bleed the air from the system. I've done it a hundred times, so I turned on the overhead light in the cockpit and jumped into the engine room with three wrenches tied to my wrist. Nick would tell me when he saw a wave, so I was ready. Twenty minutes later I had the engine running again, and we now motor-sailed towards the entrance to Eureka, CA.
"Charlie's Charts," THE coastal cruising book said its a safe harbor, and we are going in. We arrived to the bar/harbor entrance at about 11 AM. Boiling water on each side of these two log breakwater jetties that point straight out to the west. Coasties (U.S. Coast Guard) say its a 12' swell, the tide is almost slack and we go. Coming in between these breakwaters about 200 feet apart there was breaking water on both jetties. The swells were coming straight in down the entrance. Nick was driving and I could see none were breaking in the center, "drive center, OK?" He said "you take it, my knees is shakin'." Ya...so at 1600 RPMs, about 6 knots we came in, the swell was big and it reminded me of a real big day of surfing, seeing the waves from behind, but they didn't break, they were just big lumps of water going about twice as fast as we were going under the keel. Looking back was even weirder, so I didn't, and we did fine. "Trimming Out" held her course and we didn't get at all sideways, we would just surf down the swell and then another one would come from behind and again, it was like a kid's mellow roller coaster ride....Safe.
We motored the 7 miles to Eureka harbor, got a slip, we walked to town and found a morning beer! I got online and found us rooms in a Travel-Lodge down the street, and we went and slept the sleep of the dead... but we were safe and thankful to be out of harm's way.
It took two days to dry everything out, and I bought a second dehumidifier. The weather improved much on the morning of the 3rd day as we crossed the bar in 12-14 ft. seas, per the Coasties on our final leg to the Golden Gate bridge...but thats another story!
Thanks, "Trimming Out," for a safe, fun ride down the coast!
Out.
Paul
Oh, and a footnote:
As I paid my moorage in the harbormaster's office in Eureka the day before we left, I saw pics on the walls of all these shipwrecks and huge breaking seas at a harbor entrance. "Where is this?," I asked. She says "right out there where you came from and are going." Ohhhhhhh...
She went on to say that Eureka is the second most deadly harbor entrance on the coast, right behind the Columbia River bar at Astoria, Oregon: 2000 ships lost there.
I think I'll wear by brown pants when we leave here, and I was also thinking that I will never go north of San Fran!
Amen !
10/13/2011, 9:40am HST:
Paul just called from the SAT phone and left message that they are going to make a straight run to SF, passing Boedga Bay, in order to catch the right tide for entering SF Bay. He estimates it will take them all day today and all night, to catch the in-coming tide around 8am.
10/13/2011, 8:25 pm HST:
The boys are almost at SF Bay!
I will update with more info in the morning, Paul is supposed to call me as he enters SF Bay!
No comments:
Post a Comment