Musica

It may be hard to see but there are three computers attached to three super-duper antennas while we are on the rare internet connection!!

I had a chance to slide around Barra de Navidad the other day and stumbled on a music shop. The proprietor was more than happy to guide me through lots of CD’s according to my tastes and I came away with lots of new music. A group I had discovered back in La Cruz became the cornerstone for the exploration as he tossed one CD after another at me… I said, “Otra vez,” and he would click to the next selection with his remote as he piled the CD’s on. Gads, I was lucky to get out alive!!

This was about as much fun as you can have on a warm Sunday afternoon on your way to the pool!

There is a slight story here too because, as those who know me well will attest, I will always stop to listen to new music. There are lost hours in my life where I was under the headphones somewhere discovering new music. Obviously these are not blank to me but, rather, the world around could easily have spun off its axis and gone wandering the universe and I might not have noticed.

So you may wonder what I found?

Maná (accent over the second “a”) in a two album set – “Falta Amor & Donde Jugaran Los Niños” (you know that niños has an “enyay”, right?). Not having a Spanish keyboard or a way to put these in properly sometimes drives me a bit crazy.

Reyli in an album called “FE” (Faith) a coincidence to be sure.

An all female pop group called Jeans – “Porque Soy Libre…”

These are the only three that I have had time to listen to all the way through and they are excellent. More to follow later as I get the others entered and listened to. There were also two from La Cruz excursions that will get a mention later as well.

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Another thing that has occurred to me today was that, “Worry is not an occupation; it’s a disease.” This comes from boat issues we are having (still) and realizing that some days there is absolutely nothing you can do about it that day. We, fortunately, have “work arounds” for most problems. We currently have to run the newly purchased generator a bit to have enough power until we get the new batteries installed. “Hmmm,” you say, “Didn’t you guys get new batteries back in La Cruz?” Well, yes we did but it turns out they delivered 12 volt batteries instead of the 6 volt ones I asked for. Even my suspicious concerns when they were handed over were brushed aside by the delivery guy. When I finally had time to check them (after laying awake much of the night, worrying) because they didn’t look right to me I confirmed my suspicions. By the same token, sometimes, others on the boat run around from time to time with worry being their primary issue unable to do anything to alleviate or fix the source of their excitement. This is fairly destructive because when there isn’t anything you can do this heightened worry just wears on everyone and makes us crabby. Crabby doesn’t have a place in paradise in my estimation. Anyway, it goes against my normally cheery disposition!!

What A Hoot!!!

The Cruiser's Christmas Party Venue

Whoa!!! What a wonderful time we have been having lately!!! I have to work on the writing because the last few days have been awesome... and I am still alive!!!

We are in Barra de Navidad for Christmas (I mean how perfect is that... we are in Christmas for Christmas) and you could not ask for a more magical and wondrous place!!! If cruising were any more inspiring it would hurt to be this fun!!! Let's not dwell on the fact that we got stuck in the MUD bottom twice coming in and once getting anchored because the rest of this has been so far toward the other end of the scale of stress (i.e.: not stress is what I have in mind here) that you can't get better than this!!!

Others might say that this is hot here... not so this Arizona boy. It is comfortably warm and (I'm aware this may be too much information but...) I don't wear much clothing these days. Of course it doesn't hurt that I am a lot less rotund than I used to be and paradise is a great place to figure out who you always wanted to be.

Anyway, if I can download some pictures in the next few days I will try to add more flavor to this descriptive of a life style that I am in love with!!!

A Treasure Recognized

No picture at the moment so I will have to start a fresh entry after I put this ever so short one in.

Today was one of those exercises in extreme parts searching. Never mind that in any boating oriented community in the U.S. of A. I could have gotten everything I needed within an hour or so of running around. Today was an hour bus ride to find out that not one of the six places I stopped at had the most significant part that I needed. All told it was about 4 1/2 hours of trying to find the thing and coming up empty. A few days earlier I had gone into PV with Sandy so that we could buy a generator and had a similar chase to even find the Honda store!!

The "capper" was that when I got back to the boat I found out that (probably me, myself or I) had left the tops off of one of the house batteries in the course of checking it last time and it was totally gone - history - done in - trashed!! Ah well, that meant another chase to find batteries that could be delivered. Fortunately there is a wonderful lady here at the marina working as a Concierge!!! What a great thing to have a translator with the use of the phone to speed the search when the going gets tough. Even though there wasn't much she could for the part I couldn't locate (period) she was able to call and find batteries of the specified type and size in a matter of minutes THEN negotiate the purchase and delivery!!! As we say around here,"how cool is that?"

I have needed this level of service all my life, I think.

To Bash or Not to Bash

The Not-As-Expected flat seas going north.



So, the catamaran left La Cruz in the afternoon and we were soon out in Banderas Bay headed for the open ocean. There was suddenly the smell of burning oil and the skipper, Chuck, ran to the front of the boat and opened the “hood” where the genset was throwing oil all over the front of the boat! It seems in our haste to get away the skipper had forgotten to put the cap back on the valve cover after adding oil. What a mess. Chuck signaled for me to shut off the diesel generator and we drifted while we cleaned up, added fresh oil and finally started the genset back up. You see, the electric motors that provide propulsion (other than the sails) will only work if the generator is running!!

As we reached the end of the bay at Punta de Mita we were met with increased seas and a bit more wind. This continued as we saw the sun lower itself into the sea ahead and to the left (port) of the boat. There was no moon and the night was extremely dark; with only stars and a bit of phosphoressence we had our first night at sea passing almost immediately. Our watches were three hours on and three hours off. This schedule meant that we were to see each other almost exclusively at watch change for the coming week. The first leg to Cab San Lucas was lumpy and we needed fuel by the time we got there a couple of days later just at sunset. This lumpy sea was what I had expected for the whole of this trip. The catamaran was fairly noisy because the waves would slam the bridge deck under foot and you would literally jump with the force of each slam. It was chaotic and sleep was fitful at best. We arrived on a Sunday and anchored at about 20:00 after first snagging a chain that was likely left over from the old mooring ball system that used to be in the bay outside of Cabo. It took considerable effort and a broken boat hook to untangle that chain from our hook so we could not raise a water taxi by the time we were ready to go ashore. Hmmm, dinner on the boat and quickly to sleep to catch up on the sleep missed so far and be ready for an early departure.

At about 04:30 we got up and headed for the fuel dock after a quick breakfast and coffee. Arriving before it opened we waited until 07:00 to get our fuel and get out of Cabo before we were caught and had to check in. It would have been a huge hassle to have to check in and there really was no purpose to it. It all meant that we were back at sea within an hour. Our goal was to bash north to Bahia Santa Maria but we had almost no swell and very little wind. A couple of days later we just agreed that we should not stop in order to take advantage of the great weather window we had stumbled onto!! We didn’t need to catch up on sleep at this point, so why stop? What amazed me the most was the glassy smooth ride we were experiencing. After the first leg was so noisy this leg was relatively calm. The wind we did have was less than 15 knots (mostly on the nose) and it would periodically go down to near 2 or 3 knots. The fishing was great. We caught Dorado, Wahoo, Bonito and the like. It turned out that Chuck is a really good cook and he experimented with the fish with great results. The boat is somewhat underpowered, more on that in a minute, but we managed a steady 5.5 knot average speed going to windward. When the wind kicked up at all we slowed to 3 knots until we pushed the throttle up a few notches. It was a fine ride as we pulled into Turtle Bay four long days later to refuel and attend to some minor maintenance issues that had arisen. A day spent in Turtle Bay was a small slice of heaven, really. The weather had turned noticeably cooler and we were ready for showers. A walk around town and a visit on another catamaran had us ready for the next leg. We didn’t have blankets on board!!! It was so much cooler at night that we broke out the long underwear and sweaters.

That brings us to the last leg into San Diego. Another three days of little or no wind!! I couldn’t believe our luck. This turned out to be the non-bash north!!! As we came into S.D. there was a regatta going on and we crossed the fleet on our way to the police dock to check in with Customs and do the formalities. For Chuck it meant coming into the country again after four months and nine countries from the British Virgin Islands through Panama Canal and up west coast of Central America and Mexico. He could more easily find crew again and the owner had decided to meet him in Marina Del Rey for the last slog up to San Francisco. Life is sweet sometimes to be sure.

The boat: A Leopard 43 with propulsion provided by a one off system designed by Glacier Bay (the refrigeration company). It has a 25 Kw generator driving twin electric motors. We had an issue with the fuel pump and had to replace it for our final assault but it worked very well burning just over a gallon an hour of diesel for most of the trip. We did manage to sail occasionally, but for the most part we motor sailed. The thing that the system needed most was a much friendlier user interface. It had a touch screen that was WAY too complex. It has hidden screens and the descriptions of what the commands are were a puzzle. It really needed and larger screen that could be toned down for night time visibility.

Oh, and the picture is a deceased sea lion about ready to explode... not far from there we caught a great wahoo for dinner!!!

A Bit of a Change in Plan(s)

So, momentarily I have accepted a paid position on a boat being delivered north. Hmmm, I might be crazy but it should take about two weeks then I will fly back to paradise!! It's a different kind of boat or I wouldn't have gone for this deal. It's an electrically motored catamaran with all sorts of innovative technology on board so I will have a chance to see how this works out. In any event, it will be a way to see how a long term cruise might be on a cat!!! The Electric Leopard has been in charter service in the Caribbean and is being taken home to San Francisco... my part in this is only to San Diego then jump off. Sweet!!

The picture will have to wait because after 3 very long tries at getting the picture in I am giving up until I can get a better connection. Oooops, spoke too soon... so here's the picture.

Cruiser's Transportation

So, today I needed to get into Puerto Vallarta from La Cruz. It is easy to get there. You would need only to walk up the small hill from the marina (if you are in the marina), a distance of less than a mile and catch the ATM bus for NP$14.00 (about a dollar at the current exchange rate). Then sit patiently for a span of about an hour (less on an E-ticket ride) and you are there. Well, you are at the out skirts of P.V. anyway. You then look for a bus that says it’s going to Centro and hop on that for another NP$5.50 and the next thing you know you are there!

This trip had multiple stops that I needed to make so was a bit disjointed because I kept paying for more than the distance from place to place because I didn’t correctly recall which place came first. Oh well, at the end of it all I made all the stops I set out to make and probably paid a few pennies more than I would have if I had been more organized. No big deal. You almost never find what you are looking for at the place you think you should find it… but that’s just fine with me. It usually means that I end up with a little more adventure than I otherwise would have. This particular trip was solo so I wasn’t trying to help a group get on and off at the needed stops and I was following only my own agenda. It definitely gets more complicated if there are multiple drivers for where “we” should be going next. Especially if the destinations change as the day progresses!!

For all that this was a great if exhaustive day. Despite all the bus riding I probably hoofed it about four miles. That’s very healthy although I am now very stiff and will wind this up and go in search of appropriate refreshment.

I ended up writing this from Philo's (file-oh's) in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle and the beer is cold the ribs are on the grill and life is sooo good!!

Random Tangents

As I sit here in Banderas Bay at La Cruz in the warm state of Nayarit a series of thoughts have fought their way to the surface. The journey to arrive here has had several sides to it. From Portland to San Francisco was a really cold segment now, almost but not totally, forgotten. The dimming rear view window of the Baja Ha-Ha is still fresh enough to gather impressions from but it too is fading as the real cruising starts here in this fantastic bay. The things that we needed to remember to bring along for the Ha-Ha we mostly remembered. The extra lures resurfaced yesterday when we put the salon back together after using it as a stateroom for several weeks. That might have been useful when the fishing was so good between San Diego and Cabo but we had all the fish we could store. Now I look forward to catching more fish to refill the freezer and pop quickly on BBQ or make sashimi from an on deck specimen. Remembering to bring fishing gear is a big item on my list of things not to be forgotten. The warmer weather has made us rearrange the storage of our clothing too. All that fridged wind and water up north meant that we lived in our long underwear for most of the first quarter of the trip but it really needed to be put away south of Point Conception. The Ha-Ha folks kept commenting that this was one of the warmest or possibly THE warmest year ever so we didn’t need to have so much of that stuff available from San Diego on. Ah well, it was a good thing to have out even though it made the clutter factor go WAY up! Putting all that away was a significant plus in my personal morale adjustment here. The outbreak of shorts and t-shirts will likely continue for the rest of the cruise. Another thing that stands out now is the excellent choice of crew that Sandy made for each leg. Everyone was incredibly compatible considering the close quarters. It is not to say that everything was always smooth but the heartburn was definitely minimal. This is a difficult thing to judge before you leave the dock but the fact that most of these folks had sailed together before is probably partly responsible for this major plus to the trip. Each person seemed to have good things to offer for each leg. Parallel to this is that we have enjoyed similar music most of the time. There is a lot to be said for an iPod that can be passed from watch to watch. We had two audio books that have stood watch almost as many times as I have. Granted, we had two and sometimes three iPods going at times but it has been surprisingly compatible. I have also begun to add to my Latin music collection here… when I am someplace that has music I like I ask about it and sometimes try to buy it on the spot from the owner. In any event, this entire time has been filled with music.

Random Tangents Continued

Beer, now there’s a subject for cruising Mexico. Since we left San Diego we have sampled many types of the available cervesas!! It has been hot enough of late that a cold beer or two from the fridge is just what is called for. We haven’t had much opportunity to trade beer for something but that’s a minor issue. The fact is that toting a few beer-i to a nearby boat is a great ice breaker. Since we have been in marinas more than I anticipated this has been even easier than a dinghy ride. Between distributing excess fish and a few beers we have met and made lots of friends. One great thing about the Ha-Ha is that you get a book of the profiles for the fleet… since these are the same people you tend to see in the anchorages and marinas later you have enough information to start a conversation anyway but grease it with a gift and you start on a better foundation.

A little bit of change has been the check-in/out drill had gone to a simpler format but now seems to be edging back to the complicated in small increments. We have checked-in in person in La Cruz and find that we will have to do the check-out in person as well. Some places have been by radio so that’s just one of those things that changes from port to port. Overall I would have to add that the procedural side of this isn’t nearly as difficult/bad as it used to be. Everyone is still professional but any little thing seems to upset the sensibilities of these first timers so it can amplify any misperceptions quickly on the morning net. Being laid back seems to be a hard thing for some people no matter where they are!!

Time zones are a small oddity that has confused my internal clock more this time than usual. This is a small thing but it has meant changing three zones and the difference between the long summer days of the Northwest and the flash and down sunshine here is making it hard to readjust. It is probably easier for me than my shipmates because they are used to the Portland time that we left and since it’s warm here they are thinking they are on summer time… sunset is WHEN? Well, that’s okay; they had to listen to my sense of amazement at 10:00 p.m. sunsets in Portland to no end.

Ahem, boat projects, which as we all know are actually endless have, surprise, surprise, been endless. The dripless shaft seal that broke underway, the inverter that wouldn’t drive the coffee pot, the windlass that packed it in somewhere before Turtle Bay, the water system that lost pressure, the discovery that the system for hauling the dinghy outboard to the rail sucks and sooo many more items that have hit the list in the last thousand or so miles are no news here but it leaves little time for fun if you are the one expected to fix the stuff. I was so drained the other day I actually got a little cranky. That is something that rarely happens… really. I am so happy to be doing this that a little bit of work doesn’t sow me down much or for very long. Currently there are about 16 known issues on the boat and I am working through them knowing that the list will get still longer before I get to the end of the list!!! It’s just like homeownership; the work never really stops. Prioritizing is probably the biggest issue here because I might set a different cast on the problems than someone else onboard. As they are used to me saying at this point, “It’s all good!!” We are here doing something we want to do as opposed to digging ditches or some such. As the water guy said to me today while we were schlepping water to the boat, “You guys have it so easy.” Of course this, from his point of view is so totally correct that words fail me. He earns about US$18 per day and really works to get it. I rode with him to the plant and got him cleared into the marina to earn a bunch extra because I had flagged him down. He said it in Spanish, naturally, but we chatted politics and such as we collected the water needed to run the boat for the next month. We now have nearly 30, five gallon, jugs of water in the tanks. He couldn’t believe I was helping him bring the bottles to the boat either. The buyer usually lets him deliver and here that can sometimes mean quite a hike carrying two of these really heavy jugs at a time. That’s right he doesn’t use a cart!!

E-ticket rides are numerous here too. I will let others in the connected blogs tell you about this from their perspectives but I will say that between panga rides, taxis and bus rides makes even an atheist feel like crossing him/herself anytime you have to go somewhere. Between the crashing gears and the quick dodging moves complete with blaring horn you would think that the passengers would be white knuckled and crazed but no one even flinches. Like I say I will let others tell the story but this is the preview of these tangential thoughts.

Here's Some In-Fill

So, lets back up and fill some of the blanks from the last month.

We did the big party in San Diego for the Ha-Ha while we were at the police dock awaiting the start. A few pictures from that are attached here. It really set the tone for a crazy trip to Cabo San Lucas. There are only two stops along the way so I can't really say that we were cruising until after the Cabo experience. Cabo was just as wacked out as it always and the anchorage just as idiotic... with its rolly ways during the day from all the full speed pangas, cruise ship traffic and PWC's criss-crossing between the anchored boats!!

The first night where the crew went to Squid Roe for truly insane experience. Admittedly it hasn't been all that long ago that I had jello shot but it was a first for Sandy and several others... Mmmm, tequila en Jello!!

All else being equal it was great to get free of Cabo and move up to the new marina at San Jose del Cabo. We only stayed long enough to catch our collective breath before setting off for a two nighter dash for Puerto Vallata. The cruising has begun!!! Warm and wonderful. Sooo much more to follow!!

Further Down the Track

So, We are in Puerto Vallarta with all that happened between San Diego and here burning to be told!!! At this time we will be in one place for about 10 days so there may be time to update this puppy and let everyone know that the Baja Ha-Ha IS A HOOT and a half. It was disconcerting to move as often as we did and stuff on the boat has broken BUT, all-in-all, this has been a fun part of the semi-planned fun of cruising. Right now, after two days sailing from San Jose del Cabo, just 18 miles east of Cabo San Lucas, we are in need of bathing and refreshment so this will be short. MMMM, cleaning myself in fresh water sounds like heaven!!!

Be good one and all!!
Pictures at 10:00.

SD Update

So, it has been awhile for me to do the update because I didn’t have a connection or time (either one in sufficient quantities anyway) to get this done. We are here in San Diego for the next ten days and then off to the south and a likely big gap before anything else will be put into here.

Let’s see, what has happened in the interim time period to be filled in on? Since last we met… the trip south from Monterey has been interesting. We did manage to sail for a time out of Monterey Bay with a course that eventually would have led us to Hawaii. I was out voted so we had to turn on the iron gennaker (a very special 50 horse power “sail”) and point the boat more toward the south. From Point Sur to Point Conception we were surfing in some larger waves with a great wind on our stern (either and/or both quarters from time to time). The great thing was that I said that it would be all different as soon as we rounded Point Conception and it truly was!! We went from rough to flat seas in a matter of a half an hour or so. The temptation was to enjoy the new kind of seas and a fresh warmth that we have not seen before in the northern parts of this trip. We caved into the temptation. The smoothness of the ride into Marina Del Rey is to be marveled at. The night sped away and we ended up exactly on track coming into port. Sunshine and palm trees are the most notable of the changes. Marina Del Rey has a great guest dock and facilities and with very wide fairways is also something new… to say that the skipper liked this would be a grand understatement. In MDR we had a fantastic walk to Venice beach and more than a few instantaneous parties with new and previous friends. This was a great break in traveling and seems to mark a real beginning to the cruising part of the adventure because it has not now been about making the next port. Instead we are enjoying staying in each place (as you will see in a minute). We did have a small concern or two about the Santa Ana winds predicted for our next “passage” out to Catalina Island but when we set out there wasn’t that much wind. We did, however, have a wind plan, just in case. We activated the first part of the plan when we hove to and reefed the mainsail at 15 knots of wind but as soon as we deployed sail and proceeded the wind went back down to 5 knots and had us rolling out the iron gennaker again.

The really good news about all this is that we went to Catalina Harbor (Cat Harbor, as it is more often called) around the “back side” of the island. This a place I have been several times before and much prefer over Avalon Harbor. As it turns out the Santa Ana winds did finally arrive and ripped through Avalon and overturned a power boat in the harbor at its mooring. Yikes!! We on the other hand were quite happy in our comfortable natural bay and had no trouble playing for a couple of days. The straight shot from there to San Diego meant that we had a day sail after leaving a little before dawn into Mission Bay’s Mariner Cove. Happy and sad defines all this at the moment because the first thousand miles is now behind us and only another 800 miles separate us from Cabo San Lucas. The even warmer waters that await after that are calling too so maybe this idyllic place that I have always enjoyed will awaken the crew to the new possibilities when we leave. Call me silly to think this but it won’t be long before we are out of San Diego and moving again.

More on all this later.

Right now I am back to having a slew of boat projects that MUST be completed before the starting gun goes off for the Baja Ha-Ha rally starts. There are many things to be done but the good news is that S.D. is loaded with chandleries and resources to help make this as easy as it can be. Not to mention the fun of exploring new chandleries and marine related stores. One of the plagues that has beset us for the last 400 miles has involved the inverter/charger… that’s the device that changes DC electrical power to AC electrical power (among other duties) and has been misbehaving for us. Personally I am less grumpy when I have had lights on demand or good coffee in the morning.

Another side note too; you may remember my cousin Steven giving us copies of his latest CD’s in San Francisco. Well, this has become an instant hit on the boat. He did not disappoint in any way with his new selection of music. I mean, damn, he and Jackie really put together some tasty stuff!! Get the iPod fired up… it’s time to put the new stuff in there and weave it into the playlists!!

Okay, enough for now. We will be here long enough to have a shot at adding more while we are here.

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A few side notes are appropriate at this point. It’s a safe bet that our days of sailing will increase from here on out going south… the arrival of the spinnaker has seen to that!!!

Another thing to come along has been the correction of the circuits for powering the various devices aboard. Oh happy day!!

I went to an all day seminar for Sailmail (and Winlink) and hope to have that completed and running soon. The issue is that it doesn’t allow attachments, mass address joke files or much more than simple text messages.

Monterey and south...

Well, we got to Monterey, as I am sure you likely know by now because everyone else aboard posts more often than I do. Existence is not validated by the act of arriving but, rather, by continuing the journey. Yesterday we hiked all over and I am now aboard just doing some rounding out of tasks in preparation for tomorrows departure for still warmer climes. One small issue arose when it rained yesterday and one of the holes I put in the deck in the process of installing the solar panels leaked a bit. A soggy way to awaken to be sure!!

The pictures are from yesterdays meanderings and "shopping". My part of shopping is typically to stand outside of whatever store has been entered and wait for everyone to re-emerge. As an official tourist I should be looking more diligently but I have seent he same stuff with a different city name on it for a lot of years, so there isn't that much that gets me excited about this stuff. I like it when others buy some of it but there isn't enough space for me to add to the load on the boat at this point. Maybe later. The weather continues to improve and I am MUCH more interested in getting warm again!

So, for now I will leave it at this and put a longer post in later when I have computer time when we get to Marina Del Rey down the track a ways.

Balance

So, here’s the problem with this port… there is way too much to do and see while still having things that absolutely have to be done on the boat while we are here!!! San Francisco is one of the premier places to visit for the sights and experience of being in S.F. but the time here is limited. We picked up the repaired (previously torn) main sail today and there are still projects calling out for completion BUT there are also about a bazillion places to catch as touristy places that, I for one, would like to see. Yikes!!! Too many places and not enough time!! We will see how this unfolds but for now I am trying to focus on the safety aspects while waiting to see if any particular day has space in it for all these great places to visit. I have been here many times in the past and still have not seen a quarter of what the average tourist sees because there was always an agenda that didn’t allow for a “time-out” to make the stops necessary. Today we did manage to go to a great marine chandlery, then to the other end of the bay to North Sails and then into Sausalito to mill about so it has been a good day with a mix of things. We did also get caught in the rush hour and spent a lot of time just bludgeoning ourselves with an urban problem we don’t wish to participate in any more. Oh well, no good deed goes unpunished. It also meant that the problem I wanted to finish today never even made it to the organization stage.

“Tomorrow,” I say to myself resolutely, “I will finish the radio.”

In any case, I am enjoying the sunshine and now feeling a part of this marina with all the people we have met this far. Ah yes, this brings up the issue of tools. While I had a great shop at home it did not translate into having everything I need at hand when I need to create something here. Much of what I had is now residing in a basement in Portland or a garage in Las Vegas, you see. I don’t really want to buy a tool for every need because it would likely sink the boat to add all that weight. In meeting all these new people there have been tools offered when I bring up what I am working on. We do have lots of tools to offer too, when it comes to it, so among the informal fleet it seems there is always something available to fix whatever needs fixing. We have lots of creative ways offered to fix things too… that is, everyone always has at least one opinion on how a job should be done best. Lots of logic but usually only a few ways are really useful when all the facts are known. It’s amazing what the solutions offered are sometimes too. I like this aspect of chatting with fellow cruisers; there is always a surprise or two hidden in the conversation.

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As it turned out the skipper declared a tourist day and forbade any work to be done. We pointed the rental car toward the city and shortly found ourselves on the Embarcadero cruising all the touristy stuff. What a fun day!! It did involve lots of walking and my knee problem slowed me down a little but I managed not to injure it further and walked everywhere we wanted to go. We came across the maritime museum and admission was free due to being a national celebration for newly naturalized citizens. So we clambered all over the large sailing square rigged cargo hauler Balclutha and watched a film about its voyages around Cape Horn. The boat was a relic in many ways and spoke to lots of issues of how things were still done a hundred years ago. Those were some tough S.O.B.’s doing that work at the time.

We managed to miss a turn off when we got back in the car to point toward the next attraction… the wave organ near the St. Francis Yacht Club and ended up in Sausalito where we ultimately met my cousin Steven and wife Judy. We had a great dinner with lots of stories and a waiter who became part of the party for awhile. It turns out, too, that Steven has a new record label taking up his band (Jackie Payne Steve Edmonson Band) and he put two new CD’s in my hands. The first is “Master of the Game” and the second is “Overnight Sensation” which I had a good chuckle with Steven about. It would seem obvious that there has been nothing overnight about their climb but that was what a fan said during his obtaining and autograph! The link for their stuff is www.payne-edmonson.com so everyone can check it out. The titles are all I have seen so far so we will have to get them on the CD player later today… I am expecting great things after the last CD. We had dinner at a place with live music too and while we waited to be served we had a view of the Maltese Falcon anchored in Richardson Bay. What a stout yet gorgeous looking boat. A link for this is www.symaltesefalcon.com.

This was all a good call by Steven and Judy because it also got us into Sausalito, for one, and secondly because it was easier to haul ourselves back to the marina from there than it would have been from San Francisco. Since we had gotten up bit earlier than usual and stayed out later than the norm we collapsed into bed at the end of the day with at least a faint smile when we got back to Faith.

Connected

Finally!!! The solar panels that we physically put on the boat in Portland are now attached to the battery system. It took awhile because there were so many other things to take care of first. Now we have charging capabilities and I am a truly happy camper with the work done!! It took a few hours hunched over in the engine compartment (on this boat it’s closer to a real engine room) to finish this but all is good now.

Next will come the HF (shortwave) radio. This one is pretty much done already because I spent some time working on it in Bodega Bay and just have to drill a hole in the deck to poke the connecting wire through and attach it to the backstay. It will be great to have long range radio again… it’s something I miss when I don’t have it. Originally getting my Ham license over twenty years ago (I think) was a wonderful thing because I enjoy radio in general anyway. That’s the memory of sitting on a pile of pillows with my ear clued to a giant receiver that my father had and tuning in the BBC when I was a kid. Later I was drawn like a strong magnet to radio. Many years later I realized that my father had been a radio operator in WW II so there was a reason he had the radio in the first place. A bunch later I figured out that he could copy Morse code at about 35 words per minute. I bought him a radio at that point but I don’t really know if he used it much. It was just a way to connect with him that only sort of worked at the time. Anyway, long circumnavigation avoided, the radio has, ever since, been a connection to the world. I can’t wait to have the last of that project hooked up!!

As mentioned previously, the last of the must do’s for this week is redo the pull cord that was attached to the dinghy motor until Bodega Bay. There is a Home Depot not too far away to get what is needed for that. Then too there is a office supply place near that to get a few things needed as well as a Radio Shack to garner a replenishment of all the connectors I have gone through since Portland.

The good thing is that we will be renting a car for the last week we are here… this should give us access to several other places we need to go. Think here of the broken mains’l and the odds and ends that need attention.

Hiking, Walking and Dinghies

One of the things about going cruising again is that getting around is always by public transportation, a dinghy or your own two feet much of the time. There are times when renting a car is an option but usually the adventure of a bus ride or walking somewhere is the best short term option. The dinghy is also a really good way but it too often means that you go to some dinghy dock and then start your trek to your destination. I am looking forward to this because, to me, it is part of what is healthy about the lifestyle. It also it helps regulate the pace at which things happen. We are so used to instantly transporting ourselves wherever we want to be and without much thought that this is taken so much for granted.

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Dock parties are a definite part of cruising and we just had one of the best ones I have ever attended. It was informal and with one of the best food presentations I have ever seen. As they say, “OMG” good food from every direction not to mention several bottles of wine. This IS, after all, wine country. We have some great many fantastic dock-mates here going on to join Ha-Ha with us!

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So far we have walked to a Chevy’s nearby for dinner… then to a small but well supplied store and then to a larger commercial complex. The total distance has been about 6 or 7 miles all told but it was a way to see this little part of Emeryville/San Francisco without traffic pressure. The walk along a bit of boardwalk was the best. It was a meandering path with great views of the bay. I have walked it three times now and I really enjoy it. A little before we left Portland I had tweaked my right knee so have been recovering ever since but I can’t pass up a good walk. I just have to be careful not to reinjure or further injure it.

When we are between ports it has been a good time to let the knee rest and recover. I can’t believe that I am as old as I am… except for stupid injuries I still feel about 25. What’s with that anyway? A veteran of so many miles under my keel doesn’t seem possible when I am waking up in the morning… then I put my foot to the floor and recall that everything doesn’t work as well as it once did. I am in the right place for me right now in so far as small aches and pains don’t really slow me down that much!! Maybe I just don’t know what slowed down is! At any rate, the best part of where we are right now is that we are close enough to much of we want to see and most of what we want to get to is within a fairly short walk. There is probably some study or statistic that says good things about all this but since I can’t cite any of that right now I will have to do with feeling good to be alive every day.

Well, it’s about time to light the BBQ and shish kabob some shrimp.

S. F. at Last

Well, we finally got as far as San Francisco! So we now have the dinghy motor that needs a fresh rope pull, the one that was there came off in my hand as I tried to start the motor to run the gas out of it at Bodega Bay, the solar panels to complete the connection and the HF radio (shortwave) to, finally, finish the antenna connection, the mains’l to have repaired, groceries to replenish, various sights (and sites) to see and, of course, meeting more of the Ha-Ha fleet as they gather strength on the way south. Here we have already identified several boats in this marina going south to join the Ha-Ha. They are quickly identified and conversation and information exchanged as we get to know what the fleet will look like. In each place we have stopped there have been more and more boats going to Mexico… we gravitate to the same places at the same times.

I wish I had pictures of the whales and such that we saw on our way down from Bodega Bay but my trigger finger seemed to be asleep when each batch was spotted. Ah well, the day was sunny and warmish so it was better to soak up the small amount of heat than to worry over getting pictures. We keep saying it will be warmer soon… Mexico here we come!!

We crossed the bay and are in the Emery Cove Marina for the next several days finishing work and waiting for fresh crew to arrive. It should be a fun respite but all too soon we need to get back on the hunt for more sunshine and to start actually sailing with the repaired sail. It will nice to get far enough that I can throw a line off the stern and fish a bit too. I don’t have a license for California and we don’t go far enough off shore that it doesn’t matter.

Bodega Bay

Bodega Bay, what a great change of pace! We have a berth on the dock of Spud Point Marina just down from the office and laundry/showers. It’s sunny and wonderful unlike the last few weeks of cold, foggy dampness. We have a problem to solve why we are here (the dripless shaft seal lost its set screws somewhere along the line and is leaking) but the part is on its way. Waiting in this case is very pleasant.

Here is saying that has become our excuse to chuckle now and then, “If we had only known!” So many times when things go wrong it is something that was not yet contemplated or if contemplated not figured into the spare parts boxes just yet. You then just shake your head and set about finding whatever is needed to fix the problem. I am still looking to our stop in San Francisco to find a few things that will complete projects AND add to the spares bag.

The dinghy is in the water and we went to dinner last night across the bay. This is more like it. We may not have easy access to a grocery store but we do have a comfortable place to rest and repair for what is ahead. This place brings to mind that the “Birds” was filmed here. It is basically a bird sanctuary and there are lots of the flying folks everywhere. Even white pelicans with their black tipped wings are here. We sat in the restaurant across the bay watching something very sandpiper like fly in close formation of 50 or so tiny birds a few inches off the water. It looked very much like schooling fish turning in unison.

My sense of humor is improving with the weather too.

Subtle Pressure

There is a very understandable pressure that builds up when you are stuck in port waiting out a gale off shore before continuing a journey. At first you cannot believe that you are going to be stuck very long so you just carry on with projects or things that need doing anyway (grocery shopping, laundry and such) thinking all the while that you will get the weather clearance to get away any minute. As the days go on you pay closer and closer attention to the weather and think that perhaps it will be tomorrow or the day after. When the long range forecast drags you, kicking and screaming, to the conclusion that it may be days and days and a slight depression sets in and the real pressure to go out starts.

We landed in Newport, Oregon a week ago and here are still waiting. Gale force winds south of here and periodic closings of the Newport bar have had the brakes on for all this time. It looks like there is finally a window developing a few days from now but I do not want to get my hopes up too much. We lost one crew member because he would not have been able to continue if the window came past this last Saturday and still make back to his job as scheduled. That had increased the pressure for a time as well.

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One of the things I have to keep in mind for this voyage is that the jobs on my list are always there to be done. So for me, the non-skipper for this trip, the lack of being underway mostly means that I have time to work on the project list some more. In some places that is easier than others and given the good quality of the marine stores (chandleries) available the inventiveness I can ascend to is wonderful. Since I am never able to know ahead of time what parts I really need each job is about inventing a system as I go. This translates to making more than one trip to the chandlery. It turns out that I love going to chandleries because this is the moral equivalent to every hardware store I have ever been in that wasn’t a big box store. Lately we have followed the trend of calling West Marine by its recently heard name of Tiffany’s-By-The-Sea, so you can see where my sympathies lie in any case. A well run chandlery offers so much more to the senses if you are a discriminating mariner. It’s still true that my visits to Tiffany’s-By-The-Sea are numerous when in the neighborhood but here in Newport there is a well stocked marine store that does not emphasize clothing over functional marine hardware and the like. Delicious is the word that comes to mind.

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One other seldom mentioned plus for staying in a port for awhile is that the wine available is a bit better than off shore. Yes, yes, I know, I generally don’t have wine with my dinner off shore but I DO notice when in port that the bill of fare is improved if only because we can instantly, or nearly so, replace the missing bottles from the wine rack! Far be it for me to quibble over this detail of luxurious living when available. When sailing along it takes a spectacular day to consider having all that much of a real meal. Typically the galley is not the place you want to be unless you just like slamming into the stove as you try to brace for the next wave set. Give me cheese and crackers and an apple on watch and I am fairly happy with the state of things when it’s getting raucous out. Eat well when you have the chance and stay ready to leave.

Keep in mind too that in port we have “regular” hours. That is, at sea we have regular hours by way of the watch schedule. You have 2, 3 or 4 hours to sleep and you damned sure better get some sleep given any opportunity. No one wants to come out for their watch and find you asleep in the cockpit. Things can happen all too quickly when you are not vigilant. Get rest as needed in port because you may not get all you want when you leave the dock. This is one of the tiniest pressures that you can start to feel after you have been too long in port. Keeping yourself ready to go is an attitude you develop when you are “going” but hard to maintain in port.

Now this may seem weird but another issue is cleanliness… that would be personal cleanliness. In port you likely have the opportunity to shower and if you are going to be putting to sea you hope you have had a recent shower. Further if the decision to leave is on the instant and you aren’t the prime mover and decider that becomes a problem. There can be little time to run to the shower, which is often a hike away, and get back in time to do all the little chores that need doing to get moving. Hmmm, pressure abounds.

Jobs that come up suddenly at the end of your stay somewhere are always one of the lurking suspicions that you cannot plan for. This is the pressure that awakens you at some odd hour while you are in port and keeps you on track and wondering what needs doing next. We had been in Astoria for several days when I finally had the idea that I should test the as yet untested macerator pumps that had been installed. This proved to be the dumbest idea I have had this year. The pump worked so well that the pressure was more than the hoses could tolerate in their current state of tightness… pretty soon the aft cabin had that special head smell. This was as Sandy and I needed to get in a quick nap before our 0200 departure to cross the Columbia bar. Neither one of us got all that much sleep as a result. I did manage to tighten everything up but there was one very persistent drip that took another day to solve. (Note: It turned out that there had never been any Teflon tape applied to the through hull fitting from the original hose installation, likely years prior.)

None of this is particularly frustrating to me but I am sure that it puts some load on those around me because they are often not as involved in trying to find solutions and mostly what they know is that things are broken for the moment or not complete from time to time. This probably leads to some sense of pressure wondering if we are ok to continue. As a crew member with a large resource of time in my favor I don’t have that sense of pressure other than to be ready to leave port when the weather says that is the thing to do. It helps them, I am certain, for me to try to explain where I am in any delaying project but sometimes that may not be enough. For me there is no drama but for others I can see that it might lead to an emotional rather than logical response. All I can do for this is understand what is driving them to their reaction.

Finally, there can be a sense of having a life that from some point of view is not as productive as it might be. So there can be an odd sort of guilt that creeps in to spoil the party if you aren’t convinced that you are doing what you should be doing right now. I guess being comfortable with yourself is part of what this different lifestyle is most about.

Then, suddenly, the weather window opens and all is forgotten. There is no pressure, only the open ocean and the spirits are quiet again.

A Story from the Harbor

When we came into Newport there were a few boats already holed up awaiting what was rumored to be an incoming storm. One of the boats was one that had come down from the same marina in Portland (Tomahawk Bay) and had been parked behind us most of the summer. It was Norm on Ya Shure, and we had seen him briefly in Astoria as well. Trent was with him and they had preceded us by a day and had a good sail down. Sandy had called them at their expected arrival time to see how it had gone. With a good report she was more confident about leaving the dock so we left in the wee hours to cross the bar. The trip down is chronicled elsewhere so I will leave it to those other authors to tell that tale.

When I was headed into a local restaurant for a meal on arriving I bumped into Norm and he related a small tale of his arrival in Newport. He had known of another boat from the home marina to have come down just before all of us. The name of the boat is Lungta. Lungta is a large ferro-cement pilot house ketch. Later all the Faiths went over for a tour… but I need to get back on track here so will come back to that tour later. So, the scene is the Ya Shure coming into Newport, which has a long entrance jetty to weather and Norm wanting give a call to Lungta to see where they are and see if he can find room on a guest dock somewhere. Norm picks up the microphone and says, “Lungta, Lungta, Lungta; Ya Shure” and with the release of the push-to-talk button no response. Norm waited a bit and repeats, “Lungta, Lungta, Lungta; Ya Shure”. Again there is no response.

A few minutes later Norm decided to give it another try.

Norm: “Lungta, Lungta, Lungta; Ya Shure”

Coast Guard: “This is United States Coast Guard station, Yaquina Bay, vessel calling, what is your status? “

Norm: “On approach to Newport harbor, Ya Shure, over.”

Coast Guard: “Please switch to working channel 22.”

Norm: “Switching two-two.”

Then on channel 22 the following occurred.

Coast Guard: “Vessel on approach to Newport, do I understand your vessel name is Ya Shure?”

Norm: “Yes, this is Ya Shure, go ahead.”

Coast Guard (with the slightest of mirth in his voice): “Were you calling a boat, sir?”

Norm: “Yes sir, I was calling friends on the sailing vessel Lungta. Over.”

Coast Guard: “Yes sir, we thought perhaps you were a Norwegian boat in distress. Have a good day.”

Norm (now smiling and starting to laugh): “Roger Coast Guard, thank you for your concern. Ya Shure back to one-six.”

Sometimes it’s all about how we perceive what we hear. As it turns out Lungta is a Tibetan word meaning Wind Horse. In this case the boat is a huge deviation from what you might envision at first thought. With a 12 foot bow sprit and at 60 tons this floating rock can take a lot of sea. Below is comfort you cannot imagine, really. There is a bath tub for the master suite, a full sized desk forward in the crew quarters, lots of skylights, a freezer the size of a queen sized bed and so much more. She carries 800 gallons of water and a large amount of diesel fuel. The motor is a three thousand pound Rolls Royce locomotive diesel with a huge amount of room around it. When you stop to consider the implications of the systems on the boat and the capacity to go just about anywhere you are awash in visions of sugar plums. Truly a beautiful boat. Dan and Kathy had helped us dock in Newport by each grabbing a line and it was clear they knew how to handle a boat with confidence and ability. The wheel/pilot house has instrumentation but what I saw right away was a large monitor screen for a computer that was used for charts and the like. The detail of the doors and other daily use parts was very impressive. A great boat to travel in with systems that were comprehensible and accessible. The only issue was docking this behemoth… as they left the dock I joked with them by ducking to allow the bow sprit to pass several feet over my head.

The funny thing is, for me at least, that on our way to the Hidden Bay Café back on Tomahawk Island in the dinghy we used to go around Lungta every time. I had thought that I would like to see the interior sometime but never had a chance to go over to that dock during our stay there. Problem solved, go sailing and find them at the furthest port visited so far. One other small note about this; the morning after our arrival Dan came over with a plate full of freshly baked brownies for us… he was also carrying a plate for every other boat at the dock!

Awaiting Weather

Starting from anywhere has always brought a slight tightening to my stomach because I am usually, firstly, comfortably situated at a dock or moorage or secondly because there is some question about what the weather is doing somewhere further than you can see on the horizon. Certainly I have always been an advocate of checking the weather by first looking out the window but when you plan to go off shore for multiple days that doesn’t quite do the job.

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As I write this I find myself in Astoria, Oregon with the out-the-window view of sunshine and dark skies on the horizon. We motored here from Portland over a two day period. The stop in Cathlamet, Washington on the way was good because it gave a day of getting the boat in better shape for the ocean but it also gave us a chance to trade off at the helm and coordinate our communications on boat handling together. It happened that in Cathlamet a friend met us at the dock to hand lines to. He was there for a Sea of Cortez Cruisers Rally that happens every year in August and we had missed it due to boat issues still being unresolved as we sat in Portland. We had an interesting time docking boat because there wasn’t much space and between coming within a foot or so of a large power boat and nearly crushing a Catalina 22 we were glad to see a friendly face on the dock. In any case, I digress once again, the weather was good at the time and we saw no clue of what was going on at the coast. As we came into the channel to turn into Cathlamet we encountered a fierce squall that drenched us to the bone but then cleared immediately to reveal a fantastic sunset.

This is great time in history to be asking the weather questions, really. The boat has internet from time to time and one of the first things we check is buoy weather and other similar sources for weather (wx) information. At Cathlamet we had good internet and so checked wx. It was sounding like we were heading into less than wonderful conditions.

By the time we got to Astoria we knew that it was going to be a wait of a few days before conditions on the Columbia River bar would allow us to pass. This leads to another couple of asides as well. We were picking up crew in Astoria and this happened the night we got there… so, everything was on schedule at that point but it was obvious that it wasn’t going to stay that way. Sitting in a slip across from our end tie was a boat we had last seen in Portland. As we had walked down the dock one morning a new boat was there with the skipper working on his lines. We said, “Howdy,” and he responded so we stopped to chat for a few minutes. His boat, Enigma, is a Hunter 37 and he bought it as his first boat in May (this being late July when we met) and had three sailing lessons and a navigation class and was planning to single hand to Mexico. Hmmm, shudders went down my spine, what is he thinking? Now that we are waiting the weather improvement that is predicted we are wondering what he is thinking. Thus far we have not had a chance to chat again but suspect that he may have gone out to the bar and turned around in nasty conditions. Another thing we did here to get our head around the coming departure was to visit the Maritime Museum and scare ourselves silly with the displays of Coast Guard rescues and wrecks on the bar!

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Waiting on the weather window is an opportunity to do jobs that remain and play a few games while we prepare for what is to come.

So, a few miles down the track we have crossed the Columbia bar (at night, 0230) and motored in little wind to Newport, Oregon and pulled in to reassess what the boat needs to be ready for the rest of the trip. Instantly people jump on us with stories of sure signs of difficult weather down the way. We should wait they all say. Separately we look at the buoy weather and other sources and have to agree it would be more comfortable to wait a few days. This means that we are stuck again in the weather weenie window. As we sit here boat after boat arrives and has the same notion. A couple of days after our arrival we head to the fuel dock early in the morning so that if and when our window arrives we will be ready to step out and boogie down the coast again. The pressure of one crew member having limited time plays on all this but that is of less concern because he can certainly catch a ride back to Portland from here more easily than if we get down the way further and have to duck in somewhere. All is good with staying for the moment but that is the nature of these things… you can always find a reason or excuse to stay where you are, “safe as houses.”

Taking Off

By Chris Edmonson


Adventure has many forms. This is about the adventure of getting sailing vessel Faith ready to go cruising for her first season with her current owner. What she lacked in equipment she makes up for in volume and comfort. As a 41 foot Morgan of 1987 vintage she had the updated keel to be able to turn better than her predecessors and spacious aft cabin to keep the skipper happy. The center cockpit means that she is a dry boat and it doesn’t seem as if there is a football field in front of you as you steer the boat. The galley is of the “one butt” sort, like most boats, but it has a huge refrigerator/freezer unit for food storage. In fact, the galley storage is the most adequate storage aboard. Storage was on the list of items to be added to during the build up to leaving Portland where she has been berthed for two years. Other storage around the boat is decent but without significant lazarettes she had little space for the typical equipment needed for longer term cruising. Morgans were built for chartering in easy climates and the short stays by most chartering crews would mean that storage for other than food and spirits was not a big design consideration.

So, what is needed to bring Faith up to speed? The list is not overwhelming in any way other than that there is not much time to bring everything aboard and hook it up. Needed are solar panels, fresh batteries, HF radio, new standing rigging, new roller furler, re-plumbing the head hoses, and a variety of spruce up projects. One of the problems is the amount of focus necessary to do all this at once within a five week period to be able to leave the dock on the desired schedule. No, wait, now it’s four weeks to go and no project is completed!!!

Even the navigation station is a clutter of things piling up that will eventually go there in an organized way to be of use. The radar and GPS have not been tested or used because while the boat had been sailed during the last few years it was the sort of sailing that gets you out for a few hours at a time but coming back to the dock each night. Looking around the cabin yields a variety of thoughts about what the order of attack to put things right should be. The big jobs that require time and multiple people to complete are likely better to start earlier in the process than the quick and easy jobs. Perhaps a few of the easy jobs should be slated for early dispatch though so that it seems like we are making good progress all along the way. In any case, the tools have been sorted through to see what needs to be added to work through the list so at least we are ready to take the first run at the list. The count down means that it is essential to keep on track and free of any big distractions… can we say, “Hold the partying”?

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The closest boat in the next slip over is also getting ready to go; their departure date has already been pushed back from this year to next because of the number of unfinished projects. The reason there are so many things to do stems, in part, from a less than thorough survey when it was purchased last year. Like dominoes the jobs mounted up until the new owners caved in to the list and had to make the hard decision to stay another winter in Portland to accomplish everything. For us this is not an option worth contemplating. Everything is geared toward leaving on August 20th and any significant delay would lead to bouts of depression and fits of outrage! The optimist would find an ally in this time issue by forcing themselves to work harder as the time line shortened… less than optimism would yield one to never leaving.

When you think about how you work at working you might not have the concept of working on a boat with a deadline in the same perspective. There are so many ways to accomplish any single job you face and the free advice from the perfect sailors (refer here to the song, “The Perfect Sailor” by Eileen Quinn) on the dock can “help” you lose your focus. For instance, it turns out that there is an alternative to the white hose you buy at West Marine (recently referred to as Tiffany By the Sea) for $3.50/foot to plumb heads. There are a bunch of house boats here and they use a green version of the same stuff… yes, we are talking about the same specs – es mismo – for a hose that costs $1.50/foot. I mean, who knew??? It was an accident that we found this stuff and could incorporate it in the job at hand. It’s usual that you find out about a thing like this two years after you did the job.

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So, here’s the picture, you have four weeks to go and the largest job (time-wise) is the re-plumb of the heads (yes, there are two aboard). You start in disassembling the existing tubes (oohhh… quite stinky) and diagram everything so that you know what the original intent of the designer was. Then it strikes you that you NEED a macerator in this system to deal with its eventual calling and demands as a cruising boat. Hmmm, let’s see, where to put the macerator?

As a momentary tangential thread, there is also the thought process occurring that whispers to you that this is actually a safety issue. You see the exit of all this from the boat requires a loop with an air intake above the waterline that doesn’t exist yet. Well, wait, there is a loop but it needs to be there between the head and holding tank, but we are talking about a new loop somewhere between the tank and the sea cock that takes all that stuff out to the open ocean. Come on now, this can’t be that hard, after all it’s just plumbing! The real problem is that it is a boat so there isn’t any more room allowed for this beyond what the manufacturer thought was minimally required when the yacht was built. Ah, then you find a small space that looks like it will work just fine to mount the pump but you have to route some wiring there too to power the whole mess… hmmm, AGAIN!!! You don’t want to sink the boat.

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So, to this point you have used up a couple of weeks and there are only three weeks to go. Time crunch does not even begin to describe the problems faced. Gads!!! There is still a missing control cable for the short wave radio that may be hard to obtain and the ground for the antenna is not installed or purchased. The battery set up is not finalized on the re-design. The standing rigging is half done with the rigger shipping one of the shrouds tomorrow from Seattle and while the new roller furling unit has arrived it cannot be installed until the rest of the standing rigging is installed. The number of other projects has grown rather than become smaller. At the end of the day you are noticing that you aren’t as sprightly as you were a few years ago. The work doesn’t stop until late each day because the sky is light at this latitude until much later than you are used to. The real problem with this is that you also tend to get up a little later each day than you are used to!!

SO many jobs in this process are single person jobs for 90% of their duration. It is the 10% when multiple hands are needed that throw the timing off. While one person is running for parts the other is stuck waiting to finish some segment. Then there are other people volunteering for additional times to finish certain projects but it is hard to coordinate when any part of a job will reach a stage that makes sense for them to join in. Parts for re-designed segments are a stumbling block too because you don’t know the area and there are always conflicting opinions on the dock about where to find some of the more exotic things needed. Hmmmm; seems like a time for the perfect sailor to show up and wave a magic boathook or something!!

We originally thought we were going to update and change out the batteries on the boat but on the way back from picking up the new batteries we made a quirky decision to ADD the new ones as an additional bank. There was just the spot for this addition and we built the platform and hefted the new double bank of four Rolls 6 volts into place. Each one weighs in at around 75 pounds so I feel fortunate that they are separate batteries (unlike the 8D’s I had in Visigoda at nearly 170 pounds apiece). It is at this point that I have to say that if you ever have a chance to look into the cavernous engine room of a Morgan 41 you should do so. It is a sight to be enjoyed, savored and longed for.

As it happens one of the items needed to finish the plumbing of the macerators is some sort of box to put a small electrical momentary switch into and probably another similar box to add a connection juncture so that later modification will be easier. In the meantime, even though we are in a marina, we are using the heads some of the time so when it comes time add the last hose connection to each head you end up dealing with getting waste out of the way first (i.e.: call Royal Flush to come over to pump out).

As the LAST past schedule week hits you the standing rigging is still not complete and the local rigger promises a fast response time so you give him the pin-to-pin dimensions for the last part of that, the backstay with insulators for the shortwave radio, at 55’ 3.5”. When he delivers it a couple of days after your previously anticipated departure date you find out he is dyslexic and gave you a 53’ 5.5” backstay and doesn’t immediately have the fittings to build another one without “someone” taking a trip to Seattle to pick up fresh parts. At this point you have assembled the roller furling unit and have it semi-mounted on the forestay but can’t finish this and tune the rigging without another trip up the mast to install the backstay!

The Bon Voyage party was scheduled for the original departure date so we are week past that when all the truly essential stuff needed to start the trip has been done. Every day we field a bevy of calls asking the same, “Did you leave yet?” question. As things go on it seems every bit of the packing away takes forever but finally we are ready to leave the dock with several jobs left to do along the way. The shortwave radio is about half installed but at least there is now a proper backstay to attach the antenna lead wire to!! The nets for the engine room, certainly not a big job, are yet to be done… simple stuff really.

In the midst of all this one morning you are awakened by a neighbor knocking on the hull telling you your dinghy is deflating and sinking with the motor on board!! As it turns out the answer to why this happened is that it had sand in the valve and while easy to correct it means you need to rebuild the motor a bit to flush all that nasty water out. Hmmm… did we have time for this diversion?

Certain projects just aren’t started because there is no time for them. We had intended to put lazy jacks together but this was something we never found a time slot to have happen. Also, we were going to put the reefing system to a quick test to be sure that it worked as intended. Again, no time to even start this project, big surprise there. The roller furler finally goes together and the back stay is on so we tune the rigging and get the foresail on (a brand new 135 genoa). It also is becoming more evident by the day that the boat has not been washed in a very long time. There are just not enough hours in a day to make this happen. ¡¡Que lastima!! Ultimately we have to make the decision to leave the dock with some projects and the smaller issues unresolved. They will have to be done down the track a ways. So, here we are “ready” to leave… cast off and head over to the pump out then to the fuel dock and then, whoa, we are going west out the Columbia. It is sun shiny and about 11:30 in the morning. We call the I-5 bridge and get the clearance dimension of 69 feet (we need 64) so looking up as we go under is a rush that will not soon be forgotten. Then we call the Vancouver railroad bridge for a swing to open our way west. The bridge opens and, glory to the amazing river, we slide into the channel and mix it up with barges and freighters from every direction, going somewhere now. The list fades for awhile and the river banks display sights of all sorts. An osprey screams down close in front of the boat at one point and snatches a large fish, so large that the bird has trouble gaining altitude. The shore shows all manner of commercial enterprise while the hustle of life continues. If you have ever played SimCity you have a sense that these things are possibly timeless, though they are not. It is this leaving that may presage the new phase, the new view of what your life holds. Some cry at leaving but some rejoice.

A Different Kind of Racing

Photos thanks to Finn Golden

Chris, Sandy (TSC T-shirt) and Skipper Rod (J-30, Sugar Plum)

Rangers rafting up waiting for wind.

You couldn’t ask for better scenery.

Part One: On a recent trip to PDX (Portland) I was invited to experience sailboat racing as it is done on the Columbia River. Oh what a difference!!

Since it is the season of snow melt and this has been a banner year for that sort of thing there was about a 3 to 5 knot current blasting its way toward the ocean. It is not at flood stage or anything even close to that but it is a strong current of very chilled water. When I see the Columbia through my Arizona eyes I see all the water available in Arizona for a year pass by in about 10 minutes. It’s a lot of water! Generally the wind on the river is from the north to northwest and the racers take full advantage of this. The course is set up with alternatives and each fleet tends to have about a dozen or so boats in it. There are multiple starts and the race committee tries to set up a different course for each fleet. More on this in a minute. Overall, the length of the course is extremely short by TSC standards.

I was on a J-30 (Sugar Plum) flying a spinnaker and it was one of the last races for the owner with his seasoned crew (10 including myself) of many years acting in unison to bring the boat to the front of the pack. The word “smooth” came to mind as I watched the crew from the cabin top. My position was as rail meat when needed although I did find a few other jobs in between rolling from side to side under the boom.

At first you could mistake the activity of the race to be very much like the prestart for one of our races. The boats are milling about in whatever direction they want to go while awaiting the start sequence to begin. Then there is a rush toward the line and you realize that this IS different. Our fleet is one of the smallest, four boats, and since I am unfamiliar with the players, it took me a bit to figure out which boats we are racing. We are headed toward the line down stream (and up wind) of our position with the bow pointed slightly upstream. When the Tactician and the Skipper agree they spin the nose toward the line and we scream past the committee boat just as the start signal goes off. This is the windward leg so we are nicely healed over blasting away and more or less aimed at the first bright orange mark. Going with the considerable current our speed over ground (SOG) is astounding! We get to the mark and as we round it the kite is already on its way up while the genoa is coming down. Now we are headed down wind and we need to avoid a (black) mark outward of the committee boat as other fleets are starting. Despite the current the J-30 is making considerable progress again and I begin to identify the other boats in our fleet. We had been first over the line and we are holding our position well on these first two legs.

Going upstream and downwind simultaneously is just plain different. It feels like you are going 30 knots when you look at the water because of the water rushing by and then it struck me that this course is really, really short compared to our 14 mile jaunts because we are at the downwind mark before I settle in. On rounding the mark the spinnaker comes down immediately and is sent below for repacking. The flurry and blur of the crew is truly amazing. We are once again headed down stream (up wind leg) and healed over more than before because we again have to avoid going inside of the marks adjacent to the committee boat. This course sets us toward the Washington side of the creek and the crew is very focused on their turning point to make the mark. There is a larger boat in the fleet that seems to be making progress against us and they are being watched very closely. Before you know it we are approaching the windward mark again and making the turn. The spinnaker goes up and we are careening through a bunch of boats in another fleet. Chaos ensues but it seems to be taken in stride by the Skipper and crew. Up stream to the mark again and then disaster strikes, we are in deep poop before we know it.

The spinnaker doesn’t slide smoothly down and there is a knot in the starboard sheet… that nobody sees immediately. By the time that is sorted out we have lost ground to the fleet and are running third or perhaps fourth. It is hard to find our competition at first because there are so many boats out there. Again before we know it we are at the other end of the course; the spinnaker goes up and we are headed to the finish line. Neck and neck with our closest competitor we finish and, perhaps, pull off a third.

At this point I should say that it stays light in the northern latitudes a lot later than in Tucson. It is probably 20:30 and there is still light left for another round (this was in June with the longest day of the year approaching) but there are no more races started. The whole course was probably no more than a mile and half long from end to end so we could easily have done a second race. It took place near the PDX airport between the I-5 and the I-205 bridges. The J-30 is housed at Hayden Bay Yacht Basin so we sail away from there for a bit before we head in and there is considerable celebration onboard. What a good time for racing on a Tuesday evening!

One of the impressions that I had from all this was that the race committee had set the courses so that there was minimal interference between the fleets as they each went on their way. The courses had been preset and the buoys could be, essentially, laid out the same each time with the course being communicated to the fleets by way of a board posted on the check-in side of the committee boat (finish line – starboard - side). Each Skipper had only to check to see what the designation of the evening was to be (something like A through M, I think) and write the translation on the blue tape placed near the companionway. Let’s see, ours was a windward, leeward, windward, leeward, windward, finish course. Every crew member counted mark roundings out loud and thereby assured that the proper course was followed.

Part Two: On the Thursday following the race boat activity I was invited aboard the committee boat to watch the race from a different vantage point. This was more than a hoot and a half.

It is worth mentioning too that on the way out to course our platform had been moored in a marina with the full current in it. It was exciting (as in; holy s**t!!!) to back the Ericson 33 out of the slip and jam it into full throttle forward to make it out to the exit by crabbing almost sideways down the fairway.

The current was the same as the previous Tuesday but the wind was as close to nil as you can get. The opinion on the boat was that we would have to call a postponement and then after an hour of waiting for the wind to fill in cancel the racing for the evening. After a couple of tries we found the right place for the committee boat to station itself and I tossed out the anchor as we slipped backwards in the current. The chase boat set the marks and we waited for boats to show up and get ready for the race. There were lots of flags and a signal board to set up so the committee boat was a busy place for the first fifteen or twenty minutes on station. Then we just settled in to wait for the wind or the end of the day.

As the boats came out they, of course, checked in and passed to starboard to see what their fleet’s course would be. We held up the postponement flag and waited some more. I began to notice that many of the boats motored around complaining that they were using a whole season’s fuel allotment and many eventually started throwing out their hooks and rafting up by fleets. There was a bit of friendly calling between the boats but there was not going to be a race.

Some excitement occurred when first one boat and then another ran over the lines securing the marker buoys. The first extracted itself after a short while but the second one took a very long time (probably a half an hour or so) with the chase boat and another sailboat to assist and finally the Skipper having to dive on the prop. Can you say, “brrrr”? Melted snow would not be my first choice for a dive site! The committee boat had a bit of excitement too when, as we were getting ready leave after calling the race, a large log came down the river and a snag at one end caught itself on our anchor rode! We fended off and finally flipped the snag off the rode as we kept the rest of the 12 foot piece of wood away from the hull. Then, there was the same crabbing into the fairway to get back into the slip. Overall I would have to say that current is something we should all be very happy not to contend with.

The Columbia River racers have lots of experience with all this but it was an eye opener for an Arizona boy used to lake and ocean sailing! There are lots of people there who learn the river early on in their sailing careers and local knowledge counts for a lot. On the sides of the river there are items called wing dams… these are poles placed in the water extending in a line from the shore to fend off large trees that can catch the unaware if you venture into the edges and are trapped there. There are some really shallow places (sand bars) that do not give much of a visual clue about the depth. There are bridges that need to be raised to allow you to pass without ripping your mast off. The barge traffic is fairly heavy there too and it is an every day occurrence that you hear the five terrifying blasts of their horns warning someone not to do something stupid (like cross in front of them). There are fishing boats drifting, mostly uncontrolled, down the river along with whole trees. So many things to contend with!

The next time you are in Portland you might consider going out to Hayden Island (Jantzen Beach exit off I-5) and asking around for a ride as crew for a week night race… it will do your soul good.