Hello everyone. Thought you might be interested in a trip I attempted with my 1987 E-34 up CA coast from San Diego to San Francisco a couple of weeks ago. No problems in socal and Catalina was great! Had a sailing buddy lined up to meet me in Santa Barbara to head north to SF. On the day we were scheduled to leave there were gail warnings off the Point with 14 ft seas so we postponed. Finally it looked like we had a window for Thurs/Fri with 6-9 ft seas at 8 seconds and 15-30 kt winds. We headed out to Cojo and anchored until midnight when we attempted to round the point. It was nasty! Waves breaking over the bow and dodger hitting me in the face at the wheel. The autopilot (ST-4000+) was useless. We were making 1kt over ground and each wave that hit pushed us off course at least 30-40 degrees so ap could not keep up. Hand steering we were all over the place because we had no speed on rudder motoring at max speed. Tried to get some sail up but wind at 30 kts right on the nose was too much. At 3am we had made 3 miles, with approx. 200 miles to go to Monterey. Oh yea, my buddy had taken a week off work and had to be back to work on Monday in 3 days. OK, time for plan B.. we turned around and headed back to Santa Barbara, put her on a truck and a little over $3K later she was sailing in SF bay.
I've talked to a number of people about this trip, some that have done it multiple times and they say I should have reached out to San Miguel island then tacked back to San Luis or Morro bay. They are probably right but I had run out of time. I did not want to be stuck in Morro bay after my crew left by myself with Pt. Sur to look forward to.
Anyway, SF sailing was great this Memorial day weekend and I sure am glad to have the boat up here safe and sound. If anyone wants to know more details about my trip send me an email.
Fair winds and safe sailing,
Frank - Sierra Star
I've talked to a number of people about this trip, some that have done it multiple times and they say I should have reached out to San Miguel island then tacked back to San Luis or Morro bay. They are probably right but I had run out of time. I did not want to be stuck in Morro bay after my crew left by myself with Pt. Sur to look forward to.
Anyway, SF sailing was great this Memorial day weekend and I sure am glad to have the boat up here safe and sound. If anyone wants to know more details about my trip send me an email.
Fair winds and safe sailing,
Frank - Sierra Star