• Untitled Document

    Join us on March 29rd, 7pm EST

    for the CBEC Virtual Meeting

    All EYO members and followers are welcome to join the fun and get to know the guest speaker!

    See the link below for login credentials and join us!

    March Meeting Info

    (dismiss this notice by hitting 'X', upper right)

Two Harbors for the Weekend?

Dan Hayes

Member III
It's looking awfully nice out there... but the possibility of a nasty Santa Ana lingers... just read the "hazardous weather" warning that it could blow hard this weekend, but I'm thinking - what if it doesn't? Could be a great weekend with warm temps and some nice hiking over there. What do you guys think?

.TONIGHT...NW WIND 10 KT OR LESS...EXCEPT LOCAL NE WIND 10 TO 20
KT BETWEEN POINT MUGU AND MALIBU AFTER MIDNIGHT. WIND WAVES 1 TO 3
FT. W SWELL 3 TO 5 FT AT 14 SECONDS.
.THU...NE WIND 10 KT...EXCEPT NE WIND 10 TO 20 KT
NEARSHORE BETWEEN POINT MUGU AND MALIBU THROUGH NOON. WIND
WAVES 2 FT OR LESS. WIND WAVES 2 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 3 TO 5 FT AT
14 SECONDS.
.THU NIGHT...WIND VARIABLE 10 KT OR LESS. WIND WAVES 2 FT OR LESS. W
SWELL 3 TO 5 FT AT 13 SECONDS.
.FRI...WIND VARIABLE 10 KT OR LESS...BECOMING W 10 KT IN THE AFTERNOON WIND
WAVES 2 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 3 TO 5 FT.
.FRI NIGHT...W WIND IN THE EVENING...BECOMING VARIABLE 10 KT OR
LESS OVERNIGHT. WIND WAVES 2 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 3 TO 5 FT.
.SAT...WIND VARIABLE 10 KT OR LESS...BECOMING SW 10 KT IN THE
AFTERNOON. WIND WAVES 2 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 2 TO 4 FT.
.SAT NIGHT...NW WIND 10 KT IN THE EVENING...BECOMING VARIABLE 10 KT
OR LESS. WIND WAVES 2 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 3 TO 5 FT.
.SUN THROUGH MON...NW WIND 10 KT IN THE AFTERNOON AND EVENING
HOURS...OTHERWISE WIND LIGHT. WIND WAVES 2 FT OR LESS. W SWELL 3
TO 5 FT.
 

Ric Dahlin

Junior Member
My friend just returned from 4 days at Emerald Bay. He said the weather was great! It took him only 3 1/2 hours to get back to San Pedro. It looks do-able this weekend! Unfortunately, I will be sanding & varnishing at the dock.

Ric
 

Dan Hayes

Member III
Two Harbors For The Weekend

It was - absolutely - superb.

I have never seen such spectacular weather - shirtsleeves weather in February, warm balmy breezes, good Lord... and the water - you could see the mooring line all the way to the bottom, just like a dog-gone aquarium. Not to mention the full moon on the water all the way over, or the dolphin escort from a mile out all the way to Catalina!

Our motor went out on the way back, and it was a slow slog home. With a light breeze, we could only make about 3 knots until we hit the shipping lanes. At that point, the wind kicked in and we flew in at a full 6 knots.

As my wife will not allow me to take a camera aboard any more (I totalled two digital cameras in the last month - they just don't make them for cockpits, do they?) I have to wait for my friend's photos to arrive by e-mail. As soon as I get them, I'll post them with a writeup.

By the way, it's $42 for two days, or $46 for a whole week for a mooring. I shoulda stayed there all week, purely to get my money's worth!
 

Dan Hayes

Member III
Finally have some pictures in...

The pictures are almost 3 megs each, so I can't post them. I'll email them individually if anyone wants to see them.
 

Jeff Asbury

Principal Partner
Sure, I would like to see them. You know I work with Graphics Dan and I can res them down and post them here for you if you like. I believe you still have my e-mail address.

Jeff
 

Sven

Seglare
The weekend was spectacular.

Sailed over on Friday. Ended up motoring half way to try to make it before dark, still ended up in pitch dark with cold rain for the last 1.5 - 2 hours. Found out that you can sit on the edge of the companionway with your eyes just above the hatch and stay somewhat warm, while the auto pilot does its duty :)

The rain gave us a couple of complete double rainbows while the sun was still up ! Saw a few dolphins on the way there.

Saturday, Sunday and Monday were cold but gorgeous. There were never more than 6 pleasure boats in Isthmus Cove the whole time.

Today (Tueasday) we came back, unfortunately. Saw a baby mola (sunfish), only about a foot across. Got to be in the middle of another dolphin megapod for about 25 minutes ! Also saw what I think were pilot whales, about a dozen of them.

Towards the end of the crossing, when we had 6 NM to go, the 10-15 knot winds were 30+ in the gusts (my guess). We finally took so much water from both sides that we ended up sailing under just the reefed main. With just the reefed main we still did a steady 6+ kts down the MDR channel (theoretical hull speed is 5.9 or so). We only saw one container ship and 5 pleasure craft during the whole crossing today !


-Sven
 

Dan Hayes

Member III
Sven, you are awesome! What a hardy sailor! Looking forward to seeing you at the Island this summer, and hearing your stories. The reason there were only six boats at Two Harbors was - it was really rough! But you went anyway, like you always do. Lots and lots of people in much much bigger boats stayed home - but look what we all missed by staying home. Glad you had such a good time.

We got a dolphin escort all the way to Catalina, too, they were with us from a mile out of San Pedro all the way to a half mile from Two Harbors. Smaller dolphins than I am used to, but lots of them. I've never seen pilot whales, but I sure would like to. By the way, have you ever seen flying fish out there? I used to see them all the time many years ago as a kid, but never have all the times I've been out sailing. I wonder if they, like so many species, were fished out.

Take some pictures next time you're out - I'd love to see them.
 

Sven

Seglare
Look at all those empty moorings :)

Dan,

I lied, in one of our pictures from Sunday there were 8 pleasure boats. There was still lots of room as you can see below.

If you couldn't guess, La Petite is the boat all the way to the left, behind the Catalina 40-something-footer with the popemobile cockpit canvas.

We did get some 10-20 second camera clips of the dolphins in the mega-pod but I don't think they would upload here. The clips also don't make it obvious how many there really were, not sure why.

The dock repair is coming right along and the restaurant was being remodeled when we were there and so was the bar. Looks like they are sinking some real money into the place.

I'm sure we'll meet up this summer. It has to be at least a three-day weekend for us, we've done one two-day round trip but that was too tiring to be enjoyable.



-Sven
 

Attachments

  • Empty Isthmus.jpg
    Empty Isthmus.jpg
    157.6 KB · Views: 170

Dan Hayes

Member III
Yes, looking forward to many trips to the Island this summer. I'll be waiting for the nice, flat, water, though - I prefer pleasant journeys to adventures! I get enough adventure without trying!

I sure do like 4th of July cove, though, compared to the main harbor. It was flat and calm, and quite protected. I hear it books up first in the summer, though.
 

Jeff Asbury

Principal Partner
Boy, those hills are sure brown for this time of year. Need more rain. I love going over in late May and early April when it's usually nice and green with lots of wild flowers. Had a nice hike last year.:cool:
 

Attachments

  • April05.jpg
    April05.jpg
    89.4 KB · Views: 155

Jeff Asbury

Principal Partner
Photos of Dan's E-28 at Two Harbors, Catalina.

Photos of Dan's E-28 at Two Harbors, Catalina. Wish I was there!:hail:
 

Attachments

  • 1.jpg
    1.jpg
    72.2 KB · Views: 143
  • 2.jpg
    2.jpg
    78.4 KB · Views: 130
  • 3.jpg
    3.jpg
    70.7 KB · Views: 150
  • 4.jpg
    4.jpg
    58.9 KB · Views: 133

Sven

Seglare
With rainfly in place for the expected rain storms that ended after the first night:
 

Attachments

  • La Petite in Isthmus.jpg
    La Petite in Isthmus.jpg
    228.5 KB · Views: 148

Sven

Seglare
Dan,

Dan Hayes said:
Sven, you are awesome! What a hardy sailor!

I've been trying to think of a proper way to answer that. While I appreciate the compliment, I'm just me and I just enjoy cruising.

The two ladies that deserve the praise are Nancy, and La Petite.

Nancy was not born into a sailing family and had never been on a sailboat until we went to Sweden on vacation back in '78. While there on vacation, staying in the summer house on the Baltic coast, we decided on Thursday 7-20 to get married on Sunday 7-23 (long story involving the US embassy and the Swedish church negotiating all of Friday).

After the wedding ceremony my parents tell us that we're not staying the night in the summer house, we are ordered to take my parents beautiful 28' bleached mahogony sloop on a honeymoon cruise down the coast.

The cruise was bitter cold, coldest Swedish summer in many years, but it was still beautiful. On the third day we are going to cross over from the mainland at Kråkelund to Öland, a short hop of maybe 15-20 NM. Before we get far enough to see the low-lying land on the other side pea soup fog rolls in and the wind dies completely. After an hour or so with no wind, no visibility, 1000s of flies attracted to the boat, we start the engine to motor across. The engine dies shortly after we start it and we never get it running again (another long story).

After many, many hours of just drifting (no GPS in those days, only dead reckoning) the wind finally picks up and clears out the fog. For the absolute first time in my life I do not really know where the boat is, I'm lost. Fortunately, I see a small city of lights and figure it must be Oskarshamn (I don't have the chart in front of me, but think that was the city). I guess at distances and triangulate to set a course to a part of the coast that is relatively free of shoals and where we should be able to find markers to get back in control. The wind picks back up and we make great progress, with Nancy on the bow looking for markers in the near-midsummer twilight.

We finally spot a couple of markers and while we can't quite decide which ones they are we manage to nudge our way into a spectacular little cove on an island among the thousands and drop the anchor. I take the dingy and row the bow line ashore to tie off around a rock or tree and we settle down for the night.

When we wake up in the morning we realize how absolutely stunning our anchorage is, well protected and with scenery to die for. I think we fried meatballs and potatoes on the butane stove for breakfast in the cockpit. It was to die for.

Once we head back out again we decide to just start sailing North again, back to the summer house. We get into the marked shipping lane, but the markers aren't in the right place at all and none of the island match. Finally I see a pattern and realize that we are miles North of where I thought we were. Somehow, we had missed rocks and shoals all over the place when we were heading back to the mainland the night before, at a good speed with a fair amount of wind and waves ! I don't think I could have threaded my way through all the hazards even with a GPS, but somehow we really lucked out and didn't run aground and sink, without VHF or anything, just some flares.

(Later I found out that the small city I'd spotted was actually a new nuclear power plant, not on the charts we had with us. The powerplant was all lit up and sure looked like a city to me.)

I told Nancy about my mistake in navigation and how much danger we'd somehow avoided ... she didn't divorce me on the spot and still sails with me today as the best first mate anyone could ever have.

She and La Petite are awesome !




-Sven
 

Mark F

Contributing Partner
Blogs Author
Great story Sven! And a wonderful photo of La Petite. I've got to checkout you southern guys posts more often.
 
Top