I crewed on the Oday 28 "Althea", skipper Shawn Passeri. What a great experience!
Navionics track on Google Maps
Weird weather followed us all the way. Baja California has also suffered a cold cloudy summer. Water at Turtle Bay was only 64 F. Bahia Santa Maria, 67. On the first leg, we had about 24 hours of Point Conception conditions: 12-15 ft long-period swell from the NE, winds 25 kts+ directly from the north, creating 5-7 ft steep and short-period quartering waves mixed in. On the second leg, we had about 36 more hours of the same washing machine conditions. It began making me angry. I wanted to punch something! Fortunately Turtle Bay harbor gave us a break, and it was mostly calm and warm and sunny while we were there. But the
marine layer moved in the night before we left. The locals were like "WTF?" Then the anchorage at Bahia Santa Maria was doing its best impression of Hurricane Gulch starting about 2pm each afternoon we were there. I think the most common phrase heard in either Spanish or English during the trip was "I've never seen it like this here."
But the old man had one more trick up his sleeve. As we rounded Cabo Falso for the home stretch, we were assaulted by an out of season easterly at 30 kts+ right on the nose, and short choppy seas and a contrary current. Several smaller boats wound up anchoring behind Cabo Falso for a day or two because they were unable to make headway towards Land's End. We had to motorsail and tack upwind, as the engine alone wasn't enough to move the boat forward against that mess. Of course, this meant that the anchorage off Medano Beach was now a lee shore, instead of a windward one. And the marina filled up fast. The next nearest refuge was 30 miles upwind. What a circus! Everybody who had to anchor put out lots and lots of chain, and I only heard of one boat dragging anchor, but some nearby Ha-Ha people got aboard and saved it.
Shawn's boat held up really well. He has been sailing all his life in the Delta, SF Bay and off the California coast. We only had minor mechanical problems that were easily repaired or worked around. But what meant the most to me was that when things got squirrely, I knew just what to do and I wanted to do it it about the same time Shawn did. So I feel very much more confident in my sailing abilities considering Shawn's much longer experience with sailing in marginal weather.
And my boat will seem like a real luxury yacht compared to that Oday 28, let me tell you.... Whew!
