paul culver
Member III
I'll be out at Isthmus Monday or Tuesday and will probably stay through Thursday of next week. Part of the annual week long sail vacation.
Paul
E29 "Bear"
Oceanside
Paul
E29 "Bear"
Oceanside
Sven
Seglare
What a slog back up the channel !
Get to within 3 NM of the Isthmus when we heard "we are all sold out". Listened for a while to confirm that all the coves were on a waiting list.
Should we try the new anchor and windlass or go to Cat ?
We opted for Cat harbor and did 4 tacks to get around the west end. I cheated the last tack and powered for about 5 minutes just to clear the tip as the wind shifted.
Spent a very nice day on Charlie 3 at Wells Beach (Cat harbor) caulking the new porthole and installing the last hatch latch. More about the caulking in a separate thread ...
On Sunday morning we decided to go back to Cabrillo via the East or South end of Catalina. We cast off at 9:30, expecting to be back in the slip by 7 PM or so.
Everything was great but the wind ended up not putting us on a reach from the southern tip, but almost right on the nose ! To make a long story short we reefed the main around 3PM. Reefed the genoa 30 minutes later. Furled the genoa completely maybe another 30 minutes later and started up the engine leaving the main up just to soften the motion in the building chop.
We finally had to take down the reefed main and just power through the building chop and 30 kts on the nose.
We usually power at 5.5 kts at 2000 rpm, but we were knocked down to 3.8 kts a few times and even buried the bow a couple of times, only by a few inches, but enough.
The dodger got a real workout and so did the hatches and portholes. All the portholes leaked, including the one we just did
but since it was done with butyl it will be easy to re-do. None of the new hatches leaked but I sure was happy we finally got the latch on the forward one done, that sustained 30 kt wind could probably have ripped it open and torn it off and then we would have had a lot more water down below.
Other than wet-wet-wet we had no damage. One thing I don't understand is how the weather can vary so much over short distances. There was another boat sailing under full canvas 10 (?) NM to the south of us, maybe in an eddy or shadow caused by the island ? At the southern tip of Catalina it was dead calm.
The Spot track is here (will be taken down in a couple of weeks by the Spot folks): http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0JiV9BZ8bbCyBbE0qoybcYJqRlMxOhrYS
Sore muscles, tender hands and a bit of extra sun on the face ... but it was a great weekend.
-Sven
Get to within 3 NM of the Isthmus when we heard "we are all sold out". Listened for a while to confirm that all the coves were on a waiting list.
Should we try the new anchor and windlass or go to Cat ?
We opted for Cat harbor and did 4 tacks to get around the west end. I cheated the last tack and powered for about 5 minutes just to clear the tip as the wind shifted.
Spent a very nice day on Charlie 3 at Wells Beach (Cat harbor) caulking the new porthole and installing the last hatch latch. More about the caulking in a separate thread ...
On Sunday morning we decided to go back to Cabrillo via the East or South end of Catalina. We cast off at 9:30, expecting to be back in the slip by 7 PM or so.
Everything was great but the wind ended up not putting us on a reach from the southern tip, but almost right on the nose ! To make a long story short we reefed the main around 3PM. Reefed the genoa 30 minutes later. Furled the genoa completely maybe another 30 minutes later and started up the engine leaving the main up just to soften the motion in the building chop.
We finally had to take down the reefed main and just power through the building chop and 30 kts on the nose.
We usually power at 5.5 kts at 2000 rpm, but we were knocked down to 3.8 kts a few times and even buried the bow a couple of times, only by a few inches, but enough.
The dodger got a real workout and so did the hatches and portholes. All the portholes leaked, including the one we just did
but since it was done with butyl it will be easy to re-do. None of the new hatches leaked but I sure was happy we finally got the latch on the forward one done, that sustained 30 kt wind could probably have ripped it open and torn it off and then we would have had a lot more water down below.Other than wet-wet-wet we had no damage. One thing I don't understand is how the weather can vary so much over short distances. There was another boat sailing under full canvas 10 (?) NM to the south of us, maybe in an eddy or shadow caused by the island ? At the southern tip of Catalina it was dead calm.
The Spot track is here (will be taken down in a couple of weeks by the Spot folks): http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0JiV9BZ8bbCyBbE0qoybcYJqRlMxOhrYS
Sore muscles, tender hands and a bit of extra sun on the face ... but it was a great weekend.
-Sven
Bill Upchurch
Member II
Glad you're safe.
Bill
Bill
Sven
Seglare
Thanks Bill, but we felt perfectly safe even if it was howling. If it wasn't for the infamous "schedule" we would just have turned south and waited it out behind the southern tip of Catalina. If we hadn't had the latch on the forward hatch we probably would have done just that, ignored the schedule and headed for calmer seas.
Wish we'd gotten more sailing on the way home but any time on the water is great !
-Sven
Jeff Asbury
Principal Partner
Wow Sven, I am kind of surprised you got that kind of weather this time of year but it just goes to show, you never really know what your going to get out there. I had a similar passage back from Avalon once, but that was in February. Very confused seas, smacking me from two directions. I could not get a reach back to Pedro, so I sailed all the way up to the Isthmus to try to get a better one. That still didn't work right off the bat, so I just tacked back and fourth until I did finally get a reach. It took me eight hours to get home that day. My wind speed indicator never read above 25 knots but it was still as bash. Trying to motor with my little 8hp Yanmar into that kind of wind and breaking waves on the nose I could barely make 2.5 knots.
I remember friends of mine with a Islander 36 a few years ago that told me about a crossing back to Pedro from the Island in July. They had light 10-12 knot winds and they were sailing along nicely with full sails and then all of a sudden it piped up to 30 knots. The skipper said that they were essentially knocked down. Lot's of stuff thrown around down below. His wife never really cared much for sailing after that experience because she had to take the helm while he fought to bring the main down.
He said it only gusted like that for about an hour.
I was out sailing with Eddie on my boat Saturday off Pt. Fermin with it gusting to 20 knots around 2pm. It was a fun sail but we came back in and sailed up the main channel so we could catch our breath and eat our lunch.
Sound like it was a great way to test your ports and hatches.
Glad to hear your all back safe and sound.
BTW, love the "Spot" track map. Cool feature!
I remember friends of mine with a Islander 36 a few years ago that told me about a crossing back to Pedro from the Island in July. They had light 10-12 knot winds and they were sailing along nicely with full sails and then all of a sudden it piped up to 30 knots. The skipper said that they were essentially knocked down. Lot's of stuff thrown around down below. His wife never really cared much for sailing after that experience because she had to take the helm while he fought to bring the main down.
He said it only gusted like that for about an hour.I was out sailing with Eddie on my boat Saturday off Pt. Fermin with it gusting to 20 knots around 2pm. It was a fun sail but we came back in and sailed up the main channel so we could catch our breath and eat our lunch.
Sound like it was a great way to test your ports and hatches.
Glad to hear your all back safe and sound.
BTW, love the "Spot" track map. Cool feature!
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Jeff Asbury
Principal Partner
Spot?
Spot?
Sven, did you get the $99. spot with the $99. a year contract or a fancier Spot service? It's really kind of cool to be able to let other's track your position and progress on line.
Spot?
Sven, did you get the $99. spot with the $99. a year contract or a fancier Spot service? It's really kind of cool to be able to let other's track your position and progress on line.
Sven
Seglare
Jeff,
I think that was the contract we got. We've had it for almost two years but haven't used it as much as I would have expected. Lousy user interface but I think I have the operation down pat so I don't need feedback from the unit.
What amazes me the most is that we are still using the original batteries ... I can't imagine how they can still be any good. We must have run on them for days and days and days by now. It looks like every 10-15 reports get dropped but there usually aren't any dropouts lasting more than one 20-minute report cycle.
-Sven
I think that was the contract we got. We've had it for almost two years but haven't used it as much as I would have expected. Lousy user interface but I think I have the operation down pat so I don't need feedback from the unit.
What amazes me the most is that we are still using the original batteries ... I can't imagine how they can still be any good. We must have run on them for days and days and days by now. It looks like every 10-15 reports get dropped but there usually aren't any dropouts lasting more than one 20-minute report cycle.
-Sven
Just got back from a great sail from Catalina. Beam winds and a
quartering sea for most of it-perfect for popping the chute. Nice to
be able to sail faster than you can motor.
quartering sea for most of it-perfect for popping the chute. Nice to
be able to sail faster than you can motor.
paul culver
Member III
Hi Paul,
So we'll miss each other, but we'll leave a can open for you
What are your other stops during the cruise ?
-Sven
Hi Sven
Thanks for the can! I'm out of Oceanside. This year we did two nights at Dana, one at Newport, three at Isthmus, one more at Dana and then back to Oceanside. Highlights were a whale sighting two hours out of Newport and watching some poor guy on Hooligan at Dana deal with loss of anchor hold in the Williwa winds they have at that harbor. Turned out he had picked up a crab pot and length of chain in his anchor. Each year we have one meal with a different exotic food. This year was antelope stew. Oh, and I got Martin's beam reach coming back from the island.
Paul
E29 "Bear"