Shake Down Cruise Aug 7th-16th (Part 3)

Santa Cruz Island to Long Beach

At over 96 square miles in size and the largest island in California, Santa Cruz contains two rugged mountain ranges; the highest peaks on the islands (rising above 2,000 feet); a large central valley/fault system; deep canyons with year-round springs and streams; and 77 miles of craggy coastline cliffs, giant sea caves, pristine tidepools, and expansive beaches.

The next morning when we awoke (we arrived quite late) the other boats that we had seen, very early that morning when we anchored, had left Smuggler's Cove.   Our anchorage was beautiful and so we took that time to do some clean up from the crossing and for me to take the dinghy to shore to try and inflate it more.   I'm not sure that I ever got more air into the dinghy but I am learning how that works also.   

Soon we were motoring (no wind) along the cliffs of Santa Cruz Island and we were both impressed with the beauty of the island.   This is the same thing my sis and I had done on our last visit in my Ericson 29.   We headed toward Lady's Harbor on the NE side (the side the mainland of CA is on).  I had not looked at the Garmin to determine the distance and had estimated that it was only an hour or two up the island.

What is the date???
  I thought that this video was funny because when we are sailing, it is very difficult to keep track of what day of the week it is, let alone, the date.   It's really a factor of how we are relaxing and having fun.   The day of the week or the date are just not important.

This island has had inhabitants for over 10,000 years.   The Chumash people numbered at around 1200 here at one time.   It is a beautiful island that is now managed partly by the National Parks and also by a conservancy.  After motoring for about two hours I realized that Lady's Harbor was going to be at least another three hours ahead.   We were still pretty tired so we decided to pull in near the coastline of Santa Cruz and look for another cove to spend time in.

This cove ended up being every bit as beautiful as Lady's Harbor and the neat thing was that we had it to ourselves.   On the second day here, we began thinking about when Diana would fly out and how long it would take us to sail back to Long Beach.   We left in the afternoon of Aug 14th for the almost 100 mile trip back to Long Beach.   

Just a note here... On this trip of nine days, we ran out of water (we had a spare 10 gallons) we ran out of diesel for the engine (I will bring spare diesel after this) and we were down to just one meal left for food.   We ate great and yet I still lost eight pounds during the nine days.   Sailing overnight is really not bad and both Diana and I got quite a bit of rest on the night-time sails.  We sailed/motored over 250 miles.  The most important part of my trip was having my sis along.   The learning that happened in me was tremendous.   I hope I never stop learning.   Just as with life, when we would get in an uncomfortable place, we would feel like it was never going to end.   It would end and the beauty that awaited us was always worth a bit of being uncomfortable.   

We arrived back in Long Beach at 1:30AM on Aug 16th, the day that Diana flew home.

This is what memories are made of.  

  

Shake Down Cruise Aug 7th-16th (Part 2)

From Catalina To Santa Cruz Island 

The next morning, we began motoring toward Santa Cruz Island at 7:15 AM.   With the new battery, it seems as though our battery situation is resolved for this trip.   I want to add here that in my mind, this shake down cruise was to check out the systems I have already on the boat and to identify things that I still needed to do on Spirit of Adventure to make her more seaworthy and maybe even more comfortable.   With the help of my very patient and encouraging sis, this was accomplished.

Motoring from Catalina Island

The seas were very calm and as we left the west end of Catalina we were soon motoring in the open ocean swells.   They only averaged about 2-3 feet and were not unpleasant to motor/sail in.   I might add that from Catalina to Santa Cruz Island is 70 nm and even traveling at 5 nm/hour, it would take us at the minimum 12 hours to get there.   You may remember, that I like to sail so our crossing took us until just after 1 AM in the morning (18 hrs).   One neat thing happened as evening came on us and we began to do individual watches.   The night sky was beautiful and the Milky Way and stars were brighter than I can remember for Southern California.   As we watched the stars, meteors would slowly move across the sky.   As I sat in the cockpit, I would exclaim "Oh wow!" out loud as they fell from the heavens.   The only other time I had seen them this clear was one year back packing in the Sierra's.   Coming into this anchorage in the middle of the night with no moon was no easy thing to do.   With a combination of our depth sounder, the Garmin navigation device and both Diana and my eyes and piloting, we finally anchored on our second attempt.   I have a new rule for Spirit of Adventure to always plan landfall during the daytime.

This is a good place to add something very important.   On Spirit, I have two devices that help me sail without being at the tiller.   The first is an electronic device made by Navico and is called a tiller pilot.  The way it works is that when you don't have wind and you have to motor, you set up the tiller pilot and hook it to the tiller and then when the boat is on course, you simply push one button and the pilot will keep the boat (motoring) on that heading.   On our trip of 18 hours to Santa Cruz Island, the tiller pilot guided our boat for at least 12 of those hours.   The second device uses no electricity and is the Monitor wind vane that I described in an earlier posting.     The wind vane is able to be used (almost) anytime the boat is sailing.   The monitor sailed us on this crossing for most of the rest of the trip.   On hind sight, I could have sailed with the Monitor a lot more, but we would have been sailing farther (we would not have been able to sail straight to our destination and would have had to tack back and forth) and we would have sailed much slower than the motor could take us.   If we would have sailed, we could have each taken turns sleeping and would have arrived more rested and during daylight, the next morning.  I am learning!

Monitor wind vane working beautifully!

                            Tiller master- "amazing"

Shake Down Cruise Aug 7-16 (Part 1)

Aug 7th-16th

My sis, Diana, flew in from Colorado on Aug 6th and as soon as I picked her up from the airport we ran to two grocery stores and the Army Surplus to provision Spirit of Adventure for her first real shake down cruise.   It was so good to see my sister and since we had sailed together before, I felt super comfortable with her as my first, first mate.   We stayed on the boat in the slip that evening and sorted/stowed everything for the trip.   We would be gone for nine days.

The next morning, we awoke and did some more running around purchasing last minute items.  She had purchased a GoPro camera and we needed a 12 volt adapter for charging it.   By early afternoon, we were ready to leave, but for some reason, the batteries were dead.   We plugged back into shore power and this gave me some extra time to install my new solar panel with a charge controller.   We ended up leaving at 5PM in the afternoon and as soon as we got out of the marina, we were in a solid 10-15 knots of wind.   Diana sailed for awhile inside the breakwater and soon we had departed for Catalina Island.    Crossing saw the wind hit 15-20 knots and we flew across the 26 miles to Catalina.  I love sailing and Spirit seemed to like it also.   As I neared the island, I expected the winds to die down and yet just two miles off Spirit hit her fastest speed of the trip.   7.3 knots was more than I thought she could do.   After some more battery problems, we headed toward Avalon and spent the night on a mooring there.   Diana and I had awoken at 3:15 AM and we finally moored at just after 3:00AM the next morning.   I had stayed awake for twenty four hours!

The following morning, we waited for the solar panel to charge the batteries and then motored toward Twin Harbors.   As we passed Toyon Bay, just west of White's Landing,  we passed some great kelp beds and so we anchored there for the night.   The next morning I jumped in with the new GoPro camera and swam in some beautifully clear water.    Look at the third video to see the six foot long shark that was swimming right below me.   As soon as it realized I was above it, it shot off and was quickly gone.

This afternoon, we finally gave in and took the dinghy to Avalon and bought a new, fully charged battery.   This solved our battery problems for the rest of the trip.

Installing the Monitor Wind Vane

July 27, 2013

Wow, so much to catch up on.   Part of an adventure is doing things that you have never done before.   A Monitor Wind Vane is a device that mounts to the back of a sailboat that can help the boat steer with no one touching the tiller.   On my cruise from Honolulu to San Francisco, I would say that the Monitor, on the boat I sailed on, sailed well over 2,000 miles with very little attention given to it.   It uses no electricity and many have sailed around the world with this device helping them.

Well, when I opened the box for the Monitor, I knew right then that I needed help.   With no hesitation, I called my friend Gary and he cleared his calendar for a day at the marina.   This was a fun project, but not without some challenges.   One funny thing is that we opened the box and began spreading out all of the parts on a tarp behind Spirit of Adventure.   We started putting pieces together and soon two other boat owners came by and began giving advice on how to install the Monitor.    Even Gary and I could not agree on how to do the install.   We laughed as the other boat owners finally left and we got out the directions.

How could this thing possibly fit?

Gary was great and soon we began to study the directions and piece together the parts.  Drilling the stainless steel was really a time consuming part of the whole operation.   Slow drill with lots of pressure.   After quite a few hours, we finally completed the installation.   What a beauty!  THANKS GARY!

Monitor Wind Vane installed

PS- As a side note, the Monitor worked beautifully on our shake down cruise (next post) and relieved us from the tiller for hours at a time.   After the boat, this is one of the best purchases I have made.

Departure nears...

August 2, 2013

Wow, where to begin.   Over the last month, Mary and I have hosted both of our grand-daughters here in CA for just shy of three weeks.   We sure love them both.   Christian, the younger of the two (15) came down to the boat and helped me install some neat forest green carpet under the table and on some shelves in the v-birth area.   It really was a two person job and turned out great.  

The bow rail was broken and just floating around.  It has now been welded.

Over the last week some other accomplishments have helped make the Spirit of Adventure more ready to face the open ocean.   This next Tuesday, my sis, who loves sailing as much as I do will fly into Orange County and after stocking the food for our trip we will head out to Santa Cruz Island in the Channel Islands.  We will probably visit at least one other island.   We will be gone 7-8 days and it should be a great shake down cruise for the boat.

These are some pics of some of the things that have happened since the last update.

                                     

The new Dorade vent

Note the 1972 Islander insignia.

  There are so many other things like... buying a 6HP outboard for the inflatable, a whisker pole (which keeps the head sail out when going down wind), all new standing rigging (what holds the mast up), new life-lines,  the purchase of two personal floatation devices (PFD's) with built in harnesses.   I have also done an inventory on how much rope & chain I have for anchoring.   I marked the rope at 100' intervals.   I just purchased two new winches as one of the old ones (1972) was frozen and would not work.   I also just finished installing the new Garmin GPS/Chartplotter.   I had fun sanding and painting the transom (back) of the boat which took off the old name.   Tomorrow, with the help of a friend, I will attempt to install the Monitor Wind Vane.   More pics to follow.