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.