Sailing California's Cape Horn Part 3

"Rounding Pt. Conception is not for a novice sailor and not for the faint of heart. The weather is very unpredictable and can go from a near flat calm to 30+ knots in the time it has taken me to type the foregoing sentence."  SV- Brave Heart

"Seaworthy" means that the boat will withstand at least the kind of wind conditions you are likely to encounter, eight feet of solid water over its deck, and will right itself from any position. Check your rigging and possibly replace the older swaged end-fittings on the cables, before you make that trip." 

"Two destroyers received minor damages, while five maneuvered away from danger. The estimated loss of Government property was $13 million. Twenty-three sailors perished in the worst, peacetime accident in U. S. Navy history."  Sept 8, 1923 Rounding Point Conception

"All these warnings having been said, that coastline is one of the places I love the best. It is pure raw Nature. It will be a trip to remember for a lifetime."

6/19/2016-  All of the above comments or reports have come from sailors who have rounded Point Conception as we are about to do.   For some reason, I like the harder path or some would say, the path less traveled.   In 2010, I volunteered to crew and help bring a sailboat from Hawaii to San Francisco.   Going to Hawaii can be much easier and yet, I chose the challenge of returning.   In 2013, I did the Baha Ha Ha quite well knowing that the return from Cabo would be quite difficult.   They call it the Baha Bash because for days my boat would tack back and forth against the wind, currents, swells and waves sometimes making less than fifty miles in twenty-four hours.   As Al and I rounded the southern tip of Santa Cruz Island, just after midnight, we began to enter the effects of Point Conception.

I awoke just before we entered the channel between Anacapa Island and Santa Cruz Island.   We had been sailing steadily all day and much of the night but we thought it best to both be awake as we passed through this channel and rounded Santa Cruz Island heading north.   It was interesting because as we sailed close to Anacapa, the winds were fairly strong.   Then as we turned and headed toward Santa Cruz Island first we encountered an almost calm and then quite strong winds after rounding.   At daybreak, we single reefed the main and rolled in a part of the jib.   We were able to just sail, close hauled, just barely off of the wind.   It was slow sailing, but we were headed where we wished to go.   

The wind was blowing at about 15 knots sometimes gusting into the 20's.   Santa Cruz Island was beautiful as the morning sunlight highlighted the coves and cliffs rising from the sea.   I had seen this coastline many times and just last summer my sis (Diana) and I had spent a bit over a week tucked into one of these rugged coves.   Snorkeling here is some of the best in all of California.   

Santa Cruz Island

As Al and I cut across the top of Santa Cruz Island, the motor was running to hopefully charge my batteries from the night before.   I noticed that the batteries were not charging but draining.   Oh well, we had fine wind (20-30 knots) and so we will do what a sailboat does best.  Sail.




Now in most sailing conditions, Spirit of Adventure is a dry boat inside.   On our trip up from Cabo, the leaks were amazing.   A perfectly dry v-berth would become a rain forest.   Similar conditions were happening now.   I had left my dorade (a vent for allowing air below decks) on the forward deck thinking that my dinghy would cover it and help keep out the water.   Well, it leaked!  I would be trying to sleep in the forward bunk and with the boat bouncing around and off of the swells and waves, it was like trying to sleep on a trampoline with my two granddaughters bouncing, to give grandpa a fun ride.   Now add an occasional cup, or more, of water dripping down on your bare feet, blanket or head and eventually making your mattress like a big sponge and you get the picture.    We eventually put down the galley table which also makes into a bunk.   One of the first nights that we did this, I had just gone onto my watch and was sitting in the cockpit when I heard a pretty loud thump and heard Al making different noises than he usually does when he sleeps.   I hollered down at him and he was getting up off of the floor.   He had been pitched clear off of the bed.  One would lay on the bunk and try to sleep.   When you would feel yourself starting to go airborne your hands would clasp, tightly, anything nearby.   Eventually, we both learned to tie ourselves into the bunk with our life jackets on and our safety harness (attached to the life jacket) safely clipped to some hinges that were used for the table.  This worked, mostly.  On the way back home, I had just awoken and was ready to go on watch.  I was sitting on the edge of the table/bunk when the boat pitched me backwards. The back of my head struck the book cubby where I keep all of the "How to sail, repair and have fun" books.   When I sat back up, I put my hand on the back of my head and it came back covered with blood.  (You'll remember that blood is one of the factors that make for a great sailing adventure.)  A wetted bunch of paper towels helped to stop the flow of blood and soon I was out of the cabin to stand my watch.   Did I say that the motion of Spirit of Adventure was pretty wild.   One last note about this... Al and I both grew "accustomed" to this motion and were usually able to move around the boat with ease.   It was not until we got to our hotel rooms that walking, sleeping, showering and almost all movement became difficult.   They call them "sea legs" and it takes a few days for the land to stop moving after a grand sailing trip.   We both commented on how much easier it was to move around the sailing boat than it was our hotel room.

This is my friend Al who "enjoyed" this adventure with me.

Ok... my family and some well meaning friends have wondered if this Sailing California's Cape Horn is ever going to come to an end.   I am working on the Youtube video which will accompany these writings but it takes awhile for me to put it together.   Thank you for taking the time to read this.   Just know that it is easier to read this than to do the trip.   Love you all.

HERE IT IS... This is the link to some video I got of the trip.   Thanks again to my wife and Al, a fellow adventurer!

Just click here... https://youtu.be/Z93PG3Anl24

Sailing California'a Cape Horn Part 2

Sunday, June 26th- 1:19 PM

We are still some 80 miles from Shoreline Marina in Long Beach and the Spirit of Adventure is sailing herself fairly rapidly toward home.   Al is resting in the cockpit and I am sitting at my homemade table reflecting on this trip past Point Conception.    I must begin this log with extreme gratitude and love for my wife Mary.   You see we had planned on a four day trip to Morro Bay to celebrate our 49th wedding anniversary.    My planning sounded good to both of us, as I was to leave two and a half days before her and I would take Al along as crew.    We had reservations at our favorite place in Morro Bay, right on the water.   She was bringing the golf clubs and we planned on spending time together while Al stayed on the boat and explored Morro Bay with my dinghy (a small inflatable boat with an outboard motor).  

I also owe Al a bunch of gratitude for all of the help and enthusiasm  he gave me.   Al has a much nicer boat than I do and had been planning some off-shore sailing since I first met him in 2013.   As I shared with Al my idea to sail up to Morro Bay, past the Channel Islands and Point Conception (considered the Cape Horn of California) he told me that he would like to "rough it" and go with me.   Al has always impressed me as being a great guy and actually, I needed a crew person.   Now personally, I love Spirit of Adventure and quietly overlooked his comment about "roughing it."   I finally decided that his boat was just a lot nicer than mine.   I learned a lot from Al on this trip.   Thank you Al.

Track of the Spirit of Adventure
Can also be found at https://my.yb.tl/Spiritofadventure

A note about the above chart of our path-  The map/chart was made with my YB tracker.   It sent out a signal every three hours showing my position and the speed I was traveling.   To drive to Morro Bay or to motor in a boat covers about 240 miles.   As you can see, our path up there was anything but straight and we actually sailed over 400 nm going north.   If you go to the website listed above under the picture, you can actually put your curser on each of the dots and see the date, time and speed we passed that point.

6/17/2016 Friday-  Shoreline Marina, Long Beach
As always, there is always more to do than time to do it all.   Earlier, I had filed a "float plan" with Mary and with my good friend Fred of Later Gator fame.   Fred has had my back on other adventures and I can always count on him to help if he can.   He is another sailor that Mary can contact and discuss "what to do" if I go missing.   Al and I pumped up the dinghy and checked out the outboard motor by taking a small cruise around the marina.   As we were mounting the dinghy on the bow of Spirit of Adventure a neighbor boater walked by and said that he had a cover for my dinghy that he had never used.   After a brief negotiation on the price, the dinghy was covered and lashed to the front deck of my boat.   Al had purchased ten gallons of diesel fuel and we lashed that to the side deck on the boat.   Fuel and water had been topped off earlier.   I had cooked and frozen a meal at home, the night before, and it was stowed in the freezer.   Al made one last trip to the grocery store and we were ready.   Al passed Mary in the parking lot and didn't even think twice when she said she would be praying for us both.   As we cast off lines and departed, our friends on AA dock wished a bon voyage.    As we headed out into the ocean,  the weather was beautiful, but with no wind.   Spirit motored on throughout the night with Al doing the lion's share of standing watch.

6/18/2016 Saturday-  Early Saturday morning (before sun up) we decided that we had wind and began sailing.   Now for at least a week before our departure I had been following the wind patterns on a website and it had showed that the wind should be out of the south, which would have been great.   That wind should have pushed us north for the whole trip.   The winds were not out of the south, but were out of the north-west.   As we tried to sail, early this morning, we kept getting headed more south than north.   At 11:00 AM we tacked and headed toward Santa Cruz and Anacapa Islands.   Our plan of sailing outside of the Channel Islands was scrapped for now.    Sailing was great today and just before midnight, we could see the channel between Santa Cruz and Anacapa Islands and except for a brief period, we sailed easily through the darkness between the islands.  

Note about Spirit of Adventure-  Spirit has some neat equipment that helps us sail through the darkness and to know where we are going.   One is our Garmin chart plotter which is similar to that some of you have in your cars.   This shows us where we are and where the islands are.   It can tell us how far we are from the islands with great precision.   Spirit also has radar.   This sends out a signal which bounces off of whatever is out there around the boat.   It can detect islands, other ships and even some smaller things in the path of our small boat.   In Mexico, I kept seeing these small "dots" on the radar which later were identified as the small floats on the fisherman's crab pots.   It also has something called a "guard zone" that I can set, usually at four nautical miles around Spirit,  and an alarm will sound if anything enters that space.   Lastly, my radio has something called AIS (Auto Identification System) that will track the ships that are in our vicinity.  It also will sound an alarm if we are on a collision course with another ship.    I will refer to our use of this in Part 3.

Thank you for reading along with us on this trip.   

Sailing California'a Cape Horn Part 1

6/30/2016-  What is an adventure?   I seem to be getting a small band of friends who question "why?"  I seem to enjoy my sailing adventures.   One such friend told Mary that it must be hard to be married to Indiana Jones.   I admit, while I am out at sea and even getting banged around (Where did that gash in my head come from?) Mary (my amazing wife) is the real one to be praying for and concerned about.        Remember, my boat is called, "Spirit of Adventure."   The name for my boat came to me in 2013 while visiting Disneyland of all places.   We were in the Lincoln Center and a wall was filled with statues of many of the things that make Americans great.    Standing at the wheel of a schooner was a weathered sailor battling the elements.   The title beneath read, Spirit of Adventure.   It was one of the things that make Americans great and instantly became the name of my boat.

In reflecting on "why?",  I have to think about the adventures I have seen in the movies.   It seems that these good looking, young people (yes, girls have adventures also) are somehow drawn to the challenge.   For many it is financial gain or an attempt at fame.

Point Conception Lighthouse

I can think of the great adventure movies that I have seen and reflect on my small attempts at adventure.   Now those who have done these fictitious adventures, usually don't come back rested.   Most of the time I come home completely spent.   At 71 now, I am usually a bit more than spent.   These adventurers on the big screen,  also tend to get beat up.   My boat was tied up in Port San Luis in a calm harbor and as I made ready to go ashore and meet Mary, I cut one of my shins twice and the other one once.   Not deep, but bloody.   Mary almost fainted when she saw my feeble attempt at bandages and blood running down one of my legs.    A true adventure, in my mind must have exhaustion, trials and blood (but not too much of the last).    The other two elements that come to mind now are amazing, unbelievable events and the very strong sense of accomplishment upon completion.    On this last trip, two whales heading north, passed our small boat, heading south, and were no more than 20 feet from the rail of Spirt of Adventure.   As the smooth grey back of the whale surfaced, both Al and I exclaimed that seeing them up close, was worth the whole trip.

I too am drawn first into the idea of the adventure.   These ideas, some would call dreams, have been stored for years. As a young teacher of gifted elementary school children, I would assign them a paper based on them sailing around the world.   Where would they leave from and what ports would they see traveling at about 100 miles a day?   They learned the ocean currents that would speed them up or slow them down.    My first small sailboat followed during those years.

When I ask myself, "Why?"  I am slow to answer, but usually smile and say something like, "Because I can."

Sailing With David & Katy

5/28/2016-
David and Katy arrived at the boat with lunch at around 11:30 AM.    We decided to ready the boat and then eat lunch before departing.   The boat had been checked out on a sail two days previous so all went well with preparation.   After lunch we left the slip.

David took the helm right out of the slip and after a very brief amount of instruction he used the tiller like a champ.   After Katy and I put up the mainsail, we headed South and soon had the jib out and all sails working great.   As we sailed, sharing came easy and the words and stories came as smoothly at Spirit of Adventure sailed.   David and Katy exchanged the tiller several times as we headed South.   We saw some seals frolicking around an anchored ship, but no dolphin or whales were spotted.   Katy finally gave the tiller back to David so that she could enjoy telling stories.   I saw pictures of some of Katy's wood carvings and I was totally blown away with her art.   She will surely take some awards at the Orange County Fair this summer.

The hours slipped by with about 10-15 knots of wind, blue sky and only a few 2-3 foot swells.   Soon we were back in the slip and all hands helped to get Spirit of Adventure back into "dock" mode.    All-in-all, a great afternoon of sailing.

For a brief video of our trip go to...  https://youtu.be/IgaCl1uafj0