Roche Harbor San Juan Island to Port Madison Bainbridge Island
Another great delivery in the books. This one was a real treat; a Swan 46 needed to be moved from Roche Harbor San Juan Island to Port Madison Bainbridge Island after it had been shipped from the east coast. An old race horse and “Mediterranean RV’ according to the long time owners. (23 years) She had brand new tech sails and we had a great forecast to shake some of the wrinkles out. Samuli Järvinen an alumni of the GBA advanced sailing program jumped at the opportunity being no stranger the the reputation of the brand. As a young man growing up in Finland he knew well the renown that the boat carried. I too am a long time fan of the boats. Since I was knee high to a carbuncle I’ve admired the lines and after getting behind the helm of a 44 when I was 13 I’ve been drooling over them ever since. I love a downwind surfer as much as the next person who has tasted the rare and wonderful fruits of surfing a sailboat and sustained planing speeds. That said I’ve spent more than my share of time going to weather as a delivery captain and can really appreciate a boat that can go upwind like a train while taking care of you in the conditions most don’t want to find themselves in.
Our forecast was for a beam reach from 10 to 20 so dream conditions. We arrived the night before and cast off first thing. The wind howled all night long and we bounced around quite a bit for a boat weighing 31,000 pounds. In the morning heading out mosquito pass we weren’t sure if the wind was going to taper as forecast but of course once we hoisted the main with the second reef things started to calm down. I gave the helm to Sam and took advantage of the calm to cook us up some breakfast. Once we finished our bacon and eggs all the reefs were shook out and we started to move at a pace appropriate to the boat’s reputation.
After San Juan was in our wake it even filled and veered a little for us while still remaining highly civilized on the beam or just aft. It was so much fun sailing we just wanted more but knew that once in the shelter of Admiralty inlet and the Olympics we were going to have to motor. Then that phone rang. “ Are you on a Swan heading south approaching Admiralty Inlet? Why yes captain Jake. Are you on that tugboat? I said. Yes I’m the one with a CPA of 0 on your stern. Very cool I said ..but if you must come so close please snap a shot.
Always nice to run into a friend on the water.
I’ll spare the boat dorkery that ensued. Jake is not only a very accomplished and young tugboat captain he is also a savvy sailor man. Even though he was helming a state of the art tractor tug in a quiet bridge on his second cup of coffee. He would rather be on our boat.
It was looking like a daylight arrival was out of the question with the tide as it was against us. Fortunately Ive got some experience with port Madison from teaching sailing out of Seattle in the past. I used to take my students to the public dock and local pizza place in Suquamish quite regularly and the neighboring mooring ball cluttered Port Madison was perfect mooring pick up training grounds. So I knew we had a minefield ahead and to proceed with the same caution I eat the crabcakes my mom makes and my dad picks the crab for. Aphrodite’s dock and her owners were waiting for us and our landing was uneventful.
The other thing that was waiting for us was a three course meal punctuated with fresh baked chocolate cookies and Baileys on the porch around the fire.
Not shabby at all.
Note for future delivery customers for arrival procedure.
Glory days leading the pack.
What a treat and to hear so many great stories about a boat well loved and traveled.
Oxnard CA to Orcas Island WA Beneteau 393
The following is a log written by the crew on the delivery of a sailboat from Oxnard to Orcas Island in October 2020.
When I first finalized the delivery and started looking for crew I was impressed with how many applicants we got. We got a dozen applicants with a two-week notice of departure. Many of the applicants were very experienced sailors so reading through the applications knowing we had to turn people away was hard. The factors for crew selection were a balance of experience and enthusiasm. These impromptu passages are wonderful opportunities to gain experience and miles so we didn’t want to just pick the most experienced applicants but rather leave with a balanced crew that had good chemistry. I’m glad to say that the crew bonded very well.
-Capt Balmer
Day One: Prep
The provisions run done by three of the crew while Mike and Rhys locate all spares, label the drawers and go through the boat stem to stern. Finding the boat to be very well equipped. A good size Tupperware container of head spares aboard. Unfortunately, the box was resting on the float switch for the bilge pump. Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.
When the provisions arrive they are stowed by two of the crew and their compartments labeled. A map of everything’s location is posted on the bulkhead.
The same divide and conquer when the day’s mission becomes securing tacos and Mexican beer. Bram heads to the gas station to get cervezas and the rest order food to go. The crew counts themselves fortunate to have a Spanish speaker in their ranks. Mariana is from Uruguay and deploys her charms on the folks working there.
Ships Log Day 2:
Blue Dragon is sailing close hauled in 10 knots of wind about 70 miles south of Monterey. Bram and Mariana made some wonderful burritos as we sailed through a break in the cloud cover we’ve had most of the day. We are fueling up in Monterey tomorrow and can afford to enjoy a little slow sailing this evening. We saw an interesting predatory sea bird called a Jaeger and a humpback.
Capt Rhys out
N35.36
W121.25
Ships Log Day 3:
After we passed Morro bay yesterday evening, we continued to tack between ~20+ kts. wind offshore and ~10 kts wind coastal, sailing Blue Dragon into the night. We took turns during our 4 hour, partly-overlapping watch schedule, alternating between sail and engine power.
As the night turned morning the engine propelled us into deep fog with less than 0.2NM visibility, dodging small craft and fishing vessels, often w/out AIS, radar deflection or lights. This made for a stressful morning before docking in Monterey for fuel, water and dropping off one of our crew members.
After our quick stop, now with a crew of 4, we set course for Bodega harbor where we plan for our next fill-up tomorrow.
We experienced some issues with our AIS which Capt Rhys found to be due to a loose wire, buried deep in one of the lazarets (ref pic posted earlier today).
Blue Dragon is scheduled to pass San Francisco late tonight, or early in the morning, and we hope to dock for fuel by midday tomorrow.
Crew is in great spirits as we prepare for night watches, currently bashing into 15~20 kts, right on the nose.
Bram, Blue Drago delivery crew.
Out.
N37.05’
W122.24’
AIS wiring
DAY 4-
After crossing San Francisco and countless shipping lanes in thick fog with no visibility fully relying on our instruments and compulsively checking AIS. We arrived at Bodega bay today around 7am. The entrance was hustling with small fishing boats racing to leave the harbor as we were trying to find our way in. The small boats seem inadequately prepared to be going out into thick fog, some of them lacking proper navigation lights. There was many sleepy cormorants lined up on the channel pilings with their bodies fluffed up and their necks deeply tucked away into their down. As we slowly approached, you could see some of them slowly waking up looking very groggy and annoyed. Unfortunately, I observed one negative human effect on this master fisher bird as I noticed two dead cormorants on those pilings that had hung themselves caught on fishing lines. We arrived at the fuel dock about 30 minutes too early and used this time to cook breakfast and do a small grocery run to get more essentials- “good” coffee and hot chocolate, now we can make mochas at least!! After fueling up in Bodega Bay, we topped off our water and continued on up the coast. The fog is thick and the temperature is dropping as make our way north. The crew has good energy today and it feels like we are all finally getting settled in and able to sleep. We spotted three humpbacks near our boat and have enjoyed watching them surface close enough to say hello and disappear back into the fog. The sea seems calm as of now, we are all eager for some wind up ahead! Next stop- Eureka. Off to cook some dinner!! N 38,56’ W 123,48’
Xx,
Mar
Day 5-
The Blue Dragon and crew continues north breaking the 500nm line and rounding Cape Mendocino. This cape can be a bit lumpy but today it was smooth motoring. My first watch is 6-9am, I get to see the darkness fade and light come over the ocean. We haven’t had actual sunrises as it’s been grey but that seems to fit the mood of the Pacific today, peaceful but brooding. After the Cape we made a quick fuel stop in Eureka, CA and back out onto the track.
Everyone on the crew is getting on well, cooking meals, cleaning up and keeping the boat in order. We had a good chat about options for the OR and WA legs, they will have a very different feal as a large low is tracking towards WA out of the Bering Sea. The plan, we have several, is to head as far north as we can and make the go/no go call nearer the time and as far north as we can go without getting into the new weather. Stay tuned.
I was on dinner duty and rallied a smoked salmon fettuccine Alfredo, as you do. We have been eating well every meal and I had to keep the standard up.
The delivery has been quiet, a few boats, no whales but we were visited by tiny finch like birds that seemed quite happy to sit on our hands and heads. I picked up some wheel wobble for a while but it was just some weed on the rudder that dropped off when we slowed, that was a relief that it wasn’t something mechanical.
Signing out after another day on the Blue Dragon, should be rolling into OR waters sometime overnight.
Mike
41° 41.769' N 124° 23.567' W
Day 6
Today we fueled up in Coos Bay and are now underway to Newport. We have been aware of the unpleasant weather ahead for a while and have waited until today to decide whether we would press on or tuck in somewhere to wait it out. After much deliberation and after having run every possible outcome we decided that we would wait it out in Newport. If we had pressed on our next safe bailout would have been Astoria. We would have arrived in the afternoon when it was forecast to be blowing around 20 knots this paired with the seas pushed from different directions offshore could result in an uncomfortable bar crossing and if the bar was closed we would have to sail back south to Newport or head on north in increasing wind and seas. This paired with a lee shore and a boat not designed for this sort of sailing made the call difficult but unanimous. I’m so glad to have a crew that isn’t trying to push things to stay on schedule and to have the support of Jason Christianson our weather router on shore keeping an eye on things.
We will all be glad for a break and a shower. And as it’s been a dry passage it doesn’t hurt that Newport has a brewery.
More to come.
44.8
124.12
Captain Rhys Balmer
Day 7
Blue Dragon is docked in Newport. Per previous post, we’re going to keep a tight watch on how the weather develops before proceeding. Newport is not a bad place to be “stuck” on
More to follow.
Day 9
After this morning’s meeting we have decided to stay another day and revisit the plan to head north tomorrow with a fresh forecast.
This was not an easy call however. The bar closures that were put in place yesterday were reduced today and it looked like there would be a short abatement in the conditions that may have allowed us to push north the 100 miles to Astoria. The first slack before flood tomorrow at the Columbia river bar was at 5 am and would be the soonest that the bar could be attempted. The wind which has been blowing from the West from 10 to 15 with West swell at 9 feet and a wind wave on top at 3 feet was predicted to pick up to 25 knots with gusts to 30 with a swell of 11 feet and wind wave of 5 feet in the afternoon tomorrow. If this arrived ahead of the prediction the Columbia River bar would close before we got there and we would be stuck out with no plan B close at hand.
When weighing the risks and benefits of this short push the analogy of a desperate football team’s play to gain only a few yards and no hope of a touch down came to mind. Our end zone was the Straits of Juan De Fuca, a 140 miles to the north where once around Cape Flattery we would be home free with wind and lee shore behind us.
The weather isnt the only consideration in a go no go call like this where you are choosing to leave safe harbor for another. The vessel and crew are factors that need to be considered as well. We are sailing a light displacement boat made for fair weather sailing and charters where day sailing and roomy accommodations were the priority in its design. The Blue Dragon is a lighter displacement boat and is relatively shallow drafted drawing 5 feet so breaking seas on the beam would be uncomfortable to say the least if it came to it. She also has an in-mast furling mainsail which although convenient for shorthanded sailing compromises strength and sail shortening abilities. Still another shortcoming in the boat’s design for what we were doing was the lack of proper sea berths below to allow the crew to get rest and charge up while underway.
If we did make it to Astoria we would be putting the boat on the other side of a bar that can only be attempted a few times a day when the tide is right making our next push north and its time of departure quite restricted. Here in Newport we are on the other side of one of the more benign bars on the west coast so we can leave pretty much whenever the next weather window presents itself.
All this paired with the crab pots we can’t avoid at night that could cripple our maneuverability if caught in the prop with a lee shore made the risk too great to take.
The challenges when coastal passagmaking are many. Fog, crab pots, heavy wind and seas, lee shores, seasickness, mechanical issues, and interpersonal friction aren’t all we have to contend with in our adventurous and salty undertakings. The decisions to wait can be be painful too, Under-minding our resolve as the pressure to stay on schedule and get back to land life mount. We should find find solace in the words of our friends and loved ones.
“Take care of yourself”
Captain Rhys Balmer
Standing by
Oct 14
And we are off! The bar opened at 10 am to vessels over 36 feet. The next point to pass is West Port this time tomorrow. Thank god we got out of there before the other bar opened and the crew wandered off.
Oct 15
This post was sent by Rhys using the Sat Phone, at 11:30am
Tough call today as we approached Westport and what would be our last fuel dock for many miles. Our fuel tank holds 35 gallons and we burn 0.8 gallons an hour at 2000 RPMs. At this RPM with favorable water we can make 7 knots. A little rounding gives us a gallon an hour and a range of 245 miles in good conditions. We have gone 140 miles since Newport. And we have another 100 to Cape Flattery and the entrance to the strait. Normally the first stop after rounding the cape coming from the south and the last stop before rounding from the north, is Neah Bay. Neah Bay is a quiet reservation town with a small port for commercial fishing boats. There is an anchorage with decent protection and some great family style restaurants in town. It is a great place to let your crew ashore as there is no alcohol allowed on the reservation. Unfortunately… but understandably, the people that live here have closed the town to outsiders due to covid 19. This puts our next opportunity for fueling 50 miles east in Port Angeles. We have 15 gallons of fuel in jerry cans on deck which extends our range nicely but I believe it is good practice to have 30 percent reserve to give yourself leeway for unknown factors.
The forecast tonight calls for winds building throughout the day and picking up to 25 knots from the west after midnight. Our choice was either go into Westport and fuel up so we have a good reserve of fuel for the rest of the trip but delay our approach to the cape and by doing so, subject the boat and crew to an early morning hammering, OR keep the throttle down and get to the cape before the worst of the weather hopeful we can use that 15 to 20 veering SW wind forecast this afternoon to extend our range and to get around the corner and down the strait to PA.
We put our heads together after coming close enough to the shore to get a fresh weather report off Westport to see if anything had changed since our evening offshore and in waters deep enough to be safe from crab pots, and we decided to push on.
Cruising with an unlimited schedule in coastal waters can be safe and comfortable and in the summer, going the direction of the prevailing winds, you don’t need the patience of a saint. However, delivering boats off season and with the shore side obligations of the mortal and employed one has to make calculated risks. We are weighing risk and benefit all the time out here. The constant decision making is tough even for a rested crew. It is as important to do preplanning and make notes, as it is to be ready to adapt to the changing conditions and data available.
We have been lucky to avoid rough weather at the capes south and even luckier to have a crew with the leeway and understanding to wait when we must but now is the time to push on.
Oct 16
We have arrived in Port Angelies and before the fuel dock opens. Everyone has gone back to bed after docking except me. There are only three bunks aboard which is fine when we are underway but a challenge when stopped. I wrote this the other day about our sleeping arrangements and it seems appropriate to share while I sit at the chart table in this happily snoring boat.
We wake at all hours
Our schedule is new and our days are broken into
1/4s
I have 12 to 3
It’s hard to know when to brush your teeth
Bram comes on at three
I get into the warm bunk he leaves
The warmest bunk is next to the engine
It’s also the loudest
70 decibels of humming iron
The quietest bunk is the Pullman berth in the bow
This is a double bed on the port side forward of the main bulkhead
It has a door but no lee cloth
Lee cloths prevent us from rolling out of our berths when we are sailing
The other berth in the main saloon it’s also on port and is the settee for the table
I made a lee cloth for it before we left
Everyone sleeps with their heads aft in case we run into a sleeping whale... or something else.
So far the best sleeper in the crew is Bram. He can fall asleep in minutes in whichever is the most uncomfortable bunk.
This is a sailor’s virtue
There is a saying that sleep is work underway.
I sleep whenever I can because I never know when I’ll be needed on deck.
We have arrived ahead of any real sailable wind but should see some breeze on the way to Cattle Pass.
Stay tuned
-Capt
Oct 16
In-mast furling is only convenient when it works. Look out for prebend in the rig.
We had an issue with our inmast furling. ... and sometimes there is only one way to fix it
Arrived
Astoria to Everett- Wauquiez Pretorien 35
I packed up my liferaft and EPIRB and headed to Everett to meet a former student to deliver his, new to him , Wauquiez Pretorien 35 from Astoria to Everett. Usually, I am reluctant to have owners join me on deliveries because I know so many well-qualified sailors wanting to crew with me. Some are fellow racers but some like this boat’s new owner Jon and his son Johnson, are alumni of GBA’s Advanced Sailing program. Both were aboard GBA’s former training vessel '“Journeyman” a Cal 40 when we did the Oregon Offshore in conjunction with an Advanced Coastal Cruising Class in 2019. Captain Gavin Brackett and Sir Martin Gibson were co-instructors. (See link)
“The other reason it’s good to do this before the bar is cramming yourself into the yogic pose in what most sailboat designers consider to be “engine access” is best done when the boat isn’t being tossed around. If you were lucking enough to hit up the Pig n Pancake before you hit the bar you might be feeding the fishes after a sub lazaretto boat yoga session”
The purchase had only been finalized a few days before so there were some things to do before we left. New batteries were to be installed and an AIS radio was going to be helpful given that the visibility from fires and fog would be limited.
I confess I was looking forward to heading to my favorite chandlery England Marine to pick up the radio and some last-minute items.
Unfortunately the only AIS radio they had at the store required two VHF antennas and an external GPS. I’ve owned two boats now that have the Standard Horizon 2200 radios aboard which has GPS built in. Oh well at least we had a fancy radio albeit without AIS and no GPS or radar. Don’t try this at home kids.
There's something about being underway in the fog not knowing what you will come across. First, there is stress and then you get so tired that you become all but totally desensitized to the discomfort of sailing blindly into air that is so moist that you can see only a few boat lengths ahead and in the dark, it seems like even less. Your eyelashes become saturated and heavy with water and without a horizon to get a bearing on the boat seems to move beneath you with an alien motion.
Before leaving I spoke with a friend of mine who is a lifelong crabber and asked him at what depth we would find the crab gear. Sometimes it's in close, under 200 feet and sometimes it’s out further. Sometimes it's only open to the aboriginal (native) fisherman. This information helps me decide where to go to avoid the gear and boats. He told me that the crab season had been a bust and that it was so bad guys were having to sell their boats. This was good news for us and the coast was going to be pretty much clear of crab pots and the boats that work them. I would also add that although fishermen have AIS they deliberately do not transmit their location to avoid sharing in their hard-won secret fishing grounds.
When we arrived at the boat in Astoria I turned everything on to check what worked and what didn’t. The boat had what seemed like no updates to its electronics since the 80s and I wish I had taken a picture of the Loran in the nav station to share here. For those that don’t know, Loran is an archaic navigation device that preceded GPS and that used radio direction finding to help mariners find their way in the 70s and 80s. Owning one was a mark of the successful fisherman as they cost quite a bit back in the day. Now with the Loran beacons required for them to work all long gone, it is only a weighty relic taking up space in the nav station.
While going through running lights and the other instruments I noticed the depth reading on the depth sounder. It was low, especially considering where we were on the tidal swing. Let me first say that the Port of Astoria is a wonderful place near to my heart. I have sailed through many times on deliveries and more notably it is where the boats have always gathered before the start of the Oregon Offshore; one of my favorite sailboat races. A race, for those that don’t know, that starts on the Columbia River Bar at buoy two and ends at the entrance to Victoria Harbor. Recently however the meeting location and name of the race were changed due to the decreasing depth in the Oregon’s Port of Astoria marina. Now the boats are meeting in Ilwaco on the Washington side and the race is called The Northwest Offshore Race or something.
Back to our depth sounder: as the reader may know a depth sounder can be calibrated in different ways. The transducer is mounted in the hull often in front of the keel. Without calibration, it reads a depth as much as 3 feet shy of the true depth at the waterline. (See fig 2) It can be calibrated to read the depth under the keel as I have found charter boats often do or the difference from the waterline can be added to its reading thereby giving an accurate sounding of the depth of water the boat floats in. The nature of a delivery captain's work is boarding a strange and disused boat with antiquated equipment and with little time to familiarize oneself with the eccentricities all boats are bound to have. This means bringing tools and a weary outlook that can make allowances for these often dangerous particularities. (LINK to delivery gear)
A measuring tape is not one of those tools in my kit but fortunately, Jon brought one and we could measure the depth the old way. Well not exactly, traditionally the water the boat was in would have been measured by a lead line which was a long line marked in fathoms (look it up) with a lead weight weighing about five pounds with recess for grease in the end to take samples of the sea bed that would have been thrown forward as the boat sailed so as to measure the depth as the boat passed over where the lead touched bottom.
After finding that the depthsounder was properly calibrated and looking at the tide I realized that we would be aground the next morning when we were planning on leaving to catch the first flood after slack. I remembered Skippering a Hylas 42 about 15 years ago in the Oregon Offshore and “Rage” the famous local built Wylie 70 boat being aground before the start of the race. She has two keels to choose from and races with her deep one that draws 13 feet if I remember correctly. So we called the fuel dock and asked if we could tie up there for the night and leave once they opened and we filled up in the morning. They happily accommodated us and the next day we were underway to the bar.
The Columbia River Bar has an ominous history and its nicknames strike fear in the hearts of those that have and haven’t crossed it. “The Graveyard of the Pacific” is one that comes to mind. Without going into the whole history ill try to briefly explain why the bar has so many wrecks and dead sailors on its bottom. The Columbia River is the largest river that empties into the Pacific, as it does it carries sand and silt from upriver and deposits it in a constantly growing shallow delta and then sand bar or shoal that extends miles out to sea. This shallow water causes the often large waves born hundreds of miles offshore in the Pacific to shorten and steepen as they approach and this paired with the strong current caused by the river's outflow produces dangerous waves. If this wasn’t enough; the effect of the tidal outflow caused by the huge delta upriver can create a current that most displacement boats can’t outrun. The good news is that if you time it right: when the tide is flooding the effect to the tidal current slows the river and if only for a short while: even reverses it sometimes far upriver.
If the fuel dock hours and crew’s morning head visits allow it, I like to catch the last of the ebb downriver for the push to be at the bar at the beginning of the flood. This way the 11 miles to the ocean goes quickly and the bar is calm or calming down by the time I get there. This time however we didn’t get jack-lines run and jerry cans lashed as quickly as hoped so we ended up motoring against a negative current all the way to the bar. This concerns the captain because it uses more fuel and pushes the ETA at the mouth of Juan De Fuca 150 miles north, back. At least the bar was flat and the fog had momentarily lifted. This is a very busy waterway often teaming with commercial traffic and fisherman of every variety so good visibility is a huge plus. At buoy 10 we saw a ship of about 250 feet coming in on the south side of the channel only to be surprised by its standing turn mid-channel and off our port bow within a mile. After the boat’s do se do I noticed its day shapes and corresponding running lights indicating that it was at the top of the right of way precedence and restricted in her ability to maneuver and was in fact a dredge sounding and dredging the bar’s channel as we passed. As we passed it crabbed diagonally across and behind us. (See picture)
Without a chart plotter in the cockpit, we are using our phones and Navionics to navigate. This is a wonderful app but uses a lot of power. This can be offset by putting your phone on airplane mode but after we cleared the bar and I went below for a nap I noticed that this 1985 boat did not have was a cigarette lighter to plug in my phone or my laptop with the navigation software on it. I guess buying an old French boat is like buying a European car without cupholders. It was a little concerning that the only auxiliary power we had was my personal power pack (as seen in the “seabag” page).
We did however have a little handheld GPS and I had my old Magellan GPS in the ditch bag I had brought along with the EPIRB.
The next concern the captain had was the water in the Racor filter (water separator). One of the things that happen when boats sit for a while before they are sold is they accumulate water and growth in their fuel tanks from condensation. This water and growth in the tank, paired with the agitation of crossing a bar shakes things off the sides of the tanks and fills the water separator and combined filter. We had been underway for two hours before reaching the bar and my habitual check showed that it had indeed filled with water. This is best done before the bar so you don’t lose your engine on the bar and is especially important when there is no wind to sail with if this happens, which was the case for us that day. The other reason its good to do this before the bar is cramming yourself into the yogic pose in what most sailboat designers consider to be “engine access” is best done when the boat isn’t being tossed around. If you were lucking enough to hit up the Pig n Pancake before you hit the bar you might be feeding the fishes after a sub lazaretto boat yoga session.
This was going to be a regular check done at every watch change
End of part one
Next: watches, motoring in the fog, and a Millennial’s idea of provisioning.
Elliot Bay to Anacortes Baba 30
Just returning from a fairly uneventful delivery.
Unfortunately, the only sailing we did was when the engine stalled 5 minutes out from Elliot Bay Marina.
The hardly used cruising duty Dacron by Ballard Sails hoisted and unfurled beautifully but the 70 miles to weather we had to go on this cutter rigged, short waterlined, full keeled, crab crusher looked like it was going to take longer than I bid this delivery.
After a while in what Bob Perry thinks services for an engine access to check packing gland and impeller I remembered all the times that being the smallest on the boat found me volunteered to be the one to go in the hole or up the mast. When the lid closed it made be think of the time I got locked in J105 lazerette when everyone was on lunchbreak at Seattle Sailing Club. Flashbacks aside, the impeller inspected, and packing gland loosened I was back on deck. The temp had spiked after the engine stalled which was a worry. When we checked the oil we found an oil soaked diaper under the engine which is not good but not a surprise giving most sailboater’s idea of engine maintenance. Engine on and running cool we were underway again heading north for a short cut.
under the cockpit
Babett in Coopville
A stop in Coopeville found us at Tobie’s with two badass burgers and a pair of fine brews each. We were in our bunks by 10 and although I was looking forward to getting into the second chapter of Patrick Obrian’s "Treasons Harbor I didn’t make it a page before I was dreaming of mermaids.
The next day was as beautiful a putt as you could ask for. We wound our way North through La Conner (or La Compton as the locals call it) and arrived early to Anacortes for the scheduled haul out.
The not high seas
The short cut
La Compton
Positive vibes positive current all the way
Friday Harbor to SF in a Cal 40
The saddest thing to happen in 2020 for GBA was selling “Journeyman” our beloved Cal 40. This was because no commercial insurance could be found for the 50 year old boat when it came time to renew. The only upside to this was getting to deliver her to San Fransisco with friends. Here are some of my and Har Rai’s photos with Eric Cheong’s personal log. This will serve as a bookmark until the 48 North article comes out in January.
-Rhys Balmer
JourneymanFHtoSF2 from Rhys Balmer on Vimeo.
Eric the Science officer keeping predeparture tasks organized.
“An engine likes its oil like a sailor like his rum”
Madison, Ha Rai, and Bandjo. Bandjo couldnt make the trip but joined us for a sunset sail and BBQ before we cast off
Friday 9.4
We race Journeyman in her last local buoy race and win! We used our kite the others did not. We then had a bbq with friends during an evening sail. They kept the showers opened late! Weary from packing and offloading but excited for the journey ahead
Everyone but the photographer.
Saturday 9.5
We set off! 7am to reach Cattle Pass at slack tide. We motor through then set sail in an unanticipated brisk N NW breeze. We decide to motor to Cape Flattery directly into the now westerly wind. Martin served frozen lasagna.
Nice little tack through the Race Rocks
MAd Dog looking the part
Dream conditions
Sunday 9.6
Kyle recommends book “Two Years Before the Mast”. Some crew feels sick. We had the spinnaker flying, but wind and seas increased to require a reefed main and #2 sail, which shortly became a Chicken on a Stick. We hold wing on wing toward the coast. Rigged up our fishing gear. Eric served chili.
Monday 9.7
Woke up to chicken in a stick. Wind decreasing. We set the asymmetrical, I’m pretty sure Martin owes Rhys something on this one. (referring to a bet the captain won) A pod of Dals Purposes play in our bow wake to the delight of crew. By mid day we have to motor due to low wind. Kyle tried to bath with a bucket that we are now trying to retrieve. Going down the coast spinnaker flying. Drone flight shot and retrieval to the delight of the crew followed by a delicious angel and puttanesca dinner from Crew Madison. At sunset the wind shifted and a hot Smokey wind blew in.
Tuesday 9.8
Adventurous evening with gusty N NE winds and a terribly confused sea state. We were wing on wing. Around 1230 am back winded main popped the vang out of the track. Around 3am the number 2 jib ripped apart. After that it was a double reefed main with storm jib until the morning. Around mid day we shook the reefs out and hoisted the Jenny for a pleasant afternoon on a broad reach headed 130 bound for Eureka to fuel up. Toward the early evening Martin tries to fly the symmetrical, but the wind will not support and we are under iron sail by evening.
Wednesday 9.9
Early morning motor to Eureka, saltiest fuel dock we’ve seen. The sky is orange with a lingering smell of smoke. The fishing center a large industrial warehouse with an excellent chandlery. The other fisherman hardly notice us. The shop keep fills diesel tank and through Martin’s inquiry confirms our fishing approach! We water up, fuel up, dump trash and buy Snickers. Motor south toward SF hoping for a double digit southerly to fill in. But the after we run through a hell of a packet of 25knot plus gusts and storm swells from the SE. We bash through with a double reefed main and engines at 2000rpm. During our four hour circus roller coaster Madison and I spot several grey whales breaching just nearly 10 feet from the Journeyman in the stormy seas, like being on an alien planet and feeling delighted and oh so small at the same time! The storm swells turn to confused seas throughout early evening. Kyle straps together a chicken noodle soup dinner amongst the turbulence and after the stove is replaced into its gimbels. The winds continue from the S SE as we begin along evening of pleasant upwind sailing tacking to and fro the shore til morning...
Thursday 9.10
Martin and Kyle tuck in a reef.
We continue our upwind journey from the early morning to the evening. Smokey orange skies giving way to gray moisture laden air. We take long tacks to and from the shore all day with wind from the southern directions. Pleasant sailing as the wind forecast holds longer than expected. The day gives way to calmer seas, a sign to us the wind would be subsiding. HarRai treats us to an outstanding meal of Garam Masala. By sunset we turn in the iron genny so we can make our way to our final destination.
Madison Rowley keeping an eye out in the fog.
The trademark Martin Gibson smile and the jury rigged vang in the background.
Everyone but the photographer again!
Drying out on Treasure Island
Big thanks to our awesome photographer Har Rai Khalsa
Victoria to Friday Harbor (with a dinghy)
This year has been a crazy one. Fortunately, there were a few more opportunities than usual to move boats. The closure of the border meant many people couldn’t cross the border but professionals moving boats across the border was considered an essential service.
This boat had been put on a ship before the pandemic outbreak. It was going from Florida to Victoria but the owners being American couldn’t pick up their boat when it arrived so they hired me. It’s 16 miles as the sober crow flies from Friday Harbor to Victoria. I figured if I left from the west side of San Juan Island it was an even shorter distance so when the ship came in and I got the offloading schedule I launched my 11-foot inflatable off a small launch ramp on the west side and bombed over. You can imagine the look on the customs official’s faces when they cleared me into Victoria. Once cleared I headed out to the ship that was offloading the various yachts and came alongside the Catalina 50 I was moving and after that, it was a short trip back to Friday Harbor where I met the owners and explained the situation to the US customs.
Shipwrights Regatta
40 ft Panda from Port Townsend to Astoria
I met the excited new owners of the boat Saturday morning in Port Townsend. Having looked at the weather on Wednesday we thought that heading out into 35 knots and on a Friday and that Friday being the 13th was unnecessary.
She was a fine example of Perry, nostalgia and Taiwanese boat building.
Before casting off one should go through the essentials. Check oil, coolant, raw water strainer, and stuffing box. Fluids all looked good let’s find that packing gland.
Some packing glands are easier to reach than others…
After removing everything from the lazeratte and once inside said lazeratte I found a hatch that granted “access” to the stuffing box. It seems like this should be easier to reach but like most sailboats; engine room and access is an afterthought. The packing gland was dripping nicely once in gear and loaded and I was happy.
We untied her grassy dock lines and headed to the fuel dock. We were running late. The owner showed me the electronic flare that he had purchased to meet our USCG requirements. Unfortunately, he forgot the batteries. Back to the store to get C batteries.
Having missed the slack water we were in time for the rodeo. The Panda 40 is a heavy displacement sailboat modeled off the rescue boats of the late 1800s. Built for the roughest of conditions these early Colin Archer designs were modified into what would become private sailing yachts that would circumnavigate the globe with small or single-handed crews. These historic voyages enamored generations to come with their capabilities. Still, they capture people’s imaginations of Everest Capes and turquoise archipelagos. These new boat owners that would be my crew for the next three days had those same dreams. Fueled by youtube DIYers and the thought of leaving the rat race they were selling their house and planning to sail away. The purchase went through the day before and they hadn’t even gone through the boat. The stoke was palpable. The naiveté was as well. Which way does a winch turn? How do you tie a fender on? They weren’t as green as some though. They had taken ASA courses and joined the crew of a Baja Haha but there was much to learn and the conditions we were going to be contending with brought to mind the image of a kid trying to drink from an exploded fire hydrant.
Heading North around Point Wilson on an ebb into a 20 knot North Easterly was a rodeo indeed but it was behind us now and we had unfurled our in-mast furling mainsail and with the wind abaft the beam, cracked sheets. The wind does an interesting thing between Squim and Port Townsend in a NE wind. Instead of directing the wind to a more easterly direction it slows it. Now the wind had gone from 20 to 25 with 6 foot short choppy swells to flat water and 10 knots of wind. The sun was out. The staysail and all unfurled and we weren’t making our 5 plus knot minumum we had run our dead reckoning off so on went the Iron Jenny. The wind filled after an hour or so and moved further aft. We unrolled the sails and winged out the jib and turned off that terrible sounding engine. The sun set and the wind filled and by the time we were at Neah Bay it was blowing 25 with gusts of 35 with wind waves you would expect from an 80 mile fetch.
A vangless inmast furling set up benefits from a preventer. The working end lead aft to a winch.
We had furled the main into what would have been the third reef or even fourth if it had been a normal mainsail. The size at least was that of a triple reefed sail, the weight of the sail however was not appropriate for that kind of pressure or at least for prolonged periods. ( imagine the reason that the sails made for these furlers are so light is so they can fit inside the sailboats mast. The light weight of this laminated taffeta sail was of some concern which made me insist that we let one of the head sails carry more of the load. This load is substantial. 20,000 pounds is 10 tons and the mast and sails are the engine and transmission required to take that load. Unfortunately before we left I inspected the furling headsails by employing a sailmakers trick id learned from my time working at sail lofts. At the fuel dock waiting for C batteries, I dragged my thumbnail over the stitching that held the UV cover on the Genoa and I noticed the thread broke easily. This means that it needs to be resewn and that we would have to nurse it down the coast of Washington. Fortunately, the other headsail; the staysail, was in much better shape and looked like it could be relied on.
The other thing about our inmast furler rigging that was unusual was that we lacked a boom vang. The boom, as a result, would have been bouncing up and down with each puff if we hadn’t put a snubber from the middle of the boom down to the midship deck cleat. This is all well and good but if you run it back to the cockpit there is no winch to tighten it with on all points of sail but a dead down wind with the jib wind out to the opposite side and even then I don’t like sheeting a snubber to the middle of the boom because if the boom hits a wave it can break the boom.
Back to the sea story
We had been planning on doing the passage nonstop but a few hours into the trip when I was drinking a glass of water I noticed it tasted strange. Now it is very common for the water tanks on boats to have a strange and often unpleasant taste and I like to think I have developed a resilience to strange water tank flavors but this was bad. Not only did the water taste strange and chemically but bubbles seamed to stand on the surface longer than they should. There are a number of products people run through their water systems to reduce tank taste or to clean the tanks. Some boat owners even chlorinate their water to prevent growth and bring separate water containers for drinking and making coffee. Super bleached water makes sense if you only use your water for cleaning but we had a first passage with some green soon to be greener sailors aboard and as most people should know, dehydration is a big factor in the onset of motion sickness. All this meant we needed to head in to my favorite Native American Kwik-E mart in Neah Bay to get some water and snacks! Easier said than done. It was now pitch black and all we could see of the waves we were now surfing was their braking crests in the light of our stern light. We were going to have to turn on the motor, furl the jib, and turn into the stampede of waves we had formerly been riding and furl the mainsail. Now the whole point of an inmast furler system is to make sailing easier. Short handing, single handing and lazy sailors love this idea. For those of us that fly symmetrical spinnakers to make things more colorful and complicated this doesn’t make sense. I say beware laziness and easiness and most importantly; systems with many moving parts. When it goes right in perfect conditions it is a testament to the over engineers of the world but when conditions are less than perfect it can go very wrong. I think about partly furled mainsail stuck out like a broken throttle cable on an outboard stuck with the trottle wide open or a tiger shark in your cockpit. I would much rather be able to drop a sail and let gravity help me get it down before it takes me where I don’t want to go or flogged itself to ribbons.
9:30
The way the furling mainsail works is there is a mandrill much like the head foil on a jib furling unit inside the mast that is turned by a line that runs back to the cockpit to allow for ether furling or setting the sail. The Cunningham is used to pull the sail out to the end of the boom. This means that three lines need to be coordinated to furl the sail and that’s not including handling the mainsheet. Well as you can imagine it didn’t go so smoothly and the sail accidentally was pulled out all the way by the wind this combined with the small dodger restricting full winch handle turns and single speed winches and and and.
Nautical twilight
Once in Neah Bay I was glad to see that it was more protected than I imagined it would be with a NE wind. The Store was closed due, we think, to the COvid 19 outbreak so we settled down for a bit of rest before an early rise. It was 3 am before we were in our bunks and 9:30 am before we were clearing the entrance back onto the Strait. It was blowing 30 plus from the East and on our beam which was great because we had 140 miles to go and a date with the first flood on the Columbia River Bar the next day. The Washington Coast in the winter is dangerous because the weather can change quickly and there is 100 miles of coast with no safe harbors to retreat to after that the harbors have dangerous bars that often can only be safely crossed twice a day. On top of that there are crab pots. On top of that these crab pots location and numbers vary every year. These pots weight about 100 pounds and have two, sometimes black, buoys tied to them. They are located from 30 to 300 feet of water. Some places 300 feet of water or 50 fathoms is as far offshore as 30 miles on this coast. Fortunately we weren’t going to be motoring much with the forecast we had. Most boats sail their best with the wind on their beam and if you stay close to the shore you can limit the fetch and stay inside the big windwaves.
Line handling is a foundational skill. If you want to go big, start small.
About a third of the way south down the Washington coast the wind died. To the east of this area are mountains. I was sleeping when this happened. I came up on deck and asked how long we had been going 4 knots. We needed to maintain 5 to make our date with the Columbia river bar and the flood. With the motor on we changed course to meet up with the Crab Lanes. At sunset we had reached them and where back to paralleling the coast on our way south. It is interesting that they decided to put the lanes in the depth many crabbers don’t even fish. I haven’t seen the coast this quiet while the season is open. About 4 am we came to a crabber who was running a line of pots right next to the lane. Further south the crab lanes converge and it doesn’t seem that anyone follows the rules. Crab pots are in the channel as we cross the bar. The sun is just coming up and an we dodge and weave our way across the bar and by the time we get to buoy 10 we are motoring against 3 knots of ebb. We are late. 3 pm and we have gone from the bar to Astoria 11 miles up river.
The harbor master is gone but the gas dock guy assigns us a slip. It has both wind and current pushing off it. We end up in the slip next door. high fives and good vibes ensue as we enjoy the first adult bevy we’ve had in three days.
Seattle to Astoria 36 foot wood Troller
The winter before last I delivered a Tayana 43 trawler from Anacortes to Portland. In February I was contacted by a former delivery customer to deliver another boat he was buying from Seattle to Oregon city. I asked what was wrong with the last boat I delivered for him and he said nothing but that it hadn't moved since and he thought this new boat would be a better fit.
The boat was a 1945 wood troller that had gone through what I was told was a 100,000 refit by a couple that after the refit had cruised to Alaska and back. The boat had been repowered and refastened below the waterline.
I had just delivered a Panda down to Seattle and the owner of the troller called saying he was worried that the pandemic would make the April delivery impossible. I texted a few people in Portland and Mark got back right away. Mark was a mechanic in the Vietnam War and knows both dangerous situations and wrenching on things. I rented a car and picked him up. We drove to the grocery store in Seattle and managed to buy some provisions where we were told we could only buy one gallon of water due to covid.
The boat looked a lot worse than the pictures, she had iron sickness pretty bad and had been sitting at Fisherman's Wharf where boats go to die in Seattle. The "Brokerage" the boat had been purchased through was a nonprofit that boat owners donate their boats to and write off taxes. “Second Half” had been sitting there for two years. Unfortunately, there was nowhere to sleep as the bed that the previous owners had used in the fish hold was gone so we were put up on a neighboring Tolly Craft from the 80s. Once on the boat with the food, we started going through all the boat's systems and found that the heater was also the boat's stove. It was a huge diesel cookstove that ran from a day tank the was mounted on the back of the cabin. This did not work.
Looking in the tank showed a lot of growth so we went about emptying the tank. After we emptied the tank and filled it back up we still couldn't get the stove to light. Turns out it was the ball value that had broken. The ball was stuck closed while the handle moved freely. We pumped all the dirty fuel out of it with an oil changing pump, fixed it and it lit. The next morning we cast off with spare filters and a good forecast. For those who don't know Seattle, the fishing fleet moor inside the Ballard Locks where they are repaired and painted before going back to the fishing grounds in Alaska. We locked down with another fishing boat pleased to be taking advantage of the commercial boat priority in the Ballard Locks. Without losing much time waiting for bridges and locks we were out and underway north. We were doing 6 knots at 1400 RPMs which is quite low revs for most boats but when I brought her up to 2000 she only went a little faster and was a lot louder. we settled in at 1700 and 6.5 knots.
We were hoping to make Neah Bay fuel dock before they closed to catch the Columbia River Bar on the next daylight flood but when we got there the store and fuel station were closed. Neah Bay felt like a ghost town. We laid some cushions on the cabin sole and got some sleep. the next day the fuel dock which shares a big fuel tank with the gas station and Quik E mart opened and we topped off with fuel and some snacks.
I've done this trip many times but never cut the corner of Cape Flattery. It was glassy calm we were in a shallow drafted boat and we could use the time saved by a short cut so we went through "Hole in the Wall" as it’s called by the locals that use the channel. There is a dangerous reef in the middle and you can easily see why people avoid the cut but the rock formations are some of the most beautiful in the area and cruising so close to Tatoosh Island with its iconic lighthouse and green grass was a highlight and worth more than the time it saved us. Now we were close to the shore and on the lookout for crab pots. With one engine (single screw) the big concern is fouling in a crab pot thereby losing all control and with a west wind you will end up on the rocky and remote shore of the Washington coast before long. Unfortunately for the fisherman, the crab season was terrible and fortunately for us this meant there were only a few rogue pots to dodge.
somewhere here I was doing an engine room check and I noticed that the water separator was FULL of water. Quickly I tried to crawl aft to where the Racors were mounted and a wave lurched the boat and I caught the side of my knee on the alternator fan. I remember later being wedged between the hot engine and a fuel tank feeling the blood seeping into my longjohns as I drained the water separator. The water and algae in the filter was the result of the low rollers rocking the boat and sloshing the sediment loose in the tanks. I told Mark we would have to check it regularly now.
We were approaching Destruction Island and it was when I was checking the stuffing box that I noticed something I should have noticed before we left. The wood ribs in the hold were rotten and now that we were underway in a rising seaway, water was coming in between the planking. The ribs were so bad that I imagined I could have kicked a plank out. I felt a piece of rib to see if it just looked bad, and it came off in my hand. At this point, the sea state rising and the barometer was falling. I weighed the options. It was about 50 miles back to a small harbor called LaPush but that would have meant we had to go into the now 3-foot seas. Another option was to head to the lee of Destruction Island where, as it turned out, my friends were going to be anchoring in the evening after they set some research buoys. This would have been okay if the conditions weren't changing for the worse. We may have been fine in the lee but eventually, we would have had to continue south.
I had instantly seen the worst-case scenario. First, we spring a plank, the water sprays on the battery bank* that was located in the hold in boxes but without covers and we lose power. This means our electric bilge pump and most importantly, our radio would not work*. This is a beautiful but remote piece of coastline, there are no houses and very spotty reception. We would have had to run the “washdown pump” off the engine. This wasn't a sure thing either because it was actuated electronically and without power, it may not have worked. We would have had to try and heel the boat with the stabilizer. This means lower the port arm and shift all the weight below to rise the plank out of the water, in addition, we would have had to stuff the sun awning into the hole or run it over the outside as a fathering sail. This would have only slowed the progress. If this didn't work plan C was to head for the beach. I admit for a moment I wondered if I could surf my safety-conscious crew in his exposer suit in through the worst of the surf.
To add to concerns I was taking a cup of water out of the Racor every 20 minutes.
Greys Harbor Bar was flooding when we got there so we headed in quite spent from dodging the pots. We had caught one right after dark restricted our view to a small spot that the mast light could illuminate. I had noticed the speed drop one knot and the steering feel strange. I looked to see if I could see the gear trailing behind but couldn't. 30 minutes later we must have lost it because the speed went back up and the steering recovered. It could have also caught on the keel coolers that run under the boat and that would explain why it didn’t foul the prop. As we approached the marina I asked Mark to put fenders out on port because of our right-hand prop. He was so tired he put them all on starboard. It was late and cold so I picked an easy spot at the fuel dock starboard side to and we got a few uncomfortable hours of sleep on the floor of the little cabin.
Before we laid down I asked Mark if he wanted to abandon ship, saying I could totally understand if he didn't want to carry on knowing what we knew then. He said no he wanted to continue and besides, that's why he brought his exposer suit. I didn't mention my plan C.
The next morning was calm as the light of the sunrise showed us the number of pot floats you find this close to a safe port. A watery minefield comes to mind and quite a few in the channel. I was glad that before we left Neah Bay I had climbed the mast and adjusted the spotlight to shine further ahead. It had controls in the bridge but only horizontal. Commercial boats have banks of very powerful sodium lights that help them see the pots. They are so bright that you cant see their running lights to see which direction they are heading. At a distance, they look like ufos surrounded by light bugs as swarms of sea birds fly into the beams of light.
The Columbia Bar was calm and pleasantly uneventful. The Racor was producing less water and the day cleared. The outlook that comes with having recently escaped a dicey situation unscathed shown in our smiles. The only sad thought was The Pig and Pancake was closed due to the virus. With the PnP closed and the sun shining we figured we would press on to Oregon City but not before grabbing some KFC and some more oil. The next fuel dock was Kathlamet a beautiful little river town right out of a storybook…or a Steven King novel. Mark flipped fenders out on Port and we met a very elderly man who after telling us to keep our distance said he used to fish boats like the one we were delivering back in the day. After a little time struggling with the pump he told us we could stay at the dock for free if we wanted to wait for the owner to come and figure out the pump. There were a number of yurts on the bank that created the tiny marina and I asked the old-timer if they were available for rent. The small cabin of the fishing boat was getting cramped. He said yes but the summer rate just started and now would set us back $50.
There was no power at the fuel dock and after measuring the water the bilge pump was pumping out of the boat I figured we were taking on water at a rate of a gallon a minute. 60 gallons an hour is more than I trusted the batteries on the boat to manage so we left the engine on idling. I also ran a line from the Port outrigger down to the dock and shifted a bunch of lead ingots in the hold to bring the leakest seam out of the water. I offered to stay aboard overnight to make sure there were no issues but as the yurt was freezing cold Mark was happy to sleep on the floor of the warm but cramped cabin and let me stretch out in the yurt.
The next day we fueled up and after a lot of thought, I called the owner and told him that I thought the best place to take the boat was actually behind us in Astoria or Ilwaco. Two places that work on boats just like Second Chance and specialize in old working boats. The owner agreed and told me. he would meet us at a yard in Astoria. I joined him as he headed into the shipyard manager’s office where he was told it would require a bond of $1000 a foot to haul the boat out. After some sputtering and shock, the boat owner said he had some thinking to do.
It was the last day before the Astoria car rental place was closing due to lockdown. Mark and I drove to PDX to where I dropped him before heading home.
*(one of which hadn't been strapped down prior to leaving Seattle and in another worst-case scenario could have slid across the floor of the sole and through the side of the boat)
*Commercial fishing boats often have auxiliary batteries up on the bridge for this reason.
Port Townsend to Deer Harbor (Orcas Island) on a 1934 Atkin Eric Cutter
Its not every day I get to sail a craft that is pushing a century old. Its certainly easy to understand why I ask to see recent surveys before agreeing to deliver boats. With the way people care for their boats these days, it doesn’t have to be made of wood to be neglected enough that even a short trip like that from PT to Deer would be unsafe and especially in the winter here in the Northwest.
Port Townsend is a wood boat Mecca so its no surprise that the boat was bought there. Its also no surprise that this beautiful example of a Collin Archer type boat had been in the Wooden Boat Festival. It was, however, impressive to hear that she had been in 11 events.
For those that don’t know about the Wooden Boat Festival, it is a three day event quite unlike a boat show in that few of the boats are for sale that is focused on wooden craft of all kinds and that draws wood boat hippies from near and far every September.
The ways of wood boats, as well as Port Townsend, aren’t unfamiliar to me. I spent a little time in Port Townsend as a young man when my family refit our 60-foot wooden cutter-rigged ketch before leaving on a 5-year cruise. Yes, there is a little “wood boat hippy” in me too although I may not have had as much of the Kool Aid as the greenhorn that hired me and was the proud new owner of this piece of maritime history/relic/financial/maintenance burden. Or maybe I was the wiser. Perhaps when some who have done as much brightwork as myself, see that much varnish we are happier finding ourselves only moderately guilty sailing our boats rather than working on the lists that all boats write for their, would be, footloose stewards. It wasn’t just the varnish that worried me about this new match. It was the the design of the boat and the waters she would be moving to that concerned me as well…there were other things of concern but ill get to those later.
Im just going to cut and paste the Wik cliff notes here for those of you who aren’t ether wood boat hippies or sailor dorks
... Vito Dumas's Lehg II bla bla and Robin Knox-Johnston's Suhaili ..the first boat to sail single-handed and non-stop around the world in 1968 Golden Globe Race.
Bla bla... Bernard Moitessier ….. William Crealock, …. Westsail 32 and has inspired many imitations, so that the "Archer double-ender" style of boat continues to be popular to the present day.[19][20]
Basically these boats where build to go anywhere….and as long as it was blowing over 15 knots and you don’t have to turn for a week you are looking good…not my idea of an island boat. Okay, I’ll stop being mean. Back to the story.
It’s about 30 nautical miles as the sober seagull flies between ports which at a generous 5-knot average is 6 hours underway. I say “generous” because unless we have a small craft advisory to get the old girl moving we are going to have to count on that 2 cylinder Volvo to contend with the tide.
The boat had just been purchased and the owner needed the boat out of the marina where he was now responsible for daily rather than monthly rates. I had three days to find crew so I didn’t have to rely on the green boat owner and didn’t find anyone. Heck, if Robin can sail around the world on one by himself how hard can it be?
The distance of the passage required that I travel down the day before so we could get an early start. I brought a 5-gallon jerry can of my own so we would have to wait for the fuel dock to open in the morning. I don’t often leave San Juan so deliveries are a great way to catch up with my friends in the various ports of the Salish Sea Puget Sound and beyond. I was looking forward to catching up with a shipmate who has joined me on several deliveries and getting a slice of the best pizza you can row a dingy to. I told the owner I would see him that night or in the morning and that we were casting off at 7.
Cast off we did but not at 7. My crew had tried to calm the nerves brought on by the thought of the following day’s windy passage by closing down Siren’s, a famed sailor haunt.
As you can imagine this both ticked off the captain and made for an uncomfortable crossing of the east end of the Straits of Juan De Fuca. So bad was this hangover that he threw up all the way to Cattle Pass.
Not only was my crew useless but random lunges to the rail to puke made him a liability.
I know this sounds callous but the compounding of risk is serious business. We are sailing a boat that hase’t been run in a while, it’s winter, and we are double handing. To add to everything the owner had no experience or training.
We made it to Deer Harbor and fortunately the slip had a straightforward approach because the boat’s full keel and equatorial turning radius was a little stressful. I hope that she gets used.
Alls well that ends well.
Silverton 35 Delivery
Friday Harbor to Astoria
Read moreVideo by Andreas Wieberneit
Wonderful video by our shipmate Andreas documenting our crossing from Hawaii to the mainland.
Landfall
When I left my watch at 17:00 on Friday, visibility was already diminishing. We had just heard USCG PAN-PAN announcement on Channel 16 about whales congregating around the Farallon Islands west of Golden Gate. We had been sailing under spinnaker toward a waypoint two nm north of the same to clear the rocks before aiming for the Golden Gate proper. The weakening wind which also veered a bit was making that point of sail difficult.
We had a laptop with AirMail and Expedition softwares on board along with an Iridium Go satellite modem to facilitate our communications. AirMail was useful to download up to date GRIB files which showed the progression of wind, pressure, cloud and rain forecasts. We fed these GRIB files into the Expedition software which then used our sail inventory and associated polar data to suggest a route through the weather systems. So close to the Golden Gate, we no longer needed routing information but knowing the correct wind direction was still essential. One last GRIB download confirmed our forecast of more westerly winds. Setting a new waypoint to clear the southern end of the Farallons instead became the new standing order while I slept, wondering if we would hit a whale in the dark.
When I woke up to take over the watch from our able watch captain Matt Aldred at 03:00, I found him and our crew mate Doug Almquist bubbling with excitement. Captain Rhys Balmer had brought OAXACA ever closer to the Farallons before turning it over to Matt. During that time, the wind had completely died, so with only the mainsail remaining, we were motoring. They had seen dolphins, seals and schools of fish dashing in the water by the Farallon Islands leaving behind green streaks of bioluminescence. It had been a dazzling light show in the water and their amazement was evident in their animated descriptions.
By the time I came up, we were past the Farallons, pointing toward Golden Gate. The fog was thick, no lights were visible and the only way to navigate was by instruments. Matt had set a waypoint near Point Bonita, safely tracking us on the north side of the southwesterly shipping lane. We were able to use the cross track error feature on our chart plotter to navigate a steady course. On the AIS, we could identify a pilot vessel at the center of the transition zone where all traffic lanes from the open seas converged before the final approach to Golden Gate. Soon, other vessels also appeared on the display.
The thought of navigating in the fog with other vessels in the mix, was making me nervous. With Doug and Andreas Wieberneit, we worked our way across the shipping lanes and the transition zone, leaving the pilot vessel and a large cargo ship to our north. Staying out of traffic lanes seemed safer. As we approached the south end of the Golden Gate, a loud foghorn sounding ahead was making us nervous. It was a two second blast every 20 seconds which turned out to be emanating from the south tower of the bridge. Once inside the Golden Gate, the fog lifted and we were soon docked at the Corinthian Yacht Club in Tiburon around 09:00. We had left Hawaii with 150 liters of diesel, we still had about 90 gallons left after. We had managed to sail most of the way…
Oaxaca’s owner Michael Moradzadeh greeted us dockside with donuts, champagne and orange juice for a round of mimosas then we cleaned the boat, folded the sails, moved them to storage along with the excess diesel. It was a joy to see Michael relieved to receive his boat back in one piece. He treated us to Mexican food then we parted our ways. Everyone flew home while Rhys and I chose to drive, which proved to be an exhausting proposition after a challenging final episode on the water. It sure was a long day…
Eren Eruc First Mate
Oaxaca Transback Logs: Friday, August 9th
Oaxaca has made landfall! Here’s the last log entry of the passage.
8/9 17:00
Position: 37º 52’ N 124º 01’ 44” W
Speed Over Ground: 7 knots
Course Over Ground: 094º magnetic
True Wind Speed: 9 knots
Our last full day on the sea! I awoke this morning to a lullaby, sailing on a dream. The calm, soft slapping of the waves on the hull as we sailed a smooth 9 knots in 10 knot wind, the sea almost flat except for the gentle swells from the northeast.
Coffee in the cockpit with Rhys and Andreas who were on watch. Erden whipped up his (now) infamous 'sailor's hash:’ consisting of half a cabbage sautéed with onions in a stick of butter, and some bacon jerky stirred in. Add a soft-fried egg and lots of black pepper, and we have one of the best dishes in the Northeast Pacific. We watched the sea roll until my turn at the helm at our current "boat" time of 7 am. Which is actually 10 am "local" time; and we are beginning to realize we will need to adjust.
Whales in the early afternoon off the port aft, and post nap I awoke to a thick fog which has hung on all the way until now, 7 pm "local" time. We will keep our eyes and ears open as we go into the night with the fog, going south of the Farallons and arriving to the mainland before sunrise. As inconceivable as it was when we last watched Hawaii fade into the dusk 14 days ago, it seems almost as inconceivable that we will see land as the day begins to break in less than 12 hours….
What an adventure this has been! Upwind sailing, downwind sailing, hot sunny days, sunsighting with the sextant, squalls, sea baths, sunsets. Bioluminescence cascading in the wake, shooting stars, celestial navigation, dolphins, albatross, seas so smooth we could see our reflection leaning over the bow, 12 ft seas on the beam, choppy seas, confused seas, spinnaker sailing, Black Betty sailing, storm jib sailing, honey smooth daydream sailing. Karaoke singing at sunset, delicious dishes, creative cooking, hot drinks, pineapple, apples, flavored water, fresh fish. Starbusts and gummy bears.
But most importantly, six sailors who have crossed over 2,000 nautical miles of deep blue sea, salt on their skin, memories in their head and dreams of hot showers, cold beers and ice cream.
Elyn Andersson
Oaxaca Transback Logs: Thursday, August 8th
You can follow Oaxaca’s return track here on Oaxaca’s website.
8/8 15:00
Position: 37º 32’ N 127º 58’ W
Course over ground: 065º magnetic
Speed over ground: 9 knots
True Wind Speed: 11 knots
We may have got a little behind on our updates, and I could see how it’s hard to imagine we are that busy out here, but we are. We have napping, chatting, fishing, cooking, cleaning, and most importantly, sailing to do.
Today's sailing is absolutely choice broad reaching. We have the little A5 up, which is a heavyweight asymmetrical spinnaker. There is a small regular following sea, it’s blowing 10-12 and we are hitting 10 knots regularly (depending who is driving.) The helm requires no more than 12 inches of movement to keep the boat on course and we are pretty much heading the right way. This is ocean sailing!
The bad news is we only have 250 miles left and it will be over and done before we know. We have become a little family, a tribe, a sitcom-worthy group of roommates on a vast blue screen, a band of gypsy Bedouin rogues clad in safety harnesses and multi-colored balaclavas. If only you could see us now as we spur on our craft: she slices along, sending swarms of flying fish like wild fairies that ride wheelie-popping water bikes in every direction, launched from the white water on Oaxaca's slender prow.
Here we come San Francisco. We may not have flowers in our hair, but we are all significantly saltier sailors than when we left and have earned a landlubbers ration of showers and beer!
Captain Rhys Balmer
Oaxaca Transback Logs: Tuesday, August 6th
You can follow Oaxaca’s return track here on Oaxaca’s website.
Position: 36º 45’ N 134º 16’ W
Speed over ground: 10+ knots
True Wind Speed: 15-20 knots
Woke up for my 3am watch which started with a sail change: the giant black genoa was too much for the building winds, so we changed down to the A2. Our prior motoring course of 030º had put us right into the cold sector of a small low pressure system that had just developed at the fringe of the pacific high. Since this low pressure system was so small, we could see the backside of a cold front and the approaching warm front all at the same time.
Being in the cold sector gave us great wind from the north, so the next watch had to change down further while I was asleep. Spent the rest of the day almost beam reaching, with winds that were close to 20 knots at times and perpendicular waves of up to 12 ft. We reefed in the evening, which took the weather helm off and balanced the boat really well.
Matt created some great dinner from the second half of yesterday's mahi. I'm still amazed at the speed this boat can reach when under sail.
Crewmember Andreas
Oaxaca Transback Logs: August 2nd-4th
The daily logs of the students and crew on the Ocean Passagemaking course delivering Oaxaca, a Santa Cruz 50, from HI to SF
Read moreOaxaca Transback Logs: Thursday, August 1st
You can follow Oaxaca’s return track here on Oaxaca’s website.
Position: 31º 37’ N 150º 21’ W
Course over ground: 030º magnetic
True Wind Speed: 2.9 knots
The ocean is flat like a sheet of glass. We've been motoring since yesterday. Looks like we are cutting through the two segments of the high. Saw an albatross today, amongst other sea birds. Rhys found a flying fish on the side deck.
It was also a great day for trying to shoot noon sights with the boat being relatively stable. Our longitude was quite a bit off, but then we didn't manage to catch noon time because we first had to learn how to find the sun. We also all participated in the engine check.
Crew member Andreas
Oaxaca Transback Logs: Wednesday, July 31st
This is the second log for 7/31, received late. You can follow Oaxaca’s return track here on Oaxaca’s website.
Position: 30º 04’ N 153º 09’ W
Course over ground: 055º magnetic
A great day. The grinding in my stomach from the residual sea-sickness has gone, leaving me with yet another stunning sunny day in the middle of the Pacific.
Spotted today: a few birds that this note will hopefully prompt me to go look up, some flying fish, and a sea absent of other vessels. The enormous vessel from yesterday was still on my mind - it was nice of the captain to broadcast "Happy Sailing" on channel 16.
We're up near the 30th parallel and it's getting cooler at night. My appetite has returned with the amazing Mongolian grill stir-fry by chef Matthew Aldred. Hopefully this will be the last night spent beating to the wind with the furious sea trolls pounding their clubs on the hull. We'll see.
Doug Amquist
